Yellowstone Season 5 double-opener premiere recap

Paramount Plus’ Yellowstone season 5 has arrived! While John wins and becomes Governor of Montana, others suffer greater losses.

Episodes 1 and 2 spare not a second as audiences are thrown into the drama about to unfold! Let’s talk about it!

Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 1: One Hundred Years Is Nothing

Yellowstone’s first episode of season 5 begins with John winning the face for the Governor of Montana. He seems less than enthused about the big win and the future of the next four years.

Clearly, he did it just to save the ranch. He couldn’t look more emotionally drained.

Beth is certainly running the show and the main reason John won the race. This wasn’t something John ever wanted but was thrusted into the situation, in Jamie’s place to help everything he loves.

You can feel the feud between Jamie and Beth early on. After killing his biological father to avoid John’s wrath, Beth has Jamie in a vice grip to be Jamie’s puppet master.

Speaking of rivalries, Caroline Warner (the CEO of Market Equities played by the fabulous Jacki Weaver) is ready for war with the Duttons’. She senses a weak spot within the family and that is Jamie.

He doesn’t look thrilled with his family’s campaign win and she’s going to find out why.

“What will Montana look like in 100 years?”

The one thing John is, is an Governor of the land and the people. Big business and tourism is not on his agenda.

After the celebration of winning, it leads to a long stare down between Jamie and Beth that is a little bone chilling. You can tell we are in for a long season of the Beth and Jamie rivalry.

We get to see a glimpse into the past of Beth and Rip. Rip is the strict rule follower that he’s always been, and Beth is the wild free spirit she always is.

Just like many of their run ins, it didn’t turn out too pretty. Beth takes him to the local bar where she flirts heavily with the bartender right in front of him, because she is underage and trying to get a drink.

Rip wasn’t a fan of her using her sexuality to get what she wants. This is a parallel we have seen far too many times in the show.

It ends with Rip leaving and him later witnessing Beth kissing another guy. Back in the present, Beth gets up early with regret and talks to Rip.

You can see it weighing on her mind. She brings up the mistakes of the past, giving him an apology about the times she’s stepped out on him.

It’s good to see Beth have this kind of growth as a character and admit her faults. She does have remorse for treating her husband badly in the past.

Sometimes it was hard to know if she was sorry for it. As awesomely bad$%^ as Beth is, class is not her strong suit.

It was a scene that really showed her heart. What Rip said to her next was one of my favorite lines from him ever.

“You know what your problem is?” he asks and points to her head. “This…is almost as big as this.”

He then points to her heart. “I’m the only one who knows that you have this.”

He continues pointing to her chest, “But you do. And baby it’s big.”

Beth knows she robbed them of so much time together and thinks that it’s still going to haunt them. Rip reassures her that he is happy with her, and with the way things are.

However, Beth feels like there’s always a hurricane about to erupt. And usually she’s the cause.

While Beth is 100% in now, it makes the audience wonder if there’s some shaky ground to come because of her mistakes in the past. John is then sworn in, which took an awkward amount of time to do so.

A good minute seemed to pass before he repeated his own name to be sworn. He obviously doesn’t want this job and doesn’t seem to care about it, much further than protecting his land and his family.

His first rule of business is stopping the Paradise Valley Airport Project and developments. Double property taxes for non-residents.

He’s sending a clear message to non-residents that this is not their home. John is completely done with Montana being treated like a travel destination and not cherished for the beauty that it is.

This is a state that needs respect, and he is there to make sure that happens. The Duttons’, minus Jamie, obviously have a lot to learn about politics.

Jamie tries to explain things to them and the smart moves to make, but they fight him on every turn. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense why they are using him like a pawn, if they aren’t even using him at all.

Sometimes his role just seems to be like a punishment toy for Beth. At the Dutton Ranch the festivities are beginning for the inauguration party.

Once again John feels uncomfortable even when the party is on his own land. However the ranchers are enjoying the open bar.

Who wouldn’t? Towards the end of the opening episode Monica is having labor pains, when Kayce calls.

Her cramps are getting worse, and Kayce sends an ambulance south to meet them on the road to take them to Billings. While Monica is on the road with Tate, the only thing that could run through my mind was let the boy drive you.

She was in too much agony to be behind the wheel of a car. These are country roads with little traffic and she was swerving all over the place.

Tate even offers to drive but before you know it, they crash right into a buffalo. It ends with a nice moment between John and Carter once again.

He’s grown up a lot which makes John feel even older. As he’s leaving and about to head to Helena, Jamie stops him and says they have to go to Billings now.

The baby doesn’t make it. Tate looks up and tells John that they named his brother John after him.

The minute you see John walk into the hospital room seeing his son Kayce curled up to his wife, he realizes his dad is there. He looks at him momentarily and turns back to cry.

It tears at your soul to witness a loss that big.

Yellowstone Season 5 Episode 2: The Sting Of Wisdom

In the opening minutes, we see the aftermath of the crash. Tate is trapped inside the car trying to get out.

This is rather tricky with a broken arm. Monica however, was thrown from the car.

Finally, he gets out and screams for her. When he calls for an ambulance, he does one of the brightest things I’ve seen on the show.

He sent a PIN number to the 911 operator. Sadly, it couldn’t save his brother, but his mother is alive because of his quick action.

Lynelle reiterates to John that you have to choose your own people, or the party will choose them for you. He immediately fires his Chief of Staff and appoints Beth in his place, to which she doesn’t look enthralled about.

Regardless of her having her own life and things to do, John doesn’t leave her with much of a choice. As she’s the main catalyst for getting John elected in, now she has to get him through it.

Which I only find fair. John is nothing if not bullheaded.

Jamie once again tries to explain politics and his best maneuvers to diffuse situations but John is reluctant to listen. He wants to do things his way and does not want to move an inch for anybody, even if it is for the betterment of the ranch.

John has to understand that if he wants change, he needs to play the game. Without help in politics he isn’t going to get the wins he wants.

The Jamie and Beth battle carries on. “You’re in my prison now, and if you ever forget it, I’ll put you in a real one.”

Jamie is now in Beth’s prison. He can’t even have the weekends to himself, as Beth orders him to be at the ranch so she can keep an eye on him.

Market Equities now has a Beth wannabe. Sarah tries to be as witty and bad%^& as Beth, but falls quite short.

Could this be a future enemy to Beth or an ally to Jamie? My one burning question is when is he going to let his one-time girlfriend Summer out of jail?

Now that he is Governor he could just pardon her now. Or is he going to let Summer Loving think about her crimes?

Sarah’s first target is going to be Jamie as he certainly doesn’t look up to the fight Market Equities aims to bring. Will we soon see if she becomes a friend of foe to the weakened Dutton.

Back on the Dutton ranch, Carter goes riding out with the boys on a simple task that goes awry. Carter’s horse, who was also John’s favorite horse, runs into a badger hole and shatters his legs.

He ended up with a broken arm, but Rip had to put the horse down out of mercy. At the end of the episode, Beth burns another man at a bar.

No surprise there. Rip puts the wolves collars that the men accidentally shot onto logs and tossed them down the river.

Smart move by Rip to avoid another catastrophe.

Yellowstone season 5 episode 3 will air Sunday, November 20 at 8PM ET on Paramount Network.