SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from the Season 5, Episode 11 episode of “Yellowstone,” “Three Fifty-Three,” which premiered Sunday, Nov. 24 on Paramount Network.
Once it became clear that Kevin Costner wouldn’t return for the second half of Season 5 of “Yellowstone,” fans wondered how series creator Taylor Sheridan would write off his character, John Dutton. The split seemed less than amicable, including Costner saying he was unable to get on the same page with the rest of production about shooting schedules and even mentioning that legal action could come as a result of his departure.
But it’s hard to imagine fans imagining John Dutton’s farewell would go down like it did. Instead of a fitting send-off for the patriarch of the central family, it seems like Sheridan is trying to throw mud on the main character’s in-show legacy, while also needling Costner in real life.
Sheridan has been the sole credited writer on the season so far, and things took a strange turn immediately in the first of the new episodes. As John’s daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) tore up to the governor’s mansion in her Bentley and saw police cars, it was clear the audience wouldn’t have to wait to see how John died. Given his stoicism and manliness in the series, it seemed the answer would be something more noble, in keeping with how he lived. Instead, the people of Montana are led to believe that Dutton shot himself in the head while in the bathroom.
Sure, it was staged as part of a nefarious plan by Sarah (Dawn Olivieri) while trying to elevate John’s son Jamie (Wes Bentley) during a land dispute. But the fact remains that in the universe of the show, it’s believed that the all-powerful John Dutton killed himself inches from the toilet. Granted, the death is reopened to a homicide investigation in the third new episode, but to send out the initial message of John’s death in such a way seems to be calibrated to poke at Costner and his tough guy persona.
The actor himself even lamented it, saying in an interview on SiriusXM’s “The Michael Smerconish Program” that “I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.” While he also correctly guessed that it was a red herring, it’s likely that in both the show and real life, many more people believe it was a suicide rather than know the full story.
The move evokes other pointed deaths in series where an actor left the show and angered the series creators. In 2006, Isaac Hayes quit “South Park” after denouncing the show’s satire of religious organizations. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker then wrote off his character Chef by having him join a pedophile cult, which appeared to be inspired by his involvement in Scientology, before being ripped apart by animals and, finally, pooping his pants. In 2015, “Two and a Half Men” dropped a piano on Charlie Sheen’s character Charlie during the series finale, after Sheen, who was fired in 2011, declined to make an appearance during the last episode. (The two have since had a rapprochement.)
Perhaps the strangest shot taken at John Dutton came in the second post-death episode, where it was revealed that his love interest Summer (Piper Perabo) — who had lived on the Dutton Ranch since her house arrest — wasn’t actually under house arrest, but had paperwork lying on a living room table saying that she was free all along! What?!
“He told you house arrest so you would stay with him, and you were dimwitted enough to do it,” Beth snarls at Summer, grabbing the paperwork. “You never bothered to speak to an attorney, you never bothered to look at your own release document — the one stamped ‘released.’”
When Summer asks why John would do this, Beth paraphrases “Lonesome Dove,” saying, “If a man isn’t willing to cheat for a poke, he doesn’t want one bad enough.”
So John effectively kidnapped this woman and held her against her will just so he could have a live-in sex friend? This doesn’t seem like the straight-shooting John Dutton we’ve come to know over five seasons — sure, sometimes his morals are malleable, but his past crimes have been in service of the land, ranch and his family.
Sure, Summer needed to be written out of the show, but…couldn’t one of John’s powerful sons make a call and get her sprung? Or any other option besides abduction? It seems like an odd way to tear apart John’s character.
In the most recent episode, Sheridan goes three for three in dunking on John, and in turn, Costner. While Sarah and Jamie are debating the likelihood that struggle marks and bruises on John’s body could lead to a murder conviction, Sarah dismisses it, saying, “The marks on his body … He could have gotten those when he fell to the floor. He was a 68-year-old man. He could have fallen in the tub, for all we know.”
While she’s not wrong, that must be a tough thing for Costner to hear. After all, he made his career as a sex symbol in movies such as “Bull Durham” and “The Bodyguard.” And John himself is a strong, virile man willing to take control of any situation. Now he’s being lumped in the same category as the “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” LifeCall commercials from the ’80s.
While time marches on for everyone, this dig seems like it could particularly upset Costner — especially as it comes months after the release of the first film in his epic vanity project “Horizon,” which features Costner’s character having sex with a woman played by an actress 32 years younger than him. Given that he co-wrote and directed the film, it’s clear he doesn’t look at his age in the same way Sheridan does.
It will be interesting to see what swipes Sheridan takes in future episodes. Will Kayce (Luke Grimes) reveal that his father had legendarily bad flatulence? Will Jamie find paperwork saying that he gambled away all of the ranch’s back taxes at the casino? Will Summer call Beth from her new life to thank her for releasing her from an existence filled with terrible sex with John, who was awful at doing the deed? Only time will tell.
(Pictured above: Sheridan and Costner together in happier days.)
