[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 13, “Give the World Away.”]
Is this really the final season of Yellowstone? If so, they’re wasting a whole lot of time with random plot instead of bringing the story to a close. Series creator and writer Taylor Sheridan made a long guest-star appearance in the penultimate episode of Season 5 on Sunday, December 8. He returned as horse trainer Travis Wheatley, seen earlier this season and in seasons past. But this time Beth (Kelly Reilly) visited him on his home turf, where she was greeted by Travis’s girlfriend, Sadie, played by Bella Hadid. The 54-year-old series creator casting a 28-year-old supermodel to play his girlfriend? Good grief. Hadid’s real-life boyfriend, rodeo star Adan Banuelos, was one of the episode’s many guest stars as well.
Beth went to Texas looking for help in selling the Yellowstone ranch’s horses. The ranch was hosting an everything-must-go auction to raise money to keep the property or at the very least buy more time, and Beth realized that Travis and his boastful but effective personality was exactly what she needed to get the big money. Beth was greeted by Sadie at the door of Travis’s house when she arrived to the Texas mansion and walked in to find him in minimal clothing surrounded by several naked women playing strip poker as a group of fully clothed men watched (Banuelos had a line in this scene). Beth was disgusted by the whole thing (same). The one great thing this scene did provide, however, was a new zinger from Beth. When asked if she wanted to play strip poker with them, Beth replied, “I would rather have a gasoline enema.”
If you were wondering what Hadid was doing in an episode of Yellowstone, she’s been an equestrian for years. Now, she competes in cutting horse competitions like Banuelos and Sheridan. On November 29, Hadid, Yellowstone and other Sheridan series stars, and Sheridan partook in the first-ever National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Celebrity Cutting Contest in San Antonio. So the couple’s cameo seem to have come about through their friendship with Sheridan. Although, with Hadid being a rodeo competitor herself now, she could’ve just appeared as herself in the episode like her boyfriend and a handful of other rodeo stars did.
Bella Hadid as Sadie and Adan Banuelos as himself in Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 13 (Paramount Network)
Other guest stars included Hallmark star Bart Johnson (aka Troy Bolton’s dad from High School Musical) and Bryce Durfee as two men at a bar that Beth and Teeter (Jen Landon) trolled for entertainment as they grieved John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and Colby (Denim Richards). Kelby Phillips, Cade McCutcheon, Matt Mills, Tracer Gilson, Kory Pounds, and Brandon Beardan, who all hail from the rodeo world, also appeared as themselves alongside Banuelos. This was like that episode of The Bear Season 3 that had all of the real-life chefs. Sure, it’s fine to want to spotlight the real people that inspired your show. But don’t do it at the expense of the plot. There’s only one episode left in Yellowstone, if this really is the final season. There’s hardly time to waste.
When the guest stars weren’t onscreen, the plot did start to become more focused among the Duttons. Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) sexual relationship with the murdered Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) was leaked to the press by Beth, who secretly witnessed their first sexual encounter last season. Leaking this information was part one of her starting to ruin Jamie’s life after their father was killed. The next step, as she promised to her brother earlier this season, will be killing him the next time she sees him in person.
Jamie went to his ex/the mother of his son, Christine (Katherine Cunningham), asking for help. She begrudgingly came up with a plan for him to distance himself from Sarah and the homicide investigation, and Jamie agreed to follow it for the sake of his son. We’ll see if he can keep his promise to protect his son’s future by not creating a scandal that will follow the kid for the rest of his life.
Back on the ranch, Kayce (Luke Grimes) didn’t tell Monica (Kelsey Asbille) that he held a child ay gunpoint to threaten the man who orchestrated his father’s murder. He simply said he did what he needed to do to protect their family, and Monica didn’t ask any questions even though Monica from the past absolutely would have. Kayce also may have figured out a way to save the family’s land through a savvy business deal that won’t break the bank. In next week’s finale, the Duttons will bury John in the family plot and the ranch’s fate will hopefully be revealed. Please, no more scenes showing how well Sheridan can ride a horse.
Yellowstone, Sundays, 8/7c, Paramount Network