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 stag.