Gil Birmingham Has Known ‘Yellowstone’S Ending Since Day One

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Yellowstone Season 5 finale, “Life Is a Promise.”]

Gil Birmingham knew that Thomas Rainwater would get the Yellowstone Dutton ranch since “Episode 1 of the first season,” he reveals to TV Insider.

The actor says that Taylor Sheridan has always known that the land would end up back in the hands of the Native American people by the end of Yellowstone, and Birmingham was one of the very few who have known all along.

He was “sworn to secrecy” about this storyline for the entirety of Yellowstone‘s filming, he told TV Insider, but knowing the end didn’t make it any less emotionally impactful when it came time to film it.

To save the ranch from capitalist interests, Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) sold the family’s land to Thomas Rainwater for $1.25 per acre, totaling $1.1 million according to Beth (Kelly Reilly).

That’s a small price for the largest contiguous ranch in the U.S., but the Duttons cared less about money and more about putting the land into the hands of someone who won’t destroy it with condos and airports.

The $1.25 per acre price point was how much the land was sold for when it was taken from the indigenous people over a century before.

Giving the land back to the Broken Rock reservation also fulfilled the prophecy from 1883 that stated that in seven generations, the native people would rise up and take back the land from the Duttons.

That came to pass 141 years later, but now the Duttons will always have a place on that land because so many of them died to protect it.

Here, Birmingham breaks down what it meant to create this story, sharing other behind-the-scenes details from the final episode and what he thinks happens next.

Season 5 Part 2 scripts were redacted for some cast members. When did you learn that Rainwater was getting the land? Was it as Luke Grimes was saying it while filming?

Gil Birmingham: On Episode 1 of the first season. What I didn’t know was how it was going to happen. I don’t know what season that [Taylor Sheridan] revealed that it was going to happen the way it did, and of course, it was quite different from the way I would’ve imagined.

But I think he was following, and he prefaced this in 1883 with the prophecy of Spotted Eagle [Graham Greene], that “in seven generations, my people will rise up and come back for the land.”

So it’s almost like there was an agreement, a handshake agreement with John Dutton’s [Kevin Costner] ancestors and the native people back then.

So somewhere along midseason [in Season 5], I knew that there was going to be a transfer of land, but I didn’t know how it was going to happen. And I think up until the point that John Dutton left the series, we didn’t. There was probably some adjustments made in that regard as well.

Right. Wow. So you’ve known that would be the ending a lot longer than I had anticipated.

I’m not sure who knew, and of course, I was sworn to secrecy, so I couldn’t tell anybody or any cast members.

You have a profound emotional response on screen when Kayce reveals he’s selling you the land. Do you remember what you were feeling in that moment, shooting that?

Yeah. There were so many different thoughts, and I think primarily was the mission that Tom Rainwater had to try to be of service to his people.

He didn’t find out he was even native until he was 18 years old, discovered he was adopted, and just felt compelled to pursue this mission of trying to contribute something to the native community.

And that was the project that he did because of his education. So at that moment, I think I was just reflecting on the beauty of something that he would’ve never expected to unfold.

It was going to be a battle. It was going to be a mountain to climb for probably his lifetime, whether he was going to be able to accomplish it or not it evolved the way it did. It was just a blessing and a gratefulness and a thanking of God that the mission that he pursued really saw its end in the way that he couldn’t imagine.

Mo Brings Plenty‘s sang in reaction to Kayce’s offer. Was that scripted? What was the song?

That was a song Mo wrote. Taylor wasn’t that familiar with [Native American] songs, but he told Mo that he wanted him to sing a song. And so as far as I know, Mo wrote that song. It was probably a version of his tribe’s song, a song of gratitude and thanks. That was a pretty powerful, powerful moment.