Everyone has to go sometime, and Jamie Dutton’s (Wes Bentley) time has nearly run out. It’s not that he’s more evil than any of his Dutton half-siblings — no one in the world of “Yellowstone” comes out of the show without a ding and a dent to their soul. It’s just that Jamie is the one who’s plotted frequently against his stepfather and his siblings, without compunction and in an attempt to gain wealth, identity, and respect independent of his family’s name.
While on some level it’s admirable that he wants to be seen for his own skills and not as an adjunct of the Dutton clan, there’s been a price for that — and that price involves pasting a target on his head that nearly every one of his siblings wants to hit. People tend to not last long when they run afoul of the Duttons, and Jamie has outlived many a weasel who’s had it out for John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and the others. But here’s why he should meet his maker in the back end of Season 5.
5. It could officially kick off Beth Dutton’s villain arc
Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) is Jamie’s worst enemy for one big reason: While Jamie means well, he approves a sterilization procedure on Beth — required by the abortion clinic he quietly sneaks her off to — in order to terminate her pregnancy by Rip (Cole Hauser) when she’s a teenager. That has left Beth unable to have children, and she’s been at Jamie’s throat ever since. Both were just frightened teenagers back then, something that neither of them seems to acknowledge when they talk (all right, scream) about the situation. They’ve already had violent fights, all of which Beth has won.
While plenty of fans have found Beth to be grating, to say the least, it’s about time she really went scorched earth on the world — and what better place to start than with Jamie’s death? With her biggest enemy out of the way, who’s to say her bloodlust for control would be quenched? It could pit the show’s ultimate gray hat against the tuning fork of the show’s morality — Kayce (Luke Grimes) and his family, who have tried to help the innocent and are very cognizant of the Dutton family’s promise to return their ranch’s land to Broken Rock tribe after seven generations have farmed the land. That’s a final act worth staying home for, and might just be the shot in the arm the last season of the series needs.
4. The Duttons have killed others for smaller transgressions
Jamie’s survival within the family only seems to hinge on one thing: he’s a Dutton by blood, and they look out for their own, even when they’ve done wrong. The truth is that the Duttons have killed people for far smaller transgressions than the ones Jamie has committed against them — and not getting rid of him before he rises to threaten John’s life makes them look collectively weak and foolish. After all, this is the same family who ‘takes ranch hands to the train station’ if they decide to leave the Dutton ranch behind.
When it comes to blood, the family’s all for one. Jamie himself knows this and has acted accordingly. But he’s also the man who has consistently blamed Beth for killing their mother in a riding accident. When he discovers he was adopted — a fact John has long kept from him — Jamie builds a relationship with his biological father and is able to make enough of a mental break from the family to start thinking of himself and his needs. Killing Garrett Randall (Will Patton) in their name pushes him toward teaming up (both in and out of the bedroom) with Market Equities lawyer Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), who wants to build upon the Dutton’s unspoiled land. In light of all of those cowboys who’ve gone boots up for simply leaving the ranch, Jamie’s death would just make sense, blood relation or not.
3. It would deepen John’s character
This one really hinges on what the show decides to do with John Dutton. We all know that John won’t be a real-time part of the upcoming back end of “Yellowstone” Season 5 after Kevin Costner quit the series. But it’s always possible to either have him be involved in the show through flashbacks with a younger actor, one-sided conversations, or archival footage. In any event, the end of John’s story is the de facto end of the drama itself, and the fate of Jamie is a big part of that.
If Jamie dies, John will have to confront both his poor lifelong treatment of his stepson and the lack of appreciation he’s paid him over the years. This would be extremely difficult to convey without Costner on the set, but it’s vital to giving the character of John a fitting conclusion to his story arc. While Jamie has long wanted to kill John, according to Wes Bentley himself, it’s more fitting for Jamie to die. It would also put to an end to years of Jamie working himself to death to please John. But that’s just another facet of his character which hints at doom in his future.
2. It would be a proper end to his character arc
Jamie Dutton seems born to suffer for the family name. This is the guy who gets someone shoots journalist Sarah Nguyen (Michaela Conlin) to protect family secrets because she is getting too close to finding out about the ‘train station,’ all for naught. The man couldn’t finesse his way into family respect if he tried. Beth understandably wants to quash his happiness at every turn — even vowing to take his son from him — and John has been less than supportive, deliberately running against Jamie for the governor’s seat and winning when Jamie tries to enter the political arena. When they become political rivals, Jamie’s death warrant is sealed.
After years of suffering and scheming, killing Jamie is the absolute best possible ending to his character arc. It would be the fulfillment of his lifetime self-effacement-turned-villainous threat to the Dutton cause, and the ultimate indication of his inability to fit in with his siblings, in spite of his best wishes. It would likely accidentally make him a saint to the public — and might, ironically, lead to the downfall of the Duttons as a whole.
1. It would end the Duttons’ united front forever
Jamie’s death might be just the kind of thing that could cause Dutton to turn on Dutton, bringing the family down to its knees after years of unity and secret-keeping. While they think Jamie’s an enemy, a liability, and indeed a danger to them, killing him will open the floodgates that have kept the Dutton siblings from doing one another harm in spite of years of tension lingering between them.
If you take Jamie out of the equation, Beth has nowhere to dump her ruinous anger. Kayce has one less reason to stay loyal to the Dutton side of the family. He already has Monica (Kelsey Asbille) trying to talk him into leaving the family’s feuds behind, leaving him trapped between her people and his. Everyone on “Yellowstone” may hate Jamie, but that’s to their detriment. They’ve all been so focused on Jamie being the problem that, should he be eliminated, chaos will reign as they scramble their way to the top of the pile in the hope of acquiring power and position for themselves. And that’s just the sort of poetic justice the Duttons deserve.