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Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the series finale of "Yellowstone."
After five seasons and over a year of headline-dominating behind-the-scenes drama, "Yellowstone," Paramount Network's modern-day horse opera, has been put out to pasture.
The series — which up until its most recent batch of episodes starred Kevin Costner as a rancher contemplating which of his adult children would be the right fit to inherit his sprawling ranch — has become the most-watched scripted series in America since it hit screens in 2018.
In November, stars of the series spoke to Business Insider about the show's "mind-boggling" popularity, which only increased in the last few weeks as the show neared its conclusion.
"I think that there's something very human about it where it's looking forward and backward with the same glance," Kelsey Asbille, said. "I think that's maybe the secret sauce."
Her costar Luke Grimes credited the fact that, in his opinion "Yellowstone" had something that has distinguished it from the other Westerns — Taylor Sheridan, whom he called "the best writer for this genre that has ever existed."
The final episode, which aired on Sunday, clocked in at over 90 minutes and gave audiences the closure they'd been waiting for: John's murder was avenged, and the fate of the ranch was finally revealed.
Here's a recap of how "Yellowstone" concluded.
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The final episode saw John's body released from the coroner's office, meaning that the family could finally hold a funeral for him. Viewers may recall that his body ended up having a second post-mortem examination, which revealed there had been foul play in his death.
Rip (Cole Hauser) and the men from the bunkhouse dug a hole for his coffin in the Dutton graveyard, and Beth (Kelly Reilly) gathered the family — minus Jamie — to give John a small, intimate funeral.
Beth was overcome by emotion at seeing the coffin, but when asked by the preacher if she wanted to say her goodbyes, she returned to her steely self and said: "I will avenge you."
Beth took off from the funeral and headed straight to her adopted brother Jamie's (Wes Bentley) house in Helena.
Having just delivered a speech distancing himself from his involvement in his father's death, he returned home to find Beth hiding in his house.
A brutal and bloody fight between them ensued and, had Rip not got there just in time, Jamie might have choked Beth to death. Although Rip was ready to let loose on Jamie, Beth asked him to stop so that she could be the one to kill him. She then fatally stabbed Jamie in the chest and held his gaze, keeping another promise she once made: that she would be the last thing he would ever see.
Afterward, Rip drove Jamie to the 'Train Station' — in other words, he dumped his body off the side of a cliff. Meanwhile, Beth stayed at the house and called the police, pinning everything on Jamie — her father's murder, Sarah Atwood's hit, and her own close call with death.
Having gotten his sister's approval in the previous episode, Kayce went ahead with his plan to sell the ranch to the Broken Rock Reservation for the same cheap price — $1.25 an acre — that his ancestors bought it for almost 150 years prior.
"Congratulations, you just made the worst land deal since my people sold Manhattan," Chief Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) told him.
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However, Rainwater said there was one distinction: the Yellowstone ranch land will never change in a way that will make it unrecognizable in another 150 years. The tribe will live on the land but never sell it to developers.
As Beth had whispered to John's coffin earlier in the episode, this was perhaps the only way for the ranch to be saved.
"You made me promise not to sell an inch, and I hope you understand that this is me keeping it. There may not be cows on it, but there won't be condos, either. We won," she said.
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With no ranch, the crew of cowboys living in the bunkhouse decided their futures. Teeter (Jennifer Landon) landed a job at Travis's (Taylor Sheridan) ranch alongside her old friend Jimmy (Jefferson White).
Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith), the oldest ranch hand, decided that if he couldn't be a cowboy at the Yellowstone ranch, he'd rather not be a cowboy at all and so retired.
Ryan (Ian Bohen) left the ranch and immediately sought out Abby (Lainey Wilson), the country singer he was previously dating, hoping she would take him back.
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When audiences saw Beth and Rip at the end of the episode, they were settled into their new home and ranch, miles away from the Yellowstone ranch, along with their adopted son Carter (Finn Little).
As Beth had promised, the place was really out in the sticks, miles away from a town, let alone an airport. The closest bar, she told Rip, even turned away tourists if they happened to pass through.
"Sounds like my kind of place," Rip told his wife.
Elsewhere, Kayce, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) had kept a small patch of land for themselves and begun farming their own cattle. Although Rip had offered Kayce the Yellowstone Dutton ranch sign to take with him to his new farm, Kayce declined, stating that he was thinking of starting his own brand.
