When it comes to John Dutton’s children, Kayce Dutton has always been my favorite. When Yellowstone started, Luke Grimes’ character was set up to be the successor of the family farm after coming out of a period of pseudo-exile from his family. However, in the later seasons of Taylor Sheridan’s modern Western, it feels like the youngest Dutton has gotten the short end of the stick, and he is left to run in a circle of trying to decide how to serve both his dad and his wife and son. Overall, it’s given me a serious bone to pick, despite the fact that I love this Paramount Network show and the Dutton family.
Kayce Dutton Was Set Up To Be Our Hero In The Early Seasons
In Season 1 of Yellowstone, it felt like Kayce was being set up to go on a hero’s journey of sorts. Over the course of the season, we see Luke Grimes’ character work through the conflict between his family and his wife Monica’s Broken Rock family. As the season progresses the Dutton works his way back to his father and siblings, and he eventually winds up working at the Yellowstone ranch.
Seeing Kayce find his way back into the good graces of his dad was such a fascinating story, and it was my favorite element of the drama's earlier seasons.
However, in later seasons, as Grimes has explained, Kayce is “in this rock and a hard place,” when it comes to his relationship with Monica and his allegiance to his family. There’s always been reason to worry for Kayce and Monica, however, it was amplified during Season 5. While this point of contention is important to the overall show, having this be his primary storyline season after season has become a bit worn out. Also, it has isolated the youngest Dutton from the rest of his family, and I feel like that’s made the story less interesting.
In Yellowstone’s Later Seasons, It Felt Like Kayce Was Disconnected From His Siblings
When I look back on Seasons 3 through 5 of this modern Western I can’t help but think about how little Luke Grimes shares the screen with members of the Yellowstone cast who aren’t Kevin Costner (John Dutton), Kelsey Asbille (Monica Dutton) or Brecken Merrill (Tate Dutton). Now, I realize he spends a lot of a season living in the bunkhouse with the boys and another in the big house where Beth stays often. However, it’s pretty rare that we get a memorable scene between him and really anyone on the Yellowstone Ranch, especially his siblings.
Logically, it does make sense that Kayce really doesn’t see Beth and Jamie often. He takes care of the ranch by working on the farm and serving as the Livestock Commissioner, while his brother and sister work for the ranch from the business and political sides. However, they’re still siblings, and when I’m watching a drama about the Dutton family, I want to see them all interact.
Why Yellowstone's Kayce Is Luke Grimes' Favorite Character He's Ever Played
It’s true that Kayce hadn’t turned on Jamie in Season 4, and he stands as this kind of neutral point in the feud between Wes Bentley’s character and Kelly Reilly's Beth. However, he’s almost too neutral. I want to see some emotion, some fight from the Dutton, and I want to see him work directly with or against his siblings, not just live in the vicinity of them.
For heaven's sake, Kayce even missed Beth’s wedding at the end of Yellowstone Season 4 because he doing his vision quest. While the journey he went on and the realization he had while out in the woods was vital, it would have been wonderful to see him at his sister’s wedding. It also would just be nice to see him more involved with the cast of Yellowstone. And I get his devotion to his wife and kid, I do. I also understand that he wants nothing to do with the political side of the ranch. However, this isn't real life, it's a fictional story, and I think it’s possible for the show to let him be more intertwined in the drama on the ranch with his father, brother and sister.
It’s Very Rare That We Learn About Kayce’s Past
We learn early on that Kayce has a contentious past with the ranch and his father. After the youngest Dutton told his dad that he and Monica were expecting a baby, John branded him as punishment. He then left the ranch and became a Navy SEAL. When he returned to Montana he lived on the Broken Rock Reservation with his wife and son, Tate. This past feels so rich and ripe for storytelling, and we just haven’t really gotten it.
Throughout the series, we get tons of flashbacks about the pasts of Rip, Beth and John. However, that’s not really the case for Luke Grimes’ Dutton sibling. While I’ve loved getting a peak into the backstories of his sister and brother-in-law as well as his father, I feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential when it comes to exploring Kayce’s past.
Also, the characters’ pasts deeply impact the present. Typically, the flashbacks in Yellowstone are used to provide greater context and insight into why a character feels the way they do in the present. For example, there’s a vital flashback where we learn about the origins of Jamie and Beth’s feud when we find out he made a decision about Beth's abortion that caused her to become infertile. The same can be said for Rip. We find out how he ended up on the ranch, and why he is so loyal to John via flashback. Does Kayce get this treatment? No.
There is so much we’re missing out on when it comes to Kayce Dutton’s story. It was fantastic at first, and it really felt like he was going to be the guy of the Yellowstone ranch. However, as the seasons progressed, he got stuck in this cycle, and his primary point of conflict quite literally never changed. And that’s OK, however, it doesn’t need to be the only element to his story. By tapping into his backstory and giving him more to do with his siblings, I truly think Luke Grimes’ character could be one of the best on Yellowstone. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the second half of Season 5 to see if that happens.
It’s currently unclear when the second half of Yellowstone’s fifth season will premiere on the 2023 TV schedule. So, in the meantime, you can stream Season 1 through the first half of Season 5 with a Peacock subscription, and you can watch all of Yellowstone’s spinoffs with a Paramount+ subscription.
