Yellowstone's Finale Left Us With Seven Loose Ends

Contains spoilers for "Yellowstone" Season 5, Episode 14 — "Life Is A Promise"

Since 2018, Taylor Sheridan's hit neo-Western drama "Yellowstone" has wowed audiences across the nation. The series was led by longtime star Kevin Costner, who played cattle baron and family patriarch John Dutton for the bulk of the series. But between the two halves of the show's fifth and final season, Costner exited the Paramount Network drama, and "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan had to figure out what to do next. With its final six episodes, he managed to turn the narrative around and bring the Dutton drama to a spectacular close with the super-sized finale, "Life Is A Promise." Yet even with the segment's two-hour runtime, there were still a few loose ends left untied.

Back in November 2024, Luke Grimes revealed how the end of "Yellowstone" really feels, noting that fans would be "really satisfied" with the way the show wrapped up. Whether you loved the creative way the Dutton family got out of that Market Equities deal or still wished that Kevin Costner (or at least Josh Lucas) showed up at the end, there's no doubt that Season 5 is the finish line for "Yellowstone." Of course, there have been some rumors about whether a potential Season 6 will ever happen – in which case, Taylor Sheridan might have to find a way to tie up these seven threads that "Life Is A Promise" left behind.

Back in the first season, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) got romantically involved with his campaign manager, Christina (Katherine Cunningham), who aimed to push her liberal policies on the unsuspecting people of Montana. When Christina became pregnant in Season 2, only to be written off, many assumed that was it for the character. However, she returned in Season 4 to introduce Jamie to his own son, Jamie Jr., aka James, who would become the adopted Dutton's sole reasoning for pressing on politically. Of course, when Beth (Kelly Reilly) discovers that Jamie has a son, she vows to take everything from him, ensuring that he will never have a life with that child.

While it's true that Beth makes good on this promise by killing her brother, the back half of Season 5 forgets all about the boy. Sure, we see Christina again briefly in the penultimate episode, "Give the World Away," but with only a passing mention. Jamie no longer seems concerned with the welfare of young James. More importantly, Beth never threatens Jamie's child again. Maybe she has a change of heart, or maybe her father's death is too fresh in her mind, but either way, it's a bit odd that we never catch up with the young James Dutton in the finale — though as far as "Yellowstone" is concerned, that branch of the Dutton family tree has been effectively removed.

When John Dutton becomes the governor of Montana in Season 5, Clara Brewer (Lilli Kay) soon appears as his assistant. Clara is skilled, competent, and immensely helpful in the final leg of John's political career, and proves herself valuable on the ranch as well. After John's murder, Clara is offered a position alongside his replacement, Governor Steven Rawlings (Gareth Williams). The only problem is, Clara vehemently disagrees with Rawlings' platform and policies, and doesn't want to see her old boss' legacy upended. Opting not to be involved with the new governor, Clara asks Senator Lynelle Perry (Wendy Moniz-Grillo) for a job instead, which Perry offers under one condition: That Clara use her brief unemployment to get word out about what Rawlings and Jamie have planned.

But "Yellowstone" never circles back to this. Not only is Clara absent from the remainder of the season — she doesn't warn either Beth or Kayce (Luke Grimes) as we thought she might — but she doesn't even show up (or perhaps is uninvited) to John's funeral in the finale. Considering how much Part 1 of Season 5 elevates Clara within the narrative, it's a bit odd that she's written out so abruptly in Part 2, without any real consequence. Because it seemed like Taylor Sheridan set the character up to help expose Jamie and Rawlins to the rest of Montana, her failure to return feels like a massive oversight.

Speaking of oversight, another breakout character who fails to make an impact in the back half of the show's extended fifth season is Q'orianka Kilcher's Angela Blue Thunder. In fact, unlike Clara, she doesn't appear in Season 5, Part 2 at all. Angela first showed up on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation in Season 3, and was soon deemed the Native equivalent to Beth's vengeful legal prowess. After failing to appear in Season 4, the character returned for Season 5, Part 1 as a foil to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), now as the face of a new pipeline development that will run through the heart of the reservation — and the Duttons' land to boot. Only, she never shows up again.

As the personification of Rainwater's trouble with the pipeline development, it's a bit odd that the two of them never clash in the back half of the fifth season. Even as Rainwater and Mo (Moses Brings Plenty) take direct action against the pipeline construction — as seen at the beginning of the finale — Angela Blue Thunder is nowhere to be seen. She doesn't raise a fuss, nor does she have anything to say about John Dutton's death. When the Broken Rock people take control over the Dutton land at the very end of the series, Angela is long gone, and the reasoning is never revealed.

