• Warning: Spoilers ahead for the series finale of Paramount Network's "Yellowstone."
• The finale of the neo-western drama aired on Sunday.
• Here's where the most prominent characters found themselves at the end of the series.

"Yellowstone" aired its finale this week, putting an end to the cowboy drama that has captured audiences' attention for more than half a decade.

There were twists, turns, and in classic "Yellowstone" style, someone was taken to the "Train Station."

Here's where all the major characters wound up in the series finale of "Yellowstone."

John Dutton was killed off-screen at the start of the midseason premiere.

The fate of the Dutton patriarch (Kevin Costner) was revealed minutes into the season five midseason premiere of "Yellowstone."

John's death occurred off-screen in the bathroom of his governor's house in the Montana capital of Helena.

While it initially appeared that he died by suicide, it emerged that his son Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) and Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), a lawyer who was in a sexual relationship with Jamie, orchestrated a hit.

Beth Dutton avenged her father's death.

Across five seasons, Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) earned a reputation as someone who doesn't suffer fools gladly.

She knew as soon as her father died that Jamie was involved in the murder plot, directly or indirectly, and so made it her mission to avenge John's death.

In the series finale, she killed Jamie before Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) dumped him at the "Train Station."

Rip Wheeler moved to a new, smaller ranch with Beth.

Rip was initially facing the prospect of being separated from Beth for a year after being asked to take care of cattle down in Texas. But after John died, he promptly returned to the Dutton ranch to be there for his wife.

He stayed there until he and Beth decided to pack up and leave for new pastures. The couple bought a new, smaller ranch in rural Montana and moved there with their adopted son, Carter (Finn Little).

Kayce gave up the ranch and chose freedom instead.

As the last surviving legitimate son of John Dutton — his older brother Lee (Dave Annable) was killed in season one — Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) had been the frontrunner to inherit the sprawling ranch from his father.

In the finale, he gave up the burden of the ranch and instead chose freedom.

A cowboy at heart, however, he bought some cattle to rear on a small parcel of land he decided to keep for his family.

Monica was touched by her husband returning the land to the Native American community.

Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille) is the granddaughter of the Broken Rock tribe elder Felix Long (Rudy Ramos) and has been married to Kayce since the beginning of the show.

Though their marriage had its ups and downs across the seasons, the finale proved that the most important thing to both of them was family.

The last time audiences saw Monica, she, Kayce, and their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) were pitching in to guide their new herd of cattle home.

Jamie was killed for the role he played in John's murder.

Jamie, who was adopted by the Dutton family as an infant but learned who his biological parents were in season three, spent most of the series swinging wildly between trying to earn John's respect and trying to destroy him.

In the end, Jamie turned against John. Though he wasn't directly involved in John's death, Jamie gave Sarah enough encouragement to go ahead with the murder plot.

While Jamie came to regret this, he paid the ultimate price for his mistake.

Colby, one of the ranch hands, was accidentally killed by a horse.

John's wasn't the only death to shake the Dutton ranch. Colby (Denim Richards), a long-serving horse wrangler, was also killed while defending Carter (Finn Little), an inexperienced cowboy, from an out-of-control stallion in the final run of episodes.

Teeter was heartbroken by Colby's death.

Colby and Teeter (Jen Landon) were one of the show's most unlikely romantic pairings. The short-lived romance between the two ranch hands ended in tragedy when Colby was killed while Teeter was in Texas.

Beth took Teeter under her wing following Colby's death, but Teeter ultimately decided there were too many painful memories in Montana.

She requested a job at Travis' (Taylor Sheridan) ranch down in Texas and made the move.

Ryan gave up ranching so he could pursue his romance with Abby.

Ryan (Ian Bohen), a stalwart of the show, decided he'd had enough of putting his life on hold.

After the ranch was sold, instead of getting another cowboy job, he sought out his ex-girlfriend Abby (Lainey Wilson) at one of her country shows.

The two reconciled and Ryan joked that he'd take a job as one of her road crew so he could stay close to her.

Thomas Rainwater, once one of the Dutton family's biggest adversaries, struck a deal with Kayce to buy the land.

The chairman of the Broken Rock Reservation, Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), had been fighting with the Duttons over the land surrounding the ranch since season one.

While Rainwater didn't appear much in season five, he returned in a big way in the series finale.

Kayce decided to sell the ranch to the reservation for the same price — $1.25 an acre — that his ancestors bought it for almost 150 years prior.

Sarah Atwood, who masterminded John's hit, was taken out by assassins.

