Hello and happy Sunday, Taylor Sheridan,
You don't know me from the man in the moon, but I've been writing my whole life. I just read an article regarding the upcoming series finale to what has become my latest favorite television addiction, the saga of Yellowstone.
The article stated that my addiction has become your fever-dream nightmare, and as reported literally everywhere, is missing your Hollywood heavy.
Other plot holes were also mentioned. I personally overlook those because you, Sir, are the Jackie Collins of TV; and I bow to your prowess as a "hook 'em in and keep em watching" kind of writer. When I stated my addiction earlier, I could not give a more accurate description of my behavior since my first watching of S1, E1 a few months ago.
Yes, a few months ago. Yes I understand that Yellowstone has been out for years.
Nothing personal. We just didn't do TV. We were "The Unplugged". I'm so old school, we used to learn about what movies were out by renting DVDs from the new releases rack at the library. We didn't even have home internet until 6 months ago. We had cellphones with unlimited data plans. Our only streaming service was premium YouTube and that was mostly because the app came preloaded on our phones. I learned everything I needed to know about what was going on in the entertainment industry from Yahoo homepage at work.
Well, in March the business I was working for closed its doors permanently. I'd been there for five years and was now over 50. I had been working for 30 years, and upon prompting from my husband, decided a break was in order. I settled into unemployment, homelife, mental healing, and probable redirection. I had wound up in work life misery and my only 'job' became unplug from the job market, find authentic me, and figure out next steps.
We stopped going to the library and started rotating streaming services by month and eventually, I stumbled across Yellowstone. I had, of course heard of it, and knew the actors and your name, but I had never watched it before. Funnily enough, I had rented season one over a year ago from the library, but returned it unwatched.
But that night in late April, I turned to my husband and said, "Eff it, there's nothing on worth watching. You wanna give Yellowstone a shot? It's got Costner... 10 minutes?"
Ten minutes is about our watch time of anything new. If we don't like it in ten minutes or less, it's pretty well over. My Netflix Continue Watching category is ridiculous.
He didn't look enthusiastic, but said, "Eh sure. Ten minutes"
That was around 9 pm and we had the commercial free version of Peacock that month. 24 consecutive Yellowstone hours later, we had been up for 36 hours. We slept for 8 or so, and went back for another 24 consecutive hours.
My daughter called me, and I quote, "A feral college student." Yellowstone had released the addict in me and I was in full junkie mode.
As of this writing, we're on a maintenance program. Just like an alcoholic might slow down and not get hammered drunk every night, but they still drink enough to get a little tipsy several nights a week; we're the same. My alcohol is Yellowstone. I've signed up for a year's worth of Peacock with ads to slow myself down, and am on my fourth watching of the series. It's on regularly, and we nearly never watch just one episode.
Okay, so, fangirling over.
Let's get down to business. As a writer, I have some helpful ideas as to where you need to go to close your plot holes, and tie up all of the ends in whatever number of shows a half season equates to. By the first half of the season, I'd say eight.
Open S5, E9 on the front lawn of John's house; Beth and Jaime pointing guns at each other and verbally going at it. From Beth's vantage, camera points toward Jaime, have John step in facing Jaime (back to camera) instinctively 'protecting' Beth because he's convinced Jaime won't physically hurt him.
With the camera close-up on Jaime; Jaime focuses on John, we watch flashbacks run across his face, and with a resolve born of inner peace and his own brand of righteousness, Jaime makes a conscious choice. Jaime shoots and kills John.
Immediately, Beth takes Jaime out with every bullet she has, and collapses at her dead Daddy's side in tears of grief and relief.
With that, Gretchen Mol's Evelyn Dutton is returned in flashback/spectral to both welcome John (now played by Josh Lucas) and redeem herself to Beth (and the fans!) by both forgiving Beth and explaining her wretched behavior towards her only daughter. She can even scoff at Jaime about being from 'killer's blood' to remind everyone that Jaime isn't a blood Dutton anyway. That puts to bed multiple storylines, and opens up a wide array of growth and potential in the final storytelling arcs of the remaining characters.
Summer has to 'save' Beth with her eyewitness testimony since she's there under house arrest. The new Governor is named by a mourning Senator Perry when she returns from Washington for John's funeral. The new governor, at Lynelle's urging, pardons Beth for murder of Governor John Dutton's killer, and commutes Summer's remaining sentence. Summer returns to California with a new appreciation for Montana ranching and glad to put a close to her 'Dutton chapter'. The new governor looks into many candidates for AG. Some are sympathetic to ranching, some are not. No replacement is actually named. Lynelle returns to congress.
With her neck freshly off the chopping block, and her biggest adversary in the ground, Beth takes off running. She somehow spins the PR around Jamie's death putting every ugly detail that comes to light about Yellowstone squarely on Jaime's now dead doorstep.
She follows up by convincing Kayce to put her business plan into action regarding the steak operation she found out about; thereby saving the ranch financially. She is at peace with her move as she tells the sky, "I saved the ranch, Daddy." At this point, she stops living for John, and starts living for herself and Rip and the future legacy of Kayce's family.
