With only one episode left in Yellowstone’s fifth and presumably final season, co-creator Taylor Sheridan will likely bring Beth and Jamie’s hateful feud to a bloody conclusion, while also revealing Kayce’s proposal to save the ranch. It’s not as if the franchise is concluding on the whole, though, with plenty of upcoming Yellowstone shows on the horizon, and I dare say the penultimate ep featured a quick scene that set the stage for the long-awaited Texas-set 6666 spinoff to hopefully hit the 2025 premiere schedule.
To be sure, the episode didn’t hint extremely hard at what it was doing, but when taking into account the information that was part of the 6666 spinoff’s announcement years ago, the quippy scene focusing on the Bunkhouse crew can easily be viewed as foreshadowing. And if I’m right, it also hints at a pretty big and celebratory event taking place in the final episode. (Which will itself be followed by the now-confirmed spinoff centering on Rip and Beth.)
The Yellowstone Scene That Set Up The 6666 Spinoff
Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with any of the cringe-heaping scenes in which Taylor Sheridan put his horse wrangler Travis on display as a pampered hornball. I really hope everything that happens in those scenes goes away forever.
No, I'm talking about the scene on the ranch whenever the live music started up, and all of the Bunkhouse's elite were sitting on the fence and goofing off ,with Jefferson White's Jimmy and Kathryn Kelly's Emily back in person to pay respects to this season's biggest victims, John and Colby. (Watching Teeter mourn Colby's shocking death was a bummer.) The topic of conversation revolved around near-future plans, with Lloyd among the very few who Rip asked to stay on, and then there was this exchange:
- WALKER: Hell, I'm going back to Tejas.
- RYAN: Sixes hiring?
- JIMMY: Sorry, it's only married men work camps on the Sixes.
- RYAN: Why only married men?
- EMILY: Cause they don’t want a bunch of you coyotes chasing the vet techs to Hell and back.
Back when 6666 was first announced, Jefferson White was noted as being one of the leads, which made sense after John sent Jimmy down to the Four Sixes to get schooled in cowboyisms. But he wasn't the only star expected to make the shift, as Ryan Bingham was also in the mix, even though it hasn't ever been entirely clear why Walker would have left a steady gig at the Yellowstone to go back south. But with the ranch's ownership soon to change hands, his exit seems far more logical now.
And then speak of the devil! after a bit more joking at Jimmy's expense, who should appear? Walker's significant other who hadn't seen him since he went off with Rip & Co. Which leads us to...
I Think Walker And Laramie Are Getting Married In The Finale
Co-stars Ryan Bingham and Hassie Harrison are married in real life after starting up their on-set romance in Season 4, making their fictional courtship all the more believable. And it doesn't look like they're in any trouble of falling apart at this point, no matter how much Llloyd would secretly love that relationship to implode.
So now that Walker knows the Four Sixes hires only married cowboys to work the camps, I can easily see him taking the opportunity to take his romance with Laramie to the next level with an impromptu wedding. They definitely wouldn't want to wait until they got down to Texas, since all of their shared loved ones are right there on the ranch, so I'm fully anticipating a wedding in the Season 5 finale.
Hell, we've seen Beth pull off just such slapdash nuptials in the past when she married Rip, and that involved taking a priest hostage at gunpoint, which I don't think we'll need to worry about with Walker and Laramie. I mean, Beth might go out and kidnap the same priest just for shits and giggles.
Of course, if the duo does get hitched in the episode, it will probably serve as the smile-filled calm before whatever shitstorm will close out this chapter of the Duttons' story. So long as neither one of them die in the aftermath, I'm guessing fans will soon hear announcements about Hassie Harrison joining the cast of 6666, even if it takes another 3 years for it to come together.
Anybody else out there agree with this prediction? Join me in pre-toasting the couple and be sure to check out Yellowstone's series finale when it hits Paramount Network on Sunday, December 15.
