Yellowstone

Life is a promise

Season 5

Episode 14

Editor’s Rating

2 stars

**

I know Rip is a man of few words, but this is the finale! Along with Beth’s angry sobs, aren’t we owed some real emotion?
Photo: Emerson Miller/Paramount Global, 2024

Best thing I can say about the series finale Yellowstone is that it’s bad in a pleasant, predictable way, rather than in a way that makes you feel like you’re going crazy. Sure, there’s one last bit of masturbation from Taylor Sheridan in the first ten minutes as everyone gathers around him and laughs heartily at one last crazy story from Travis. But nothing is as jaw-dropping as last week’s extended Travis segment. On the other hand… you ideally want to feel something when you’re watching the (most likely) final episode of a series, right?

“Life Is a Promise” frontloads most of the conclusion for the supporting cast And Main characters who awkwardly put off the Jamie story (the only really exciting thing that happens) for the first half entirely. So let’s quickly run through their post-ranch plans, starting with the cowboys: Teeter will work for Travis, Jake and Ethan will work for an outfit in New Mexico, Lloyd will work in West Yellowstone, Walker will accompany Laramie at the rodeo Circle, and Ryan will “wander.” (We later see him reconnect with Abby after a full Lainey Wilson performance, so he’ll join her on tour just like Walker did.)

Most of these seem just right for the individual characters – like Lloyd, who can’t bear to leave the region he’s lived in his entire life. I don’t think it’s great that Teeter is stuck working for an idiot (not to mention the self-promotion of an author), but the idea that she has to leave all those happy but painful memories of Colby behind has some resonance, and that at least Jimmy has a boyfriend. I don’t have many feelings for Abby either, but it makes sense that Colby’s death would make his best friend think deeper about how much time he wasted by prioritizing ranch life over everything, including one potentially life-changing relationship.

By the way, remember that pipeline project that Chief Rainwater and Mo discuss for a few minutes every now and then? Rest assured, all of the materials involved are now at the bottom of the reservation’s drinking water reservoir (that can’t be good for the water, can it?), and there were no cameras to catch Mo and his many co-conspirators. Rainwater knows this won’t be ignored, but he also seems pretty sure it can only be that way Good for the tribe that will fight back and keep the conversation going itself. OK!

But the biggest win for the Broken Rock Reservation in this final chapter is what we all suspected last week: Kayce will sell the ranch dirt cheap ($1.25 an acre, for a total of $1.1 million), asking only That he and his family are allowed to stay in their modest home in East Camp – and Rainwater is never allowed to sell or develop the land here. Rainwater is basically saying, “What? I would never Develop Yellowstone!”, although he once seemed keenly interested in partnering with Market Equities; This series never really decided whether Rainwater was a good guy, a villain, or an anti-hero, but here he does the right thing and passionately treats the land as sacred.

All realism and generous consideration of Kayce’s idea of ​​tax evasion aside, this is a fitting end for both the ranch itself and Kayce. His series-long internal conflict between family and ranch is finally over, symbolized by a final vision of the friendly wolf digging a den, and he can teach his son the basics like he always wanted. (Tate will grow up to be even more antisocial than Carter.)

Serving as a sort of farewell to the ranch, John’s funeral is a bit cheesy and long-winded, basically what you’d expect from a private John Dutton funeral. There is nothing incorrect A scene like this, really, but aside from Lynelle Perry’s comment about wearing her tightest skirt for John today, there’s a strange lack of specificity. Even Rip, who may have had the closest relationship with John throughout the series, doesn’t have much to say other than the usual reassurance that he’ll take care of John’s daughter. But John was much more than just his father-in-law to Rip. The opening “Thank you” confirms this somewhat, but I wanted more. I know Rip is a man of few words, but this is the finale! Aren’t we owed a little catharsis, a little real emotion, aside from Beth’s usual drinking and angry sobs?

