Yellowstone Fans Are Not Holding Back About John Dutton's Final Scene

Contains spoilers for "Yellowstone" Season 5B, Episode 9 — "Desire is All You Need"

Right off the bat, "Yellowstone" got rid of John Dutton (Kevin Costner) at the start of Season 5B, and audience members are mad at creator Taylor Sheridan for killing off the show's central figure in the manner they feel is unbecoming of the character they loved. From Reddit to X to IMDb, the majority of the show's audience seems to hate that he was assassinated and made to look like he did it himself.

"A heart attack would've been more believable. Especially after the cancer and the shooting. No way a man who survived all that would kill himself. You'd think a hitman would do a little research," scolded u/Trayew on the "Yellowstone" subreddit. "John Dutton was a fantastic character, and despite the Kevin Costner drama, he deserved a better goodbye than Yellowstone gave him," observed @AustinPlanet on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Many other fans made note of the behind-the-scenes drama between Costner and Sheridan, which resulted in Costner leaving the show to complete his big screen box office bomb, "Horizon: An American Saga." "Taylor Sheridan was so pissed off at Costner that he offed JD by that method???" said u/anyasolo. "This was one of the worst episodes of the entire series. Sheridan had almost two whole years of knowing Costner would be gone for the second half of the season and to come up with some reason for it on the show," camdomasky observed on IMDb. Still, a number of faithful fans think the show's doing something brilliant — and that audiences ought to be patient and see how the story pays off.

While most of the fan reactions to John Dutton's death were negative, a number of viewers disagreed with the notion that "Yellowstone" is on the decline because he's gone. "[Every] one of us is on a continuum of emotion with the Duttons. Why? Because at its core, it's damn good storytelling, with breathtaking visuals, and an ability to transport us to a wonderfully imaginary world for a brief period of time," said mrtnhrst on IMDb. Plenty of fans also thought the reveal made sense. "I like how they handled Costner no longer being on the show. Death was the best way to go," said u/TiffanyTwisted11. 

Other fans are sticking things out because of the strong performances by cast members like Kelly Reilly. "As a character purist, I get it. But Kelly Reilly's performance deserves fans seeing the season through," said Kristen Kirschner on X. There are plenty of fans around willing to give these actors a chance to prove themselves — but time will tell if they stick it out for the rest of Season 5 or if they end up taking "Yellowstone" to the train station instead.