Kevin Costner’s John Dutton is mocked after death

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from season 5, episode 11 of “Yellowstone,” “Three Fifty-Three,” which premiered Sunday, Nov. 24, on the Paramount Network.

When it became clear that Kevin Costner would not be returning for the second half of Season 5 of “Yellowstone,” fans wondered how series creator Taylor Sheridan would write off his character, John Dutton. The split seemed less than amicable, including Costner saying he was unable to get on the same page with the rest of the production about shooting schedules and even mentioning legal action could come as a result of his departure.

But it’s hard to imagine fans imagining John Dutton’s farewell would go down the way it did. Instead of a fitting send-off for the patriarch of the central family, it seems like Sheridan is trying to throw mud at the main character’s in-show legacy while also taking a dig at Costner in real life.

Sheridan has been the only credited writer on the season so far, and things took a strange turn right away in the first of the new episodes. When John’s daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) pulled up to the governor’s mansion in her Bentley and saw police cars, it was clear the audience wasn’t going to wait to see how John died. Given his stoicism and manliness in the series, it seemed the answer would be something more noble, in keeping with how he lived. Instead, the people of Montana are led to believe that Dutton shot himself in the head while in the bathroom.

Of course, it was staged as part of a sinister plan by Sarah (Dawn Olivieri) as she tried to elevate John’s son Jamie (Wes Bentley) during a land dispute. But the fact is, in the show’s universe, the almighty John Dutton is believed to have killed himself inches from the toilet. Granted, the death is reopened for a homicide investigation in the third new episode, but broadcasting the first message about John’s death in such a way seems calibrated to sting Costner and his tough guy.

The actor himself even lamented it, saying in an interview on SiriusXM’s “The Michael Smerconish Program” that “I heard it was a suicide, so it doesn’t make me want to rush to see it.” Although he also guessed correctly that it was a red herring, it’s likely that both in the show and in real life, many more people think it was a suicide rather than know the whole story.

The move evokes other pointed deaths in shows where an actor left the show and angered the show’s creators. In 2006 Isaac Hayes left “South Park” after denouncing the show’s satire of religious organizations. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker then wrote off his character Chief by having him join a pedophile cult that appeared to be inspired by his involvement in Scientology before being torn apart by animals and eventually urinating on his pants. In 2015, “Two and a Half Men” dropped a piano on Charlie Sheen’s character Charlie during the series finale after Sheen, who was fired in 2011, refused to appear in the final episode. (The two have since had a rapprochement.)

Perhaps the strangest shot at John Dutton came in the second episode after the death, when it was revealed that his love interest Summer (Piper Perabo) – who had been living at the Dutton Ranch since her house arrest – was not. actually under house arrest, but had papers lying on a living room table that said she was free all the time! What?!

“He told you house arrest so you’d stay with him and you were stupid enough to do that,” Beth snarls at Summer, grabbing the papers. “You never bothered to talk to a lawyer, you never bothered to look at your own release document – it stamped ‘released’.”

When Summer questions why John would do this, Beth paraphrases “Lonesome Dove” and says, “If a man isn’t willing to cheat for a hookup, he doesn’t want one bad enough.”

So John actually kidnapped this woman and held her against her will just so he could have a live-in sex buddy? This doesn’t seem like the straight-shooting John Dutton we’ve come to know over five seasons — sure, sometimes his morals are malleable, but his past crimes have been in the service of the country, the ranch, and his family.

Sure, Summer had to be written off the show, but…couldn’t one of John’s powerful sons call and get her jumped? Or any other option besides abduction? It seems like an odd way to tear John’s character apart.

In the latest episode, Sheridan goes three for three in dunking on John, and in turn Costner. As Sarah and Jamie discuss the likelihood that the battle marks and bruises on John’s body could lead to a murder conviction, Sarah dismisses it, saying, “The marks on his body… He could have gotten them when he fell to the floor. He was a 68-year-old man. He could have fallen in the tub for all we know.”

While she’s not wrong, that must be a tough thing for Costner to hear. After all, he made his career as a sex symbol in movies like “Bull Durham” and “The Bodyguard.” And John himself is a strong, virile man who is willing to take control of any situation. Now he gets lumped into the same category as “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” LifeCall commercials from the 80s.

While time moves on for everyone, this dig seems likely to upset Costner — especially since it comes months after the release of the first film in his epic vanity project “Horizon,” which features Costner’s character having sex with a woman played by an actress 32 years his junior. Considering he co-wrote and directed the film, it’s clear he doesn’t look at his age the same way Sheridan does.

It will be interesting to see what swipes Sheridan takes in future episodes. Will Kayce (Luke Grimes) reveal that his father had legendary flatulence? Will Jamie find papers that say he gambled away all the ranch’s residual taxes at the casino? Will Summer call Beth from her new life to thank her for releasing her from a life of terrible sex with John, who was terrible at doing the deed? Only time will tell.

(Pictured above: Sheridan and Costner together in happier days.)