Yellowstone's War Amps Up Thanks to the Best Episode in Years

Now that was an episode worthy of the final season of one of TV's biggest shows. After two years and two meandering, time-warped hours, Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 finally got going on Sunday. The war has finally begun, and both sides are getting their punches in, with bodies beginning to fall. Maybe we really are in for a bloodbath. 

Shockingly, Kayce (Luke Grimes) became the hero of the episode, like everyone suddenly remembered he's smart, capable, and has a military background. He, like everyone who knew John Dutton, knew his dad would not commit suicide. He also knew that if a hit was carried out, the signs wouldn't immediately be spotted. With the lead detective on speed dial, he went to the medical examiner and demanded a more thorough autopsy and toxicology report. He demonstrated on a poor assistant how the military taught him to abduct and subdue a man by pressing on the right artery in the right way, and described exactly the kinds of marks you might find on someone who had been subdued that way. 

More on Yellowstone:

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Of course, he was right, but we already knew that. We not only already knew it was a hit, but we also saw it go down at the beginning of the episode. Three men snuck into the governor's mansion and skillfully took the sleeping governor out of his bed, drugged him by injecting between his toes, put the gun in his hand, and pulled the trigger. They did exactly what Kayce later described, and both the ME and the detective determined that the suicide was staged, and now the case could be reopened as a homicide. 

This development was a major shock to Jamie (Wes Bentley), who was already busy scheming with the new governor to undo everything John had done in the name of saving the ranch. That conservation easement John had put the land in? Gone. The airport lease? Back in play. Why not throw some imminent domain in there too to really screw over the Duttons while you're at it? Senator Perry and John's former assistant Clara (Lilli Kay) were both horrified at the scheming going on, and while Perry said she'd find a job for Clara on her team, for the moment, Clara was unemployed and therefore not bound by the secrecy required of government employees. So now we wait for Clara to spill the beans on what happened in that meeting, which better happen soon. 

In the meantime, Kayce paid a visit to Jamie to throw him around a bit. Jamie begged and pleaded for Kayce to believe he didn't kill their dad, but he wasn't exactly convincing and he was shaken as he joined the new governor to announce all their changes. They had also just learned about the homicide investigation, which made their announcement feel pretty insensitive. The new governor also hit Jamie with another blow by ordering him to recuse himself from basically everything going on at the moment, including the homicide investigation. 

Jamie was devastated and terrified, and his first call was obviously to Sarah (Dawn Olivieri), the conniving corporate girlie who ordered the hit on John and was now in a total panic. She ran to buy a burner phone to call the hitman, but the number was disconnected. Jamie arrived as she was smashing the phone, and they yelled at each other for a bit before exchanging a couple of slaps. He thought everything had fallen apart, and she was still doing her best to convince him that this is what power is about. Then, she drove away, and while Jamie was calling to apologize for the slap, a couple in a minivan pulled up next to her and shot her in the head and chest, taking out Jamie's one last ally and connection to reality. There's no telling what he'll do now, but it's certainly not going to be something good.

Yellowstone airs Sundays at 8/7c on Paramount Network.