The glowing dantons and enriched with body of Yellowstone Have a family tree that has sometimes become difficult. By widening the line in generations spent in 1923 And 1883Creator Taylor Sheridan made just as confusing as a Targaryen family tree to follow who is linked to what. At the modern center of this family, however, is a simple dynamic: the patriarch John Dutton III (played by Kevin Costner) and his three children: Jamie (adopted), Beth and Kayce. Oh, and there is also his eldest son that no one never speaks, Lee.

If it is difficult to remember who is Lee and how he integrates into the Dutton family, don’t worry, it seems Yellowstone done too. While he was alive, Lee was only in one episode of YellowstoneThe pilot, in which he was also killed. Although it is technically the catalyst for all future scandals and conflicts in which the Duttons have been tangled, Lee is mentioned a handful of times on the series of five seasons. But why did Sheridan ignore such an important member of the Dutton family?

How did Lee Dutton dead on Yellowstone?

Dave Annable, who now portrays Neil on another Sheridan series, Special ops: lionessplayed Lee for a short time Yellowstone. Lee was presented in season 1, episode 1, “Daybreak”, as the firstborn of John Dutton and heir to the Yellowstone Ranch in Montana. He was the gilded child of the dysfunctional group because he was the only one really interested in pursuing the heritage of the family, despite no desire to get married and to have his own child. While the other children spread in Montana and Utah who continue their own careers and lives, Lee held the fort on the ranch. One of his many jobs as a rancher hand for one of the most powerful properties in the western United States is to bring the cattle together for the operations of the cattle commission.

However, one of these operations goes to the side of “Daybreak”. Part of the cattle wanders in the broken rock reserve, causing a conflict between the Dated and some of the Aboriginal peoples of the reserve. Chef Thomas Rainwater refuses to return the cattle, because the Dutton ranch was stolen from Broken Rock in the first place (this is explored more in depth in the prequel series 1883). It is important to note here that Kayce is married to an indigenous woman, Monica, and shares a son with her, and both resident in the reservation to stay outside the shaded family business of Dutton. John decides to retaliate dirty, as usual. At night, Lee and other agents of the cattle commission launch a secret operation to steal the cattle in the reservation.

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During a struggle, Kayce’s brother-in-law, Robert, shoots and kills Lee. Kayce Riposte by killing Robert. Kayce informs her family of what happened, apart from Monica. John takes his son who died in a tree to rest with him, reflecting his great-great-grandfather seated with his own daughter by a tree while she was passing. Later this episode, the family holds funeral for Lee and said to Beth and Jamie that he needs more than ever, because the future of the ranch remained uncertain after Lee’s death.

Yellowstone neglects to remember Lee in future seasons

The death of Lee sparked a chain of events which, in one way or another, led to the fall of the Dutton family. The circumstances of the death of him and Robert have become the subject of an investigation which was a central point of season 1. by extension, Kayce choosing to avenge his brother by killing a member of the family of Monica put him in a conflict where he felt forced to put himself on the side of a family rather than another. Lee’s death also meant that John no longer had a heir to whom he had confidence to take over the ranch when he died, given the immature and the traitor that his other children were in his eyes. Even more, John was dealing with cancer when all of this dropped, putting more pressure to get business in order.

All this looks like the perfect recipe for drama on paper, but the way it was executed Yellowstone left a lot to be desired. On the one hand, Kayce’s legal issues were quickly completed in season 1, so Lee was happy to rest as soon as possible. Following the conclusion of this scenario, Yellowstone I have not tried to find another way to preserve Lee’s memory through dramatic issues. There were a few moments here and there when John talked about Lee by passing or spoke to his mind when cleaning his personal effects. Kayce also saw her brother in the final of season 4 in a vision. But apart from these rare moments, Lee was cruelly forgotten.

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The absence of Lee mentioned throughout the series made it more than one plot device than a real character. Ignoring it was rather unfit for Dutton standards which appreciated the very appreciated family and honored those who preceded them. John’s wife and the mother of children, Evelyn, who died years before the events of the series, were presented more highlighting than Lee. What is still a foreigner is that he is in no family portrait of their childhood, which is a fairly greater surveillance on the part of Sheridan. It is almost as if Lee was never supposed to exist in the show in the first place, but the death of a family member was necessary to cause a later conflict on the fate of the Ranch. The amount of attention he received from writing in the pilot episode also supports this theory – while Yellowstone Present the viewers to other brothers and sisters in their own world (Jamie in a courthouse, Kayce on the reserve and Beth during a financial meeting), Lee’s first moment on the screen is pushed into a legal discussion between John and Jamie. There is no real sense of who Lee is as a person, apart from what his family barely said about him after his death.

A subsequent death could have saved that Lee is forgotten

It is difficult to cry or take care of a character when his family barely does so. Lee being almost never mentioned could be struck off as the hyper-masculine philosophy of the owls of the traffic jam of their feelings to do the work. But given how many characters cannot abandon past events (like Beth with Jamie being sterilized and Jamie feeling like the black sheep of the family), he would be logical for at least one person to be emptied during the death of the firstborn. Which could have obtained a softer place for Lee, which makes more than one ghost that haunt the long -term story, would repel his death in season 1.

The death of the main character acting as a plot device is not unfounded on television. In fact, it is one of the most devastating means of catapulting a training effect that remains with the series until the end. Ned Stark’s death (Game of Thrones), Joel Miller (The last of us), and Jackie Taylor (Yellow Jackets) changed the story forever, and their memory has remained useful for the show. What do these deaths have in common? They performed at the end of the first season or at the start of the second season. Viewers had time to know these characters and take care of them, which makes their death even more effective. This does not mean that a death in a pilot episode does not work. Examples such as Six feet under And Silo Prove that it works, but only if the deceased character (s) remain crucial for the plot later. Yellowstone Just is not part of the batch that works.

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It is not enough for Yellowstone To say briefly in the pilot how John depends on Lee. Viewers must really see it. Beginning the series with more of the family being widespread and broken, while slowly coming back to the heads of buttocks while Lee acts as the perfect and perfect child would have naturally made his death just as impactful as John’s was in season 5. Lee could have had his own conflicts about being the prodigal son who did not want to have children to continue the name of Dutton, putting him in hand with his father. But instead, Lee has become the Chuck Cunningham of Yellowstone. He did his job by dying, and Yellowstone I erased it roughly from the history of Dettons as thanks.

Yellowstone

Release date

2018 – 2024

Network

Primary network

Showrunner

Taylor Sheridan

Directors

Stephen Kay, Taylor Sheridan, Christina Alexandra Voros, Guy Ferland, John Dahl

Writers

John Coveny, Ian McCulloch

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  Kevin Costner

  John Dutton

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