And so, the curtain falls on the reign of John Dutton, played by the departing Kevin Costner. The rancher patriarch and

Governor finally meets his fate in the episode Desire is All You Need of part 2 of season 5 of Yellowstone premiered on

Paramount+. This controversial ending points towards the next phase of the series. In the first ten minutes of the episode,

it is revealed that John has died. His body is found on the bathroom floor of the Governor’s mansion, with a gunshot wound to the head.

The authorities refuse to disclose a specific cause of death, but Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) is quick to blame her brother Jamie (Wes Bentley) for their father’s death. Beth, naturally, has thought Jamie deserves to die for a long time. She convinces Kayce (Luke Grimes) to join her plan to gather evidence about their father’s murder and eventually kill him.

However, Jamie is innocent in this case. The real culprit is his cunning girlfriend, Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), who ordered the murder as a result of a previous conversation they had about taking John to the train station. A preview covering the rest of season 5, aired after Desire is All You Need, suggests that Sarah and Jamie will make amends. But it seems the rest of the season is heading towards an undeniable turning point.

What awaits the Dutton clan at the end of season 5? Everything points towards a rank war, one that could put the future of the Dutton Ranch in question. During the season 5B preview, Jamie is seen saying that the only way to solve a problem is to sell the ranch. Also in the footage, Kayce and Jamie fighting, Beth promising to take down Jamie, and a frustrated Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) trying to manage it all from afar.

The second part of season 5 of Yellowstone is inevitably heading towards a turning point

Beth’s main target seems to be Sarah, who is seen smashing her smartphone with a hammer. The wild card here seems to be Mo (Mo Brings Plenty), who offers Beth a deal during the trailer. What could he ask for in return? Perhaps the Duttons’ century-old agreement to keep their property before it reverts to Mo and Monica’s (Kelsey Asbille) tribe in the Broken Rock Reservation is at stake here.

Although it’s no longer guaranteed that season 5 will be the end of Yellowstone—Variety reported in August that a season 6 focused on Rip and Beth could be in the cards—it definitely seems to be the end of the line for multiple fan-favorite characters.