Well that was… underwhelming, for a mid-season finale. Over the years viewers have come to expect big, explosive events in Yellowstone finales, but this feels like a regular episode.
We begin in the past as we see Young Rip, John and Lloyd get rid of Rowdy’s body. John asks Rip what Rowdy said – since Rip killed him over it, it must have been pretty bad. Rip stutters and stammers, confirming it was something sexual but refusing to repeat what Rowdy said. John is frustrated that Rip’s anger caused them to lose a good ranch hand, and asks why exactly Rip cared so much. Young Rip stays silent, which confirms what John already suspected – a relationship between Beth and Rip. However, John did not know about the pregnancy and abortion at this time.
Later, the 3 men sit around a campfire as the Yellowstone branding iron heats up in the flames. The time has come for Rip’s branding, now that he has killed for the ranch and is bound to it until the day he dies or the ranch is no longer – whichever comes first. John walks away before Rip’s branding takes place, leaving Lloyd to do the honors. Rip and Lloyd arrive back to the bunkhouse and Rip proudly shows off his brand as the bunkhouse boys cheer, finally making him feel like one of them instead of the runt of the ranch. While I’ve enjoyed seeing the backstory of young Rip, it hasn’t really connected to much in the main timeline.
Rip, the Yellowstone cowboys and the cattle haven’t even left for Texas yet but we find ourselves at the 6666 ranch with Jimmy and Emily, who we haven’t seen all season. It seems very out of place and doesn’t contribute to the plot at all. I hope the second half of season 5 isn’t full of 6666 scenes. With a show already in development to showcase the 6666 ranch, it’s frustrating to see it taking away screentime from Yellowstone and the Duttons. I’d rather watch the trials and tribulations of John, Beth and Jamie than Jimmy riding around in Texas.
It's strange to be 15 minutes into a finale before we see our main characters. As the last cattle are rounded up onto the trucks by Rip and the bunkhouse crew, John approaches Monica - who is standing by the yards watching Kayce work. It’s nice to see another scene between these two following up on the touching scene they shared at baby John’s funeral. Monica thanks him for what he said to her, telling him it helped her more than he knew.
John, knowing Monica wears the pants in the family, asks their little family to move in to a house called “East Camp” next to the reservation. This way, Monica can be near her family while Kayce and Tate work the ranch while Rip and most of the bunkhouse are in Texas. “The ranch can’t be Tate’s someday if the ranch isn’t here,” John explains. I’ll be happy to see Kayce back home on the ranch, but not at the expense of Rip being gone for half a season.
While John is en route to the reservation, Jamie takes the stage in Helena to lay out his plea for John’s impeachment. John only learns what Jamie has done while attending the event with Rainwater and the Senator, which immediately overshadows the issue at hand: raising awareness about the pipeline. A shame the reservation storyline hasn’t been featured much this season and when it is, it's not much.
Beth prepares to say goodbye to Rip as he leaves for Texas. As she comes down the stairs, she finds Summer camped out in the living room and questions why she isn’t with John. Apparently house arrest stretches to attending the county fair, but not accompanying John to Helena. In classic Beth form, she demands to know where Summer’s father lives so she can “go fuck him.” Beth tells Summer not to touch her Titos, and oddly enough: the peanut M&Ms in the freezer. While amusing, the line seemed so out of character. I mean, who puts M&Ms in the freezer? Of course, Summer has a peanut allergy. Of course she does.
Summer then draws Beth’s attention to Jamie’s impeachment attempt – and that the assembly voted 67 to 33 in favor. Which means John will be subjected to an impeachment tribunal, and Beth will be paying her brother a visit. Before she does, she bids her husband goodbye and hands him one of her handkerchiefs like they’re heading off to war. She promises to fly out and see him in Texas in a week. Teeter and Colby also share a bittersweet goodbye kiss, and I’m sad to see both of these couples separated. Beth and Rip are the highlight of the show for me, so I hope to still see plenty of scenes between them in the second half of the season.
Beth has somehow worked out where Jamie lives, and pays him a late night visit. While he ignores her persistent knocks at the front door, she heads round the back and smashes her way in with a rock. The two struggle and Beth whacks Jamie in the head, which unfortunately just makes him angrier and doesn’t kill him. What Beth isn’t aware of at this point is Sarah’s presence in the house, listening to everything she says.
Beth attempts to force Jamie to resign, threatening to hand the photos she took of Jamie dumping his fathers body to the sheriff. Jamie flips the story back on her, pointing out John has also dropped many bodies off that cliff and turning Jamie in also turns John and Rip in. “Ask your husband where the train station is and how many times he’s been there,” Jamie says.
While we have seen John try to keep Beth out of the dirtier dealings of the ranch over the years, I find it implausible that she didn’t at least have some idea of the train station. Where else were all the bodies going? Surely she asked Rip, Kayce or Lee over the years. It’s at this point that Sarah makes her presence known, and while I’m pleased to see these two women finally come face to face I expected a little more from their first interaction.
Beth arrives home to inform John of their impending war with Jamie. She finds Lynelle and Clara with him, watching as a news report on the death of the wolves (huh, didn’t think we’d see that storyline pop up again) and how the data indicates that the wolves could’ve died on the ranch. Clara tries to come up with a way to spin the story, and Lynelle points out it’s a hit piece as “they smell blood in the water.”
Clara and Lynelle leave the room as Beth demands to know exactly what the train station is, and John tells her straight. He asks Beth where she thinks the men who attacked her in her office went – which is an incorrect example. The bodies of the men who attacked Beth were strung up on Malcolm Beck’s front porch with a note: “Return to Sender” in season 2, episode 7. This is not the first continuity error this season, which makes me wonder if creator Taylor Sheridan is stretching himself a bit thin with so many shows in development. Viewers want quality, not quantity.
This leaves John and Beth with only one option: It’s time to kill Jamie. Along with Sarah, who now knows too much. Jamie and Sarah plot similar plans of their own, and Jamie cries to Sarah about how mean Beth has been to him his whole life. Jamie knows Beth will now most likely attempt to have him killed, and Sarah tells him about “professionals” for hire who they can use to strike first. Historically, that has never gone well for the enemies of the Dutton family but sure, Jamie. Best of luck.
With the season order recently increased from 14 to 16 episodes, it seems the plan is to air the remaining 8 episodes known as Season 5B this summer. However, with Taylor Sheridan working on so many new shows we may not see Yellowstone until the fall. Time will tell.
