Does Jamie Dutton die in Yellowstone?

With Yellowstone now officially over, it’s time to take stock when it comes to our favorite characters and ask the question: Does Jamie Dutton die? (Warning: major spoilers ahead!

Taylor Sheridan’s hit Paramount series Yellowstone has come to an end after seven years, with Season 5 Part 2 closing out the show for good. The final chapter officially arrived on December 15, with an explosive finale episode that brought about one major death.

The road to the end was a long and bloody one. John Dutton, Sarah Atwood, and Colby Mayfield all bit the dust before the final episode, meaning only a lucky few got a happy ending in Sheridan’s world.

That put the black sheep of the family, Jamie Dutton, in a very tough spot indeed. Having been emotionally beaten and bruised by his adoptive family, Jamie spent five and a half seasons trying to outsmart the Duttons out of revenge. Unfortunately, this made him a target.

Does Jamie Dutton die in Yellowstone?

Yes – Jamie made it all the way to the end of the show, only to be killed by his sister Beth in the final episode, “Life Is a Promise”.

In the finale, Season 5 Episode 14, Jamie had just given a speech that essentially exonerated him from suspicions surrounding John Dutton’s death. Feeling good (for once), he went back home, only to be suddenly attacked by Beth, who had stormed over there after John’s funeral.

Paramount

The two became entangled in a fight for their lives, with Beth hitting him with a crowbar and spraying him with bear mace. Jamie got a few good punches in, and even got the upper hand when he was able to wrap his hands around Beth’s throat, almost choking her to death.

Thankfully, Rip arrived just in time to push Jamie away. As he held Jamie down, Beth grabbed a knife and plunged it into his stomach, killing him. That same night, Rip and Lloyd took his body to the Train Station while Beth convinced police he was the one who had attacked her, fleeing right after.

Why did Beth kill Jamie?

Beth killing Jamie at the end of the show was one of the biggest fan theories from day one, all because the two siblings had a feud that never went away. Beth also knew he was involved in John Dutton’s death somehow, and vowed to take revenge.

Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) journey at the Dutton ranch wasn’t straightforward. When the series started, he was introduced as a lawyer and one of the trusted members of the Dutton family who dealt with the legal aspects of the ranch’s operations.

But there was always ongoing tension between Jamie and his family. He often felt like an outsider and had a strained relationship with his father, John Dutton (Kevin Costner).

Paramount

Jamie’s decisions, especially those related to the ranch, often led to disagreements with John, as well as his siblings. One significant rift happened when Jamie gave an interview that painted John Dutton in a negative light, spilling his illegal activities out into the public eye. Ultimately, this led to him killing the journalist responsible.

When Jamie ran for Montana’s Attorney General in Season 3, all of the family tensions started to make sense when he found out he was adopted by John and Evelyn Dutton when he was just three months old.

It was also uncovered that his biological father murdered his birth mother. This revelation shook Jamie to his core and made him question his identity and place within the Duttons.

Paramount

Jamie had a particularly complicated relationship with his sister, Beth (Kelly Reilly). When they were younger, Jamie took Beth to a clinic for an abortion, but he also had her sterilized without her knowledge or consent, believing it was for her own good. This act, which Beth later discovered, led to deep-seated resentment and hatred towards Jamie.

But the resentment went both ways. You see, in Season 4, Jamie’s birth dad – notorious criminal Garrett Randall (Will Patton) – tried to worm his way back into his son’s life. Randall wanted revenge on the Duttons for taking his son and tried to convince Jamie not to let them manipulate him.

Things came to a head in the Season 4 finale. As the pair had a conversation, Jamie stood up and shot his father in the head, killing him, all because Beth had manipulated him into doing so after finding out Garrett was responsible for a family-wide assassination attempt. She also used this as leverage, because as he was getting rid of the body, she showed up and took a picture. Perfect blackmail material.

How Season 5 set up Jamie’s demise

Season 5 Part 1 began with the two sides going to war. Jamie was trying to have John Dutton impeached as the governor of Montana, and it was safe to say Beth wasn’t happy about it.

When she confronted him about the evidence she has that he killed his biological father, Jamie told her that the family had been taking bodies to the “train station” for years – and that included her husband Rip Wheeler, who Jamie didn’t have the best relationship with.

“There are centuries worth of our family’s secrets at the bottom of that canyon,” Jamie explained to Beth, later adding: “Ask your husband where the Train Station is and how many times he’s been there.”

Beth confirmed the secret with John, before suggesting that the Train Station – aka, the Dutton family’s dumping ground for enemies they’ve killed – is “the place for Jamie.”

As such, Part 2 began with an almost certain target on Jamie’s head. However, he wasn’t necessarily to blame for John Dutton’s death. It was really Sarah Atwood, Jamie’s girlfriend. She hired the hitmen to take out John all because she wanted to help Jamie rise to the top for her own interests.

Naturally, once Jamie found this out, he panicked. His stress then peaked when Sarah was suddenly and brutally killed in her car by associates of the hitmen, who were now worried she was a liability. He then sought advice from his ex-lover Christina, who told him he needed to remove himself from the narrative and make a speech emphasizing the need for justice for John’s murder.

That’s exactly what he did (successfully, too) in the final episode. Unfortunately, his triumph was short lived, as Beth would show up and take his life soon after.

RIP Jamie Dutton. For more, check out all the shows to watch if you love Yellowstone. You can also learn more about 6666, 1923 Season 2, and Yellowstone Season 6. Don’t miss our breakdown of the Yellowstone cast, too.