Beth can barely stand the funeral, so she goes into overdrive, whispering “I will avenge you” to her father’s coffin and then setting out to murder her brother. When we see Jamie, he’s ridiculously unconcerned, confident that his speech went well and no one will ever question his role in John’s death again. But his fearsome sister appears in the mirror with a knife and a tire iron like a horror movie demon, and the two finally have the devastating, drawn-out fight we’ve been waiting for.

If he gets the upper hand, Jamie Really attacks Beth – we’ve seen this woman get beaten and hurt a lot, haven’t we? – to the point that it is impossible to develop empathy for him. But as much as I had to smile as I watched Jamie pour spoiled milk into his pepper-sprayed eyes before being stabbed in the foot and ultimately the heart, I find it hard to fully appreciate Beth’s triumph the series wants me to. Jamie is a pathetic weasel, but he’s also constantly down, even when he’s superficially up. At a certain point in the show I started want He managed to achieve at least one victory against Beth simply because he was so powerless against her attacks and because she never faced consequences for her own actions. Seeing him actually beat and choke her almost to death isn’t exactly satisfying, but in a way it’s the first time he really fights back against her. It’s a shame that the show’s most serious and enduring rivalry remained so static for so long, because Beth’s victory here feels a little hollow.

In any case, she gets everything she wants: she avenges her father and, for old times’ sake, orders Rip and Lloyd to drop her off at the train station again. She points Dillard in the right direction and suggests a few ways to track down John’s killer through Sarah Atwood’s referrals, and her accomplices burn Jamie’s truck to make it look like evidence he wanted to make disappear. A happy camper at the hospital, Beth immediately drinks vodka while watching the news about the aggravated assault and domestic violence charges against her now deceased brother. She doesn’t even need oxycodone for those broken ribs! What an asshole.

It’s powerful to see the dismantling of the ranch house in these final scenes, and Rainwater’s emotional reaction to what happened triggered something in me unlike so much of this finale. The melancholic voice-over from Elsa Dutton (Isabel May). 1883 is also a nice touch, a monologue about the suffering that people have to go through to maintain their control and exploitation of the country.

Still, even if I occasionally agree with Sheridan’s philosophies about land, government, corporations, gentrification, or the world, I can never shake the feeling that he doesn’t really get it It. And as his writing has become weaker in recent seasons – as he’s spread himself thinner and thinner, pursuing other projects while this project has fallen so far behind that it’s lost its star and the only reason why so many people originally switched on – This ignorance became more and more apparent.

That’s still the case here. I can accept that Kayce and his family will be happy in their little home on the ranch and that Beth and Rip will live a happy life on a remote farm where there is no chance of even encountering a tourist – although I don’t am Really Of course I can, because we saw just last week that Beth thrives on having tourists around to bully! What will she do all day? Do industrial espionage via email and produce butter? My point is that there is something lonely about the happy ending for many of these characters, and the idea that physical proximity to other people is an experience to be avoided at all costs is a little jarring.

Look, I’m a writer based in New York City, so many would say I’m not the target audience for this show at all. But I had fun watching Yellowstoneespecially at the peak around season two, and it hasn’t always been as bad as it has been lately. Even though I didn’t like the show, I understood why it appealed to people whose lives are often not portrayed on television. I also know that many people view endless, open land as something they desire and work toward, the true American dream. But land has always been a complex and delicate concept in America, as this show usually seems to understand. As poetic as these words from Elsa Dutton sound, I’m not convinced that the series fully understands how they apply to the main characters or the indigenous characters whose ancestors once lost their land and now, with this finale, magically regain it way to get it back. It’s been an awfully long time since I last felt like Sheridan actually had something compelling to say. This final couldn’t be it Yellowstone at its absolute worst – we saw that last week – but I can barely remember what it looked like at its best.

• Carter Corner: He’s with Beth and Rip forever!

• “Should I stay?” “No, I think we almost prayed.”

• Thanks for reading! This has always been one of my most in-depth comment sections, and I really enjoyed reading all of your thoughts, even if you disagree with me or think the show should only be summarized by someone who owns a gun. (Actual comment I got.)