‘Yellowstone’ Kills Off Another Major Character, Reveals Fate of the Ranch in Season 5 Finale

It’s the end of Yellowstone as we know it — and most of the Duttons feel fine. One of them, though, they’re not making it to the end of the Season 5 finale, which does appear to be the end of the series. Pending spinoffs, that is. Spoiler-filled recap ahead for Yellowstone Season 5, Episode 14, “Life Is a Promise.”

The episode begins with Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) and Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) following through on their pipeline plans, enlisting other members of the Broken Rock tribe in a covert mission to get rid of the construction equipment by dumping it in the water.

That’s one big win for Broken Rock this episode. The second one comes when, as we predicted, Kayce (Luke Grimes) makes a deal with Rainwater to sell back the land to him for $1.1 million — the same super-cheap price they bought it for back in the day. This way, no one has to pay the crazy inheritance tax that threatened to bankrupt the ranch, and Rainwater promises Kayce he can keep his home at East Camp.

But what about Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser)? Where are they gonna live? Well, on a new ranch, of course, one that’s even further away from people, much to their excitement.

With the ranch saved, it was time to lay John Dutton (Kevin Costner) to rest on the land he loved so much in a small funeral service featuring a final promise from Beth to “avenge” her late father.

Speaking of that promise, Beth makes her way over to Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) house, where he’s riding high off of the performance of a lifetime at the statehouse. There, as per Christina’s (Katherine Cunningham) advice, he gave a speech announcing an official investigation into John and Sarah Atwood’s (Dawn Olivieri) deaths to throw off suspicion. But he doesn’t get to revel in his victory for long, because Beth quickly attacks Jamie with some pepper spray, and it’s time for the sibling battle royale we’ve known was coming for the last couple of seasons now.

This was a brutal fight, and things weren’t really looking good for Beth at the end, but thank god for Rip. He saves the day, and Beth fatally stabs her brother in the stomach. Farewell Jamie — I had a feeling you’d be ending this season with a trip to the train station, but you were a fun villain to watch.

When the police arrive, Beth tells them Jamie attacked her, and then when she passed out he was gone. Police had Jamie at the heart of their investigation anyway, so they’re happy to accept that. 

Then after the brutal brother-sister beatdown and Beth’s treatment for her injuries, we end the show on a sentimental note. Kayce and his family are going to stay at East Camp, while Beth and Rip move with Carter (Finn Bradley) to their new life — and new spinoff — in Dillon, Montana. Meanwhile, the Broken Rock tribe is going to protect the Yellowstone land and the Dutton legacy. 

In the final moments of the show, we then got a little historical cameo moment as the voice of Elsa Dutton from 1883 wrapped things up by reflecting on the sacrifices the Dutton family has made for their land over the years.

And that is the end of Yellowstone! Of course, there’s a new season of 1923 coming out on Sunday, Feb. 23 and a new Beth and Rip spinoff is coming eventually, so there’s there’s a lot of the Sheridan-verse still in the works. But we’ll just have to stay tuned until then.

This article was adapted from the latest episode of PopCulture Social Call, streaming weekdays on PopCulture.com’s YouTube channel. You can now watch this episode, which is embedded in the above article.