Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 11 just made John Dutton’s death even worse

In the latest Yellowstone episode, Taylor Sheridan revisited John Dutton’s unexpected death, corpse and all. Needless to say, it was pretty brutal. (Warning: major spoilers ahead!)

Just as the remaining members of the Dutton family are coming together to salvage their ranch, Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 11 has forced them to confront their father’s dramatic death head-on. 

The opening episode of Season 5 Part 2 painted a pretty clear picture of what happened to dear old John. He was murdered in the night, with his death scene staged to look like a suicide. Blood splattered the walls like some gruesome Rorschach test, and his lifeless body lay on the bathroom floor.

Some saw this as a “f**k you” to Kevin Coster, whose exit in 2023 led to the show’s early conclusion. At first, it was easy to defend this choice of death. But after the latest episode, it’s clear there may actually be some humiliation tactics here after all. 

A three-man takedown 

Paramount

Episode 11 saw the return of John Dutton. Or, rather, his body double. We’re taken back to the night of his murder, when the power on his block goes out and three mask-wearing men sneak into the governor’s house. They grab him while he’s sleeping, choking him out and sedating him.

As they carry his limp body into the bathroom and place his own gun in his hand, it becomes hard to watch. They eventually shoot him in the head, staging the scene to look as though John had done it himself. Then, as quickly as they came, they left.

The message of this scene is obvious. This isn’t the John Dutton we knew. Our John Dutton lived through being shot in the chest several times. Our John Dutton survived a burst stomach ulcer, plus a makeshift surgery in a horse ambulance. And our John Dutton, as the show’s very first scene showed us, can survive a head-on collision with a truck.

John’s silent 3am murder comes with little struggle. It’s an easy assassination of the man who’s survived so much more, and perhaps that is a sign that Taylor Sheridan isn’t as over the breakup as he appears to be.

John Dutton’s cold corpse

Paramount

If watching John be dragged across the floor in just his underwear and a t-shirt wasn’t bad enough, the episode continues to use his body like a plot device. Later, when Kayce is determined to get some evidence that it wasn’t suicide, he crashes the medical examiner’s workday.

Forcing her to do an autopsy there and then, we’re forced to watch as John’s pale figure is brought into the examination room, removed from a bag, and placed on a metal slab. The medical examiner twists and turns his body to look him over, all while Kayce watches with hesitant eyes. 

Episode 9 might have been a simple explanation for why John isn’t around anymore, but Episode 11 uses him as a plaything. He’s an object to be tossed around and dragged through a house.

Whether it’s a tactical choice to quietly get back at the man who made this all happen is something only Taylor Sheridan knows. But one thing’s for sure: it’s a far cry from the cattle tycoon we once knew. 

Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 is currently airing on the Paramount Network. For more, find out when the new episode is out, revisit some of the most shocking Yellowstone deaths, and find out what’s going on with Yellowstone Season 6.