In Taylor Sheridan’s world, characters like John, Beth, and Jaime Dutton are a dime a dozen. Dysfunctional family trauma runs in every other character and it’s not just limited to the colorful ones in Yellowstone. However, one particular arc may have gotten a larger share of problems on his plate as compared to the others.
Yellowstone has pitted Beth and Jaime Dutton against one another since the pilot episode of the series. From there, it has only ever gone downhill, decimating everything in its path and leaving behind nothing but anger and resentment. With Taylor Sheridan’s series now in its final leg, it’s high time the blood feud finally came to an end, preferably with some justified closure instead of a straight-out blood bath.
Beth Dutton’s Tragedy Fails to Move the Audience
In the history of epic fantasy TV series — be it with dragons or cowboys — only two characters have caused the audience to feel writhing hatred and pure, unadulterated disgust on such a sheer scale and magnitude. If one was Joffrey Baratheon, the other surely is a character built in the shadow of his mother. Beth Dutton is modeled as a modern-day reimagining of Cersei Lannister for whom the incest has been replaced with generational trauma.
Most truthfully, Beth Dutton has managed to mete out epic doses of vicious cruelty and verbal abuse at his enemies — making her one of the most powerful and feared characters in television. But there exists a limit to all things and that concept must have evaded Taylor Sheridan while molding Kelly Reilly’s arc in Yellowstone.
With a hatred so repetitive, Beth Dutton’s treatment of Wes Bentley’s Jaime Dutton has caused the fans to declare their support for the other team. Despite the shocking Season 3 reveal of the past incident that led to Beth villainizing Jaime in her eyes, the fans have had enough of her incessant bullying, harassment, and mental and emotional abuse over the past 4 and a half seasons.
Fans Want Vindication for Jaime Dutton in Season 5
Wes Bentley’s Jaime Dutton has been nothing if not loyal to his family’s name and legacy. The Harvard-educated lawyer may even be the only one among the Dutton children who wants to keep the legacy of Yellowstone and his ancestors intact. However, John and Beth’s treatment of him has leveled a massive blow to the audience’s consciousness recently.
In the fan communities on Reddit, discontent has been festering for quite some time, and it is evident in some of the theories that the fans have come up with. The huge gap between the two halves of Season 5 of Yellowstone has also led the mind to wander and dwell on issues such as the vindication of Jaime Dutton in the finale. According to jlive9:
Given the direction of the show as it ends: Either Jamie is gonna end up dead or is gonna end up getting the Governorship where he is able to save the ranch legally from everything threatening it and Beth finally sees him as a good brother.
I feel like a feel good ending is the right way to end this show where no one has to visit the train station. As much as some viewers hate Jamie, I feel like there are alot of Jamie fans who want an avengers assemble moment for the family finale if John is dead.
For other fans like Tarmac-Chris, “Killing Jamie would be just so … boring? Every season he’s treated like sh*t and Beth gets to humiliate him. Killing him (or worse, having Beth kill him) would be so very unsatisfying and redundant writing as well.”
Moreover, some Jaime supporters have expressed genuine fear for his life as long as he and Beth live under the same roof. One Reddit user named Ok-Candidate-1220 claims, “I would LOVE to see Beth get her comeuppance,” while Criticslayer33 claims, “Jamie should be the one left standing… Jamie’s gotten the raw end of the stick for too long. He needs to win this. He deserves to win this.”
While the fan opinions are resoundingly in favor of Jaime Dutton, with more people declaring their support for him in his eternal war against Beth Dutton, it all boils down to Taylor Sheridan’s vision for Yellowstone and how he intends to tie the storyline with the thread connecting Beth and Jaime Dutton.
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 will premiere on Paramount+ in November 2024.