The fate of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton has displeased fans.

This post contains spoilers for Season 5, Episode 9 of the Yellowstone.

First episode of the second half of Yellowstone‘s fifth season won’t keep you waiting long. Seconds into Sunday’s “Desire Is All You Need,” Beth (Kelly Reilly), the faithful daughter of the Dutton ranch family, drives up to her father’s house in her fast little car. She rages on the edge of a crime scene tape and begs a state trooper to let her in. But it’s not until her brother Kayce (Luke Grimes)—the land commissioner of the state of Montana, a former SEAL, and a straight-killer of many of the Dutton family’s enemies—shows up to help her push right past the cop that these two loyal siblings learn the truth: Montana Governor John Dutton has died of a gunshot wound to the head in the bathroom of his residence.

Kevin Costner has played John Dutton, the beleaguered patriarch of showrunner and empire builder Taylor Sheridan’s dreams since 2018. In the past few years, news of the push-and-pull between Costner and Sheridan over film schedules was endless, culminating in Costner’s last June 2024 decision to leave the series. Yellowstone fans have known this was coming – we just didn’t realize it would happen so soon. Among some annoyed viewers, “Taylor Sheridan did John Dutton dirty in the very first scene to get back at Kevin Costner” has gained traction as a concept. “Wow, talk about lazy and petty writing,” said a fan on X. “Taylor Sheridan is a jerk and needs to be taken to the train station pronto!” (“The Train Station” is where the cowboys at the Yellowstone ranch tell the Dutton family’s enemies that they’re on their way, just before shooting them in the head and throwing them off a distant cliff. Just so you know, until next time you see a “train station” reference on a bumper stickerto give that vehicle some room.)

Watching people fight over whether Sheridan’s Hollywood ego or Costner’s Hollywood ego deserves the blame for the breakdown here is quite amusing. Scientists could study this matter for years and never come to a solution. One thing that argues against this “Dutton’s bad death is Sheridan’s revenge” theory is the fact that you don’t see Costner’s face as the camera fixes on the body on the bathroom floor, sparing the actor some indignity in his character’s demise. As Kayce rushes past more police into the room—one thing about the Duttons: They’ll always find a way—you catch a glimpse of a large splash of blood at head level on the bathroom wall tiles, then a gun on the floor. When Beth goes to see the body, against Kayce’s advice, she looks down and sees her father’s hands, as a crime scene technician, with a delicacy that sounds like tenderness, scans with an instrument to look for gunshot residue. (This moment is classic Yellowstone: The show is all bombastic, garish, and intriguing, and then offers a little moment that breaks your heart.)

The technique finds out about this residue, and the official story –Governor Dutton died by suicide– solidifies. That he was expected at impeachment hearings that morning adds some credibility, although, as Kayce says to another police officer later in the episode, nothing about John Dutton would have led anyone to believe he would do that to himself. Without buying too much into the often retrograde beliefs about who dies by suicide in this great nation, it is true that John Dutton was narratively a survivor: He had colon cancer in Season 1, had a burst wound in Season 2 , and was shot several times in season 3. The guy was the “Look miserable and squint into the sunset stoically” type; it was one of his things. So what would have compelled this governor trying to hold his oversized ranch together to end it like that?

Fortunately for the people who are angry at the idea that their John Dutton could have died this way, we learn pretty quickly through flashback that this death was not by his own hand, but instead was the fruit of yet another plot against the Dutton family – this, successful . Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), the family’s estranged adopted son (and the attorney general), was mixed up with a real operator, a fixer named Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), who called to order the assassination to promote security. political goals that would be easier to achieve with Jamie as governor. Revealing how much Jamie knew about this will be part of the action in Part 2 of this season.

Look on the bright side, Dutton mourner. The rest of season 5 – and next, if Yellowstone sticks around (a sixth season is currently under discussion)—will be a big Jamie-vs.-Beth battle, with Kayce, who has always been sympathetic to Jamie, in the middle. You’re supposed to root for Beth, because Jamie is a villain in this series, more cosmopolitan and lawyerly than any other Dutton and never comfortable on the ranch. (Yellowstone believe the blood will come out.) An important part of the Jamie vs. Beth storyline is that Jamie helped Beth get an abortion when they were teenagers, but he did it by taking her to a free clinic on a reservation so the family didn’t want the public – only the clinic also sterilized Beth, something Jamie knew but didn’t tell her for years. This earned him her eternal enmity, and Kelly Reilly got the chance to say things like “I’m going to tell my husband that you tore his child from my womb!” with maximum Beth fire. (This is classic Yellowstone melodrama – and classically confused Yellowstone politics.)

In the real world, “Jamie wins, symbolizing the external forces of urbanity and progress that threaten the ranch.” The threat that he and the modernity he represents will win is omnipresent. Every Dutton-adapted character on the show has a monologue about the inevitability of it at one point or another. In the back half of this episode, Rip (Cole Hauser), the ranch’s head cowboy and Beth’s husband, gives us a new one, out on the range in Texas with his cowboys: “Thirty years from now, nobody’s going to be doing this. , none. All this land you see will be wind farms and solar farms, and we’ll get our beef from Brazil after they’ve burned off the rainforest.” Yes – if Yellowstone has his courage of conviction, Jamie will win the entire game. The chance for it is still worth watching, even if this series’ token movie star has been officially released for pastures.