Two Big Ways Yellowstone Has Already Tarnished Kevin Costner's John Dutton's Reputation With Final Episodes

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t already watched the latest episode of Yellow stoneso be warned!

With its first three episodes returning after this long hiatus, Yellow stone not only killed John Duttonbut he did it in a way without involvement of the former star Kevin Costner, who left the western drama on scheduling issues and more. Few TV shows manage to bring a character out for good without the star on board, and it remains to be seen if Yellow stone will make a successful landing.

For now, though, fans are mostly witnessing Taylor Sheridan treating the Dutton family patriarch like a narrative punching bag, with each episode chipping away at John’s proud, stoic, seemingly undying influence. I’m not complaining about this, mind you, because I’m as interested in seeing what happens between the siblings as I am shocked that this is how everything is happening.

But I think it’s worth addressing the two main ways in which these episodes have already tarnished John’s reputation from a viewer’s perspective, and in ways that I don’t think will be taken into account by significantly before the end of the series. (Similar to how I don’t think Yellow stone will be paid on The main plot thread of Sarah Atwood’s fake name.)

Screenshot of Summer upset in Yellowstone season 5

(Image credit: YouTube TV)

John was apparently gaslighting Summer about house arrest just for sex and companionship

In “The Apocalypse of Change” Kelly Reilly put on his best “Why fuck me?” face when Beth reluctantly crossed paths with Piper Perabo’s Summer again in the current timeline. Predictably, Beth just wanted to get rid of her late father’s lover, who claimed she had to stick around due to house arrest.

At this point, Beth has dropped a truth bomb that should absolutely lead to criminal charges or at least a successful trial. As she said:

Summer, you know there’s no leniency with an asterisk, right? He put you under house arrest to stay with him, and you were stupid enough to do it. I never bothered to speak to a lawyer. I never bothered to look at your own release documents. Those stamped “liberated”.

Of course, there’s some plot craziness happening here to make sure Summer gets an official farewell and doesn’t just end up becoming a forgotten, dust-covered plot fragment. But whether or not that was the plan all along, this revelation makes John more of an evil kidnapper than a sympathetic gentleman. Not that everyone on screen and off thought positively about John taking Summer in after he was initially unable to keep her out of prison, but I think most would agree that lying to him about his house arrest is extremely frightening and more than a little monstrous.

Additionally, fighting both decency and common sense is the idea that Beth was actually aware of the truth behind Summer’s predicament this whole time, but just let the lie continue because… her father was nicer when he received them regularly? On the contrary, Beth would have knocked on the door and interrupted John and Summer’s coitus with the court documents from the first night if it meant getting the woman to leave the ranch for good.

If there is any kind of class action lawsuit against the Dutton family and Yellowstone, expect Summer’s signature to be all over it. But instead, we can just think about the other shocking lies John was guilty of telling.

Screenshot of John Dutton asleep using night vision in Season 5 of Yellowstone

(Image credit: YouTube TV)

John was killed in his sleep and was unable to fight to survive

John Dutton is the kind of guy who, after being shot and hospitalized, tried to refuse almost any further medical assistance and got back on the horse, no matter how many stitches it might have ruined. And Kevin Costner reportedly requested (or demanded) a “moral death” for the character during discussions before production resumed. So many fans like me were no doubt expecting John to die in a true blaze of glory, probably with a group of cows and horses standing on their hidden legs and banging their front hooves against each other.

And so it’s absolutely crazy to me that the show chose to kill John off by having him accosted while he was sleeping, carried awkwardly into a bathroom, shot in the head without regaining consciousness, and then left next to the toilet. There is the outrageous, and then there is this.

Obviously, without Kevin Costner filming, and no dialogue could be used at the moment, Taylor Sheridan’s options for killing off the character were quite limited. But couldn’t John have been killed in a car “accident” staged by the people Sarah spoke to, or in a massive fire, explosion, etc.? ? Something that wouldn’t have caused people to dismissively wonder if his leg bruises (sustained while he was dragged out of bed) were the result of him randomly falling due to old age.

I think there are several other plot directions Taylor Sheridan could have taken to put John to rest that would have been slightly more worthy. Although I suppose by attributing this twist of fate to Jamie fancifully expressing his wish for John to disappear, some dignity was already left at the door next to the pile of boots.

“Desire is All You Need,” the episode that kicked off this final chapter, attracted the series’ largest audience to datealthough it’s hard to say whether or not John’s death will have a measurable impact on these stats when the finale airs. I could see longtime fans giving up if there were still several seasons on the way, but when there’s only a few episodes left, you might as well stick with it until you get to the…station.

Come to think of it, let’s leave these trails until we’re out of town again. And don’t forget Yellow stone‘s new EP airs Sunday nights on Paramount Network at 8:00 p.m.