Why the show focuses on a murder, a morgue

“Yellowstone” spoilers ahead: stop reading if you don’t want to know more about Sunday’s episode.

Two weeks after a dead body was found in YellowstoneSeason 5, Part 2 premiere patriarch John Duttonplayed by Kevin Costner, made a gruesome comeback on Sunday.

In the latest episode, we remember the brutally effective assassination of the governor of Montana. Three professionals in balaclavas grab a sleeping Dutton (played by Costner’s stunt double), carry him to the bathroom, stuff a gun into his hand and kill him, making it look like a suicide.

The death is “a blatant violation of everything that the character of John Dutton was and represents,” director Christina Voros tells USA TODAY. “It’s brutal. Heartbreaking. Here is a strong, iconic character who opposed various evil forces and opponents. To be beaten without knowing anything in your own home is a horribly brutal act.”

But viewers must witness Dutton’s death, Voros says. “It’s such a military operation that no amount of representation will make it effective. You have to see it to understand what happened,” he says.

The trauma of Dutton’s death continues as the governor’s body is carefully examined at the mortuary. Voros answers burning questions from Sunday’s episode:

Why was it important to show John Dutton’s body in the mortuary?

Loyal son Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) urges the coroner to look at the governor again when he questions the original verdict of suicide. Kayce even insists on going to the morgue to watch his father’s re-examination, most of which is shown in this episode.

Kayce represents every viewer who doesn’t want to look at the gruesome remains of a heroic figure but wants answers.

“Until Kayce sees the body, he won’t get the answers he’s looking for,” Voros says. “We see through Kayce’s eyes. This is not death for death’s sake. It’s that bruise, that laceration. The answers that can bring us justice lie within this body. This is the key to uncovering the truth and ensuring the right people are held responsible.”

Does John Dutton’s treatment of television reflect the Costner-Sheridan feud?

Dutton endured brutal moments in the new episodes, which were written by co-creator and executive producer Taylor Sheridan after a long battle with Costner. who officially announced that he would not return in June.

Is Dutton’s treatment a parting salvo, or one mired in a feud between the show’s sole writer and its former star?

“I can’t speak for Taylor,” Voros says. “All I know is that he always had a version of the ending (‘Yellowstone’) in his head long before any off-screen drama. Since generational dramas date back to Shakespeare and the Greeks, the death of the king is archetypal. Avoiding it was never a consideration. I feel like that’s what we’ve always wanted.

Still, the details of the death, and maybe even the morgue scenes, would have changed if Costner had been part of what was previously teased as the end of “Yellowstone,” and that could still be the case.

“Would we have gotten here this way, in another universe. I can’t answer that question,” says Voros. “Only Kevin (Costner) can talk about his decision to be or not to be a part of this final season. And I am not in the room where such decisions are made. But for storytellers, the really interesting puzzle is to tell the story of the death of a king without a king. You have to see something.

Were viewers denied the final showdown between Beth Dutton and Sarah Atwood?

It seemed likely that Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and lawyer Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) were headed for a showdown in “Yellowstone.” Beth knew that the lawyer was planning with her boyfriend Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) to kill his father. In the past, these great characters have faced each other side by side.

But in Sunday’s episode, it’s a secret assassin corporation that attacks Sarah before Beth does. Sarah hired a nefarious group to kill Governor Dutton. She even visited their secret office. Sarah was the only cold case when police reconsidered Dutton’s case as a possible murder.

Sarah is murdered in her Range Rover by a couple posing as lost minivan drivers. Voros claims that sudden deaths such as those of Sarah Atwood and John Dutton are part of Sheridan’s unexpected plan.

“Whether it’s John Dutton’s death in the first episode or Sarah’s death now, certain conclusions seem inevitable,” he says. “But if you hit each of these points, there will be no surprise. So the places where (Sheridan) decides to hold up the final showdown, for example, work. It keeps us in suspense as an audience.”