Truly no one is safe on the Dutton ranch anymore.
On the Sunday, Dec. 1 episode of Yellowstone, Colby (Denim Richards) was the latest member of the Dutton family’s circle to lose his life. Tragedy struck in the simplest of ways, leaving fans truly shocked.
“The thing that I think is such a gut-punch about Colby’s death is that in a season where there are all these twists and turns and dark forces and giant narrative swings, Colby’s death is so powerful because it’s so simple,” Christina Voros, who directed the episode, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Calling it “gut-wrenching” and a “freak accident,” Voros said that the death — which involved Colby being trampled by a horse while helping Carter (Finn Little), an inexperienced cowboy — is representative of the real-life “risks” of being a cowboy.
“It’s a dangerous job, and this kind of thing happens and it happens in a split-second. This death comes as a shock because it’s so simple, and it’s so grounded in the world in which all these characters work that it’s profoundly tragic,” she said.
Understandably, Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) took Colby’s death hard, even remarking how “it’s a dangerous job and one day it will kill me, too.” Given Rip’s ominous comments, Voros said it’s “a natural instinct to wonder if everything anyone says could be foreshadowing.”
“Kayce saying goodbye to Monica [Kelsey Asbille] could be foreshadowing. Beth saying goodbye to Rip could be foreshadowing. It’s just where one’s brain goes when you experience a shocking sudden loss after several sudden losses, and I think it’s easy to read into that.”
Richards, who has played the ranch hand since season 1 of the series, also said that how “simple” his character’s death was plays into how shocking it felt to the audience.
“I think this death was something where you realize life is very tenuous,” the 36-year-old actor told THR. “And going forward, it brings a little bit more of a grounding, or more of a foundation, to what’s already going on. Sometimes the show’s stakes are so high that you can get lost in how high they are.”
In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, Richards said he “found out I think about maybe a day before they sent me the scripts.”
“I was actually flying back from Texas and I got the call that this was what was going to be happening. So this had to have been back in May,” he explained.
“I feel like this season, [creator] Taylor [Sheridan] is really emphasizing the realities of cowboy life. We have this saying that everyone’s going to fall off a horse at some point in their life. It’s not if, it’s just when and how bad. That is not a phenomenon,” he continued. “These things do happen, so I do think that there’s that element where I think it is about really wanting to emphasize that this is a reality.”
“It’s kind of poetic because in season 3, Colby gets trampled by a horse multiple times in the river. And so maybe this was those horses’ ancestors coming back to get retribution. But more than anything, it was about as clean as you could possibly do a death,” he added.
Richards shared a photo of his chair from set on Instagram after Sunday’s episode aired, writing in the caption, “Grateful🙏🏾✊🏾🙏🏾,” and fans filled the comments section with love for his performance.
Several of his costars also shared some love, including Jen Landon, who played Colby’s love interest, Teeter, for three seasons.
“You are beyond loved, my dear friend and actor,” she wrote. “So many hearts broke tonight. 💔💔💔.”
Colby’s death in episode four of season 5B follows two other major deaths. The long-awaited final episodes kicked off with the reveal that John Dutton had died, which was a shock to fans but also somewhat expected given Kevin Costner had confirmed his departure from the role when filming began in the spring.
His death was somewhat avenged in episode 3, as Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) was killed after it was confirmed she plotted John’s death — and had men stage it to look like a suicide.
It wasn’t a creative decision that Costner, 69, seemed very happy about, as he said that once he heard it was a suicide, he wasn’t in a “rush to go see it” on SiriusXM’s The Michael Smerconish Program.
New episodes of Yellowstone premiere Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount Network.