Yellowstone star Wes Bentley on those shocking finale deaths: ‘Feels like the board got wiped’
It’s a bloodbath for the Dutton family in the season 3 finale. Who’s left from the wreckage, and whose mess is this?
In the matter of a season on Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, Wes Bentley’s Jamie has successfully come back into the Dutton family and catapulted himself right out again. Known as the politico son with a problem standing up for himself, his family, and the Duttons’ Yellowstone ranch, Jamie is now on the lookout for himself and himself only. In Sunday’s shocking season 3 finale, more than one Dutton was left for dead by the episode’s closing moments. And Jamie may have reached his point of no return.
“As an audience, it feels like the board got wiped and we can write some new things on that board,” Bentley tells EW.
While it remains to be seen who is definitively dead, the Dutton family is assuredly forever shaken up. Leading up to the explosive ending, we witnessed patriarch John (Kevin Costner) on the brink of a compromise with Chief Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) to team up against Roarke Morris (Josh Holloway) and the hedge fund looking to snatch land away for airport development. But John’s kind gesture to help a family on the side of the road quickly turned into tragedy: A van snuck up behind John and an unknown assailant shot him repeatedly, leaving his fate in question as he stared up at the big Montana sky.
Who called in the hit and whether Morris had anything to do with it will be for theories leading up to season 4, which is shooting in Montana this month. But there’s one thing we know for sure: John wasn’t the only one with a target on his back.
In season 2, Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) was saved from a coordinated hit at her office by Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser). But this time, she didn’t appear to be so lucky. By the season 3 finale, Beth was set on keeping the Yellowstone land without real desire for compromise from other parties. She went with her father, John, to Jamie’s office to discuss the potential sale of the land, in a meeting that also included members of the Broken Rock Indian Reservation and the hedge fund. Everyone in the scene was jostling to keep what they believe to be theirs—but Jamie had a different agenda.
“It’s interesting to watch him let them try to play off their power moves,” Bentley says. “Then Jamie drops the hammer and takes his power at the right moment.” The scene of Jamie allowing the sale of the land was “one of my favorite shooting the whole series,” Bentley adds.
Beth left the meeting asking her brother for a final word, a wish Jamie did not immediately grant. Back at her office, Beth’s assistant informed her that a package had arrived in the mail. Before Beth could react, it was too late. Her office exploded, and the finale cut to the next scene, leaving Beth’s fate a mystery.
Bentley describes Jamie in the aftermath of the finale as a man “without a spine, without legs to stand on.” Below, the actor opens up about what exactly that means for the future of Yellowstone; what led up to the action-packed final 10 minutes of the finale, including the chess match for the Yellowstone land; and what he thinks about Jamie and Beth’s broken relationship.
