‘Yellowstone’ recap: Kayce Dutton takes charge, while things go sideways for Jamie
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‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Recaps
“Yellowstone” is back, and it’s bigger than ever. Check here for episode recaps throughout season 5.
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Season 5, Episode 11: “Three Fifty-Three”
Spoiler alert: Sometimes, there are things you just don’t want to know, at least not yet. If you’re a true “Yellowstone” fan and you haven’t watched Episode 11, don’t read this yet. Come back. We’ll be here when you’re ready.
Brayden Garcia, Star-Telegram reporter who covers all things in the Taylor Sheridan universe: Episode 11 began with one last sequence set before John Dutton’s death.
After a night of Texas two-stepping in their Amarillo hotel, Rip and Beth share a moment before he heads back to the Yellowstone crew at the Four Sixes Ranch. Rip tells her to hold off on traveling back to Montana in the middle of the night, but this is Beth Dutton we’re talking about, she does her own thing.
She’s later seen hauling butt back north and taking Italian audio lessons in the car.
Back in Montana, Kayce and family start moving into their new home on the ranch. Kayce adjusts what appears to be a level picture frame to crooked, which causes Monica to change it back.
After a long day of moving, it’s dinnertime and Kayce, Monica and Tate gather round. Monica says grace and gives thanks that her little family can share this happy moment.
Next, we’re at the governor’s mansion and we get a scene reminiscent of both “Sicario” and “Michael Clayton.”
The power cuts out and three black-clothed assassins wearing night-vision goggles move through the mansion. The trio gangs up on a sleeping John Dutton, restrains him and brings him into the bathroom.
A bottle of pills is stashed in the medicine cabinet, a syringe is stuck between John’s cold toes, a gun is placed to his head and finally fired. The staged suicide has been executed.
The next cut is to Beth, who is suddenly emotionally washed over by something. She calls Rip to check on him and he assures her that he’s fine.
A cop bursts into the governor’s mansion, finds John’s body and calls in a “1056” or suicide. Kayce is seen lying awake in bed around 4 a.m. and gets a call. His father is dead.
Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor: The opening managed to be gripping even though we already knew the basics of the story at that point. It rather brilliantly pointed to an intense, important episode that really moves us closer to the ultimate resolution. Episode 11 did not linger on wistful ranching scenes or beautiful Western landscapes (as great as those are!). It was action-packed, and you couldn’t afford to miss a moment.
New Governor, same Jamie
Brayden: We’re now back in the present, as Jamie and Sen. Lynelle Perry share a moment before a press conference to announce the new governor: A man named Steven.
The new governor and Jamie discuss the conservation easement placed on the Yellowstone ranch and other policies John put in place. Jamie says the only way to save the ranch is to sacrifice some of it.
This entire conversation causes Perry to leave the room, telling off the two men and how John’s policies were a necessary evil to prevent a tourism boom. Oh, and John’s old executive assistant Clara is there. She agrees to be chief of staff for the new governor and then quickly changes her mind as the conversation turns sour.
Clara asks Perry for a job and she gives her one. However, before the T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted on the new gig, the senator reminds Clara that she’s not bound by governmental confidentiality and can speak freely. Speak freely to who? Time will tell.
Ryan: The land management business terminology is getting dense. How many people know enough about conservation easements and eminent domain to really keep up? The less the show bogs down in real estate transactions and land-use machinations in the final three episodes, the better. It is interesting, though, to see the writers clearly setting up the demise of the Yellowstone Ranch as a unified, standalone entity. If there’s a plot twist coming on that, it’s going to be hard to execute.
Glad to see Senator Perry remains in the mix on the legal and political fronts, though. She’s a tough, practical politician who more than holds her own against the sometimes-bumbling, sometimes-blustering men around her.
Kayce reignites the investigation into John’s death
Brayden: Kayce rolls up to the Lewis and Clark County coroner’s office, where he flashes a badge and makes it back to the medical examiner.
The youngest Dutton wants to see John’s autopsy report and his corpse. At first the medical examiner is hesitant, as the cause of death is clear, but eventually grants Kayce’s wish of another autopsy.
Kayce is front and center as the medical examiner begins looking over John’s body.
After a quick once-over, the examiner finds nothing and Kayce asks her to instead investigate this as a homicide, not suicide. Kayce questions why John’s body has bruises on both his forehead and neck.
The medical examiner finds indentations and bruising on John’s body. All signs point to John being forcibly restrained and the examiner tells Kayce she can change the death to “undetermined” rather than suicide.
Kayce calls Beth and lets her know of his findings, much to her frustration.
Ryan: Kayce was not messing around in getting what he wanted from the coroner. Good for him. Watching his character smolder and struggle for a few years has been noteworthy, and now he seems right in his element. I’m no crime reporter, so I’ll leave it to others to assess how realistic it all was. But the interactions, spread across two long scenes, were really well done.
Kayce confronts Jamie over John’s death
Brayden: After leaving the coroner’s, Kayce pops over to see the detective investigating the case.
