‘Yellowstone’ Season 5: Where We Last Left Off With the Dutton Family
Yellowstone Season 5 is going to be bigger than ever. For the very first time, there will be 14 episodes in total (instead of the usual 10) and the season will be split into two halves with seven episodes each. The Paramount Network will begin the season with a special two-hour premiere event. And to prepare for the next chapter of the story, we thought this would be the perfect time to recap season 4 and remember where we last left off with the Dutton family.
‘Yellowstone’ Season 4 started off with a bang
Season 4 began exactly where season 3 left off — after a massive cliffhanger that left John Dutton (Kevin Costner), Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly), and Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) fighting for their lives.
In what appeared to be a coordinated attack, John was shot on the side of the road while helping a woman change a tire, Kayce was heading for cover behind his desk after gunmen stormed his office, and Beth was packing up her office when her assistant opened a package that exploded.
The biggest question on fans’ minds was: did anyone die? The answer was “no.” All three managed to survive, but John’s road to recovery was long and difficult. There was also an attack on Kayce’s wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and son Tate (Brecken Merrill) that resulted in Tate killing the intruder. This trauma prompted Kayce to move his wife and son off of the Dutton Ranch, so they could attempt to build their own lives away from the dangerous Dutton enemies.
Jamie Dutton’s loyalty to the family was questioned
As John and Kayce hunted down the members of the multiple hit squads which were contracted to kill their family, Jamie Dutton’s (Wes Bentley) loyalty was questioned. John took Kayce to his favorite place on the ranch, and tasked him with determining his brother’s loyalty.
A file given to them by Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) and Chief Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) identified the person who organized the hit squads — an incarcerated felon named Riggins. John told Kayce to take the file to Jamie — Montana’s Attorney General — to get Riggins’ prison files released.
When Jamie receives the file, he discovers that one of Riggins’ old cellmates was a man named Garrett Randall (Will Patton). Jamie immediately recognized the name because it was his biological father, who he found out about in season 3.
The man behind the attacks in ‘Yellowstone’ Season 3 was revealed to be Garrett Randall
With such a long list of enemies, there were a number of candidates who could have been behind the attacks. But, the culprit was ultimately revealed to be Garrett Randall. This caused a crisis for Jamie, and it was unclear where his loyalties lay.
He eventually confronts his father, while pointing a gun at him. But Garrett talks his way out of the situation, and the pair seemingly reconcile. Then Beth confronts Jamie and puts him on notice, telling him she sees him as a disloyal member of the family who isn’t willing to protect the ranch.
John Dutton runs for governor because of his doubts about Jamie
Montana politics — which greatly affects the Dutton Ranch — become front and center in the last half of the season when John’s sometimes love interest Governor Lynelle Perry (Wendy Moniz) tells him that she is running for Senate.
She visits the ranch to tell John that she is going to endorse Jamie’s campaign for governor, but the rancher has doubts about his adopted son. He again questions Jamie’s loyalty and competence, and tells her that he might run for governor himself to keep Jamie from getting elected.
John shares his concerns about Jamie with Beth, and tells her about his plans to run for office. And just when Jamie thinks he’s about to get the endorsement of the governor and his family, they walk right past him so John can make his own announcement with the governor’s endorsement that Jamie wanted so badly.
Beth is not happy about her father’s new love interest in ‘Yellowstone’ Season 4
Meanwhile, environmental protestors are causing problems at the Livestock Commissioner’s office. They are arrested, but the head protestor Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo) catches John’s eye. The rancher bails her out, and then he offers to give her a tour of the ranch. That tour turned into an overnight stay, which was discovered by Beth the following morning. She was not happy.
Market Equities put Beth in charge of dealing with the group of protestors who were demonstrating at the building site for the new airport. So, she sets up the police to arrest the protestors and makes sure Summer is there to be the patsy in her scheme.
John finds this information out at Summer’s plea bargain hearing and discovers she’s facing life in prison. He confronts his daughter to tell her he’s disappointed, and he also threatens to kick her out of the house.
“I’d do anything to hurt your enemies. If I hurt others, so be it,” she says to her father. “I don’t care. I don’t care if she dies in prison. I don’t care if she gets out. I do not f**king care. I care about you. I care about Kayce. I care about Rip [Cole Hauser].”
Beth confronts Jamie at gunpoint when she finds out he knew the truth about Garrett Randall
Everything came to a head in the Yellowstone Season 4 finale. Jamie is advised by his baby momma Christina (Katherine Cunningham) to distance himself from Garrett after she finds out he spent 30 years in prison for killing Jamie’s mother. Kayce goes on a four-day vision quest, a tribal initiation that resulted in him telling his wife, “I saw the end of us.”
Beth apologizes to her father after asking Rip how to make things right, and John accepts. She then gets fired at Market Equities for doing her job in bad faith, which lays the groundwork for a lawsuit against the Dutton Ranch.
The season’s final moments include Beth visiting Riggins in prison to force him to admit that Garrett hired him to plan the killings, and Jamie knew about it. Once she gets confirmation, she heads to the statehouse and confronts Jamie at gunpoint.
Beth and Rip get married in the ‘Yellowstone’ Season 4 finale
Beth gave her brother an ultimatum with three options, but the first two ended with Jamie either dead or publicly disgraced. So, he chose the third option which required him to shoot Garrett Randall dead. To blackmail her brother, Beth required Jamie to take his father “to the train station” and she snapped a pic of him handling Garrett’s dead body.
Wearing the same gold chainmail dress that she wore when visiting Riggins in prison, Beth then kidnaps a priest and takes him to the Yellowstone Ranch. To Rip’s surprise, it’s suddenly his wedding day and he and Beth become husband and wife.
The season ends with Beth telling her father that she now has Jamie under her control, and there’s no need to worry about any problems with him in the future.
Yellowstone Season 5 premieres Sunday, November 13 on the Paramount Network.
