‘Yellowstone’: 9 Twists and Backstabbings You’ll Need to Remember Before the Season 5 Premiere 

By the end of Season 4, Beth (Kelly Reilly) reluctantly agreed to tone down her take-no-prisoners combat style, and honor her father’s wishes to spare as many innocent victims as possible in the battle to protect her family. John encourages Beth to fight tooth and nail against their sworn enemies, but collateral damage — like recently imprisoned environmental activist Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo) — is to be avoided whenever possible. The question is, can a fierce warrior like Beth keep her hair-trigger temper under control and follow a moral code? For now, at least, she and her dad appear to be on the same page. But whether their agreement lasts when things heat up against their powerful adversaries is anybody’s guess.

For Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), Season 4 ended with Hanbleceya, a ritual that literally means “to cry for a vision.” Prompted by his repeated sightings of a wolf at key moments in his life, Kayce spent four days and nights outdoors, sleeping beneath a tree, exposed to the elements without food or water, in an effort to understand the wolf’s meaning. After enduring nightmarish visions and physical hardship, he returned home deeply shaken by what he experienced. When Monica (Kelsey Asbille) finally asks him what he saw, Kacey answers solemnly, “the end of us.” What could this ominous declaration mean? Does it refer to the end of the Dutton family? The end of Kacey and Monica’s marriage? Or possibly the end of Monica’s recently announced pregnancy.

Wedding bells rang at the conclusion of Season 4, which saw Beth and Rip (Cole Hauser) suddenly tie the knot in one of the oddest ceremonies of all time. After all, it’s not every day that the bride-to-be kidnaps a priest at gunpoint and forces him to perform the service. And let’s not forget Rip literally digging up his mother’s grave in the middle of the night so he could remove the wedding ring from her cold, dead finger in order to offer it to Beth. Meanwhile, Jimmy (Jefferson White) dropped by the Yellowstone ranch and introduced the bunkhouse gang to his new fiancé Emily (Kathryn Kelly), a horse vet from the 6666 ranch in Texas. Needless to say, this caught his former girlfriend Mia (Eden Brolin) off guard, and a wild brawl broke out. But does Jimmy still harbor feelings for Mia, or has he truly moved on? And could Mia make trouble for the seemingly happy couple now that her heart has been shattered?

Speaking of Jimmy, his time at the 6666 ranch turned him from a gangly goofball into a hard-working cowboy, and the roping skills and personal confidence he learned on the job are apparent to everyone at the Yellowstone, including John Dutton, who now calls him “Jim” as a sign of respect. But along with this newfound self-assurance comes a new truth: Jimmy is tired of all the violent drama at the Yellowstone ranch. Although he loves and respects his friends who work there, he realizes that he wants to take Emily back to Texas where it’s “just cattle and cowboys all the way to the horizon.” The question for Jimmy is, can he keep making the right decisions, or will his bad habits creep back again? After all, being a cowboy doesn’t solve every issue, as fans have seen many times on the series.

John Dutton publicly announced his intention to run for governor of Montana at the end of Season 4, and as we know from the trailer of Season 5, he’ll soon take the oath of office. This new job wasn’t something he wanted for himself, but it was a necessary evil to prevent his adopted son Jamie (Wes Bentley) from accepting the position. Unfortunately, along with the power to protect his family and their way of life, being governor opens him up to increased media scrutiny, which isn’t particularly helpful for someone who’s sent countless victims to the proverbial “Train Station.” Politics isn’t the only new career he’s involved in, of course. In an effort to build the Yellowstone brand, he also spent much of Season 4 putting together a team of champion show horses and world-class rodeo riders, headed by cocky Travis Wheatley (Taylor Sheridan). With millions of dollars invested in an endeavor in which he freely admits he has little expereince, the rodeo gamble is a sizable risk at a time when a single mistake could be his last.

After committing corporate espionage, Beth was summarily fired from her role as Head of Montana Operations at Market Equities at the end of Season 4, and before she was let go, her platinum-haired nemesis Caroline Warner (Jacki Weaver) announced that the gloves are now off. This isn’t business any longer, Caroline says: It’s personal. She then swears to destroy everything and everyone that Beth holds dear, and promises that she’ll see Beth sent to prison for messing with the firm. Making matters even worse is the fact that Beth’s former boss, Bob Schwartz (Michael Nouri), is still out there, possibly holding a grudge for the way Beth fired him from his own company. Could Caroline and Bob team up to get payback on Beth and the Duttons? On “Yellowstone,” stranger things have certainly happened.

For sniveling Montana Attorney General Jamie Dutton, Season 4 ended with a bang… literally! Although shooting his biological father Garret Randall (Will Patton) in the head wasn’t something he necessarily wanted to do, Beth’s threat to expose Jamie’s numerous crimes and ruin him if he didn’t commit patricide forced his hand. Never one to think things through carefully, however, Jamie incriminated himself all over again when he took Garret’s body to the Train Station to dump it at night, allowing Beth to secretly snap a photo of him in the act. With this devastating proof of guilt in her possession, Beth now has all the leverage she needs to make Jamie do her every bidding in Season 5.

Despite all the shootings and mayhem, Season 4 wrapped up with many of the characters momentarily at peace with each other. 14-year-old Carter (Finn Little) and Beth are friends once again, although their relationship remains somewhat fragile, mostly due to Beth’s unpredictable emotional triggers. Carter’s connection to John Dutton is much stronger in some ways: John took the boy under his wing throughout Season 4, teaching him to ride horses and imparting grandfatherly life lessons about fairness and humility. Meanwhile, Kayce, Monica and Tate (Brecken Merrill) have found temporary harmony in their new home, and even the bunkhouse gang is getting along better, especially now that Lloyd (Forrie Smith) and Walker (Ryan Bingham) are done trying to stab each other to death.

Allies are hard to come by on “Yellowstone,” and John lost an important one in Season 4 when Sheriff Donnie Haskell (Hugh Dillon) was shot to death in a violent holdup at the local diner. Although Haskell’s loyalty wasn’t always 100%, he was there when it counted, and he offered vital cover for Dutton’s illegal activity. But now there’s a new sheriff in town, and he seems far less inclined to look the other way. Appointed interim sheriff, former Watch Commander Bill Ramsey (Rob Kirkland) personally warns John that laws will now be enforced for a change. And if there’s one thing the Duttons don’t need at this particular juncture, an honest police officer tops the list.