Kayce learns that the gun used in the staged suicide was John’s service pistol, which was kept at the livestock office. The office has surveillance and Kayce gives the go-ahead on giving the detective footage.
Next stop for Kayce is the attorney general’s office, where he promptly throws Jamie across his own desk. Jamie pleads with Kayce that he had nothing to do with John’s death and to not believe Beth’s lies.
Kayce takes it all in and tells Jamie that he better not have had a hand in this. After Kayce leaves, the Helena police chief calls Jamie and tells him about the undetermined cause of death.
A press conference is held to announce the medical examiner’s change; the Helena police also announce that they’re investigating John’s death as a homicide. A worried Sarah sees the news, while the secret corporate assassin who brokered the hit also tunes in.
Rainwater offers a helping hand
The new governor addresses the Montana state assembly, where he recuses Jamie of anything related to John’s death and the Yellowstone ranch.
Speaking of the ranch, Thomas Rainwater and Mo arrive and give their condolences to both Kayce and Beth. Rainwater spells out how things will go for the ranch and how the family will be elbowed out of land it’s had for nearly a century and a half.
Beth agrees and says there’s no preserving the ranch, only prolonging its collapse. Rainwater offers Beth any help she needs, even if they both haven’t figured it out yet.
Mo and Kayce converse about the latter’s vision in the Season 4 finale. Kayce has to choose between his family and the ranch, but he doesn’t know when or how to make it. Mo says Kayce will see the choice clearly in time.
Sarah Atwood runs out of runway
The last sequence of the episode sees Sarah buying a prepaid phone and trying to call the secret assassin organization that set up the hit on John.
Sarah arrives at Jamie’s house and makes the call, but the number is disconnected. She doesn’t take kindly to this and swiftly takes a hammer to her newly bought phone.
Jamie pops up in the kitchen and the two hash it out. Sarah reassures Jamie that there’s nothing that connects him back to John’s murder, despite the homicide investigation news.
In a fit of rage, Jamie slaps Sarah and then she gives it right back to him. Sarah gets in her car and is just down the road when Jamie calls to apologize.
The two make up as a couple pulls beside Sarah, asking for directions. But wait, this is no couple, it’s assassins who shoot and kill Sarah.
All the while, Jamie is still on the phone with Sarah as her car rolls to a stop. He calls 911 and begins to sob. That’s all this week, folks.
Ryan: Yellowstone is either setting up the most depressing end ever or one heckuva switcheroo. Sheridan and his team have frequently foreshadowed that the show is about the end of the ranching life as it has been known. So perhaps it’s inevitable that the Yellowstone Ranch must fall. But I have this nagging sense that Beth is not going to accept a half-victory, especially now that her father has died over it. Maybe revenge against Jamie is what really drives her now. But don’t be surprised if she and Kayce end up with one more big card to play.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS ON EPISODE 11
From Brayden:
As far as I can tell, this is the first appearance of Steven, the new governor of Montana. Steven is played by actor Gareth Williams.
I agree that it was nice to see Rainwater again. The central conflict of the show has been focused on the core family, so it’s nice to see our tried and true supporting players again.
This episode contains another appearance of Detective Dillard, played by actor Rory Cochrane. Cochrane memorably played the stoner character Slater in Richard Linklater’s slice of Texas high school life, “Dazed and Confused.”
My favorite quote of the episode comes from Tate, who gives the following prayer at dinner: “Good bread, good meat, good God, let’s eat.”
I mentioned “Sicario” earlier as a nod to the sequence set in night vision. In “Michael Clayton,” there’s a scene where a man is subdued in the bathroom, killed via a syringe between the toes and is staged to look like a suicide.
From Ryan:
Glad we got to see tribal Chairman Thomas Rainwater again. It feels like the tribe’s interest in the land and the future has really gotten short shrift. It was the driving energy of Season 1, but that was two or three corporate takeover schemes ago.
Sarah was a great villain, and watching her manipulate Jamie was fun. But it was also good to see her get her comeuppance, even if it was, uh, sudden.
The product placement and drinking references were really lacking in this one. In fact, all we see if Sarah hitting a bottle of Ketel One vodka before her showdown with Jamie. I guess even Sheridan couldn’t stretch credulity to the point to have some Four Sixes vodka in the attorney general’s kitchen.
You’d think all the moving around they’ve done would make Kayce and family better at it. I might have taken the strapping teenager with me to load the trailer. And who hangs a picture before the furniture is in place?
Nitpicking the politics: What exactly happened in the legislative chamber? The new governor reversed John Dutton’s lease cancellation, then calls a voice vote on … what, exactly? That said, the way he maneuvered Jamie into a corner on recusing himself from basically everything was a genius political stroke.
Line of the night: Kayce to the medical examiner: “I’m just wondering what’s on that desk that’s more important than the death of the governor.” THANK YOU. The casualness with which officialdom approached the governor’s demise, even with an initial clear finding of suicide, has been frustrating and unrealistic.
This story was originally published November 24, 2024 at 10:07 PM.
