SPOILERS FOR SEASON 5 EPISODE 12 OF YELLOWSTONE BELOW

Yellowstone‘s final season is finally revealing the fates of certain characters. The elephant in the room is certainly how Kevin Costner’s exit was handled. [SPOILERS] Costner was not particularly thrilled to learn that his John Dutton would fall by his own hand, so he wasn’t too keen on watching the final episodes. As he revealed on The Michael Smerconish Program (via Deadline), “I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.”

However, in a show like Yellowstone, the safety of other characters isn’t necessarily guaranteed either, especially with the show coming to a close. Earlier in the season, Emmett Walsh would succumb to natural causes, and episode 12 of season 5 would also see Colby Mayfield’s passing on the show. Denim Richards’ character saw a tragic fate in the episode “Counting Coup,” but it would also seemingly come out of nowhere. SlashFilm reports that director Christina Voros told The Hollywood Reporter that this development was not meant to blindside viewers for shock value.

She stated, “In a world of very high-stakes drama, this death comes as a shock because it’s so simple and it’s so grounded in the world in which all these characters work that it’s profoundly tragic because there’s no enemy here. It’s the risk of the job.” Colby’s death was aimed to show authenticity and Voros says the takeaway from the event was “[Colby] had a love in his life; they were making plans. There was a future ahead of them. So it has a very different impact, I think, than the murder of John Dutton, because it happened because he was doing what he’s meant to be doing. It didn’t happen because someone was out to get him or because he did anything wrong. He was trying to protect Carter and did what he thought was the right thing, and it was a freak accident.”

Our Alex Maidy really enjoyed season 5 part 2, as he says in his review, “The mid-season premiere was written by Taylor Sheridan, who manages the smaller, quieter elements that have always made Yellowstone intriguing to watch between murder scenes, backstabbing, and intrigue. For anyone who does not work on a ranch or in the wide expanses of America, there is a romantic element of cowboy life that Yellowstone beautifully displays. Taylor Sheridan also never lets us forget that the privilege of living the way most Americans do comes on the backs of men like Rip, Lloyd, and the others who work the Dutton Ranch.”

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