The tone of Yellowstone was set in the first episode. It starts with John Dutton being in a terrible car accident and ends with a bloody gunfight between two brothers. In turn, the episode’s crazy events set a pattern for all the drama and tragedy that Yellowstone is known for.
But there’s one important thing about the family that was left out of the first episode of Yellowstone: what happened to Lee Dutton?
Lee is one of the most important characters in the first episode, as far as I can remember (spoilers ahead).
People learn about him as part of the ongoing land dispute with the nearby Broken Rock Indian Reservation. So, when Lee goes to the reservation to get back the stolen cattle, he faces a direct fight. At the end of the fight, Lee is shot and kills himself in front of his brother Kayce.
Since then, Lee has been almost completely forgotten as the rest of the Dutton family moves on in season five. In fact, the forgotten Dutton sibling has sparked a social media uproar. It doesn’t look like fans are too sad that Lee died. Instead, the other characters in the show almost never talk about him.
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Fans say that the fact that Lee isn’t mentioned in later seasons of Yellowstone is a big mistake. After all, it looks like Lee never existed to the rest of the ranch. For example, the character isn’t in any family photos and his or her siblings never talk about him or her.
Yes, the first episode makes it seem like the death happened years ago, but in terms of the story, it hasn’t been nearly that long. So, it makes sense that the other Dutton Siblings would talk about Lee or at least remember him.
Does no one in his family care about him? Even though Lee Dutton’s death set off the rest of the show, it’s like he never existed. Of course, a lot of people think that writing is to blame. This in this case falls on a single person, Taylor Sheridan, because he insists on making every episode of Yellowstone himself.
So, fans say that Sheridan added the character to the story just to make the pilot episode more interesting. So, in the following seasons, he’s pretty much ignored and forgotten (even if John has a brief interaction with him in season two). Even though this approach is fine, it’s also a sign of bad writing.
Fans are also upset that the brother is never even brought up. Sheridan cares more about making the story revolve around Kayce, Monica, Rip, Beth, and Jamie.
