Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 11 Finally Remembered It Only Has A Little Bit Of Time To Wrap Up A High-Stakes Story

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

I was about to complain AGAIN about Yellowstone wasting time with meaningless flashback scenes, but then things took a surprising turn.

The first third of the show could have been the cold open to Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 1, followed by the reveal that the murdered guy was John Dutton. THAT would have been explosive.

Unfortunately, we had to put up with it, but now that we’re firmly back in the present, everything is moving quickly toward the violent power struggle that was supposed to be at the heart of this final season.

The Flashbacks Made More Sense After Witnessing John’s Death

I still don’t understand why we needed half an hour of flashbacks on Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 10, but now that the full timeline has been revealed, I get why we needed the ones we got this time.

John’s murder took place while Beth was driving home, leading both her and Kayce to realize something was wrong.

It’s interesting that Jamie had no such feeling and seems to have been completely blindsided.

That goes beyond him not being blood-related to John. He’s so singularly focused on his own mission that he has no idea what’s going on around him.

It doesn’t take a lot of brains to realize that if you talk about ways to kill someone who’s in your way, the person you’re talking with might go through with the plan. Only Jamie would think that was just talk.

John’s death didn’t happen quite how I expected. I figured he’d been killed while getting ready for the impeachment hearing, not the night before.

These scenes were made harder to do because Kevin Costner wasn’t available to film his death scenes, so they had to use a darkened room and a stunt double, which we only saw from the back.

The little they showed of the guy didn’t really look like John, but that didn’t matter. I knew immediately what was happening because I recognized John’s bedroom.

Those brutal scenes of three men dragging him from his bed and killing him in the bathroom jolted Yellowstone to a higher level.

The past has caught up with the present, which means there will be no more time-wasting flashbacks to life at the 6666 Ranch, but it’s more than that.

The mood for the rest of Yellowstone Season 1 Episode 11 was darker.

Gone were the scenes of cattle moving over the land or ranchers riding horses under an extremely blue sky.

Instead, the episode took place mostly in offices: the coroner’s office, Jamie’s office, and Beth’s office inside the ranch.

Except for Beth’s last scene with Rainwater and Sarah’s death scene, there were no outdoor scenes, adding to the claustrophobic atmosphere as Kayce inched closer toward finding the truth.

Kayce Did Solid Investigative Work That Will Take Him To Dark Places

Before the realization that John was dead jolted Kayce awake, he, Monica, and Tate were finally a family that did normal things.

Tate was teasing Monica about her tears of joy, which came from believing they’d left all the craziness associated with John and the poverty on the reservation behind.

Even if I hadn’t already known that John’s murder was going to blow that all to hell, I’d have realized something was up.

Happiness on a show like Yellowstone generally means that something’s going to happen that leads to shattered hearts.

Kayce provided the level-headed, rational half of his partnership with Beth to get to the truth (at least until he got to Jamie’s office.)

Coroner: Kayce, right? I did not order an invasive autopsy out of respect for the family, for you. In case you wanted to preserve the body for burial.

Kayce: I’m more concerned with why he’s being buried.

The coroner’s resistance to telling Kayce anything and her insistence that this was not a murder made me suspicious, but she chilled out when she realized Kayce had been right all along, so I guess it was a false alarm.

It was hilarious how Kayce kept calling the detective to get around her claims that she couldn’t do anything without his permission. She really didn’t know who she was dealing with!

It didn’t take long for Jamie and Sarah’s scheme to fall apart after Kayce insisted on a second look on Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 11.

Kayce was able to piece together what happened from his experience in Afghanistan, and then it was a matter of convincing the coroner to give the body more than a cursory glance.

I don’t agree with Kayce about her being “meant to miss it,” though.

Sarah was banking on that, but she didn’t have to do anything special to discover those bruises.

All she had to do was examine the body thoroughly rather than looking only at the gunshot wound and calling it a day.

I didn’t quite buy her explanation that the gunshot wound was such an obvious cause of death she didn’t have to look further. How did she not notice the bruises on his neck?

Coroner: He was a 68-year-old man. Maybe he got the bruises when he fell on his forehead.

Kayce: How do you fall on both sides of your neck AND on your forehead?

Her gross incompetence made me think she was involved until she apologized for missing the evidence right in front of her eyes.

Thankfully, Kayce came to the rescue with some common sense.

Did anyone else find it hilarious how he stormed into Jamie’s office and threw him over the desk like a rag doll?

Something about the way that went down on Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 11 cracked me up.

Jamie’s impassioned response about Beth being poison and him being on the Duttons’ side was equally ridiculous.

He’s a smooth talker, I’ll give him that much.

But how does he expect anyone to believe that he wants to save the ranch after he helped reinstate the lease that will take it from his siblings?

For an attorney, Jamie doesn’t seem to have much sense about things like strategy. I also don’t know why he was shocked that the new governor wanted him to recuse himself from the investigation into John’s death.

That didn’t necessarily mean the governor was suspicious of him. It’s obvious that a murder victim’s son should not be the one prosecuting his father’s killer, and Jamie should have thought of this possibility a long time ago.

Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 11’s Ending Offered Two What The F — Moments

The biggest shock was Sarah’s murder, though in retrospect, it makes sense.

People who hire hitmen eventually acquire targets on their backs. If Sarah were to be arrested and cut a deal, she could implicate a bunch of people who don’t want to be implicated.

Of course, this suggests that she was dealing with people more powerful than her.

The contract killers themselves are small potatoes compared to the person who ordered the hit, and anyway, someone obviously ordered one on her.

Her death means more questions will be asked, and the trail will likely lead back to Jamie, which is why he was panicking.

Ironically, he contributed to it because if he hadn’t called to beg her to forgive him, she would probably not have still been sitting at the stop sign when the killers pulled up alongside her.

Beth’s conversation with Rainwater was also surprising, especially Beth’s declaration that there was nothing she could do to preserve the ranch.

That doesn’t sound like Beth at all. She’s always been the type of badass woman who will do anything, no matter how crazy, to bring her enemies down.

Beth: There is no preserving this place. There is only prolonging its collapse.

Could she be trying to lull Rainwater into a false sense of security for her own purposes? This alliance also seemed weird.

As Beth pointed out, Rainwater has also had dreams of reclaiming the land that once belonged to his ancestors, so it’s hard to believe that he is approaching Beth for any reason other than his own interest.

Over to you, Yellowstone fanatics.

How many spurs do you give Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 11? Vote in our poll to rank the episode then hit the comments with your thoughts.

Yellowstone airs on Paramount on Sundays at 8/7c.

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