‘Yellowstone’ Director on “Gut-Wrenching” Event and How It Reverberates in Final Two Episodes
[This story contains major spoilers from the fourth episode of Yellowstone season 5B, “Counting Coup.”]
Yellowstone delivered its third death of the season with Sunday night’s episode. After kicking off what may be the final run of the flagship series with the death of series patriarch John Dutton (played by departed star Kevin Costner), and following last week’s shocking assassination of Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), this week’s episode, the fourth out of six total, took one of the Yellowstone ranch’s cowboys all too soon.
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Colby Mayfield (played by Denim Richards), a ranch hand for the Dutton family since season one, was accidentally killed in a Yellowstone horse stall. When Carter (Finn Little), the young ranch hand taken in by Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and husband Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), found himself in a precarious position with a bucking horse, Colby stepped in to save Carter and was fatally struck by the horse.
Christina Voros, the Yellowstone executive producer who has directed the four episodes of season 5B that have aired so far, says Colby’s death is so heartbreaking because it’s so simple. “For anyone who really understands the lifestyle of cowboys and working with animals and the risks of the job — and Rip says it about himself — it’s a dangerous job, and this kind of thing happens and it happens in a split-second,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “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 … and the timing of it is just gut-wrenching.”
Below in her full chat with THR, Voros dives into the episode to discuss how Colby’s death will reverberate, and she discusses the “counting coup” (an honorable Native tradition) that Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) pulled off and what his revenge move means as Yellowstone prepares to release its final two episodes.
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Let’s talk about Colby. How does another tragic back-to-back death on Yellowstone illustrate the high stakes of these final episodes? [Note: Season 5B was announced as the final season of Yellowstone, but a possible sixth season is in talks with Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser.]
The thing that I think is such a gut-punch about Colby’s death is that in a season where there are all these twists and turns and dark forces and giant narrative swings, Colby’s death is so powerful because it’s so simple. For anyone who really understands the lifestyle of cowboys and working with animals and the risks of the jobs — and Rip [Hauser] says it about himself — it’s a dangerous job, and this kind of thing happens and it happens in a split-second. My husband is a cowboy and a wrangler, and he’s lost friends this way. 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. And especially because of the way that Colby and [ranch hand] Teeter’s [Jennifer Landon] relationship has been playing out — absence makes the heart grow fonder; and their relationship had really just begun to take root in a different way — the timing of it is just gut-wrenching.
Colby and Teeter (Jennifer Landon) have become a Yellowstone couple to root for. Her line about cowboys suffering, and how she wished Colby had suffered longer so they could have said goodbye was heartbreaking. He also leaves behind his best friend, Ryan (Ian Bohen), along with Rip, Carter and the rest of the bunkhouse. How will his death reverberate and what will it make everyone think about heading into these final two episodes?
That’s a really good question. I think there’s a difference between losing a patriarch who is of an older generation and losing a comrade who is your contemporary. Colby had a whole life to live in front of him. He 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, then 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. So it’s interesting to see all those characters struggle with the notion of blame, and Beth speaks to it very wisely. With John Dutton, Kayce and Beth wish they did things differently or saw things coming. But the struggle with the blame that is felt by Colby’s fellow cowboys blaming themselves — “If I had been there” or “If I had gone instead of him” — is a very human experience.
Carter has already brought about some all-time Beth Dutton scenes, with the audience seeing a different side to her with that motherly relationship. After Colby’s death, Beth pauses her vengeance tour to check in on Carter and remind him that they are family. What does their family — Beth, Rip and Carter — look like after all of this is resolved?
The relationship with Beth and Carter has always been a beautiful, complex friendship. One of the things I love about the way that Taylor [Sheridan] has written the story is that Beth is many things. She’s a warrior and she’s a tornado and she’s a loving daughter, but she’s also a stepmother in a way. There are so many people in this world who have that kind of relationship.
One of my mentors when I was in film school, Carol Dysinger, said to me once that there are so many people out there who need parents, it’s OK if you don’t become one yourself because if you are looking, you will always find a child who needs one, even if they have their own. And Beth has really become a mother to this young boy, both filling a gap in his heart and he fills a gap in hers, and their relationship is really complicated and interesting. She’s always treated him not that differently than she treats grown-ups, right? She’s tough on him and she speaks her mind. She is in charge. Beth is in charge with Rip; Beth is in charge with everyone. But there’s a real tenderness and a wisdom that she tries to impart in Carter, and he brings out the motherly side in her that she has cut off from herself for so many years because she thought she would not have the opportunity to be one.
