There’s a hole the size of John Dutton in the middle of the story.

After Kevin Costner, 69, left “Yellowstone” amid rumors of a feud with creator Taylor Sheridan, the popular ranch drama returned last week for the second half of Season 5 by killing off his character, John Dutton.

John was fatally shot by an assassin, but it was staged to look like a suicide. His son Jamie (Wes Bentley) was partly responsible, as his bad girlfriend Sarah (Dawn Olivieri) arranged, but Jamie wasn’t directly involved.

Spoilers for “Yellowstone” Season 5 episode 10, “The Apocalypse of Change.”

This week, after these events, everyone was still reeling from John’s death.

It was a slow hour, with not much happening, revealing the show to be a snooze without Costner.

Snooze without Costner.

Much of the episode was spent with Rip (Cole Hauser) and his cowboys, like Ryan (Ian Bohen), reacting to the fact that there were snakes in their tents and having their 500th conversation about how being a cowboy is an outdated way of is becoming life. to live.

During a scene where John’s daughter, Beth (Kelly Reilly), goes to a bar, the molasses episode even lingers on Beth’s drink order. It felt like the show without Costner was just killing time until the clock ran out.

The main highlight was a tense standoff between Beth and Jamie. Beth was certain that Jamie had killed their father, so she went to his office to confront him.

Beth punched Jamie in the face three times as he looked at the ground.

“Why can’t you look at me, Jamie? We both know why, don’t we,” she said.

Jamie remained silent throughout their meeting. Before she left, Beth promised him, “Seeing me will be the last thing you ever do alive. I swear to God, Jamie. I will be the last thing your rotten king eyes will ever see on this planet. And I will smile.”

Beth then immediately called their other brother, Kayce (Luke Grimes), to tell him she was more certain than ever that Jamie had killed their father.

‘It was him. He didn’t even deny it. He just stared at the damn floor. He couldn’t even make up a lie. He wouldn’t look me in the eye,” she told Kayce.

Kayce had not believed the official story that John’s death was a suicide. But he also didn’t believe Jamie had what it took to do it. After hanging up with Beth, Kayce contacted some old contacts to find out which hitman had taken the job.

Kayce’s friend warned him to “be very careful when snooping.” So Kayce could be putting himself in danger by investigating.

Jamie also revealed that since there will be a special election to replace John as Governor of Montana, he is thinking about running for office himself. And Jamie is ready to battle Beth over John’s will and the future of the ranch.

It’s doubtful that either Beth or Jamie will make it out of the season alive — and indeed, Grimes told The Post that the show’s ending will be “heartbreaking.”

“Yellowstone” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Paramount Network.