In the first season of Yellowstone, everyone was convinced that Kevin Costner’s John Dutton was at death’s door. Even the Dutton patriarch himself was sure of it, especially after the opening scene reveals he was nearly in a fatal car crash just before the series began. But all of that changed when we learned that John Dutton wasn’t dying at all; he just had a stomach ulcer that got the better of him. From then on, Dutton didn’t act like a man who was trying to preserve his legacy before death, he acted like one who was hoping to expand his empire even further. But, the harsh truth is, Yellowstone was a lot better when we thought that John Dutton was going to die.
‘Yellowstone’s Early Seasons Make John Dutton More Compelling
In Season 1, John Dutton is a man with almost nothing to lose. With his life already forfeit (at least, in his mind), John uses his remaining time on this Earth to bring his children back together to ensure that no one can take the Dutton Ranch from them or their descendants. After years away, Kayce (Luke Grimes) returns to the fold, just in time for his eldest brother and John’s firstborn Lee (Dave Annable) to be killed in a cattle dispute. This too pushes John even further into the pit of despair that would drive him throughout the show’s freshman season and would build on the ever-expansive promise he once made to his own dying father. This idea that John had nothing to lose, and therefore could let himself run wild to save his family’s legacy, was what made Yellowstone so interesting.
“I don’t regret one sin I’ve committed,” Dutton says in the first season. “It’s the sin I’m about to commit that worries me.” With the Grim Reaper seemingly closing in, John Dutton sees himself increasingly becoming someone he doesn’t want to be, yet he allows himself to be that man for the sake of his children. In the show’s early years, John even wore a lighter-toned cowboy hat to emphasize that he always saw himself as the hero of his own story, but as we learn more and more about the Montana patriarch, it becomes clear that he isn’t. By the time Season 2 rolls around, his use of lighter hats dwindles into nothingness, with darker hats now the John Dutton standard as he recognizes the dark stain he’s contracted on his heart. But it’s that conflicted Season 1 John Dutton that got fans interested.
While most people try to shape up a bit as they circle their deathbed, John Dutton is a paradoxical character who often goes from mentioning God on occasion to saying things like, “I’ve seen too much bad in my life to believe God exists.” Ironically, it’s Dutton himself who often is at the center of much of the bad, and though he might not have started that way, he’s become more hardened as a result of the life he’s lived. Still, a redemption arc wasn’t out of the question for John Dutton early on, even after he decided to double down on his family’s plan to keep their land. But as the years went on, and the threat of death went away, the landman drifted even further from divine mercy as he continued to fight “everyone” in his sights.
‘Yellowstone’ Made John Dutton More Interesting When His Clock Was Ticking
In many ways, John Dutton was more self-assured in the early seasons of the show. While the seasoned rancher has remained pretty single-minded in recent years, there was something about the way John handled his business early on that made him more interesting. Maybe it was the fact that we were just getting used to the Dutton family dynamics, or maybe it had something to do with his “nothing to lose/fight everyone” attitude, but Dutton wasn’t willing to play ball with anyone who wasn’t a friend. And if you were a foe, well, he would waste no time hanging you from a tree to let you rot. Season 1 John Dutton was the best at being the worst. He was the type of ruthless that the character hasn’t been allowed to be for a long time, with the closest thing to it in recent seasons being the rivalry between himself and Wade Morrow (Boots Southerland) back in Season 3.
But as the show went on and the violence and drama increased, John became a more conflicted character, forced to live with the consequences of his own actions now that he wasn’t dying. Well, sort of. While that idea made for an interesting story in itself, none of those apparent consequences ever really stuck. John never really lost his grandson, even after Tate (Brecken Merrill) was kidnapped at the end of Season 2. His relationship with Kayce only got better over time as they learned to understand one another. Heck, even his latest squeeze Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo) was able to get out of jail almost scot-free after John pardoned her as the Governor of Montana in Season 5 (an abuse of power that’s never been checked). On Yellowstone, the consequences are almost always temporary for the Dutton family, and John especially gets away unscathed nearly every time.
Of course, the one exception to this is the fallout among his children, but thus far the standoff between Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Jamie (Wes Bentley) hasn’t come to a head just yet. When it does, John may be in the middle of it. That is, if Kevin Costner sticks around long enough to see that plotline all the way through. But looking back on that first season of Yellowstone, as full of potential as it was, it’s easy to see how John Dutton’s deteriorating health could’ve factored into some of the battles he’d face in later years. His health would’ve been a more interesting reason for him to team up with Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston) against the Beck brothers in Season 2, and it certainly would’ve made the whole Market Equities kerfuffle more interesting if he had medical bills to pay during the third and fourth seasons. Heck, even the Governor arc would’ve been more compelling if he was fighting his own sickness while in office.
John Dutton’s Cancer Diagnosis Gave Kevin Costner the Perfect Exit From ‘Yellowstone’
Originally, it was thought that John Dutton had an aggressive form of colon cancer. That’s what Dutton believes when the show starts anyway, and what the audience soon learns themselves. Season 1 ends with us believing that’s true, and there was a lot of untapped potential the show left behind afterward. Since Yellowstone seemed to set itself up to be a five-to-seven-season show, we all knew that it wouldn’t last forever, and likely wouldn’t reach the multi-season milestones that many network procedurals only attain. In many ways, this seemed like the perfect way to curate the life of Yellowstone itself. After all, most started watching Yellowstone because of the Dances With Wolves star, and the character’s impact on the series is undeniable.
In many ways, there is no Yellowstone without John Dutton, which is why the news that Yellowstone would be ending with Season 5 following Costner’s departure was so obvious. Sure, the Dutton legacy will continue with an upcoming sequel series, which will likely be just as popular as the original, but it will no longer be Yellowstone. John Dutton is the Yellowstone Ranch, and that’s part of the reason series creator (and former Sons of Anarchy star) Taylor Sheridan set him up that way. But what Sheridan failed to account for was that one day, Costner would want out. Had Dutton’s original diagnosis been maintained on some level across the show’s five seasons, it may have opened the door for a more satisfying ending, one that could’ve been planned from the very first episode.
Will Kevin Costner Return for the Second Half of ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5?
That said, many have wondered if Kevin Costner will be returning for the second half of the final season at all. “My understanding is that, as of now, he is not gonna be in those episodes,” insider Matthew Belloni explained on an episode of his podcast The Town. Whether this is true or not is up for debate, but according to Costner himself, it would make sense given that he is no longer under contract for Yellowstone moving forward (via Business Insider). What that means for the back half of Season 5 isn’t exactly clear (other than John Dutton potentially not returning), but it doesn’t seem like the Western icon wants to continue on the Paramount series.
“Somewhere along the line, they wanted to change things,” Costner explained concerning his displeasure with Yellowstone behind the scenes. “They wanted to do 5A and 5B; [it] affected Horizon. I was going to do my movie Horizon and leave that show, do my movie, then do B. A show I was only doing once a year I was now doing twice.” Horizon: An American Saga, of course, is Kevin Costner’s next epic Western project (which he is both starring in and directing) set to be released in two parts, with Chapter 1 coming out in June 2024 and Chapter 2 releasing in theaters two months later. No wonder Costner wants to be done with John Dutton, a character he’s been playing now for six years. It’s too bad Yellowstone gave up on John Dutton’s cancer arc though, it might’ve been a more compelling exit for the character than being unceremoniously written off before the show returns for its final batch of episodes.
Yellowstone can be streamed exclusively on Peacock and airs regularly on CBS.