Did John Dutton Die On 'Yellowstone'?

Last summer, Kevin Costner announced that he would be ending his time on , the hit Western drama where he plays cattle rancher/Montana governor John Dutton. Though the possibility of Costner’s departure had been rumored for months, the news still shocked fans, who wondered how the series would deal with the loss of one of its most prominent characters.

In the more than a year since the word of Costner’s exit broke debates have swirled about whether the star would make a brief return to see ‘s story concluded ( in the now-airing season 5B), whether some story contrivance would see the character moved to an offscreen role, or if, indeed, he would be killed outright. Now, finally, we know the answer, and it’s sure to be one that gets everybody talking.

How did John Dutton die?

As was widely expected, John Dutton is dead—in fact, his family’s discover of his demise is the very first thing we see in the premiere of the second half of season 5. However, it’s the means of his death that had fans gasping: the rancher was found dead in the governor’s mansion, dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

We say “apparently” because John’s daughter, Beth, who was on the scene with her brother Kayce immediately insisted that the death had to be the work of their older brother, Jamie. Kayce was hesitant to believe despite his reservations about the idea of their father dying by suicide, but Beth, of course, already knew about Jamie’s patricidal tendencies, having blackmailed him over the murder of his biological father in the first half of season five.

While all of that may have seemed like the ramp up to a season-long mystery, Yellowstone‘s “who shot” solution came a lot faster than the famous Dallas storyline, and as usual, Beth was right all along… well, half right.

In a flashback scene, it’s revealed that Sarah Atwood, the Market Equities consultant who’s been working to try and bring down John’s governorship in order to help her employer’s plan for an international airport to move ahead, hired a contract killer to take out the Dutton patriarch and make it look self-inflicted.

The move echoed a tense conversation between the Machiavellian Sarah and Jamie in the finale of the first half of season five, during which Jamie said that he thought Beth would try to have him killed and that it was time to “play offense.” At the time, it seemed that he was looking to preemptively have his sister murdered, but toward the end of the scene there came an unusual exchange: “If you’re going to go after her, you just might, maybe, you know…” Sarah said, vaguely, to which Jamie responded, “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.”

So did Jamie change his mind and decide to have his father killed instead? Or did Sarah go rogue and use Jamie’s apparent agreement to advance her own goals? During the season premiere, Jamie appeared devastated by the news of his father’s death, even when arriving home to Sarah who was ready to celebrate their victory. While his attitude could cast doubt on how much he understood he was agreeing to, Jamie never outright says that he didn’t intend for his father to die, so for now at least, some mystery remains.

The decision to kill off John Dutton in a murder-for-hire is a particularly interesting one, considering that Costner (who maintains top billing in the opening credits, despite not appearing on screen) reportedly had a clause in his contract with the show with . Specifically, according to reporting by Puck in 2023, the clause set out certain stipulations about John’s potential death on the show, precluding any circumstance that might bring shame to the character, a la the infamous death of Patrick Dempsey’s Grey’s Anatomy character, Derek Shepherd, who was killed in a car crash following behind-the-scenes drama.

Show creator , telling THR, “I don’t do fuck-you car crashes. Whether [Dutton’s fate] inflates [Costner’s] ego or insults is collateral damage that I don’t factor in with regard to storytelling.”

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