Yellowstone wasted no time revealing the fate of Kevin Costner‘s character, John Dutton, as season 5 continued Sunday night.
During the premiere episode for the back half of the show’s fifth season — the first new episode in nearly two years — it was confirmed early on that Costner’s John Dutton, the central patriarch figure of the show, was dead.
How did John die? A gun was found next to his blood-splattered body at his Montana ranch. While initially believed to have been a suicide, it was later revealed via a flashback that John was murdered.
Turns out Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) orchestrated a hit on John and for it to be staged as a suicide, a plan she and Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) had previously cooked up.
Jamie — who had been going hard against his father in the first half of season 5 — was tearful about John’s death before Sarah told him it was her doing, and he seemed shocked that she’d gone through with it.
John’s death and how it happened have drawn a line in the sand between Jamie and his siblings, Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly), who have their sights set on him moving forward.
Following some behind-the-scenes drama on the series, Costner revealed in a social media post in June that he wouldn’t be returning to Yellowstone for “season 5B or into the future.”
“It was something that really changed me. I loved it and I know you loved it,” Costner said of the show. “I just want to let you know that I won’t be returning. I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop, and I’ll see you at the movies.”
(SPOILER ALERT)After being a writer on season 1 of the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, former Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein joined the cast for season 2, and he tells ABC Audio it wasn’t something he ever expected to do.
“I was very happy just writing,” he says. He had, however, considered doing a cameo, “just so I can walk past Harrison Ford or something.”
In the end, it was star Jason Segel’s idea to get him in front of the camera, with Goldstein joking, “If Jason Segel tells you to do something, I suggest you do it.”
Goldstein plays Louis in the series, the drunk driver who killed the wife of Segel’s character, Jimmy. The role is certainly a departure from his Ted Lasso character of grumpy Roy Kent, which he says was part of the appeal. His look is a lot different, as well — Goldstein shaved off his beard and mustache for the role — something he thinks made sense for the character.
“He’s hanging on. He’s an open wound of a man, barely existing and not really knowing what to do,” Goldstein says. “The shaving was kind of like almost like a penitence … like, ‘Well, I will at least make the effort to clean up every day.'”
Wednesday’s episode features an important scene in which Louis has a very emotional conversation with Lukita Maxwell, who plays Jimmy’s daughter, Alice, and Michael Urie, who plays family friend Brian. Goldstein says filming the scene “felt very special.”
“We all knew this is the big, like, this is the kind of mid-peak of the season,” he says. “Sometimes it feels very special and like magic to make something, and that was one of those examples where it felt like everyone (was) leaning in and, like, let’s get this.”
Paul Mescal will be making his New York stage debut.
The London revival of Tennessee Williams‘ A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Mescal, Patsy Ferran and Anjana Vasan, is making the transfer across the pond to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York.
Its limited engagement off-Broadway run starts on Feb. 28 and will continue through April 6. Rebecca Frecknall directs the production, which will play at BAM’s Harvey Theater after a return engagement in London that starts on Feb. 3.
The London run was acclaimed, with several Olivier Award wins, including Mescal for Best Actor, Vasan for Supporting Actress and the production-winning Best Revival. Ferran also won a London’s Critics Circle Award for her performance.