Sarah Atwood got her comeuppance not long after the hit on John was carried out.

After Beth convinced her brother that their father wouldn't have killed himself, no matter the circumstances, Kayce paid a visit to the coroner's office and convinced them to reexamine his father's body and change his cause of death to "undetermined."

While the circumstances around Sarah's death weren't fully spelled out, it appeared that she was gunned down by the same assassins in an attempt to cover their tracks.

• Paramount Network's "Yellowstone" concluded on Sunday after five seasons.
• The series ended with the Dutton ranch being sold off to the Broken Rock Reservation.
• Beth and Rip moved onto pastures new with a smaller ranch in rural Montana.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the series finale of "Yellowstone."

After five seasons and over a year of headline-dominating behind-the-scenes drama, "Yellowstone," Paramount Network's modern-day horse opera, has been put out to pasture.

The series — which up until its most recent batch of episodes starred Kevin Costner as a rancher contemplating which of his adult children would be the right fit to inherit his sprawling ranch — has become the most-watched scripted series in America since it hit screens in 2018.

In November, stars of the series spoke to Business Insider about the show's "mind-boggling" popularity, which only increased in the last few weeks as the show neared its conclusion.

"I think that there's something very human about it where it's looking forward and backward with the same glance," Kelsey Asbille, said. "I think that's maybe the secret sauce."

Her costar Luke Grimes credited the fact that, in his opinion "Yellowstone" had something that has distinguished it from the other Westerns — Taylor Sheridan, whom he called "the best writer for this genre that has ever existed."

The final episode, which aired on Sunday, clocked in at over 90 minutes and gave audiences the closure they'd been waiting for: John's murder was avenged, and the fate of the ranch was finally revealed.

Here's a recap of how "Yellowstone" concluded.

John's body was laid to rest on the ranch.

The final episode saw John's body released from the coroner's office, meaning that the family could finally hold a funeral for him. Viewers may recall that his body ended up having a second post-mortem examination, which revealed there had been foul play in his death.

Rip (Cole Hauser) and the men from the bunkhouse dug a hole for his coffin in the Dutton graveyard, and Beth (Kelly Reilly) gathered the family — minus Jamie — to give John a small, intimate funeral.

Beth was overcome by emotion at seeing the coffin, but when asked by the preacher if she wanted to say her goodbyes, she returned to her steely self and said: "I will avenge you."

Beth made good on her promise to avenge her father's murder.

Beth took off from the funeral and headed straight to her adopted brother Jamie's (Wes Bentley) house in Helena.

Having just delivered a speech distancing himself from his involvement in his father's death, he returned home to find Beth hiding in his house.

A brutal and bloody fight between them ensued and, had Rip not got there just in time, Jamie might have choked Beth to death. Although Rip was ready to let loose on Jamie, Beth asked him to stop so that she could be the one to kill him. She then fatally stabbed Jamie in the chest and held his gaze, keeping another promise she once made: that she would be the last thing he would ever see.

Afterward, Rip drove Jamie to the 'Train Station' — in other words, he dumped his body off the side of a cliff. Meanwhile, Beth stayed at the house and called the police, pinning everything on Jamie — her father's murder, Sarah Atwood's hit, and her own close call with death.

Kayce struck a deal with the Broken Rock Reservation to keep the ranch from being sold to developers.

Having gotten his sister's approval in the previous episode, Kayce went ahead with his plan to sell the ranch to the Broken Rock Reservation for the same cheap price — $1.25 an acre — that his ancestors bought it for almost 150 years prior.

"Congratulations, you just made the worst land deal since my people sold Manhattan," Chief Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) told him.

However, Rainwater said there was one distinction: the Yellowstone ranch land will never change in a way that will make it unrecognizable in another 150 years. The tribe will live on the land but never sell it to developers.

As Beth had whispered to John's coffin earlier in the episode, this was perhaps the only way for the ranch to be saved.

"You made me promise not to sell an inch, and I hope you understand that this is me keeping it. There may not be cows on it, but there won't be condos, either. We won," she said.

The ranch's cowboys dispersed.

With no ranch, the crew of cowboys living in the bunkhouse decided their futures. Teeter (Jennifer Landon) landed a job at Travis's (Taylor Sheridan) ranch alongside her old friend Jimmy (Jefferson White).

Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith), the oldest ranch hand, decided that if he couldn't be a cowboy at the Yellowstone ranch, he'd rather not be a cowboy at all and so retired.