In a sudden turn, the final season of "Yellowstone" ignites an operation that results in John Dutton's death. In "A Knife and No Coin," Jamie notes that professionals might be needed to deal with the threat his family has become to Market Equities' Paradise Valley plans. His lover Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) takes these words seriously. In "Desire Is All You Need," Sarah hires Grant Horton (Matt Gerald) for the job. However, Grant's one condition is anonymity, and he threatens to expose her conflict-of-interest love affair with Jamie if any word gets out concerning his company's involvement. 

After killing John Dutton, Grant and his team are in the clear until Kayce uncovers that his father's death was foul play. Now exposed, Grant has Sarah killed, and Jamie becomes a suspect for both murders. When Kayce meets Grant in "Counting Coup," the younger Dutton threatens the assassin's family. While this works to ensure that Grant and his team don't come after Kayce or Beth, it still doesn't explain why the group never releases Sarah and Jamie's sex tape. 

Now, it's possible that Grant assumes the threat is over after Sarah's death, seeing no reason to implicate Jamie in anything. Yet, after being confronted by Kayce, Grant might figure that Jamie was not only involved in the operation, but was perhaps the one who leaked Grant's profession in the first place. Simple revenge might warrant the release of this footage, which would expose Jamie as a liar and a fraud. Nevertheless, this play is dropped entirely.

We already know that Grant's group had surveillance on Jamie's house, so wouldn't Beth murdering her brother in the finale be on camera? It's possible that after Sarah hires the assassin, his group deems their surveillance equipment unnecessary and removes it all. However, it makes more sense that the equipment would remain intact as an insurance policy, and "Yellowstone" itself may support this. When Sarah is executed in "Three-Fifty-Three," the two assassins only do so after she first leaves Jamie's house, meaning they had been surveilling her the whole time. It's certainly possible that those cameras and bugs were still in place to keep tabs on the Market Equities lawyer, especially considering Sarah basically lives at Jamie's up until this point.

But even if Grant and his team removed their equipment, "Yellowstone" also establishes that Jamie himself has cameras set up. Maybe Beth disables them when she enters, or maybe Jamie has taken them down himself after Sarah's death. If so, that may solve this supposed loose end. Of course, any serious investigation into Jamie's disappearance (and death) will likely point back to Beth and Rip anyway, especially given that the latter's Yellowstone-branded truck was likely seen parked in the Attorney General's driveway.

Of all the cowboys on "Yellowstone" who deserved a more definitive ending, Forrie J. Smith's Lloyd wears the prized boot and spurs. Although Rip promises to keep Lloyd on at the Yellowstone if they save the ranch, "Life Is A Promise" takes the old cowboy's story in a different direction after the ranch is sold to the people of Broken Rock. Having worked at the Dutton Ranch for over 40 years, Lloyd decides that if he isn't ranching at the Yellowstone, then he may as well not ranch at all. It's an interesting shift, especially after Rip offers him a place with himself, Beth, and Carter (Finn Little) on their new homestead outside of Dillon, but one we can't exactly argue with.

However, what is frustrating is that Lloyd doesn't get a real ending. After driving to Helena with Rip to help get rid of Jamie's body, the last time we see Lloyd, he's aiding Rip in removing the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch signpost. We learn what happens to Ryan (Ian Bohen), Teeter (Jennifer Landon), and the rest of the Dutton hands, but Lloyd's fate is left in the wind. Maybe that's fitting for some, seeing as he's a real cowboy and all, but it felt to us more like "Yellowstone" wasn't sure how to end Lloyd's on-screen story. Maybe Lloyd will change his mind and join Rip's new brand in western Montana at some point on a new spin-off in the greater Yellowstone Universe. We can dream, anyhow.

Perhaps the biggest loose end in all of "Yellowstone" has always been the infamous Train Station. A literal graveyard for all those who have opposed the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch over the years, this is the closet where all the Dutton secrets are buried, now including Jamie Dutton himself. Jamie's fate there is sort of poetic, given that it's exactly what happens to Will Patton's Garrett Randall, aka Jamie's biological father, a season earlier. Located just over the Wyoming border, the Train Station is a turnout on the side of the small highway with a cliff that runs down to nowhere. But wouldn't someone eventually find it?

Even if "Yellowstone" doesn't return for another season, some of us will wonder about the effectiveness of the Train Station. Given the Duttons' trash can is literally on a main road, it doesn't feel terribly secure as far as secrets go. Under the cover of darkness, it's the perfect place to hide a body, but in the light of day, an unsuspecting tourist might stumble on these corpses. It seems like it would be much safer to legitimately bury the bodies somewhere deep in the ranch (it's the size of Rhode Island, after all) rather than toss them somewhere where they could be discovered.