A tragic death sets the stage for a vengeance-fueled final season of the contemporary cowboy drama.
After nearly two years, lots of rumors, speculation, and Kevin Costner-fueled controversy, Yellowstone is back in the saddle to address the cliffhangers that concluded its Season 5 Part 1 finale.
And the premiere, dubbed “Desire Is All You Need,” wastes no time doing just that.
As Lloyd (Forrest J. Smith) stares out over the sprawling Dutton ranch, an ominous vibe hangs over the scene and the old cowboy’s face. But we’re not left to wonder what all the foreboding is about. Seconds later, Beth (Kelly Reilly) is racing to the Governor’s mansion, where a blockade of police cars stop her in her tracks. “Is this a crime scene?,” she desperately asks an officer.
She gets her answer when she spies John Dutton’s (Kevin Coster) assistant holding back tears by an ambulance. As Beth breaks down, Kayce (Luke Grimes) pulls up, and the pair burst through the security detail and into their father’s estate.
They’re met by a detective who warns Kayce he shouldn’t go any further: “You don’t want to see this.” But Kayce and Beth can’t not look. Separately, the siblings make the difficult trek to the crime scene, where they find a covered body on the bathroom floor. A pistol lies near the corpse’s hands, and spattered blood covers the wall above. It seems the Dutton patriarch has taken his own life. But as Kayce tries to comfort Beth in the hallway, she whispers through her cries, “It was Jamie.”
Speaking of her weaselly adopted kin, we next see the Montana Attorney General (Wes Bentley) watching the news of his dad’s apparent demise. As he sits in stunned silence, his phone buzzes in his office. A voice of very few words states a time, “3:53 am,” and a cryptic code, “10-56.” After a long pause, Jamie responds, “Copy.”
He then heads downstairs to meet the press, but first stops to speak with his father’s friend/sometime love interest, Senator Lynelle Perry (Wendy Moniz.) Jamie can’t manage the words, so he whispers what he’s learned. Perry urges him not to share the specifics with the press, then asks if he believes the news. “I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he says somberly.
As the press conference begins, the scene switches to Kayce and Beth, who are listening to it on the radio. Beth can’t stand to hear another word, so he storms from the truck, furious that Jamie not only had a hand in killing John, but also did him dirty by making it look like a suicide.
Kayce’s not convinced Jamie’s capable of such an act, but Beth – who previously caught her hated sibling hiding the body of his murdered biological dad – knows better. Beth calls her beloved Rip (Cole Hauser,) who’s in Texas and atop a horse. When he learns what’s happened though, he literally races off into the sunset… as the opening credits roll.
After the prologue’s edge-of-your-seat pacing, the following scene slows things down a bit and returns us to six weeks earlier. Rip and his Texas-bound crew – Jake (Jake Ream,) Walker (Ryan Bingham,) Teeter (Jennifer Landon,) and Ryan (Ian Bohen) – are road-trippin’ to the 6666 Ranch, where they’re to meet with the Yellowstone’s transported cattle. When they arrive, they also reunite with Jimmy (Jefferson White,) who spent the first half of the season learning to be a real cowboy at the 6666.
In Texas, we get lots of slo-mo shots of big skies, dusty plains, and cattle being herded. There’s also a heavy helping of cowboy camaraderie, corny humor, and warnings about the harsh weather and uncomfortable conditions Rip and his wranglers will be subjected to. Oh, and Ryan gets bit by a scorpion. Rip also gets a call from Beth, who’s just completed her community service and is planning to meet him in the Lone Star state.
Meanwhile, Kayce, Monica (Kelsey Asbille,) and their boy Tate — who’s now old enough to drive – are preparing to move into the fixer-upper John offered them on the ranch. They all approve of the remote, rustic residence – despite Kayce spotting a wolf nearby – and see it as a good place to get a fresh start.
It’s not all happy trails in Montana, however, as the flashback also reunites us with Jamie’s new partner/partner-in-crime Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri.) The manipulative Market Equities’ lawyer is undergoing a full body search before meeting with an extremely cautious client. Turns out, Ms. Atwood is putting the finishing touches on her and Jamie’s plan to eliminate John from office – and the land of the living.
The man she’s hiring to carry out the hit tells her she’s actually the one doing the deed – she’s not pulling the trigger, but she’s calling the shots. He even requires her to verbally give the “permission to execute” order. He also informs her he has enough dirt on her and Jamie to pin the crime on them if it comes to that. She doesn’t love the suicide ruse – “Can’t you just mimic, like, a heart attack?” – but the very professional, er, professional ensures it’s the least risky method. With a sinister smile stretched across her face, she gives the final order to kill John Dutton.
The episode also catches up with Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and the handful of Dutton Ranch cowboys that didn’t make the cut for Rip’s road trip. Accompanied by his righthand man Mo (Moses Brings Plenty,) Rainwater is plotting to sabotage the oil pipeline that’s planned to run under his reservation’s drinking water supply. “This is the hill we die on,” he tells Mo.
Back at the ranch, Lloyd’s teaching Beth and Rip’s sorta-adopted son Carter how to break in a wild stallion. But the rest of the cowboys, including Colby (Denim Richards,) are getting bored without any cattle to tend to. Lloyd passes this onto Rip, and offers to send more help to Texas, but his boss wants them to stay put and keep Beth safe, as she’s currently holding down the Dutton fort by herself.
Back in the present, Jamie’s arriving home, but his key isn’t working. He breaks through the door, runs to his bedroom, and begins crying. Sarah, wearing lingerie and wielding two glasses of champagne, enters the room ready to celebrate.
Despite previously telling her to “go forward” with the plan to eliminate his dad, Jamie is surprised she actually did it. He was expecting they’d maybe have, like, a follow-up conversion before deciding to kill someone. Sad and feeling sorry for himself, he tells her he believed John had taken his life because his own son had attempted to have him impeached.
Sarah gives him a pep talk, reminding him John had abandoned him both emotionally and financially. She urges him to look to the future: “You won. This is your kingdom now.”
While Sarah’s plotting a takeover – whether Jamie likes it or not – Beth’s planning revenge. She and Kayce are settling their father’s affairs, but Beth’s more concerned with putting her other brother in the ground. Kayce isn’t convinced of Jamie’s guilt, and claims he could never pull this off on his own. Beth concurs, but insists he had help from someone with the stomach for it.
She tells Kayce to call the state police for more details. The detective he speaks with shares the same numbers we heard on the cryptic call Jamie took at the episode’s start. It’s confirmed John died at 3:53 am by a self-inflicted gunshot. Powder burns on his hands, as well as prints on the pistol, prove it was suicide. The surveillance cameras, however, cut out minutes before the trigger was pulled. That missing piece of the puzzle immediately raises Kayce’s suspicion and gets him on board with Beth’s accusations.
“Go look him in the eye.” she tells her brother. “Then come home and help me decide how to kill him.” And with that, Rip returns from Texas, Beth runs out to greet him and – as the sun rises on a new day at the Dutton ranch – she falls into her husband’s arms sobbing and screaming.