With five seasons and 53 episodes, it is done. Yellowstone, that is. That once gripping modern day western drama from writer/creator Taylor Sheridan, has come to a quiet close as the remaining Dutton children laid their father to rest, and with him 141 years, seven generations, and the first of three television shows of family legacy. We have come to the end of an era, in more ways than one.
For those who have immersed themselves for the past six years in this must-see TV saga navigating the complicated lives of the Dutton Family, the close of this final chapter is somehow both bittersweet and a welcomed repose from the drama that followed it, on and off the screen. In the finale that, at times, felt more like a season-ender, then a series completion, I knew there would be tears. I knew, in some respects, how it would all end. What I did not know was just how much I would not particularly care as I thought I would when it did.
Much of what has taken place behind the scenes of the modern western saga to get to this moment seemed to have taken its toll on the show’s appeal, even on the creative side of the equation. In the inevitable denouement of arguably one of THE most popular shows in recent TV history, absent are the proverbial flashback sequences and retrospective montages of memory scenes from the past five years, that would be expected when wrapping a series of this magnitude. No thank you-for-your service tributes to Dutton patriarch, John, formerly played by Academy Award winner Kevin Costner; no last-minute twists in the plot; no surprise beloved characters from the past. No, it just felt like a rush to wrap it all up, with unfinished stories and dropped storylines, so we could just get to a plausible conclusion, and for Sheridan, finally move on to something else.
And, then, you hear the evocative orchestral arrangement of the opening credits musical sequence by Brian Tyler, and it takes you a moment to fully comprehend that this will be the last time you hear those haunting horns and strings live to open the show, remembering all those times you eagerly awaited to hear their grandeur and tension signifying a new episode was about to reveal the latest twist and turn in this once epic story. Truly, now, it is only the what ifs of what could have been that have you the most nostalgic about these final minutes.
The beginning of the end takes place under the cover of darkness, as the opening scenes of the finale find Chief Rainwater’s people of the Broken Rock Indian Reservation standing ready to avenge their land. Dozens on horseback moving by the light of the moon, complete with war paint, have come to disrupt the construction of the oil pipeline through their sacred lands. With deft and quiet precision, they destroy equipment and industrial pipes by tossing them mercilessly into the river, in what feels like a throw-away scene initially.
Across the valley, the Dutton ranch crew and their guests from the Four Sixes celebrate the end of the auction to liquidate the viable assets of the Yellowstone to save it from being sold. Taylor Sheridan steps back in his role of friend from afar, Travis, for the last time, leading the bunkhouse drinking, laughing, and reminiscing, around the weathered table, in what has become the site for many fun and light-hearted moments from past seasons. It is not lost on anyone watching that Sheridan has written himself with a prominent place at the head of the table, as the ring leader, if you will, with his anecdotal stories laced with biting sarcasm. With as natural as the scene plays out, you realize that there is more truth than fiction to this one character. The moment feels almost like a behind-the-scenes table talk for the actors than a trip down memory lane for their characters. It is a reminder who is, indeed, Yellowstone’s master storyteller.
The scene is also a setup to learn where each of the characters will land when the last barn door is shut at the Yellowstone. Back at the Lodge — Beth sits down with Rip to show him a possible new property for them to invest in for their future. When he says he thinks he could carve out a living there — she breathes a non-existent sign of relief, because, in true form, Beth has already purchased the property for them. But, it will be the following morning when Beth gets the call that she has been dreading that finally sets what little action there is in this episode into motion. When the funeral home rings to inform the family that John Dutton’s body is ready for burial, Beth asks her husband Rip to make a place for her father in the family cemetery next to her mother. There is to be no formal service — just her, Kayce (Luke Grimes) and Rip, and the Yellowstone cowboys. Beth rounds out the guest list when she calls former Governor Lynell (Wendy Moniz) to join them. Rip asks his fellow Yellowstone cowboys for one last job to dig the grave.
In each scene that brings us back to John Dutton’s death, you are reminded that the through line of the Yellowstone series has been Beth’s uncompromising love for her father — it is, in fact, a defining aspect of who she is. She has lived her life by that truth, would kill for it, and, in some respects, gave the character purpose as she staked the future of her family’s legacy and destiny on it. Kelly Reilly continues to give a master class in bringing all sides of who Beth is in relation to that truth to life over these past six years.
