What happened in the series finale

On By Littum

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Spoilers ahead for the Season 5 finale. Stop reading if you don’t want to know.

Patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) received the touching funeral he deserved in Sunday’s Season 5 “Yellowstone” finale. The humble former Montana governor can rest in peace in his polished wooden casket because the ranch he fought to preserve will remain unspoiled and never be turned into a dreaded real estate development.

There were a lot of cowboy goodbyes in the apparent “Yellowstone” series finale as the Yellowstone Ranch is sold to the Native Americans who owned it generations ago.

But no farewell is as dramatic as the violent death of Attorney General Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), who finally gets harsh justice for his role in his father’s death in a way that is only surprising for its level of brutality.

It might not be the end: Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) and John’s daughter Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) will reportedly star in their own spinoff series. But here’s how the Paramount Network OG series said goodbye.

John Dutton was buried at the Yellowstone Ranch with his ancestors

The final six episodes began with John Dutton’s murder by professional hitmen, his body being examined on a morgue table after Costner left the series following a long-running feud with creator and executive producer Taylor Sheridan. But this small funeral is perfectly “Yellowstone”: attended only by his family, the bunkhouse crew and two close friends. Jamie isn’t invited and has no idea it’s going on.

Rip and company even dig John’s grave in the grounds surrounded by generations of Duttons and next to John’s wife. Each participant places a white rose on the casket to say a final goodbye. Beth, planning her final move, leans close to her beloved father’s casket and swears in a whisper, “I will avenge you.” Then she staggers away.

Rip gets the best funeral lines, dismissing the preacher with, “I think we’re about to be prayed out. If he’s not in heaven, he’s not going. Or there’s nobody.”

Beth kills her brother Jamie after her father’s funeral

Jamie seems ready after giving the speech of his life to assure the public that he will find the governor’s killer and that he had absolutely nothing to do with his father’s death and that his lawyer/friend Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) hired the hitmen. But Jamie can’t even pour a victory drink at home because Beth is waiting. She slams her brother with a tire iron and sprays his face with bear spray. It’s a wild fight: Jamie regains the brawl advantage and foolishly lets it go in typical villain style.

Just before Jamie can kill Beth, Rip lets himself in and opens a big old can of what-for on Jamie. But Beth claims the final honor of killing her longtime nemesis: She stabs her brother in the chest.

“Look at me,” bloodied Beth says to the dying Jamie. “I’m the last thing you’ll ever see.”

Dead Jamie is dumped in the family “train station” where generations of Dutton enemies have been cast out into eternity. Rip drenches Jamie’s car in gasoline and throws in a match. It’s the perfect “Yellowstone” revenge as Beth convincingly tells the police that Jamie beat her and fled after she confronted her brother about his role in their father’s death.

The police will be looking for Jamie for a long time. But both Jamie and Atwood’s firm, Market Equities, will take the fall for everything.

Kayce sells the Yellowstone Ranch for $1.25 an acre and declares victory

It was Kayce who cryptically suggested the Yellowstone sale at the end of last week’s episode, and hard-headed financial wunderkind Beth loved the idea. In Sunday’s episode, Kayce sells the largest ranch in Montana to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), the chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock and head of the Broken Rock Reservation.

So the land will return to the Native American tribe that the Dutton family took it from. In another ironic twist, Kayce is selling it at the ridiculously low price of $1.25 per acre, the original price paid by his ancestors. Kayce and his family take a small part of the country for themselves to live quietly.

Rainwater promises that the land will never be developed and that the Dutton family buried there will be protected. “Your people are buried on that land and so is mine. It is sacred and that is how we will treat it.” Rainwater says, “So your family has a forever home here.”

Rainwater turns the land into a wilderness area where nothing can be built and no motorized vehicles are allowed. Dutton’s ancestors are happy with the decision. Elsa Dutton (Isabel May), the doomed narrator of the “Yellowstone” prequel series “1883,” returns a surprising voice to bless the decision. “Land cannot really be ‘owned’ by people,” she says, noting that the Duttons were merely stewards.

Where do Rip and Beth end up in ‘Yellowstone’?

Beth recovers from her injuries and meets Rip, who is working on their new ranch in Texas. Her father’s death avenged, Beth suggests the two go into town, where there’s a great new bar completely free of dreaded tourists.

The two go for drinks to celebrate a new life – and most likely a new series.