“Yellowstone” Finale Summary: The fate of Dutton Ranch is explained at the end of the show

“Yellowstone” Finale Summary: The fate of Dutton Ranch is explained at the end of the show

  • Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” ended Sunday after five seasons.
  • The series ended with the sale of the Dutton ranch to the Broken Rock Reservation.
  • Beth and Rip moved to pastures new with a smaller ranch in rural Montana.

Warning: Major spoilers for the series finale of “Yellowstone.”

After five seasons and over a year of headline-grabbing behind-the-scenes dramas, “Yellowstone,” Paramount Network’s modern horse opera, has been put out to pasture.

The series – which until the final episodes starred Kevin Costner as a rancher contemplating which of his adult children would be right to inherit his sprawling ranch – has become the most-watched scripted series in the US since it debuted in 2018 .

In November, stars of the series spoke to Business Insider about the show’s “staggering” popularity, which only increased in recent weeks as the show neared its end.

“I think there’s something very human about looking forward and backward with the same gaze,” Kelsey Asbille said. “I think that might be the secret sauce.”

Her co-star Luke Grimes praised the fact that, in his opinion, “Yellowstone” had something that set it apart from the other Westerns – Taylor Sheridan, who he called “the best writer of the genre that has ever existed.”

The final episode, which aired on Sunday, lasted over 90 minutes and gave viewers the conclusion they had been waiting for: John’s murder was avenged and the fate of the ranch was finally revealed.

Here’s a recap of the conclusion of “Yellowstone.”

John’s body was buried at the ranch.


Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) in the "Yellowstone" Final.

Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) in the “Yellowstone” finale.

Paramount Network



In the final episode, John’s body was released from the coroner’s office, meaning the family could finally hold a funeral for him. Viewers may recall that his body was eventually subjected to a second autopsy, which concluded that foul play had occurred in his death.

Rip (Cole Hauser) and the men from the bunkhouse dug a hole for his coffin in Dutton Cemetery, and Beth (Kelly Reilly) gathered the family – sans Jamie – to give John a small, intimate funeral.

When Beth saw the coffin, she was overcome with great emotion, but when the preacher asked her if she wanted to say goodbye, she returned to her steely self and said, “I will avenge you.”

Beth fulfilled her promise to avenge her father’s murder.

Beth left the funeral and headed straight to her adopted brother Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) home in Helena.

Having just given a speech distancing himself from his involvement in his father’s death, he returned home to find Beth hiding in his house.

A brutal and bloody battle ensued between them, and if Rip hadn’t gotten there in time, Jamie might have suffocated Beth. Even though Rip was ready to let loose on Jamie, Beth begged him to stop so she could be the one to kill him. She then fatally stabbed Jamie in the chest and held his gaze, keeping another promise she had once made: that she would be the last thing he would ever see.

Afterwards, Rip drove Jamie to the “train station” – in other words, he threw his body off a cliff. Meanwhile, Beth stayed in the house and called the police. She blamed everything on Jamie – her father’s murder, Sarah Atwood’s murder, and her close brush with death.

Kayce made a deal with the Broken Rock Reservation to prevent the ranch from being sold to developers.

After gaining his sister’s approval in the previous episode, Kayce proceeded with his plan to sell the ranch to the Broken Rock Reservation for the same bargain price – $1.25 per acre – that his ancestors had used to sell it for nearly 150 years had bought years before.

“Congratulations, you just made the worst land deal since my people sold Manhattan,” Chief Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) told him.


Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille) in the "Yellowstone" Final.

Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille) in the “Yellowstone” finale.

Paramount Network



But Rainwater said there is a difference: The Yellowstone Ranch site will never change beyond recognition in the next 150 years. The tribe will live on the land but will never sell it to developers.

As Beth had whispered to John’s coffin at the beginning of the episode, this may have been the only way to save the ranch.

“You made me promise not to sell an inch, and I hope you understand that I’m sticking to it. There may not be cows on it, but there won’t be any condos either. We won,” she said.

The ranch cowboys scattered.


Ryan (Ian Bohen) and Abby (Lainey Wilson) in "Yellowstone" Final.

Ryan (Ian Bohen) and Abby (Lainey Wilson) in the “Yellowstone” finale.

Paramount Network



Since there was no ranch, the group of cowboys living in the bunkhouse decided their future. Teeter (Jennifer Landon) got a job on Travis’ (Taylor Sheridan) ranch with her old friend Jimmy (Jefferson White).

Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith), the oldest ranch hand, decided that if he couldn’t be a cowboy on the Yellowstone Ranch, he didn’t want to be a cowboy at all, so he retired.

Ryan (Ian Bohen) left the ranch and immediately sought out Abby (Lainey Wilson), the country singer he previously dated, hoping she would take him back.

Beth and Rip left the Yellowstone ranch and headed for pastures new.


Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) in the "Yellowstone" Final.

Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) in the “Yellowstone” finale.

Paramount Network



When audiences saw Beth and Rip at the end of the episode, they were settled into their new home and ranch, miles from the Yellowstone Ranch, along with their adopted son Carter (Finn Little).

As Beth had promised, the place really was out in the wilderness, miles from a city, let alone an airport. The nearest bar, she told Rip, even turned away tourists if they happened to pass by.

“Sounds like my kind of place,” Rip said to his wife.

Elsewhere, Kayce, Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) had kept a small plot of land for themselves and started raising their own livestock. Although Rip Kayce offered to take the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch sign with him to his new farm, Kayce declined, stating that he was thinking about starting his own brand.