5 big predictions for the Yellowstone Season 5 finale

Kayce, Monica, and Tate Dutton in YellowstoneParamount+

The Yellowstone Season 5 finale is a stone’s throw away, and many stories, character arcs and the future of the ranch itself need to be wrapped up.

As Taylor Sheridan’s popular flagship series comes to a close, the back half of Season 5 has already had shocking casualties and tense developments shake the Dutton family to the core. They surely can’t keep the storied ranch, and it seems like enemies are everywhere, closing loose ends.

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With a feature-length episode on the way, we’re almost certain to see monumental events as the series wraps (and builds up a set of exciting spinoffs). What do we think is going to happen?

While there are sure to be twists and turns, here are a few predictions we have for what might happen in the Yellowstone finale.

Prediction 1: Beth and Rip finish business and go to Texas

Beth has spent the back half of Season 5 doing the three things she does best: drink, desire to kill Jamie, and fight to preserve the Dutton legacy. Spending time with Rip in Texas gave Beth new ideas: “Imagine all the things that we could do if we’re not shackled to that ranch,” she says, following barroom conversations with locals about how much Texas respects its cowboys.

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With the recent news of a spinoff focusing on the pair, we can at least expect them both to survive, given it isn’t billed as a “Beth and Memories of Rip” spinoff.

Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser as Beth and Rip in Yellowstone, laying on the grassParamount

It’s likely the tease will signal a journey to Texas for the pair when all the season’s smoke settles. As for Beth’s revenge? There are a few ways things could go down for Jamie as the season proceeds.

Given her certainty of Jamie’s role in John Dutton’s death, and her promising “seeing me will be the last thing you ever do alive” in Episode 10, on top of her reiterating that she keeps her promises in Episode 13, it seems that she’s likely to get revenge.

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Prediction 2: Jamie wiggles out of consequences, but not Beth’s wrath

Jamie enters the finale surrounded by enemies with minimal allies. Sarah’s assassination revealed that the hitmen who killed John Dutton at Sarah’s request are cleaning house, and it also triggered an investigation into Jamie’s relationship to Sarah (and John’s death). This all comes to a head in Episode 13.

Jamie discovers from news reporting that his relationship with Sarah, and his potential benefit from the land lease that John canceled as Governor, have been leaked (clearly the assassins covering their tracks, as per Episode 9’s conversation when Sarah hired them).

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Jamie plays a visit to his politically savvy ex Christina, who advises him to play offense: call a press conference, spearhead an investigation into John’s and Sarah’s deaths, deny the affair but admit their professional partnership, and pin the death on Sarah.

Pressures from the investigation into John and Sarah will likely still mount, and we may see pressure from Senator Perry (who mourns John’s death and is now suspicious of Jamie). That said, Jamie’s not likely to survive his sister’s escalating wrath, and smart bets have Jamie dying at her hand before she leaves for greener Texas pastures.

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Prediction 3: Kayce and family may stay in their isolated home

In the back half of Season 5, Kayce’s resumed his struggle over how he fits into the Dutton family legacy – or wants to, anyway. From their new home on the edge of the Dutton land, Kayce’s been struggling with balancing his family and the pressures of the Ranch.

In Episode 11, he tells Tribal Police ally Mo that he feels like he has to choose between his family and the Ranch, but Mo reiterates that Kayce will know the right decision when it’s time. In the next episode, a deep conversation with his son Tate concludes with Kayce saying, “here is not our home, not anymore.”

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Yellowstone: Monica, Tate, and Kayce standing on their porchParamount

Kayce pays a visit to John’s killers to make sure his family are never threatened, and in Episode 13 he tells Monica “if we walk away from this place, I don’t want them following us.” Kayce’s preparing to leave the Ranch behind, and he’d surely walk away, except Tate seems to want some connection to his parents’ legacies. Kayce and fam may stay in their isolated new home. For the Ranch, he has one final idea.

Prediction 4: The Ranch is saved by a heavily discounted sale

All this season’s machinations seem to be building towards the sale of the Dutton Ranch. With Market Equities closing in on the property, the Duttons truly have to sell the ranch to save it – it’s just a question of how much to sell and to whom. It’s a pickle. Kayce asks Beth if a truck is sold for, say, $1, is the tax based on the amount of the sale, or the value of the asset? Ultimately, it’s the sale. He plays coy, needing to see someone before being explicit about his full plan, but Beth picks up on his implications.Kayce wants to sell the Ranch for an astoundingly low sum, which would thwart the development plan and save the Dutton’s from tax debt. “The only way to save this place is to give it away,” he says to Monica. But to whom?

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Prediction 5: The Broken Rock Tribe restores the land, prophecy fulfilled

Chief Rainwater has always wanted to restore the historical tribal land that the Dutton Ranch sits on, causing mutually respectful tension at times between the Chief and John Dutton. In an Episode 11 conversation between Beth and Rainwater, the pair reinforce their common cause against the development threat.

The latter explains that his goal now is to keep the land “pristine, the way it was when my grandparents walked it.” He can’t simply purchase it, but he’ll support Beth in any way he can to accomplish that shared goal.

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Yellowstone 1883: John Dutton talks with Spotted EagleParamount

Kayce has always had close ties to Rainwater and the Broken Rock reservation, with Monica and Tate both being tribal descendants. If Kayce arranges a sale of the property (or most of it) at a hefty discount, much of the land would be preserved and returned to the Tribe, and the Ranch could be mostly preserved in some form. It’s an elegant win-win for all the series’ protagonists… and prefigured in the prequel 1883.

When James Dutton’s daughter Elsa is dying, James vows that his family will live wherever she’s buried. Spotted Eagle tells Dutton of a land they can bury her and build, becoming the Ranch, but prophesizes “in seven generations, my people will rise up and take it back from you.” James replies with “in seven generations, you can have it.” It seems they just might.

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Beyond updates on the Beth & Rip spinoff, check out news on spinoffs The Madison, 6666, and 1923 Season 2.