Yellowstone Finale Recap: Who Got the Ranch and Who Just Bought the Farm in the Series’ Swan Song?
After five seasons, enough expletives to fill a dictionary and so many trips to the train station that we could get there without using GPS, Yellowstone came to a close with Sunday’s episode. Who survived all the way to the end credits? Read on, and we’ll go over everything that happened.
‘I DON’T SEE HOW HE’S GONNA MANAGE BOTH OF HIS FOLLOWERS’ | As the Taylor Sheridan-directed “Life Is a Promise” began, Mo led members of the tribe of Broken Rock in a daring mission to sabotage the pipeline through their land by getting rid of the the pipes needed to build it. Into the drink, the materials went. Following the opening credits, we killed some time in the bunkhouse post-auction, then Jimmy and Travis took off for Texas. As far as we could tell, based on Teeter’s way of speaking, she asked the horse trainer for a job. Despite Jimmy’s warning that the boss loved chewing people out and was great at finding reasons to do so, Teeter still wanted to work for him. If she learned how to talk, she was hired, Travis told her. He’d see her in a week.
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At the main house, Beth showed Rip a property two hours from the proposed site of the airport. They couldn’t get rich there, he told his wife, but that didn’t faze her, she’d take care of the rich part. And as far her drinking needs were concerned, “you’ll build me a bar,” she cracked. Which was great, because she’d just bought it. And who was going to run the Yellowstone if they moved? “I’ll explain that tomorrow,” Beth said. The next day, she awakened to the news that the funeral home had called… her father was ready to be buried. She didn’t want a service, just Rip, Kayce and the cowboys. “How fast can you dig a hole?” Beth asked, adding that she wanted John buried next to Evelyn. “I know which one that is,” Rip assured her. With that, Beth called Lynelle. “We’re doing it today.”
‘REMIND ME NOT TO GO A MONTH WITHOUT SEEING YOU AGAIN… I HAVE HORSES TO RIDE TODAY’ | Immediately, Rip made tracks for the bunkhouse and asked the hands for a favor: their help in digging the boss man’s grave. At the same time, Rainwater received an update from Mo about the previous evening’s efforts. Even if they were busted, the chief theorized, it would give them a chance to start making a lot of noise. Once the twosome arrived at Kayce and Monica’s, John’s youngest child admitted that his family couldn’t afford the inheritance tax on the ranch — and noted that neither could Thomas. But Kayce’s vision had told him he could save either the ranch or his family. He’d take care of his family, he said… and let Rainwater bail out the ranch. How?
By selling the land back to Rainwater at the same cheap price for which it was bought an eternity ago. All Kayce asked was to keep his home at the East Camp and that Broken Rock never unload the property. “Your people are buried in that land, and so are mine,” Rainwater said. “It’s sacred, and that is how we will treat it.” A deal struck, Thomas sliced the palm of his hand and made himself blood brothers with Kayce. “We’re free now,” he told Monica. Once John’s grave was dug, Rip invited Lloyd to join him and Beth at her new ranch. But “if I can’t cowboy here, I’d rather not do it at all,” the eldest hand said. At the same time, Jamie rehearsed the speech that Christina had recommended he give.
‘MY FATHER’S DEATH IS MORE THAN A MURDER’ | Once it was time to lay John to rest, Beth refused to walk to the barn, as per tradition. Not in those shoes. “I do not need ceremony to highlight the magnitude of this moment,” she told Rip and Carter before driving herself and only herself. She didn’t mind at all that Rainwater was in attendance. Why would she? “You’re his protector now,” she told him. Then, approaching John’s casket, she tearfully asked for her father’s understanding as to why she and Kayce were giving the land to Rainwater. “We won,” she whispered, adding that she was sorry they had to lose him to do so. From there, Rip, Kayce and the hands carried the casket to the field to bury John next to his late wife.
Asked by the preacher to lay a rose on the casket and say goodbye to her father, Beth elected to say something else entirely: “I will avenge you.” Kayce encouraged Tate to say whatever he had to say to his grandpa, even if it was only in his heart. What had Kayce himself said? “I forgive you.” The best line, however, may have been Lynelle’s. She said that she’d worn the tightest skirt she could find in her lost love’s honor. Finally, left alone with the preacher, Rip himself lowered John into his final resting place. “If he ain’t already in heaven,” Beth’s husband said, “then he ain’t going.”