Colby’s death hits Rip hard. At one point in his fireplace chat with Beth he says, “It’s a dangerous job and one day it will kill me, too.” Was that any sort of foreshadowing; should we be nervous? Or was that just Rip speaking truth?
Look, you get through this episode and it’s a natural instinct to wonder if everything anyone says could be foreshadowing. Kayce saying goodbye to Monica [Kelsey Asbille] could be foreshadowing. Beth saying goodbye to Rip could be foreshadowing. It’s just where one’s brain goes when you experience a shocking sudden loss after several sudden losses, and it’s easy to read into that.
There’s real poetry to what Rip says there, because the reality is that he’s right. Whether it’s because he gets kicked by a horse or he dies by a heart attack or breaks his back lifting something, it’s a tough job. And it’s something that Rip, like Colby, has made a lifelong commitment to. So it is going to be the last thing they do. It is going to be the thing that kills them. Because there’s no retiring from this lifestyle for characters like Colby or Rip.
Taylor Sheridan returns onscreen this episode, as horse trainer Travis Wheatley. It’s the second time you got to direct him this season, after he appeared in the season 5B premiere. What is it like to direct Sheridan (co-creator of Yellowstone and Yellowstone-verse mastermind)?
It’s funny, we’ve had that relationship for a long time. I think season three or season four was the first time I directed him, and I directed him on [Yellowstone prequel series] 1883. He gives himself parts that are fun for him to play. He’s a busy enough person (laughs) — he doesn’t need to be acting. And I think he does it because he loves it, and it’s something that’s enjoyable for him. He has a very strong idea of who the character is, obviously, because it came out of his own brain, but he also trusts input and doesn’t want to have to worry about calling the shots when he’s up there. So it’s a very organic experience. On the occasions where we’ve had the opportunity to work that way, it’s been really effortless.
Sheridan’s Travis delivers the news about John Dutton’s death to Jimmy (Jefferson White), the ranch hand who left Yellowstone to work at Four Sixes Ranch. There has been some audience reaction to John Dutton’s legacy, pointing out his problematic treatment of Summer (Piper Perabo). Why was Sheridan’s character the right person for this scene and were you wondering if it would play out a little bit meta? It felt a little meta to me.
It didn’t strike me that way at all, and I think that’s because it was just a series of things that makes sense. Jimmy is now working for Travis and that is where his storyline is. And what really struck me about that scene was that this is the first scene where we really get to see the way that [John’s death] is affecting Rip: the cumulative effect of grief and feeling helpless. Two episodes ago, Lloyd [Forrie J. Smith] asks, “Are we getting in this fight?” And Rip says, “Well, if we can figure out who to fight.” We barely saw Rip in last week’s episode, so this is a real moment for him in the story, and there is so much that is said by the fact that he’s not sure if he has it in him to break the news to Jimmy, while also getting on his horse to lead the cowboys that he also is responsible for. So I don’t think I ever questioned the meta-ness of it just because it felt very organic. And what I thought was beautiful is that it’s a window into the sensitivity of Rip’s heart, that he doesn’t know if he can keep it together telling a kid that he feels responsible for that the person who has basically raised both of them has died.
The Four Sixes Yellowstone spinoff was put on hold (Sheridan told THR in his 2023 cover story). Have there been any talks about reviving that? [Note: The Montana ranch in Yellowstone is fictional, but the Four Sixes ranch featured in the series is filmed at the real 6666 Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, owned by Sheridan.]
I don’t even know where the news comes from sometimes. There’s an ad on my Instagram page for “1944” and it had a picture of Elsa Dutton [played by Isabel May in 1883] on it. It had a score! (Laughs.) I think people are so excited about these shows; I’m not always sure where the narrative is coming from. For all of us who are on the ground making shows for Taylor, any given show is pretty life-consuming and so we’re immersed with the world we’re in. The team that I’ve been working with has moved from Yellowstone into [sequel series] The Madison, so I know that new show is happening and Taylor is excited about writing it. But I’m not privy to what’s coming when. That’s above my pay grade.
Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) in this episode digs himself into a deep hole when he’s interviewed by the police about Sarah’s death. The detective tells Kayce that Jamie is “in the blast radius” of his investigation, and Kayce gives him the OK to go after his brother, saying “he put himself there.” When Kayce fills Beth in, she stays her course on enacting her revenge on Jamie. How much is Beth willing to risk to get Jamie her way?
By the time we get to this part of the season, all bets are off. At the end of last week’s episode, you see everyone at a crossroads without a clear path in front of them. And in this episode, you start to see everyone forge a path forward based on what they know to be right and just, and they are standing up for what they believe in. So I think Beth is not concerned about the consequences at this point, she’s concerned about justice.
Kayce realizes his vision, which we’ve been waiting for. He decides to do whatever it takes to protect his family with Monica (Kelsey Asbille), which involves him threatening the hit man who orchestrated his father’s murder, as well as his young daughter, at gun point. Will Kayce carry with him what he did, or does he feel at peace with his decision?
There’s a certain kind of compartmentalization that comes from knowing one’s path. But also remember, Kayce has been a soldier. He has had to do things like this in his career as a soldier and ultimately, he has had to do things that have haunted him for the sake of what ultimately is the greater good, and this is another example of that.
Kayce told Monica that he’s doing what’s best for their family, not what’s best for the ranch. What happens when Beth finds out what he did?
Oh, you have to tune in next week!
Has he thought this through? Is he committed to whatever blowback he may have to face?
I think he is committed to the path that he is choosing, yes. But I also think that sometimes one doesn’t see the entire road map in front of them. Sometimes you are driven by instinct and gut that moves you forward one step at a time. So it’s unclear whether the entire picture has revealed itself to him, but he’s being driven by something he knows in his gut and in his soul to be the right path.
After his stealth attack, he talks to Mo (played by Mo Brings Plenty, who serves as the show’s Native affairs coordinator) about “counting coup,” which is an honorable Native ritual done on one’s enemy. Mo tells him that by doing that, his enemy understands Kayce’s intentions. Can you talk about that significance?
It is him choosing his family and him choosing to battle for his family, and him choosing to battle for his family in a way that is true both to his own history and to the history of the family that he has married into. So, it feels destined.
In the background of all of this high-stakes drama, Rip begins to enact Beth’s plan to save some of the ranch. They discuss auctioning off the horses, cattle and how Travis (Sheridan) can help them. How refined is their plan to save the ranch?
I don’t know if the plan is fully formulated yet. Whenever there’s a death in the family, especially of a patriarch or matriarch, no one’s ever fully prepared. It certainly wasn’t expected, and you never plan things out as much as you think you have. And so I think everyone is trying to take steps to feel proactive and trying to tread water to stay afloat. But there are hints of the approaches that need to be taken to find justice, to save the family legacy and to protect the land. All those things are happening at once, but we haven’t yet gotten to glimpse what the path is as a whole. You see everyone reaching to try to do what they can to make sense of things, but you will feel in the end of the season those things capitulating and coming together to reveal the path forward.
There are two episodes left. When you and I talked about if this was the end-end of Yellowstone, it was at the beginning of this season. Is there any further clarity you can offer now about if this will feel like the end of this flagship series in two weeks?
I don’t think I can answer that any differently than when we talked about it before. It’s tricky. The deeper you get into the season, the more chess moves have already happened and so it becomes harder to talk about what’s coming. So much care and attention when into this narrative, that the desire to not tip our hats to what is coming is very real.
This marks the final episode that you directed on Yellowstone. How does it feel to see your last one release?
I don’t think it’s hit me yet. That’s partially because as soon as we were done with Yellowstone, we moved onto another show [The Madison] with a lot of the same crew. It has stayed very much in tact, even though we miss our cast dearly. I think it will probably hit me right around Christmas when I finally take a break and look at not only the last year, but the last seven years and the journey we’ve all been on telling this story. I don’t think I have enough distance from it yet to really have an accurate view on what the impact of being finished will feel like for me. I know I’ll probably get there soon. I’m sure it will be a big swoop of emotions. But it’s hard to look back when you’re looking forward, and right now, we’re still moving forward.
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Yellowstone releases new episodes Sundays at 8 p.m. on Paramount Network, followed by a linear premiere on CBS at 10 p.m. Head here for how to stream Yellowstone and follow along with THR‘s season 5B coverage, including Denim Richards’ exit interview.
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