Taylor Sheridan says goodbye (maybe) bloated

In its season (series?) finale of YellowstoneCreator/writer/director/actor Taylor Sheridan left us with more questions than answers. Could Kayce (Luke Grimes) really sell the Yellowstone ranch to Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) for $1.25 an acre without facing serious legal challenges from the state of Montana? After spending the last six years as Yellowstone’s avenging corporate angel, will Beth (Kelly Reilly) really be content living on a small, remote ranch with nothing to do but watch her cowboy husband Rip (Cole Hauser)? to stare lovingly? And did we really need an entire five-minute scene summarizing the already-forgotten love story between tertiary characters Ryan (Ian Bohen) and Abby (Lainey Wilson)?

Not everything in “Life Is a Promise” — written and directed by Sheridan — made sense, but that’s okay. YellowstoneThe appeal lay less in the story than in the idea that Sheridan was selling with his hugely successful Western soap opera. The series that proved that linear television could still produce a massive hit ended as it began, celebrating an idealized America where a man (always a man) can live life the way his God intended had – independent and free from the tyranny of the other.

The finale was the culmination of a long-delayed series of episodes, the second half of season five, which returned in November after a nearly two-year hiatus. This hiatus was, of course, caused in part by arguments – and ultimately a breakup – between Sheridan and YellowstoneKevin Costner, the original lead of the series. Undaunted, Sheridan killed Costner’s character. Yellowstone Patriarch John Dutton, in the series’ November 10 return, and recalibrated the remaining six episodes to focus on the aftermath of his murder and the Dutton siblings’ efforts to save the ranch from evil corporate developers.

Sheridan, who famously writes (wrote?) every episode of the series, was faced with the unenviable task of revising the back half of a season he had already planned – and his problems showed on screen. The first few episodes were full of clumsy and sometimes confusing time jumps, many of which seemed to tie into pre-existing scenes to fit a new, Costner-free reality. Some of the flashbacks to Governor Dutton’s death – a staged suicide by mercenary assassins – seemed unnecessary. “Dead in his pajamas on the bathroom floor” probably wasn’t the hero exit Costner envisioned for his character, but it seems Sheridan wanted to remind us that the actor was no longer in charge and perhaps never was in charge . The fallout with Costner also gave viewers insight into Sheridan’s psyche in ways we never expected Yellowstone Overlord seemed forced to assert his dominance by prominently inserting himself – through his character, horse trainer Travis Wheatley – into the final episode of the season.

While the remaining stars of the ensemble – Reilly, Hauser, Grimes and Wes Bentley as John Dutton’s duplicitous (and adopted) son Jamie – did the real work of holding the narrative together, Sheridan transformed his character into a focal co-star. Travis was the one who broke the news of John Dutton’s death to a heartbroken Jimmy (Jeferson White); Travis was the one Beth came to when she needed help selling the ranch’s horses to pay the estate taxes (he agreed, but only after asking her to play him at strip poker); and Travis was the one holding court at the Bunkhouse in Sunday’s finale as the Cowboys gathered to share stories of the good old days one last time. Of course, Sheridan has never been afraid to put himself on his show (he’s everywhere). lioness this season), but the tone of gleeful hubris in these Yellowstone Vignettes – Bella Hadid as Travis’ girlfriend? – felt particularly conscious.

“Life is a Promise” gave key characters their endings, some happier than others. In retaliation for his decision to have her father murdered, Beth stabbed Jamie in the heart, and then she and Rip settled on a small ranch in Dutton, Mont. – a place that the vile class of humanity known as tourists never dares to enter. For Beth, other people are hell, and heaven is a place where outsiders are not allowed. After selling Yellowstone to Chief Rainwater and his tribe, Kayce started a family cattle ranch with his wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and son Tate (Brecken Merrill) – and, like Beth, was content to keep his family away from the ugly world around them.

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The nearly two-hour finale had plenty of filler (five full minutes for Ryan and Abby again?) that would have been better spent on Rainwater and the residents of the Broken Rock Reservation. In the episode’s most moving sequence, we see Rainwater and his tribe take possession of the Yellowstone land. As men in a drum circle raise their voices in ceremonial song, Rainwater stands back to take in the vast horizon, his eyes filling with tears of bittersweet joy. How does the tribe plan to move forward with the ranch and combat the looming oil pipeline? We’ll never know – unless Sheridan revives the story in the Rip and Beth spinoff, which is reportedly in the works.

Clearly Paramount Network isn’t ready to let go Yellowstone. The network hailed “Life Is a Promise” as a “season finale,” while Reilly thanked fans on Instagram, saying, “Whatever the future holds, this is the end of the show we’ve been making for the last seven years.” .” Maybe, but Yellowstone is too valuable and too pervasive to be stopped. Sheridan is so confident in fans’ investment in the YCU (Yellowstone Cinematic Universe) that he included an extended voiceover from Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) – John’s great aunt and a character 1883The Yellowstone Prequel series – in the finale of the mothership. Those who haven’t seen the prequel or 1923 (Elsa also appeared there as a narrator) might have been confused, but Sheridan would probably tell them that they only had themselves to blame. This is his world, dear readers, and we just watch it.

Final grade: B-
Season 5 grade: B+