Yellowstone Season 5, Episode 12 Recap – Kayce’s Dark Transformation Still Haunts Me

During its run, Yellowstone was one of the biggest TV shows around, intricately telling the story of the Duttons and their fight to keep their Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. The second part of season 5 sees Kevin Costner exit the show as John Dutton’s death causes shockwaves to everyone associated with the ranch and beyond. While Yellowstone’s final episodes had some excellent moments, overall, the show lost a lot of its spark when the Dutton patriarch bowed out, and it really never found its footing.

Prior to Yellowstone, season 5, episode 12, “Counting Coup,” the loose ends regarding John’s death continued to be removed, with Sarah getting killed at the end of episode 11 and everybody left wondering what Beth and Kayce are going to do with the family ranch. “Counting Coup” had a lot to cover and featured some gutwrenching moments, including a dark turn from Kayce that is one of his most haunting moments on the show.

Colby And Teeter’s Romance Comes To A Tragic End

Colby Is Killed By A Horse When He Tries To Protect Carter

Since Teeter first joined Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in season 3, her slow-building and often hilarious relationship with Colby reached its bittersweet conclusion, as Colby tells Teeter that he loves her after a phone call where she is still transferring some of the ranch’s livestock and Colby is back in Montana, and she ends the call by saying it back. It’s one of the sweetest moments in a season full of pain, especially after John’s death, and it is wonderful to see these two finally realize their full feelings for each other after multiple seasons of build-up.

It wouldn’t be Yellowstone without tragedy, though, and “Counting Coup” brings it hard with the death of Colby. As Carter is going about his work on the ranch and refilling the horses’ water buckets in the stables, he decides to fill the water bucket of the horse that he was warned not to go near due to its wild and violent streak. After he gets stuck in the stable by the horse trying to attack him, Colby walks by and notices, saving Carter, but gets stomped to death himself, while Carter runs to get a gun and kills the horse.

While this is incredibly tragic in and of itself, it is made even worse when Rip calls Ryan to inform him of Colby’s death. Colby and Ryan also had a special bond throughout Yellowstone, and Ryan realizes that his best friend is gone, and he has to tell Teeter, who breaks down sobbing while still on her horse working the livestock. While the episode gave viewers some more romance between Colby and Teeter in “Counting Coup”, it also ended it.

Jimmy Learns About John Dutton’s Death

Travis Lets Jimmy Know That John Died, Which Greatly Affects Him

Jimmy was one of the most surprising characters throughout the entirety of Yellowstone as he grew greatly as a person and ranch hand, especially when he ended up going to the 6666 Ranch to really learn how to be a proper cowboy. One of the biggest advocates for Jimmy during his time was John Dutton, who urged him to give up bareback bronc riding so that he didn’t get killed, even paying Jimmy’s medical bills that he would never have been able to afford.

When Rip has to call Taylor Sheridan’s Travis to begin getting ready to auction off the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch horses and livestock, he also lets Travis know that John has died. Jimmy was working with Travis, learning to be a horse trainer, so Travis breaks the news to Jimmy and tells him to take an entire week off to grieve, knowing how important John was to him. Devastated by the news, Jimmy tells Travis that he will only take the weekend, since John wouldn’t want him to miss work. John Dutton helped shape Jimmy, and it seems like he will be forever grateful.

The Continued Fallout From John Dutton’s Death

Jamie Shreds Documents And The Ranch Starts Selling Livestock

John Dutton’s death and Kevin Costner’s exit from the show rocked the entire foundation of Yellowstone, and season 5, episode 12, still has characters working through the devastation as well as the fallout with Jamie, Sarah, and the ranch in general. After detectives want to seize Sarah’s possessions following her death after John’s death is ruled a murder, Jamie tells them they need a warrant, which raises Detective Dillard’s suspicion. Once they leave, Jamie shreds documents that could incriminate him, which could then unravel the secrets of the ranch and the Duttons.

Alongside the fallout of Sarah’s death and Jamie attempting to cover everything up, Rip and Beth still have to deal with what to do with the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. They decide to start auctioning off the livestock, including the horses. For Rip, this is an attempt to save the ranch rather than having to sell it completely, as he tells Lloyd when asked if they are out of business. While it is sad to see the ranch lose basically everything it had built over its lifetime, at least the land and ranch itself remain, for now.

Kayce Takes A Dark Turn When Confronting Grant

He Pulls A Gun On Grant’s Daughter

Perhaps the most significant moment of the episode is the rather dark and haunting turn that Kayce takes. When hetells Detective Dillard about the nature of Jamie and Sarah’s relationship, Dillard warns him that Jamie is in the “blast radius” of the mess, but Kayce no longer cares, and says that Jamie put himself there. The love Kayce once had for his brother is coming to an end.

The truly haunting moment for Kayce, though, comes at the end of the episode, after he learns that Grant Horton was the hitman hired by Sarah to kill John. Kayce then waits for Grant outside his young daughter’s soccer game and gets into the car with them, pointing a gun at Grant’s daughter and threatening him. He warns Grant about his connections and how easy it would be to do anything at any time. After threatening Grant, Kayce directly addresses his daughter as his gun remains on her, saying, “You should be scared. Do you know what your daddy does for a living?”

While Yellowstone has had its share of dark moments pertaining to Kayce, his holding a gun to a little girl’s head seems out of character, even for him. Yes, he did open up to John before about what he had to do when he was in the military, but he had largely moved past a lot of the stuff, turning towards his wife Monica and son Tate, and wanting to do what’s best for them. Add on the death of Kayce’s son John, and everything gets compounded. With Tate’s earlier storylines regarding his kidnapping by a neo-Nazi militia, it seems like Kayce would be weary of subjecting Grant’s daughter to a similar trauma.

It’s no secret that Yellowstone stumbled a bit following the death of John Dutton. Kevin Costner is just such an incredible actor, and he brought so much complexity to his character. Following his death, it felt like the show wanted to spice things up even more, especially heading into the finale, and having a dark moment like what Kayce had feels like a response to that, even if it is at odds with whom the audience saw him become.

Kayce was one of the most interesting characters in the entirety of Yellowstone, as he was often pulled in two different directions — life with his wife and son, or life on the ranch and being what John wanted him to be, which were often at odds with each other. In a way, the confrontation was the moment everything truly boiled over, ending season 5, episode 12 with an incredibly haunting and honestly villainous turn from Kayce Dutton.