Thankfully, Yellowstone Season 5 will arrive without the worried confusion that accompanied Season 4’s premiere, with none of the Duttons fearing for their lives just yet. (Their livelihoods are another matter, as Caroline Weaver aims to destroy everyone’s souls.) Viewers can take comfort in the fact that Rip and Beth start the season stronger than ever as a married couple, with the Season 4 finale honoring the fan-favorite coupling with a wedding officiated by a kidnapped priest. I’d imagine most fans are hoping that the husband and wife distinction won’t hinder their excellence together, and Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly have confirmed that’ll be the case when new episodes start up again, even if Rip will be a little weirded out by part of it.
Speaking to EW in the vaguest of terms about where Yellowstone will kick off its Season 5 stories, Cole Hauser spoke to the biggest change that Rip experiences in his post-wedding life, and why the situation feels a bit strange to him, at least early on. In his words:
The first thing it changes is that he’s moved into the main house, which is somewhere he’s never really been that comfortable. It’s a weird thing to think that John Dutton [Kevin Costner] is actually related to him now through marriage.
Even for a guy like Rip who wears his non-rage emotions on his sleeve — and only on the least visible part of his sleeve — being indebted to a monolith of a human like John Dutton can have an instant effect on a person, even if John may not necessarily see Rip’s loyalty as repaying a debt. But Rip wouldn’t be anywhere near his current spot in life if it weren’t for John stepping in and giving him a place to live, along with a wheelbarrow full of tough love. And he certainly wouldn’t be married to the ranch owner’s shit-kicking daughter.
So after having been held an arm’s length away from John in terms of being “family” for so many years, a fully adult Rip has to mentally come around to the idea that he’s now legally taking up part of a family tree branch, even if he and Beth presumably can’t keep that bloodline going. And that he’s now settling up in the family home, a setting that always has him a little on edge, as hilariously shown in full in Season 4 during Carter’s first family dinner. How weird is it going to be if John forgets the new living arrangements, and sets himself up to get caught with whichever love interest he moves forward with in the fifth season.
Speaking of the couple’s inability to conceive, Cole Hauser talked a little more about Rip and Beth’s early journey in Season 5, and may have been referring to Beth’s teen trauma, and Jamie’s role in it, when saying:
In the beginning, there’s some wonderful moments between the two of us, some stuff that she’s going through in her past, that she’s having to acknowledge for the first time, and me trying to help her through that.
That doesn’t quite match up with Beth ratting Jamie out to Rip so that her new hubby can beat the dogshit out of her brother, so perhaps it’ll be another situation from her past that rises up to change her future. Whatever it ends up being, I think we can all collectively sigh with pure contentment in knowing that Rip will be there to do whatever Beth needs him to, without thinking about himself first. After all, he might have the honor of being John’s son-in-law now, but that just means John doesn’t need to reach as far to put him in his place if he botches things.
Much about the new season is yet to be revealed, beyond the bulk of the cast members returning for more — which will include Q’orianka Kilcher, whose lawyer Angela Blue Thunder hasn’t been around since Season 3 concluded — as well as a small crop of brand new co-stars. Jimmy and Emily will also be back in Montana, but they’ll have to work pretty damned hard to be mentioned in the same breath as “Rip and Beth.”
Yellowstone Season 5 will debut on Paramount Network on Sunday, November 13, at 8:00 p.m. ET, the same day that Sylvester Stallone’s new drama Tulsa King debuts for those with Paramount+ subscriptions. Head to our TV premiere schedule to see what else is hitting the small screen going into the final months of 2022.
