Beth's (Kelly Reilly) resentment towards her adopted brother Jamie (Wes Bentley) has been a cornerstones of the series since the very beginning.

As audiences discovered in a season three flashback, she had a good reason. When she became pregnant as a teenager, Jamie knowingly ordered a doctor to give her a hysterectomy rather than an abortion, leaving her infertile.

Beth's been haunted by this experience her entire adult life, not least because the baby's father was Rip's (Cole Hauser).

But, by the series finale, Rip is still in the dark about the pain Jamie caused Beth. He seemingly doesn't even know that he got Beth pregnant all those years ago.

When Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) was introduced in the second episode of season five, she filled the villain-shaped hole left by the death of Jamie's biological father, Garrett Randall (Will Patton).

Working on behalf of Market Equities, she pushed forward with the real estate company's relentless battle to acquire the Dutton land by whatever means necessary.

This included manipulating Jamie into a sexual relationship before convincing him to call for John's impeachment. She took things further by organizing a hit on the Dutton patriarch.

But Sarah got her comeuppance not long after as she was gunned down by the same assassins in an attempt to cover their tracks.

Her demise, while celebrated by audiences, however, leaves lots of questions unanswered, including what her ultimate goal was.

By the end, it was hinted that she had shifted loyalties from Market Equities to Jamie himself. Plus, as Beth found out while digging into Sarah's background, she was using a fake name.

Without a real identity and motivations, Sarah ended up being a poorly drawn antagonist with not much depth who wasn't deserving of such a big storyline.

Angela Blue Thunder (Q'orianka Kilcher) was introduced in season three as an adversary to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), the chairman of the Broken Rock Reservation.

At the beginning of season five, audiences saw her embark on a plan to supplant Rainwater with younger rival Martin (Martin Sensmeier).

However, Angela and this storyline were nowhere to be seen in the second half of season five.

With this storyline left unfinished, it leads to questions of whether Rainwater will stay in charge of looking after the Yellowstone land following his promise to Kayce (Luke Grimes) to treat it with respect and leave it practically unchanged.

In the finale, Kayce said the words "I'm free" when tearfully embracing his wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille) after signing over the ranch to the Broken Rock tribe.

It was an emotional moment, but the reasons Kayce considered the Yellowstone ranch such a huge burden were never fully explained or explored.

Audiences will recall that at one point, John disclosed that he never wanted his grandson Tate (Brecken Merrill) to be born and opposed Kayce's marriage to Monica.

But besides this, audiences never really got a grasp on the tensions and resentments at the core of Kayce and his father's relationship.

Given that in the finale, Kayce bought himself a small herd of cattle to tend to, we understand that it was never the lifestyle that the youngest Dutton son was opposed to, but doing it on the farmland that his father owned.

Lloyd Pierce (Forrie J. Smith) was the oldest and longest-serving cowboy on the ranch.

The character also had a significant amount of screentime, appearing in every episode of the show but two, according to IMDb.

But in the finale, Lloyd's character wasn't given proper closure. As the cowboys on the ranch disbanded and headed their separate ways, Lloyd was left as the only one without somewhere to go.

While Rip offered him a job on his new ranch, Lloyd declined, stating that he would rather not be a cowboy at all if he couldn't keep working at the Yellowstone ranch.

His decision made sense as so much of Lloyd's life and identity were tied up in the ranch (he was among the men branded for life with the Yellowstone 'Y'). Still, it would've been satisfying to find out what he planned to do next if not cowboying.

A crucial plot point in season five was that several key "Yellowstone" characters found themselves sent on a secondment to the 6666 ranch – which is a real ranch bought in 2020 by series cocreator Taylor Sheridan.

Elsewhere, Sheridan showed up as the character Travis Wheatley, a horsetrader who essentially saved the Yellowstone ranch from financial ruin by selling off their horses for them.

In fact, almost all of the penultimate episode was dedicated to Beth's trip to Bosque Ranch, which, again, Sheridan owns in real life. In the show, Travis is the proprietor of the ranch.

