After five dramatic seasons, with the final one split into two parts, Yellowstone ended in December 2024. Fast-forward to 2026, and CBS is preparing to debut its first Yellowstone spinoff, Marshals, starring Luke Grimes reprising his role as Kayce Dutton. Here, we’re recapping Yellowstone‘s final season — Kayce and his family’s endings in particular — to help refresh your memory before Marshals premieres.
How did Yellowstone end?
Yellowstone‘s final season (Season 5 Part 2) began with the murder of John Dutton (Kevin Costner), and the rest of the season depicted the fallout. Another Dutton died by the end, when Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) series-long rivalry finally came to a violent head. With Rip’s (Cole Hauser) help, Jamie was killed and taken to the train station, the gorge where the Duttons tossed the dead bodies of the enemies they killed.
Kayce’s grief over his father’s murder led him down a road to hunt down the killer. It was revealed that Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), Jamie’s lover, hired a hitman to kill John. Kayce hunted down that hitman and threatened him in front of his young daughter.
After the dust settled on their family conflicts, the Dutton Ranch was sold. Kayce, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and Tate (Brecken Merrill) stayed in their house on the land’s east camp, and Beth and Rip moved to a new ranch with their adopted son, Carter (Finn Little). Beth and Rip are getting their own spinoff, titled Dutton Ranch. Merrill, Gil Birmingham, and Mo Brings Plenty are reprising their Yellowstone roles in Marshals.
Who bought the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch?
The Dutton Ranch faced its biggest existential threat in the final season. The property taxes on the ranch were impossibly high, and Beth, Rip, Kayce, and Monica tried raising money to help pay them. They needed a miracle to stop the land from getting into the hands of those who would build tourist attractions on top of it. Then Kayce had a brilliant idea.
Kayce asked Beth if she were to sell him her $300,000 car for $1, would that be illegal? And from there, would he pay tax on the value of the car or on the price he paid for it? The answer to the former was “No,” and the latter was the actual price. Kayce ended up selling the ranch to Thomas Rainwater (Birmingham) for $1.25 per acre. As Kayce explained, that was the price the land was sold for after it was taken from the Native Americans, so he would only charge that much to give it back to them. The final price was $1.1 million.
Kayce and Tom agreed that his family could live in the east camp of the land. The land was declared a wilderness area, on which nothing can be built. No motorized vehicles could be used on it either, so the hundreds of acres could only be traversed by horse or on foot.
Returning the land to the people of the Broken Rock Reservation fulfilled the 1883 prophecy. The prophecy stated that the Duttons would hold the land for seven generations before it was returned to the Indigenous people.
How did Yellowstone end for Kayce, Monica, and Tate Dutton?
Their family of three had a relatively happy ending. John’s death and Jamie’s inadvertent involvement in it (Sarah ordered the hitman without Jamie’s knowledge, although Jamie did give her the idea) changed their lives forever. But the surviving Dutton siblings ended the series with fresh starts for their families.
What happens to Kayce, Monica, and Tate Dutton in Marshals?
In Marshals, Kayce needs another new start, so he joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, where he and his teammates must balance family, duty, and the high psychological cost that comes with serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence.
“Being a cowboy was at the heart of his character” in Yellowstone, Grimes told TV Insider on the set of Marshals. “He wanted his little slice of heaven and some cattle. Every other Dutton wanted the world. [But] before Marshals starts, the worst thing that could possibly happen to him happens.”
It’s implied in the Marshals trailer that someone close to Kayce and Tate dies. We’ve theorized that it will be Monica. Whatever tragedy happens at the beginning of Marshals, Grimes says that it propels him to “take this job [and] become a useful member of his community again. It feels good to be good at something and use it to help people.”
Get a deep dive into the new series in our exclusive preview with the Marshals cast here.
Marshals, Series Premiere, Sunday, March 1, 8/7c, CBS
