‘Yellowstone’ Offers Closure + the Return of a Surprising Character [Spoilers Alert]
Yellowstone gave fans some closure for the grief of Season 5 during Episode 4 on Sunday night (Nov. 27), which also featured the surprising return of a character we thought was gone.
Is Beth Dutton Still in Jail on Yellowstone?
Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) starts out Episode 4 of Yellowstone's Season 5 in jail for assault, and Jamie (Wes Bentley) tells her there's no way for him to change the outcome if the woman she hit with a beer bottle in a bar fight decides to press charges. But he manages to lean on the woman and dissuade her by threatening her with jail time of her own, leading to Beth's release.
Will Beth and Jamie Work Together on Yellowstone's Season 5?
From the looks of Episode 4, we wouldn't count on things to get better between Beth and Jamie any time soon. In fact, their relationship is the worst it's ever been, as a stunned Beth finds out for the first time that Jamie now has a son, after taking her to have her uterus unknowingly removed when she was a teenager.
"God gave you a son?" she demands before physically attacking him in the car, causing him to run off the road.
She then threatens him again, saying, "I'm gonna take him from you ... he deserves better than you." Beth is subsequently forced to step out of the way as Jamie barrels toward her in his car, marking the closest they've come to one of them actually causing permanent harm, though Beth has threatened repeatedly to kill Jamie.
What Happens With Monica and Kayce on Yellowstone Season 5?
Episode 4 offers some healing for Monica (Kelsey Asbille), Kayce (Luke Grimes) and Tate (Brecken Merrill), who bury their son and brother, John, in a native ceremony on the Dutton ranch. The three actors continue to provide standout moments in Season 5 portraying the grieving process, and Asbille is utterly believable when she places the hair that she cut off in Episode 3 on top of her son's blanket-wrapped body before he's lowered into the ground.
Asbille also gets the most powerful scene of the episode alongside Kevin Costner as John Dutton, when John tells her he knows how she feels, since he buried his son nearby. In a rare vulnerable moment, John tells her that he had a brother, Peter, who died after 18 hours, and how it turned his mother hard.
"That boy had a perfect life," he tells her of his namesake grandson. "All he knew was you and that you loved him."
Another scene between John and Kayce is also powerful, with John saying, "You named him after me ... It means more than you know, son," to which Kayce replies, "I know what it means." John tells Kayce that he'll find someone to replace him as Wildlife Commissioner so he can focus on his family as his Vision Quest told him.
How Is John Dutton Doing as Governor on Yellowstone?
John Dutton continues to struggle in his role as the Governor of Montana in Episode 4 of Yellowstone, finding the layers of red tape more and frustrating. It all comes to a head when he abruptly fires his entire team of policy advisors, exulting, "What a great day for the State of Montana."
How Does Sarah Atwood Figure Into Yellowstone Season 5?
Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) seemed to have Jamie's number from the first moment she laid eyes on him, and that proves true in Episode 4, as he helplessly allows her to seduce him in a moment of drunken weakness that she clearly pre-planned. But she's made an enemy she's not aware of yet — Beth was lurking nearby, and she took advantage of the situation to photograph Atwood's driver's license, later finding out that she does not appear to be who she says she is.
Will Summer Higgins Return to Yellowstone?
Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo) returns to Yellowstone unexpectedly in Episode 4 of Season 5, as John personally arranges for her supervised release. But there's a catch: she's released into his supervision, and she'll be staying at the ranch and advising him on policy, helping him to try to understand the motives of the environmentalists who seem poised to assail him after Rip (Cole Hauser) comes clean to him about what really happened with the wolves.
As unlikely a couple as they seem, and as much as both of them seemed to regret their brief romantic liaison before, the plot certainly hints that Summer ends up back in John's bed before a single day has passed — which leads to another confrontation with Beth, who at least does not threaten her with a knife this time. We'll have to accept that as some form of progress for now.
What Can We Expect From Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 5?
Episode 4 ends with massive amounts of smoke on the horizon as Beth stares out over the ranch, and the previews for next week make it look like the ranch hands are all preparing to ride out in a potentially violent confrontation. Did someone set a fire at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch? We'd hope not, for their sake. Elsewhere (surprise, surprise!), Beth argues against Summer staying at the ranch, telling John he's invited his "worst enemy" to sleep in his bed, so we're guessing a detente for Beth and Summer might not be happening soon.
There are still plenty of questions left hanging for Season 5 of Yellowstone. What has happened to the mother of Jamie's son? Is the Market Equities deal really dead? Will Jamie form some sort of new unholy alliance with Sarah Atwood to exact revenge from Beth? Will Monica and Kayce try to have another baby? Will Chairman Rainwater lose control of the reservation?
Yellowstone Season 5 continues every Sunday night on Paramount Network. Season 5 is an extra-long season consisting of 14 episodes, slated to air in two arcs of seven episodes each.
As part of Taste of Country's comprehensive coverage of all things Yellowstone, check out our Dutton Rules podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.