Kayce May Sell The 'Yellowstone' Ranch To Thomas Rainwater In Season 5 Finale, Here's Why

There is not only sincerity but also some kind of poetry when you return the things that originally belonged to someone else. The White man has always been an outsider, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Kayce hands over the Yellowstone Ranch to Thomas Rainwater, a native Indian, who had been trying to buy these lands from John Dutton for the longest period of time. [Spoiler Alert] In episode 13’s ending of Yellowstone season 5, Kayce told his wife, Monica, that he had a plan in mind, but he didn’t just want to reveal it yet. Though in the last scene, he did hint to Beth, what he was really up to. The issue here is: if Kayce (or his son Tate) and Beth would inherit the Yellowstone Ranch, they would have to pay the inheritance tax, which they weren’t in a position to pay until and unless they sold the ranch or part of it. In short, there’s no way to keep the Dutton’s family land whole. So you see, the entire conflict arose because the children wanted to save their father’s land, but what if they don’t keep it or take it and instead sell it off to a third party?

In episode 13’s ending, Kayce asked Beth if she sold her 300,000-dollar Bentley to him for one dollar, then how much sales tax he would have to pay for it, to which Beth replied that the tax is calculated based on what one paid for the sold item. Now, I’m not a tax expert, and inheritance tax is a very country-specific law, so help me understand in the comments what Kayce is really suggesting here and how he is going to pull that off. But what I make out of it is that he is going to sell the Yellowstone Ranch to a “non-family member” so that they don’t have to pay the taxes and yet manage to protect their family legacy. Also, by doing this, Kayce would be able to fulfill his vision, according to which, he had to choose between his family or his father’s ranch, and by selling the land, Kayce would make it loud and clear that he is choosing his wife and kid over everything. So, the question here is: Who’s this mysterious buyer going to be? Well, Kayce didn’t drop anyone’s name, but thankfully his friend circle isn’t big enough, hence, we don’t have to make a lot of guesses here.

The thing is, Kayce is a very sensible guy, which in simple words means he wouldn’t hand over his father’s land to an outsider who’s going to sell it off for his own financial gain or a corporation that might try to build an airport and an apartment the moment they get their hands on that land. Kayce would want to sell it to someone who understands culture, just like his father, and would protect this land with his life. And you see, in his close circle, there are not many people who are like his father, except for one person who’d wanted to purchase Yellowstone ranch from John Dutton since season 1, so that he could give it back to his community, the native Indians, to whom that land originally belonged. If you remember, in episode 7 of season 5, Lynelle Perry told Rainwater that the Department of Interior had approved two pipelines in Central Montana, and the proposed pathway of these pipelines was through the reservation. This means a lot of native Indians would lose their homes during the digging, but that wouldn’t be the end of it. Rainwater feared that the leaks from these pipelines in the near future would contaminate the drinking water and he had no idea how to save his people from this impending doom. This was the reason why Rainwater decided to seek help from the new governor, John Dutton, and put his differences aside for the safety of his people. Meanwhile, John Dutton, who had been an advocate for land preservation for both environmental and cultural reasons, extended his support to his foe-turned-friend and attended the rally and requested the people of Montana to make enough noise so that those people in Washington are forced to pull back their projects that they’d been green lighting from their air-conditioned rooms, not realizing the plight of the people and struggle they’d have to go through. I assume Kayce heard his father’s word as well and might want to fulfill the promise he’d made to the community. 

And if you are still worried about Beth, then in episode 13, she literally mentioned that she didn’t want to invite those 300 “friends” to his father’s funeral who didn’t care enough to come visit him in the last 20 years. But there was one man who personally paid a visit after John Dutton died because he genuinely wanted to help his children to save the land. Beth knows that Rainwater would always do what’s best for the community and that’s what makes him stand out from the rest of the folk who’d wanted to buy the ranch from her father.

I guess, with one episode left in Yellowstone season 5’s ending, there’s no way the showmakers would be able to resolve both the conflicts (pipeline and ranch), but what if the resolution for both of these issues is the same? If Kayce and Beth decide to sell the ranch to Rainwater, then he would be able to shift the native Indian community to Yellowstone, while Rip and all the other cowboys can keep doing what they love the most and won’t lose their jobs. Both Beth and Rainwater know that the ranch is going to create more job opportunities for everyone around, and as far as I know history, I think that sometimes the best way to conclude anything is to let people know that all hope is not lost yet. We, as humans, can move mountains if we put aside our differences and work together to protect what we have; not for us, but for the ones who will come after us. What I find most poetic is seeing the native Indians and White cowboys working together on John Dutton’s ranch and achieving something greater than even he wasn’t able to.