‘I DON’T DO FUNERALS’ | As the finale’s conclusion drew ever nearer, Kayce and Monica headed home as Beth returned to the main house, changed clothes and grabbed some weaponry. By the time Rip was done filling in John’s grave, she was gone. “I don’t even know what to say,” Rip told his mentor before promising to take care of his daughter and love her the same way that she had John. At the Capitol, Jamie gave the performance of his life. “What we have lost,” he bulls—ted, “is a governor with a vision.” As soon as Ryan had taken off for parts unknown, Rip sped away with Lloyd as if he’d suddenly figured out where Beth was going. Rip called Beth and ordered her to pull over to the side of the road. She had a plan, though, she insisted, and her husband was a big part of it, so he’d better put the pedal to the metal.
Once Jamie got home, Beth brutally attacked him and hit him with bear spray. Miraculously — ’cause who’d have picked him in a fight? — he managed to knock her out. But as he washed out his eyes, she started wailing on him again. Now he’d have her arrested, he delighted in saying before detailing his plans for the ranch. Then it was her turn to gloat as she told him she’d sold the land to Rainwater. Jamie punched her, she stabbed him in the foot, she bit his ear, and at last, he seemed prepared to choke the life out of her. Just then, Rip arrived and let Beth plunge a knife deep into Jamie’s stomach. “I’m gonna be the last thing you ever f—king see,” she told her adopted brother. As for her husband, she assured him that they didn’t need to hide anything. Rip knew where to get rid of the body.
‘THE YELLOWSTONE WILL BE DECLARED A WILDERNESS AREA’ | As soon as Rainwater and Kayce had signed their agreement, the chief assured John’s son that the Yellowstone would never change. “I’m free,” an overwhelmed Kayce tearfully told Monica. Right on cue, they spotted a wolf digging for a den; “Guess he likes it here, too,” Mo said. When Dillard arrived at Jamie’s, an officer spun Beth’s yarn for her. Then she pointed the detective in the direction of John’s killer: Sarah. “Pretty lucid for a concussion,” Dillard said. “Lotta practice,” Beth cracked. As suspicious as he might have been, Dillard was obviously inclined to believe Beth’s story of what had transpired at Jamie’s.
As the episode drew to a close, Rip and Lloyd disposed of Jamie’s body at the train station, and Beth’s husband set fire to Jamie’s car — in Idaho, no less. Case, it would seem, closed. At the hospital, Beth livened up her smoothie with booze. (Who needs painkillers?) In Texas, Teeter reported for work with Travis. But he still wasn’t happy with the way that she “spoke.” Ryan, bless his heart, sought out Abby in hopes of getting the happy ending that they’d been denied. “I made a mistake,” he told her. “I picked the wrong thing.” She was his Super Bowl, and he wanted to score with no one but her. The kiss that she gave him suggested that she was more than willing to give him another chance.
At last, Beth, Kayce and Rip did a last walk-through of the barn and the main house (that damn dining room table still there). Kayce didn’t want any mementos, but Beth assured him that the ranch’s story was worth remembering — and Tate might want to know it someday. But Kayce didn’t even want the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch sign, he was thinking of starting his own brand. Later, the tribe of Broken Rock took possession of the land — and began dismantling the house in which we’d seen so many fights take place. The youngsters were even tipping over gravestones until Mo stopped them in their tracks. “They protected this land, and this land is where they’ll stay.” With that, he propped back up the headstones for John and his ancestors as a voiceover (by Elsa?) spoke of the high price paid by those who chose to be stewards of wild land. Kayce, Monica and Tate began their new life herding their own cattle. And at their new ranch, Beth and Rip seemed happier than maybe we’d ever seen them. The town even had a bar with no tourists. “Sounds like my kind of place,” Rip said. The. End.
Yellowstone‘s 30 Most Memorable Characters, Ranked
Grade the finale, and the season, below. Then hit the comments with your praise, complaints and everything in between.
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