There seemed to be no concrete reason why these ranches got so much screentime in the last batch of episodes, besides showcasing Sheridan's own ranching empire.

There is a possibility that the scenes and characters introduced in them may show up in a new spinoff series.

Alongside a rumored new series following Beth and Rip, there is the franchise extension "6666" also in the works — but that appears to have been shelved for now.

The series was first announced in early 2021 and originally set to debut in 2023.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, Sheridan spoke about the delays in getting "6666" (pronounced "four-sixes") off the ground and said he had told the studio "to be patient."

It was a blink-or-you'll-miss-it moment in the midseason finale but on top of the news that Jamie had called for an impeachment tribunal, John was given the additional headache of an investigation being launched into whether or not the endangered wolves from the nearby national park were killed on his land.

Like Angela Blue Thunder, this was another storyline that was introduced and then seemingly abandoned when the show returned from it's lengthy midseason hiatus.

Given that John had invited his girlfriend, outspoken animal rights activist Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo), to live with him, it felt at the time that this story arc was going to loom large in the second half of the season.

In the end, it didn't. Audiences didn't hear anything more about the wolves storyline or the coverup operation that John and Rip carried out to hide their bodies again.

In the show's pilot, which aired in 2018, audiences were introduced to Beth, the only daughter of Montana cattle rancher-turned-governor John Dutton (Kevin Costner), and Rip Wheeler, the ranch's most loyal employee who worked his way up to foreman after first joining as an orphaned teenager.

When the two ran into each other at the ranch's main cabin, it was hinted that they had more than a little history, and it didn't take them long to slide back into old habits.

After a particularly passionate hook-up, it was clear that the two wanted different things: Rip invited Beth to join him at a music festival, to which she responded: "You ruin it every time."

Relive the moment: Season one, episode one.

Beth appeared to have thought some more about Rip's offer to do more than just sleep together, and the next time she saw him, she suggested a date more suited to her personality.

"You wanna go get drunk and watch some wolves kill an elk in a park?" he asked her.

And so that's exactly what they did. While they both acknowledged that it was far from their first date given their history, which audiences learn went back to their teenage years, it marked the beginning of the rekindling of their relationship.

Relive the moment: Season one, episode two.

In the season one finale, Beth sabotaged her relationship with Rip by turning a flirtation with ranch newcomer Walker (Ryan Bingham) into a full-blown affair.

While Beth and Rip had never properly defined their relationship, Beth's decision to sleep with Walker left Rip feeling betrayed.

In Beth's eyes, however, she had good reason to stray: Rip had left her ego bruised by assuming that she was sleeping with her male assistant, Jason (David Cleveland Brown). He also refused to pass on some information her father had privately shared with him regarding the future of the ranch.

Beth didn't have feelings for Walker, but was simply using him as a distraction as she dealt with the anger and pain from her argument with Rip.

Relive the moment: Season one, episode nine.

Beth and Walker's no-strings-attached fling carried on into season two, and it wasn't until halfway through the season that Beth pulled herself out of her self-destructive pattern and apologized to Rip.

But it was already water under the bridge for Rip, who told her he wasn't angry and she needn't ever say sorry to him for anything.

They shared smiles, acknowledging that they were back on track before Rip returned to his duties on the ranch.

Relive the moment: Season two, episode five.

Teenage Beth (Kylie Rogers) and teenage Rip (Kyle Red Silverstein) were shown initially clashing on the ranch. Beth called Rip, who had recently been welcomed into the ranch by John, her "daddy's new pet," infuriating the orphaned teen.

However, the two couldn't deny their attraction to one another. Beth asked Rip to kiss her. When he replied that he didn't know how, she revealed that she didn't either, and so the two shared their first kiss together.

Relive the moment: Season two, episode five.

Beth's decision to invite Rip to join her on the rooftop of the Dutton house for a late-night drink together led to a poignant moment between the two.

After Beth joked that Rip has been wearing the same jeans and jacket for years, Rip got vulnerable and revealed that he's spent thousands of dollars on headstones for his mom and brother, who were murdered by his abusive father.

