If there is one thing that Taylor Sheridan is capable of doing, that’s creating a new universe from scratch and breathing life into it. Yellowstone is by no means or form supposed to be a game-changing new series. Based on a moderately predictable premise, the show snowballed into one of the biggest hits, simply off the back of Sheridan’s complexity in creating character storylines.
Keeping the Dutton family at the epicenter of the Yellowstone story, the actor-turned-Oscar-nominated filmmaker shapes a crude yet encompassing narrative about the ranch cowboy lifestyle, with political and psychological elements embedded within the series.
Yellowstone Adds Some Flavor to the Systemic Violence
After delivering annals of violence, bloodshed, and trauma to the Yellowstone Duttons, it was high time Taylor Sheridan brought some good old-fashioned romance into it. But in a world infested with crime and power struggles, love is mostly an abstract thought. And yet, like Dr. Ian Malcolm once said, life finds a way.
As such, life did find a way to bring Luke Grimes’ Kayce and Kelsey Asbille’s Monica together just as it did with Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly’s Rip and Beth. Even in the overarching theme of systemic violence and terror being spread through the valleys of Montana, love is as much a part of the Yellowstone narrative as politics and ranch drama.
However, what becomes concerning beyond a certain point is the currently unresolved state of affairs in Yellowstone. Despite the series having come to its last leg, Taylor Sheridan braves an onslaught of criticism for the poor writing quality while preparing for the final showdown to one of the biggest modern television epics ever.
Taylor Sheridan Brings Shakespeare to Yellowstone
As fan theories pollute the internet with countless possibilities of what could go right or wrong with the fast-approaching f inale, what Yellowstone really needs is a vote of confidence from its very own creator. Under Taylor Sheridan’s supervision, the series could finally be vindicated for the slow decline in its quality over the past few seasons.
But before that, the show needs to address one of its most pertinent problems — the age-old Yellowstone vs. Reservation clash. Following Occam’s razor, it is possible that Kayce and Monica Dutton (one a child of the Duttons and the other of the Reservation) could finally be the answer to all their problems. Their devotion to each other and their nuclear family has, until this point, triumphed all and if Sheridan holds on to it, could make the pair standing on opposite ends of the war put an end to the territorial clashes.
In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the same theory was somewhat confirmed as the actor playing Kayce Dutton claimed:
The great thing about this show is that every character has their arc going simultaneously, and Kayce is always in this rock and a hard place kind of story where he and Monica are star-crossed lovers that weren’t meant to be. There’s a Romeo and Juliet aspect to that, with houses divided. There’s the Reservation and Yellowstone, and how they’ve always clashed with each other.
So yeah, ultimately, that’s where we all want to see this story go, but I have no idea where it’s going. Kayce’s vision quest at the end of season four could possibly be a sign that things are going to have to change. He has the vision of the woman who tells him he needs to choose a path, and so you get the sense that maybe some kind of change is coming.
Meanwhile, although Kelsey Asbille’s later presence in the series has been much scrutinized, her character has primarily remained on the sidelines. Taylor Sheridan be willing, Asbille’s role as Monica Dutton could finally be of service in resolving Yellowstone’s final problem.
Yellowstone is available to stream on Paramount+