Ryan (Ian Bohen) left the ranch and immediately sought out Abby (Lainey Wilson), the country singer he was previously dating, hoping she would take him back.

Beth and Rip left the Yellowstone ranch for pastures new.

When audiences saw Beth and Rip at the end of the episode, they were settled into their new home and ranch, miles away from the Yellowstone ranch, along with their adopted son Carter (Finn Little).

As Beth had promised, the place was really out in the sticks, miles away from a town, let alone an airport. The closest bar, she told Rip, even turned away tourists if they happened to pass through.

"Sounds like my kind of place," Rip told his wife.

Elsewhere, Kayce, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and their son Tate (Brecken Merrill) had kept a small patch of land for themselves and begun farming their own cattle. Although Rip had offered Kayce the Yellowstone Dutton ranch sign to take with him to his new farm, Kayce declined, stating that he was thinking of starting his own brand.

• Season five of "Yellowstone" ended on Sunday, December 15.
• A teaser for the last few episodes described it as a season finale instead of a series finale.
• Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler may become the leads for a sixth season — or get their own spinoff show.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the season five finale of Paramount Network's "Yellowstone."

Season five of "Yellowstone" — also long believed to be the final installment — ended on Sunday, but a recent teaser has fans thinking that there could be more to come.

Since debuting in 2018, "Yellowstone," co-created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson and centered on an aging rancher named John Dutton (Kevin Costner), has become a smash hit for the network.

Episode 12 of season five, part two (also known as 5B) ended with a preview for the penultimate episode of the season.

In the teaser, the announcer said, "Only one episode left until the season finale of 'Yellowstone.'" Fans latched on to the use of "season finale" instead of "series finale," theorizing that the phrase choice was a subtle confirmation that a sixth season is coming despite a cancellation announcement last year.

Here's what we know about the future of "Yellowstone."

'Yellowstone' director and executive producer Christina Alexandra Voros said that 'the end of an era' was coming

In May 2023, it was announced that "Yellowstone" would end with season five.

"I think this last batch of episodes leads us to the end of an era," director and executive producer Christina Alexandra Voros recently told Variety of the final three episodes of season five.

"It's impossible to talk about it in any detail without tipping my hat towards things to come," Voros continued. "But I think Taylor has managed to — and I'm really not sure how he's done it, I think it's sort of masterful — bring the ending to something that feels both shocking and fated at the same time. You need to get to the end of the story to fully understand everything that has come before."

Actor Ian Bohen, who plays Ryan, shared similar comments hyping up the season five finale.

"I don't know that any show has finished this strongly, ever," he told Entertainment Tonight in April. "We're expecting to have the best series finale in history. Overconfident maybe, but I think that's what it's going to be."

The season 5 finale teased a new chapter for Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler

Sheridan directed the season five finale, titled "Life Is A Promise."

In the finale, Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) avenges the death of her father, John, by killing her adoptive brother Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), who was indirectly involved in the patriarch's demise. Then Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) disposed of Jamie's body by throwing it off the side of a cliff.

After Kayce (Luke Grimes) sells the Dutton ranch to the Broken Rock Reservation, rather than developers, Beth and Rip are last seen buying a smaller, secluded ranch in rural Montana and moving there with their adopted son, Carter (Finn Little).

Beth and Rip may take over as the leads for 'Yellowstone' season 6 — or get their own spinoff show

In August, Puck reported that "Yellowstone" would continue, focusing on Beth and Rip. According to the outlet, Reilly and Hauser would become the new leads of the series after Costner exited. Costner's character was killed off-screen when season 5B premiered in November.

In early November, Hauser told The Hollywood Reporter that he felt there was more to explore with Beth and Rip.

"You can go on forever about these two. There's no walls when it comes to them, no limits," he said. "And as long as Taylor wants to write something special, I know Kelly and I would be interested to do it."

Then Deadline broke the news that, according to sources close to the production, Reilly and Hauser would reprise their roles to star in a "Yellowstone" spinoff series.

According to Deadline, Sheridan is currently developing the new show, which will likely star other actors reprising their roles from the main series.

Paramount has yet to officially announce a sixth season or spinoff starring Reilly and Hauser, and network representatives didn't respond to our requests for comment. But fans of the neo-Western drama have more to look forward to either way.

Sheridan's TV universe, which includes the "Yellowstone" prequel series "1883" and "1923," will expand with an upcoming "Yellowstone" sequel show called "The Madison," starring Michelle Pfeiffer.