Those currently in the Yellowstone bubble will know that Episode 13 has become one of the most notorious yet, thanks to a few unfavorable scenes involving Taylor Sheridan’s Travis Wheatley.
In Yellowstone’s penultimate episode, Sheridan ditches the likes of Jamie and Rip to focus on one important thing: himself. As Beth travels to Texas to check on their horse seller, she finds Travis playing strip poker with some young ladies, all while his girlfriend (Bella Hadid) watches proudly.
Later, Travis is also seen making a mockery of Beth as he challenges her to a game in exchange for his help at their upcoming auction. All this has made the new Yellowstone episode the subject of scrutiny for fans, some of whom have dubbed it “one of the worst television episodes of all time.“
As one Reddit user put it, “Just another lame episode this season. TS inserted himself way too much, and the cringey way he decided to write himself into this episode was laughable.” However, not everyone agrees.
Taylor Sheridan is a cowboy as well as a writer
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, producer and Season 5B director Christina Voros had a different take on the Travis scenes.
“As far as the role of Travis, it was wonderful to see Taylor – again, in a full-circle moment – have fun in a way that is such an incorporation of art imitating life in terms of it being shot in a place that he has built,” she said.
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“He’s known as this writer of these great American Western TV sagas, but he’s also a cowboy and a tremendous horseman, and he spends as much time doing that part of his personality and his life as he does writing the stories about that.
“So it was kind of wonderful to see the collision of the fictional world he’s created with the actual world he’s created as himself and as a man and as a horseman. To see those two things braided together was really fun.”
Ultimately, Sheridan’s Travis helps Beth Dutton raise $30 million at auction, which buys them enough time to keep the ranch for a year.
For more, find out where to watch the Yellowstone finale. You can also revisit some of the show’s most shocking deaths, and find out why Travis isn’t even Taylor Sheridan’s worst cameo.
