It’s been almost two years, but “Yellowstone” is finally back to wrap up Season 5.

You’re forgiven for admitting you don’t remember what happened in Season 5, Part 1. Finally, the shortened season aired its final episode on January 1, 2023. But there’s plenty of Dutton drama – happening both on and off screen – to catch up on.

The big news off-screen is that Kevin Costner won’t officially be back as John Dutton this half of the season. Since the character was ousted by the governor of Montana, which he unfortunately won at the beginning of the season, it will be interesting to see how that will be handled. The remainder of Part 1 focused mainly on the feud between Beth and Jamie which ultimately reached a point of no return as each not-so-subtly plotted the other’s death.

Here’s a quick recap of “Yellowstone” Season 5, Part 1, so you’ll be ready to go when Season 2 (finally) starts.

John Dutton gets political

For years, protecting the Dutton Ranch was a fairly simple – if sometimes bloody – job. That changed at the end of season 4, forcing John to enter the race for governor of Montana as a way to create change from the top down to ensure the ranch’s survival. Season 5 saw his first days and weeks in office and it became clear that even if John hated the job, he would make his opponents just as miserable as he did.

One of his first orders of business will be to halt airport development on much of the land in the valley. He thinks this has been settled, but Market Equities is not done with their fight with the Duttons and sends people out to approach Jamie, who believes he should have been his father’s governor.

John also throws a spanner in the works by commuting the sentence for environmental activist Summer, who went to prison last season. She returns to serve her house arrest with John at the ranch. She and Beth clash constantly throughout Part 1 because they can’t get along and see the other’s point of view.

In the finale, he gives a speech that connects him to Thomas Rainwater and the local Native American reservation, as they fought all season against the US President’s hopes to run two pipelines through reservation land, and we learn that Jamie is calling for the impeachment his father’s pursuits while governor. He does this under the claim that blocking the airport has stopped a lot of money and new jobs from coming into the area – and out of anger after learning that John had placed the ranch under a conservation easement.

Beth and Jamie go to war

In a series where Beth and Jamie are constantly at odds, season 5 has taken it to another level. The season started with Jamie feeling left out because his father was taking over the governor of Montana. Beth makes matters worse by reminding him that she caught Jamie dumping his biological father’s body and now she essentially owns him.

Jamie doesn’t have many movies until John finishes construction of the airport and Market Equities targets him as a way to take down the Duttons. Enter Sarah Atwood. She begins to seduce Jamie and turn him against his family even more. While this seduction is taking place, Beth discovers that ‘Sarah Atwood’ is not even the woman’s real name.

With John blocking the airport’s development—and Jamie discovering that he placed the ranch under a conservation easement—he convinces the state Legislature to oust his father as governor. He is clearly fed up with the family’s actions against him.

Beth finds out and breaks into Jamie’s house at night, ready to lord it over the fact that she has dirt on him to kill his biological father. Jamie – ready to burn his last bridge – isn’t worried and tells Beth to ask John about the ‘train station’.

Beth leaves to confront her father and eventually – how she went so long without realizing it is astonishing – she learns about the ‘train station’. John calls it a “dumpster” for everyone who has threatened the ranch for years. Beth can’t believe her family has a dumping ground for bodies and John tells her to ask Rip because he’s visited the station a few times. After a while, Beth suggests that maybe it’s time for Jamie to take a trip to the “train station.”

Back at his house, Jamie has a similar thought. He asks Sarah if she knows anyone who could make Beth’s death look like a car accident or a heart attack. Based on her face, it looks like she knows exactly the people who could do that.

Kayce and Monica wrestle

Kayce and Monica suffered an immediate loss in season 5. In the premiere, Monica realizes she is going into labor, and she and Colt try to rush to the hospital while Kayce is at work. Unfortunately they have an accident. Monica and Colt are doing well, but they lose the baby.

Understandably, this confuses the entire family for the entire first half of the season. Monica sinks into her grief and Kayce worries that his job will jeopardize his relationship with his family, so he tries to tell his father that he is quitting his job. That doesn’t work and John instead has Monica bury their son at the ranch and has a moment with her where he talks about the loss of his brother.

At the end of the season, with John feeling the pressure of eviction and moving the herd to Texas for the winter, he asks Monica if she, Kayce, and Colt will move to the ranch and take care of it. She agrees for the family.

Taking the herd south

All these (possibly bloody) family feuds and there’s ALSO some general ranch drama. It turns out there is a brucellosis outbreak threatening the ranch’s herd. The only course of action is to move the whole thing south for the winter. Rip takes the lead on the long journey, taking half of the ranch hands with him.

This loosens up some of the budding relationships taking place in the bunkhouse, but also separates Rip and Beth just before Beth learns about the “train station” and how involved her husband has been in it over the years.