Yellowstone: The 5 Worst Things About The Series Finale

Contains spoilers for "Yellowstone" Season 5, Episode 14 — "Life is a Promise"

Now that "Yellowstone" has officially concluded its run — to rise again in the form of a spin-off that will complement its ongoing prequel series "1883" — it's time to sit back and contemplate how the mothership series ended things for good. While it's gotten mixed to positive reviews from fans, there have been plenty of complaints about how Taylor Sheridan chose to wrap up his neo-Western epic with "Life is a Promise." 

Some of the complaints tie into how the death of John Dutton (Kevin Costner) was handled. Others are unhappy about the way Jamie Dutton's (Wes Bentley) years-long conflict with his hellcat sister Beth (Kelly Reilly) came to a conclusion. There's also the so-called plot twists that were completely stale before they hit the screen. And that's without mentioning Sheridan's ego-stroking use of his own character as a savior of sorts. Let's get into the nitty gritty: Here are the five worst things about "Life is a Promise."

When one has an enormous, highly-rated TV empire as Taylor Sheridan does, a victory lap seems like a reasonable reaction to the conclusion of the mothership series. The trouble with Sheridan's triumphant back-patting is that it consumes large chunks of the plot in the "Yellowstone" finale, making audiences resent his character, Travis Wheatley, and the obvious ego-stroking Travis' presence here denotes.

During the finale, Travis sits at a table in the bunkhouse and regales the entire cast of characters with stories of life on the range. Travis is also there to offer Teeter (Jennifer Landon) a job on his ranch, during which he mocks her accent to her face in a meta nod to the confusion that Landon's head-scratching accent caused among fans. The previous episode was dedicated to making Teeter a sympathetic character in the wake of the death of her beloved, Colby Mayfield (Denim Richards), so not only does this moment turn the audience against Travis, it makes him look like a total jerk. It ends up being just one more Teeter scene that went too far.

This may be less egregious than everything that takes place during the previous episode (which features Bella Hadid playing Travis' girlfriend and several hard-partying scenes involving strip poker, booze, and pool parties), but it's still a moment of self-glorification that should've landed on the cutting room floor.

One would think that, with a good half-dozen plot threads to tie up, the finale of "Yellowstone" would have very little fat to spare when it comes to its runtime. And yet, a good six-plus minutes is wasted on Ryan (Ian Bohen) attending Abby's (Lainey Wilson) concert so he can undo his worst moment on "Yellowstone" and get back together with her, having cruelly dumped her during Season 4. While this is a crucial step for Ryan, and a sign that it's time for him to stop being a cowboy and start lugging amps, there's no reason the audience has to sit there and watch an entire performance from Abby.

Of course, Wilson is a great singer, but it was just too much. This was story time that could've been spent on something more important than wrapping things up for this minor character. It's time that could've been spent, for instance, on finding out how Jamie's son is coping with his "disappearance" or filling in any of the show's unexplained plot holes. Better yet, the last episode could have spent more time building a reasonable conflict between the Duttons and taking advantage of their highly-insulated sense of reality. In the end, this Abby scene is just another moment of drain circling.

One of the greatest condemnations fans can levy against the last season of "Yellowstone" is that it's utterly predictable. Jamie's death was so thoroughly telegraphed that a Martian in another dimension could have seen it coming. The plot twist in which Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) finally sells the family ranch to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) of the Broken Rock Reservation — fulfilling the family's hundred-year promise and finally ridding himself of the burden of John's legacy — is very touching, but it's far from shocking. The sale is simply the result of the worst decision John Dutton made — not preparing for his own death and the estate taxes which end up plaguing the land.

Every Dutton getting away with their crimes is also easy to see coming because Taylor Sheridan really loves a number of his characters — sometimes too much, to the point where no one ever really faces the consequences that they should. Even the many branded hands on the team happily taking payoffs instead of giving evidence on the Dutton family is largely foreseeable. All-told, there isn't a single surprising plot twist to be had in the entire episode. In spite of heavy foreshadowing that something terrible would happen, Kayce and his family get to live out their lives on a tiny plot of land on the reservation, while Beth and Rip (Cole Hauser) contemplate a move to Texas. Fans deserved something far more interesting.

If it wasn't obvious that Taylor Sheridan had been playing favorites with his characters before the "Yellowstone" finale, it is now, especially when it comes to Beth and Rip. While most everyone else on the show pays for their crimes in some way, Beth and Rip learn nothing and change nothing about themselves to achieve their happy ending. They get away with the crimes they've committed against their enemies and the "train station" goes completely undiscovered. To say that this is disappointing is an understatement, especially because their behavior became grating over the final few seasons.

It's such a weak and easy choice, and one that does a great disservice to the show at large. That's not to say that people like Jamie and his paramour Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) are good people, of course, or that Jamie didn't deserve to die for some of his crimes, which includes murdering an innocent journalist. But Beth and Rip should have been dealt more misfortune, something deeper than Rip having to cope with digging a grave for John Dutton by hand. They got off easy, and this leaves a sour taste in the mouth as the final credits roll.

The squeakiest Dutton wheel definitely got the most grease in the finale. Sure, Jamie Dutton may have deserved to die. His death may have been a long time coming. But it sure was disappointing when it finally occurred. Jamie and Beth finally went at it, with Beth claiming revenge on Jamie for the worst thing he'd ever done to her – allowing her to be sterilized after an abortion. Beth comes out on top thanks to Rip's intervention (and a kitchen knife to the gut) and she even smokes a triumphant cigarette afterward. But having Jamie join all of the forgotten ghosts in the train station in such a fashion wasn't a fitting exit for the character. If Beth and Kayce get to learn what it's like without John's omnipresent hand on their shoulders, then why not Jamie? Instead, he pays for the crime of being all right with the death of his father — who was already planning on killing him.

On top of all that, the details of Jamie's disappearance are nonsensical. He's the district attorney of Montana and it's somehow believable to the public that he disappeared due to the domestic violence charges pressed by Beth (who doesn't have the best public reputation). The Duttons have been embroiled in far worse scandals — including the recent apparent murder of their patriarch — so the notion of Jamie just flying the coop in such a manner is borderline ludicrous. It's here that the enormous plot holes left behind by John Dutton's death truly show up and drag the rest of the show down, leaving behind a flawed finale.