Kevin Costner’s presence is felt throughout Yellowstone Season 5, Episode 9 — even though he doesn’t appear in it. The Yellowstone Season 5B premiere, “Desire Is All You Need,” is quite clearly an episode constructed specifically to deal with Costner’s exit from the hit series. It’s not an episode creator Taylor Sheridan planned on writing (or at least not writing now) and that shows. But it deals with the absence of Costner’s character John Dutton in a way that allows the rest of Yellowstone to believably continue.
“Desire Is All You Need” pulls no punches, revealing John Dutton’s death right off the top. The majority of the episode deals with the fallout from that event, which is to be expected given John’s (and Costner’s) importance to the series. In fact, the slowest parts of the story are when it pulls away from the drama to remind viewers Rip Wheeler is still out in Texas. The relative lack of physical action may disappoint viewers who waited most of two years for the return of Yellowstone, yet this is Sheridan making the most out of a difficult situation.
What Happened to John Dutton in Yellowstone?
Season 5, Episode 9 Explains John’s Violent Ending
By now, audiences are well aware of the off-screen drama that resulted in Kevin Costner leaving Yellowstone, followed by widespread speculation over the future of the whole show. What’s important here is that Sheridan had to come up with a relatively quick explanation for why John Dutton was suddenly gone, and he had to do it without Costner — who does not appear in the episode, but whose name still shows up first in the opening credits. “Desire Is All You Need” handles this in the way many fans likely expected: blood on a bathroom wall, a gun on the floor and a half-shot of a generic body affirm that John Dutton is dead.
Beth Dutton: I know nothing. But I know he’s gone.
Killing John off is the only explanation that makes sense for Yellowstone Season 5. Since the previous episode involved him being impeached as Governor of Montana, it would be impossible to say he just went somewhere else, and that’s no explanation anyway since everyone else (the viewers included) would expect him to be coming back. Plus, that’s too quiet of an exit storyline for John as a character; he would never just disappear after all the fighting he’s done — and was still doing. On top of that, it tonally would be ridiculous for Yellowstone, which has always been a fairly violent show. By having John Dutton die, Sheridan gives the character an intense, appropriate out, while also using it to add fuel to the conflict that’s been driving the series for a long time now: the battle between Beth Dutton and Jamie Dutton.
Yellowstone Illustrates Beth and Jamie’s Differences Through Grief
But There’s No Turning Back After Episode 9
The meat of “Desire Is All You Need” is in the compare and contrast between Beth and Jamie, and the excellent performances by both Kelly Reilly and Wes Bentley. Sheridan uses John’s death as a further springboard for Beth and Jamie’s conflict, and while all the other important characters appear in the episode (albeit some very briefly), it’s Reilly and Bentley who have to provide the emotion that Yellowstone viewers expect to see in this situation. Both actors are spot-on as their characters react exactly the way that audiences think they would. Beth lashes out in anger and immediately begins plotting revenge, while Jamie is shocked and almost paralyzed.
Reilly has had some of the most explosive scenes in the show, and Season 5, Episode 9 is no exception. Beth breaks down twice — first at the Governor’s residence and again when finally reunited with Rip on the ranch. Sheridan’s decision to end the episode with Beth collapsing in Rip’s arms is visceral and painful because of how much Reilly pours into that; audiences will remember the sound of Beth’s sobs well after the credits roll. At the same time, the script uses her to propel the dramatic tension, as she repeatedly insists to Kayce (an understated Luke Grimes, who serves as a point of stability between the extremes) that Jamie killed John. After all, she’s seen him do it.
Jamie Dutton: I can’t say it out loud. For some reason, I can’t get the fucking words to form.
While Reilly’s desperate promises of revenge are the Yellowstone midseason premiere’s most entertaining moments, it’s Bentley who has the ones that are the most heartbreaking. There’s a bittersweet irony in the fact that it’s Jamie who makes audiences feel John’s loss the most directly. Jamie can’t form a complete sentence when he has to address the media as Attorney General and confirm John’s death, and Bentley’s facial expressions say so much else that his character can’t get out. The pivotal scene in the episode is when Jamie finally feels the full impact of John’s death, as if everything is draining out of him.
But that scene turns on its head moments later, as Sarah Atwood confirms to Jamie that she took their conversation at the end of Season 5A seriously and hired someone to have John killed. Bentley’s reaction is what sells that moment. The audience has already guessed what Sarah’s going to say, thanks to an earlier sequence where she meets with the people behind the hit, but it’s Jamie going through a whole sequence of emotions that makes the reveal as impactful as Sheridan wants it to be. And that choice to say John Dutton was murdered, instead of that he died by suicide, sets up Yellowstone Season 5 for a nail-biting conclusion.
Where Does Yellowstone Season 5 Go Without John Dutton?
Taylor Sheridan Has Navigated the Pitfall of Losing His Star
There’s now an immediate problem to solve in Yellowstone’s remaining episodes: when will Beth and the rest of the Dutton family find out that Sarah ordered John Dutton’s murder? That would seem to turn literally everyone against Jamie — but the fact that Jamie didn’t know Sarah had done it creates another of the grey areas Sheridan loves to play in. It would be easy for Team Beth to just steamroll Jamie and bury him, but it’d be more interesting if Jamie somehow teams up with his sister to take down Sarah and her company for good. John’s death being the thing that finally reunited the Dutton family would be a powerful, if heartbreaking, story arc.
In a project about family, the defeat of a common enemy is more rewarding to watch than any internal dissension (see the Fast & Furious movies). And that doesn’t have to be just biological family. The absence of John also opens up more story room for Thomas Rainwater, who unfortunately only appears in a single scene in Season 5, Episode 9. The two had their fair share of common ground, and now Rainwater’s the loudest voice in the room when it comes to protecting their community from outside entities like Market Equities. Yellowstone Season 5, Episode 9’s only weaknesses come from not having the run time or narrative space to develop all of its characters, so important plot points like the building of the pipeline and what Kayce sees off the front porch go by pretty quickly.
Thomas Rainwater: World doesn’t listen to us, Mo. This is the hill we die on. Right here.
Yet what makes this a flawed individual episode is forgivable considering the context, both on-screen and off-screen. Kevin Costner and his portrayal of John Dutton brought a lot of people to Yellowstone, and the Dutton family has always revolved around John as its patriarch. If his fate had just been one part of a bigger episode, it would have felt disrespectful not only to the character of John, but to all the other characters, as if to say he didn’t really matter that much in their lives. Whether or not Yellowstone continues past Season 5, it’s emotionally necessary and worth it from an audience point of view to give John Dutton a goodbye episode. And at the same time, Sheridan never lets the viewer forget that there’s a whole other battle left to fight.