With the Yellowstone finally out of it's precarious financial situation; Rip and the cowboys can come back to Montana, and Kayce and Monica can take over running the ranch and plan for a future.
Kayce and Monica, at Beth's insistence, move into the main house and are determined to, as earlier stated in a bathtub scene, "put a kid in every room." They wind up happy, in love, and moving forward in a 'new direction'. Kayce also remains Livestock Commissioner because he sees the value of it for the ranch and his ranching neighbors. Monica is able to do something to permanently help the Res in some way now that Yellowstone is under her and Kayce's control.
This will keep Thomas Rainwater in office; defeating the evil Angela and her candidate with the help of Mo. Maybe some 'hidden on the Res' resolution. Additionally, this storyline will give Monica some peace about helping her people with real consequence; as well as giving her character substance so she doesn't just dissolve into the background as Kayce's pregnant wife or Tate's empty-nester mom.
Tate and Carter pal around, get girlfriends and outlay their plans for the future. Tate wants to go into counselling because of his previous trauma, and Carter wants to become a veterinarian because he's bonded with the horses in his time living in the stables and, the biggest factor, it will help the ranch and the family that saved him.
Rip grows very comfortably into his forced fatherhood of Carter and imparts life wisdom into Carter's and Tate's lives. He and Beth have to decide whether to rebuild his burnt down gift-from-John house and stay at the Yellowstone, or demolish the property so it can revert to its indigenous state, while Beth and Rip move on to somewhere with no memories.
In the end, they decide to demolish the property and build a new house on the ranch at the location Rip found for their wedding. Beth loves the compromise; it's still part of the ranch, but its free of memories, completely theirs from the ground up, and they both find peace, joy and healing there while they look forward to the new direction of Yellowstone.
Kayce realizes he needs Rip's loyalty to John's vision to help him run the ranch. Kayce outlines, that he will be the new way of thinking and Rip will be the old way of thinking and between them both, they'll figure out the best course of action for the ranch as the issues arise. With the new business plan in place, they're both starting off as 'new' and will need each other's perspectives to make things work.
Kayce tells Rip this at the dinner table with John's seat empty, and Monica and Beth in attendance. They all agree, in a new-direction-moment, that business will be discussed at the dinner table. Beth doesn't storm away from the table for maybe the first time in the series. Peace reigns within the remaining family against the outside forces.
Jimmy and Emily are now married. They come up from the Four Sixes to bring horses along with the return of the cowboys. When they leave, they will take Carter with them so he can go to vet school, while learning to work in a ranch environment as a veterinarian assistant under Emily.
Jimmy and Lloyd have a reunion. Jimmy has grown into the best version of himself and imparts his Texas learned wisdom to Lloyd. It gives Lloyd an answer he had been searching for, which stuns them both and bonds them together further.
Walker and Laramie of course get married to mirror the actors' real lives. They decide that it would be best if they go on the road so Walker can do singing gigs while Laramie competes across the country. They ask Kayce about leaving before the rest of the cowboys return because Walker doesn't want to be there when Rip comes back. Kayce agrees and approves.
Colby dated a girly-girl in the year the cowboys have been gone. This helped him figure out, that he loves Teeter. She tortures him about his dalliance with 'Miss Priss', until she finally tells him she knew he'd miss her lovin'. The ranch hands tease Colby about his relationship with Teeter and he defends it fully. Afterward, Colby chases Teeter and they both love every minute of it, sometimes to the nausea of the other ranch hands.
Ryan and Abby have maintained their relationship despite his shipping out to Texas. She got gigs in Texas while he was down there to facilitate seeing him, and her career skyrocketed. They now see each other rarely, but make it work. He becomes one of the ranch's top men due to Rip's recommendations after the Texas year, and He and Kayce being livestock agents together.
And last, but not least, there's Lloyd. Lloyd and Gator have become close in the time since Rip left with the cowboys. Lloyd needed to talk to someone who wasn't a 'youngster ranch hand', and with everyone gone all the time, Gator needed someone to appreciate his amazing biscuits. They bonded over coffee and cooking after Gator suggested that he make breakfast for the ranch hands in order to have someone to cook for.
Rip will get to tell Lloyd that he's in charge of the bunkhouse permanently (he ran it while Rip's crew was in Texas). So, Lloyd will be the new Rip and Ryan will be the new Lloyd.
Later, Rip will visit the bunkhouse, to let the hands know that Lloyd is now in charge, Lloyd will quote the imparted Texas wisdom to the other ranch hands. Rip will ask astounded at the soundness of the quote, "Who told you that?" To which Lloyd will answer simply with a smile, "Jimmy". Everyone is stunned into silence until Rip finally says with an even bigger smile at his long time friend, "The man's right." to a round of agreement by all. The scene ends with the hands toasting Jimmy in his absence and Lloyd's promotion. Rip then leaves the bunkhouse and it feels permanent.
Alright, Mr. Sheridan, sir, I think I've got your story lines pretty well handled. Now, if you would just get back to your super-addictive, Jackie Collins style delivery of them, that would be perfect.
With utmost respect and anticipation of November,
Gigi Seezie