Taylor Sheridan has always known how Yellowstone would end.

The “when” might’ve gotten a little confusing over the years, but the story

of the Dutton family and the lengths they’d go to in order to protect their

legacy — and possibly more importantly, their land — always had a conclusion.

Day one, episode one, Taylor said, ‘I know exactly how this ends,’” executive producer David Glasser recalls.

It’s something the Yellowstone creator didn’t hide from his cast, either. “He told me the ending of the show when we were filming season 1,” Kelly Reilly, who’s spent five seasons playing the formidable Beth Dutton, says.

The series, which follows the members of the Dutton family — patriarch John (Kevin Costner), family-lawyer-turned-enemy Jamie (Wes Bentley), businesswoman/bulldog Beth, and independently minded cowboy Kayce (Luke Grimes) — and those that work on their beloved ranch, set a standard for drama in its first episode, which saw the death of eldest sibling Lee Dutton (Dave Annable). From that moment, it was clear that the battle for land (and a certain lifestyle) was a matter of life and death in Montana. And the Duttons would do anything to win that battle.

Yellowstone premiered in June of 2018 on the little-known Paramount Network, but eventually— thanks to word of mouth and episodes hitting both CBS and Peacock — would find its audience … and then some. “At its core it’s about family and it’s about what would you do to protect your family,” Glasser says. “It’s such a simple concept and Taylor has brilliantly built a universe around it.”

According to Neilson, season 5A was the most-watched scripted series on television, averaging 11.6 million viewers each week. In other words, as the drama heads into the back-half of the season, the show is about as popular as land seems to be in the Dutton’s world: Everybody wants it.

And it’s been a minute since they’ve gotten it. The first half of season 5 finished airing on Jan. 1 of 2023, with additional episodes expected to air that summer. But by February, it was reported that star Kevin Costner wanted to reduce his shooting time on the show and that discussions had begun about a potential sequel series maybe starring Matthew McConaughey. As rumors swirled, Yellowstone did not make it back into production before the 2023 SAG and WGA strikes, which lasted into the fall. By November, Paramount announced the series would return a year later, in November of 2024 (and would then launch a present-day spinoff titled 2024).

Six months later, in May of 2024, production finally began on what was revealed to be the final season, with no word of Costner’s involvement. It would later come out that Costner would not, in fact, return to his role. The star claimed he had wanted to film the second half of season 5, but said that “they didn’t have the scripts.” Got all that? Oh, and 2024 is still a present-day spinoff, but is now titled The Madison, which stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick J. Adams, and Matthew Fox. Long story short, Yellowstone fans have had to wait a while — and the same can be said of the cast.

“We have such a huge following of fans who really are very emotionally connected to the show,” Reilly says. “Some of them are mad as hell that we’ve taken so long, but we’re like, ‘It’s not our fault! We wanted to go to work!’” Luke Grimes adds, “I’ve been itching to get back to the show and I’m so glad it finally worked out and we got to finish strong.”

Now, we’re less than two months away from the final six episodes of the Western saga, which will start airing on Nov. 10. And according to Reilly, things really did work out for the best. “It was always going to be five seasons in [Sheridan’s] head, but because the show became so successful, the network and everyone wanted more,” Reilly says. “So, in a way, fate took it and we ended this part of Yellowstone in a way that he always envisioned it to end.”

But what does that ending look like? Fans will recall that the first half of season 5 ended with the cowboys — led by no-nonsense Rip (Cole Hauser) — preparing to head down to Texas.

“We film most of the show in Montana, but there’s a part of the show that’s set in Texas,” Reilly says. And let’s just say that newlyweds Beth and Rip aren’t super excited about the time apart. Or at least Beth isn’t. “We start the show where Rip’s gone to Texas and Beth is miserable without him,” Reilly continues. “Within 24 hours, she’s like, ‘When are you coming back?’ She doesn’t have much patience or understanding that he has to go and do cowboying so she might take a trip down to Texas to see him.”