However, it is the portrayal of Rip Wheeler, by Cole Hauser, and the ranch hands, where most of the emotional beats of the story centers. Ever the stoic, Rip’s eyes do more of the talking in each scene — what he’s lived, what he’s seen, and what he’s kept close to the vest in a lifetime living on the venerable ranch, can be heard in his quiet, often pensive stares out over the Yellowstone property, and even John Dutton’s casket, throughout the episode. Rip has truly been the character to give the ranch its life force and energy. And, though his eyes never water to that fact, you know it is he that will miss its place in his life the most.
A sense of mourning blankets the entire episode as the final moments with the Duttons come in the scenes leading up to and surrounding the burial of the family patriarch. Through tears, tender words, and even elongated musical montages of the burial preparations, the final goodbyes to John Dutton consume much of the back half of the finale.
From the moment you see the casket in the barn, graced with white roses, you shed the same tears as Beth. But, despite the pulls at the heartstrings as we all come to terms with the loss of Yellowstone, the ranch, it is the last 30 minutes that remind you of why you first fell in love with the show, at all.
Almost as soon as Beth drops her white rose on her father’s casket, she is out of her mourning wear and into her Bentley barreling down the Montana highway on her way to tie up loose ends with her estranged brother. It is in these waning minutes that we find Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) at the Montana statehouse, giving the speech of his career to address the circumstances around his father’s death and that of Sarah Atwood’s, in an attempt to save his life, his reputation, and any shred of dignity he may have left. But, as time would tell, it would be to no avail.
Just as Jamie is settling in to enjoy the accolades from his speech, he arrives back home to an unexpected visitor, well, unexpected for him anyway. Every volatile moment that has transpired in the siblings’ rivalry in the past six years culminates in the explosive showdown that ensues. The two pull no punches as they meet each other blow-for-blow in a chaotic scene right out of the Kill Bill movie series — literally gut-wrenching and brutal. But, it is when Beth tells Jamie through clenched teeth and blood-soaked tears that the Yellowstone is no longer in the hands of the Duttons, defeat is sealed for her brother. And, when Rip arrives shortly thereafter, for those who know, there will, no doubt, be one final trip to the train station. Not truly a surprise, as the foreshadowing of that fact came well before, in the final scene of the finale of Part 1 of Season 5, if you were paying attention.
The remainder of the episode wraps a bow around the arc of the most beloved character in the entire series — the Yellowstone Ranch, itself - the fate of which is decided in a surprise meeting request from Kayce to Chief Rainwater (played by the stately Gil Birmingham) to meet the young Dutton heir at the ranch’s East Camp. Kayce, now the Dutton patriarch, has come to recognize that he and his family cannot save the land (neither from tax burdens nor developers), but the Chief and his people could. In a nice tie back to the past, Kayce offers Yellowstone to be sold to the Reservation for what it would have cost to purchase when the Dutton’s first took the land in 1883. Overwhelmed, Chief recalls the promise he made to maintain the Yellowstone as sacred, and vows for it to be forever preserved as such.
In the most beautifully poignant moment of the entire Yellowstone series, the men seal the deal with an exchange of knives marked with the other’s blood. As Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) steps off the front porch out into the pasture of East Camp, he chants a song of praise and blessing into the wind over the land. The knot rises quickly in the throat and the tears come softly, and that’s just 25 minutes into the two-hour television event — the end has come to Yellowstone.
In a cleansing ceremony, of sorts, 90 minutes later, members of the Broken Rock begin dismantling the Dutton Lodge (the flagship structure on the ranch) piece by painful piece to return the Montana property back to wilderness land, to be kept under the sacred watch of their forefathers.
And, with a sneak peek of how the remaining Duttons will start their lives anew, and Willie Nelson serenading kus in fade to black, we say our final goodbyes to Yellowstone.
Created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson, Yellowstone, the series, debuted on June 20, 2018, on the Paramount Network, running for a full five seasons.
With five seasons and 53 episodes, it is done. Yellowstone, that is. That once gripping modern day western drama from writer/creator Taylor Sheridan, has come t
Loved it
Hated it
So/So
コメント