‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Ending Explained & Finale Recap: Will There Be A Season 6?

The ending of Yellowstone season 5 brought things full circle. I personally didn’t like this epilogue because it makes you realize that the showmakers were setting up a lot of things for the past six episodes for no apparent reason.

I mean, I am still not sure why Beth went around looking for avenues to make the ranch profitable if she’d have to buy a retirement land in Dillon in the end. And the worst thing of all, there was no surprise element in it. Everything we saw in episode 14 has already been discussed or speculated about on social media.

Maybe it was all about the moments that it created, and instead of being critical of it, we should just see the brighter side. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at Yellowstone‘s ending and what the future holds for the characters.

Jamie Is Dead

I had already speculated in my season 5 predictions article that Beth wouldn’t be at peace until she’d killed the man responsible for her father’s death. And that’s what she did in Yellowstone‘s ending. During the funeral, she made a promise on her father’s grave that she would avenge his death, and the very next moment, she drove to Jamie’s house to kill him. A violent altercation took place between the biological daughter and the adopted son, where Jamie was about to suffocate Beth to death, when Rip finally intervened and helped Beth kill Jamie with a knife. So, it was Beth’s plan all along to dispose of Jamie’s body in the “trash can” in a county near Wyoming where he had previously discarded his own biological father’s body.

As Rip and Lloyd left to get rid of Jamie’s body and his car, Beth quickly called the police. She told Detective Dillard that Jamie had attacked her when she accused him of their father’s murder. However, she didn’t quite remember what happened next as she fell unconscious. Now you see, Beth had clicked pictures of Jamie while he was disposing of the body of his biological father, but she couldn’t hand over this evidence to the police because it would start an investigation and might lead the police to the “trash can.”

So, even though Dillard asked Beth for physical evidence, she didn’t have any, and maybe the police had to close the case based on circumstantial evidence. The authorities later found the burnt husk of Jamie’s car and suspected it was Jamie who had lit the fire to erase the evidence, just like he tried to cover up his tracks and all his interactions with Sarah Atwood. Hence, in the end, Jamie became a fugitive, and Beth got her revenge.

In my season 5 predictions, I’d hoped that Dillard would start an investigation into Market Equities, but it doesn’t seem like that’ll be the case now. Beth just helped Dillard establish the connection between Sarah and Jamie, where the former made a huge wire transfer to hire assassins to kill John Dutton. In short, Beth implied that it was Jamie who ordered the hit on his father, though he didn’t actually mean it when he uttered those words to Sarah. Nevertheless, what’s done is done, and Jamie paid for it with his life.

Kayce Sells The Land

In order to avoid the inheritance tax on the Dutton Land, Kayce and Beth sold the entire Yellowstone Ranch to Thomas Rainwater for 1.25 dollars per acre. However, before signing the papers, Kayce put forth two conditions. Rainwater could never develop or sell the land, and Kayce would keep the East Camp for his family. Some 141 years ago, John’s great-grandfather, James Dillard, had bought the land from the Indians at a cut-rate price, and now Kayce, some seven generations later, wanted to return the land at the same rate.

As per the contract, Yellowstone would be declared a wilderness area, which means nothing could ever be built on these lands. Kayce seemed quite satisfied with the deal and therefore signed the paper handing over his legacy to the community it originally belonged to. And by doing so, Kayce also fulfilled his visions. In the end, he chose his family over the ranch. With the money obtained from the deal, Kayce purchased some 300 cattle to start a brand of his own with his family. And yes, he gave away his badge, too.

There Will Be No Sign Of Yellowstone Anymore

I guess the best way to describe the show’s ending would be: The Dutton family survived, but Yellowstone didn’t. The ranch died with John Dutton. Before signing the deal, Rainwater told Kayce that he had once made a promise to his father that he would not only take his people’s land back but also return it to the state that man (James Dillard) had found it in. He promised to remove any evidence that he had been there. Well, Rainwater did fulfill the first part of his promise, but he didn’t want to erase “the evidence.” John Dutton and his ancestors were buried on that same land. They had become a part of it, and no power on earth could erase that.

In Yellowstone‘s ending, we saw the reservation taking down the Yellowstone mark from all the buildings on the ranch. However, when some kids tried to damage the Duttons’ memorial, Mo Brings Plenty shooed them out of the area, implying that he would protect their existence till the end of life, just like Rainwater had promised to Kayce. The closing scene of the fifth season also featured a voiceover from Elsa Dutton (from the 1883 series), who revealed that her father had promised to return the land to its original owners, and today, seven generations later, such a prophecy came true.

She further stated that men could never own the free or wild land. They can only become the stewards of these raw lands, for which they’ll have to suffer and make huge sacrifices. And in case they ever fail to protect it, then they should find someone who is willing to keep the promise. After John Dutton’s death, Kayce didn’t want to put his family in danger for these lands and therefore made a conscious choice to hand it over to someone who was willing to make such a sacrifice. I hope the land stays with the reservation as long as it can.

Rainwater Sabotaged The Government Project

The finale began with Mo Brings and his men throwing the oil and gas pipes into the river so as to halt the government project for as long as they can. However, Rainwater knew that it wouldn’t stop the Department of the Interior from building the pipeline, and might only make some noise. However, this incident could help them to put their voice out there. It’s a long uphill battle where there is no certain outcome, but the community was willing to fight together to protect the land, just like John Dutton, who even died for it.

Teeter, Ryan, and Everyone Else Left

In Yellowstone‘s ending, Teeter decided to join Travis Wheatley’s horse training camp in Texas, while Ryan quit his job and went straight to meet the love of his life to confess his feelings. It seemed like he was going to travel the country with Abby and her band for a while and help them as best he could. Lloyd decided to stay back in the city while Rip adopted Carter, as the young boy had no other family to fall back on. The other cowboys left the ranch and found a new outfit, and they promised to stay in touch, in case Kayce or Beth ever decided to expand or start again.

There Won’t Be A Season 6

Even if someone wants to, they would never be able to separate Yellowstone from John Dutton. His children could have shown their willingness to continue his legacy, but the moment Kayce said that he was going to start his own brand, it just meant that there was no future for Yellowstone left. Beth wasn’t interested in her father’s business to begin with, as she didn’t see it as a profitable venture. Meanwhile, Kayce had his own conflicts because of which he wanted to stay away from the ranch, and with Jamie dead, there’s no one left. Beth hinted that Tate might want to take up the family brand in the future, but it seems unlikely if Kayce is going to start his own venture. But that won’t stop Taylor Sheridan from exploring other sequels and prequels of his most popular franchise, and with 1944, 6666 and 1923 season 2 already in the works, I guess we can hope these familiar characters make an appearance in the upcoming titles. With that said, see you down the dusty trail, amigo.