Yellowstone viewers decry ‘unnecessary’ death of original character in latest episode

It’s been called ‘the saddest one yet’ as final season killing spree continues

Yellowstone fans have been left devastated after an original character was “unnecessarily” killed off.

The Paramount series, following ranch owners in Montana, is drawing to a close with a final roster of episodes that is drawing comparison to Game of Thrones due to the sheer amount of characters it’s killing off.

*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*

The concluding chapter of season five kicked off with the death of John Dutton, the lead character played by Kevin Costner, whose departure from the series has been well documented and mired in controversy.

In last week’s episode, Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) – the girlfriend of Wes Bentley’s Jamie Dutton – was assassinated after viewers discovered she was responsible for murdering John.

The final season killing spree claimed its latest victim in the latest episode, which aired on Sunday (1 December) – and it appears to have upset viewers the most due to the “unnecessary” nature of the plot twist.

The moment saw original character Colby Mayfield (Denim Richards) get kicked in the chest by a wild stallion he had been trying to tame in recent episodes.

Making the death more heartbreaking was the fact that Colby had just told his girlfriend Teeter (Jennifer Landon) that he loved her.

Long-time viewers of Yellowstone, who have liked Colby since his appearance in the first season, have been left furious with showrunner Taylor Sheridan, with many decrying the amount of deaths that have happened in recent episodes.

One fan said “there was absolutely no reason at all to kill Colby”, while another stated: “I am devastated right now! What the actual hell Taylor Sheridan!”

Colby has been killed off in ‘Yellowstone’ (Paramount)

Others noted that “everyone is being killed off”, with one person asking: “Is everybody going to go off into the sunset??” – while one person noted on X/Twitter that Colby’s death was “the saddest one yet”.

Costner’s death kicked off the final batch of episodes and, after the airing of his character’s death, the Oscar winner said: “I didn’t see it. I’m going to be perfectly honest. I didn’t know it was actually airing last night. I didn’t realise yesterday was the thing.”

Yellowstone airs weekly on Sundays on Paramount Plus and is available to stream on Paramount+ in the UK.