Yellowstone season 5 episode 12: Director on Colby’s death

At this particular point in time, it is still hard to process Yellowstone season 5 episode 12 for one clear reason: Colby was a beloved part of the show. Killing him off just did not seem like a necessary thing to do, especially since he is so beloved by fans.

Also, remember that the Paramount Network drama had already taken out two characters already! You have John Dutton obviously, but then you throw Sarah Atwood into the mix as well. We know that the second character was generally hated and understandably so, but a death is still a death. At a certain point, it is understandable that you would want the show to breathe a little and not have to focus on all this stuff.

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So why make this move? Well, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, director Christina Voros does her part to put it in perspective:

The thing that I think is such a gut-punch about Colby’s death is that in a season where there are all these twists and turns and dark forces and giant narrative swings, Colby’s death is so powerful because it’s so simple. For anyone who really understands the lifestyle of cowboys and working with animals and the risks of the jobs — and Rip [Hauser] says it about himself — it’s a dangerous job, and this kind of thing happens and it happens in a split-second. My husband is a cowboy and a wrangler, and he’s lost friends this way. In a world of very high-stakes drama, this death comes as a shock because it’s so simple and it’s so grounded in the world in which all these characters work that it’s profoundly tragic because there’s no enemy here. It’s the risk of the job. And especially because of the way that Colby and [ranch hand] Teeter’s [Jennifer Landon] relationship has been playing out — absence makes the heart grow fonder; and their relationship had really just begun to take root in a different way — the timing of it is just gut-wrenching.

It does feel like losing Colby here was a reminder to all of us on the part of Yellowstone that people do die in this world often and it can only be glamorized so far … but isn’t that something we are already aware of? It certainly feels that way.

Related – Learn more of what’s ahead entering the next Yellowstone episode

Do you think that Yellowstone killing off Colby will prove to be a huge mistake?

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