Touched at his gesture, the two stared lovingly into each other's eyes, but before Rip could tell Beth that he loved her, she stopped him.

"Don't say it," Beth requested. "Tell me when it saves me."

That ended up coming sooner than anticipated. Later in the same episode, Beth was brutally attacked by men working on behalf of Malcolm Beck (Neal McDonough). Having managed to call Rip before things turned ugly, Rip managed to save her and kill her assailants.

As he comforted her, Rip uttered those three important words.

Relive the moment: Season two, episode seven.

After learning that she had gotten pregnant with Rip's baby, Beth asked her older brother Jamie (Dalton Baker) to get her help.

Worried that going to a hospital in the city would draw attention given that she has the Dutton name, Jamie drove Beth to a clinic where he agreed to let a doctor give her a hysterectomy, leaving her infertile for the rest of her life.

Afterward, Beth met with Rip, who asked if her pregnancy test had come back positive. Lying to him, she said it had been negative, hiding from him the abortion — and unbeknownst to her, sterilization — that she had just gone through.

Relive the moment: Season three, episode five.

Early on in season three, Beth hinted that she would like to one day be Rip's wife.

After speaking to her father, who told her Rip would never propose because he wouldn't be able to bring himself to ask John for his blessing out of respect for the Dutton patriarch, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

She posed the question to Rip on the porch of their cabin with a simple black ring, joking that she knew he wasn't a "diamonds and gold kind of girl."

She's his, Beth said, on one condition: "The only thing I ask is that you outlive me so that I never have to live another day without you."

Rip had a condition of his own, too: They needed to get married on the ranch. A courthouse wedding was out of the question, because there was no record of his existence on file.

Relive the moment: Season three, episode seven.

While recovering in the hospital from yet another assassination attempt, Beth ran into a kid named Carter (Finn Little) who is all alone in the world. Naturally, the boy reminded Beth of a young Rip, so she decided to invite him to the ranch to find work and give him a roof over his head.

While Rip was initially reluctant to take Carter under his wing, he eventually came around to the idea and the two began treating Carter like the child they never had.

Relive the moment: Season four, episode two.

In the season four finale, Beth decided to throw together a last-minute wedding outside the Dutton cabin.

It came after she almost bolted, leaving the Yellowstone ranch, her family, and Rip all behind, after feeling immense guilt over the secrets she had kept from Rip over the years.

When Rip convinced her to stay put and keep the promises she had made to him, she decided it was as good a time as ever to make that promise more permanent.

Wearing a white leopard-print coat and a gold dress, Beth and Rip married — with the help of a priest Beth had managed to rope in to officiate. The ceremony took place in front of their nearest and dearest, including Carter.

Relive the moment: Season four, episode 10.

Season five filled in some more gaps about Rip's early days at the ranch. One flashback showed how Rip got his chest branded with the Yellowstone Y — the indication that you're committed to the ranch forever — after getting into a fight with an older cowboy who had said some less-than-chivalrous things about Beth.

After Beth and Rip began their romance as teenagers, Beth decided to make Rip jealous by going on a date with an older cowboy named Rowdy (Kai Caster). When Rip and Rowdy were paired up on a job together, conversation turned to the boss's daughter. A fight ensued after Rowdy said some insulting things about her.

After Rowdy pulled a knife on the teen, Rip hit him around the head with a rock, accidentally killing him.

When he admitted what happened to John (played in flashbacks by Josh Lucas), he was introduced to the concept of the Train Station — the "trash can for everyone who's ever attacked us" that lies in a "jurisdictional dead zone," as John puts it — and asked to never speak of it again. Being privy to the Dutton family's secret meant that Rip was asked to swear loyalty to the ranch, something that he had no hesitation in doing.

Relive the moment: Season five, episode seven.

Beth and Rip left the Yellowstone ranch for new pastures after the Dutton ranch was given back to the Broken Rock Tribe.

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

Relive the moment: Season five, episode 14.

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.

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 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).

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 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, 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.

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.

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 (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.

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 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.