Yellowstone fans are still excited about this character's Season 4

With Yellowstone With the series set to return to television soon with the second half of its fifth (and formerly final) season, fans can only hope that all of the first half's developments pay off satisfactorily. While audiences couldn't be more excited to see what the future holds for the Dutton family, that doesn't always mean there haven't been a complaint or two about the show in the past. Season 4 was one of the most critically acclaimed installments of the series to date. However, like most other television shows, it couldn't please everyone, and many fans pointed out one element that they found particularly disappointing. Although Kayce Dutton has been through a lot as a character, His arc in Season 4 left something to be desired in the eyes of the audience.

Kayce was often considered not only the most likeable member of the Dutton family, but one of the most likeable characters overall in the entire series. Against this background, many fans are disappointed The show hasn't found anything interesting for him lately. Although he started off with quite an interesting story arc, fans have recently found his storylines to be boring and stale. With a fifth season set to return soon and, more importantly, a sixth on the way, it's not too late for the series to make up for Kayce's stagnation as a character.

What was Kayce's story in Yellowstone before Season 4?

Kayce, the youngest of the Dutton family, is considered one of the more likeable characters in the series

Played by Luke Grimes, as the youngest member of the Dutton family, Kayce was introduced in the first season as a former Navy SEAL with a strained relationship with his family. He had settled on the Broken Rock Reservation with his wife Monica and their son Tate to make ends meet with a job as a horse tamer. Even though he had made friends and started a new family on the reservation, he was still treated and felt like an outsider. In the pilot, he tried to save his brother Lee, who had already been mortally wounded by his father-in-law Robert, and forced him to kill him. Later, when John wants to reconcile their relationship, he offers the family the chance to stay at the ranch, but Monica refuses, not wanting to endanger Tate in the family business, and she and Kayce eventually separate until the end of season 2.

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Kayce was portrayed as a loving husband and father who possesses a much stronger moral compass than the rest of the familyand as a result, fans see him as one of the more likeable characters in the series, easier to root for despite all the chaos John and the others have caused. His story in Season 1 may have seemed like an intriguing setup for him to become a more heroic character with a compelling personal journey to go through. However, in seasons 2 and 3, he began to be treated more and more as an afterthought. Most of his scenes consisted of working on the ranch, interacting with Rip and the other ranch hands, and participating in the story in some significant way. After serving as a commissioner of the Livestock Association, he was recruited by the leaders of the Stock Growers Association to possibly run for governor, but unfortunately this potential storyline came to nothing.

Why Fans Felt Kayce Was Wasted in Season 4

The Season 4 finale gave him a big moment, but the rest of the season didn't capitalize on it in any significant way

While Season 1 had made him an important character, Fans were becoming more and more disappointed with how Yellowstone It failed to make him feel as important to the narrative as the rest of the Duttons. This shared disappointment reached its peak in season four, with many pointing out that he was given almost nothing to do. The only moment of real significance he had in Season 4 didn't happen until the finalewhere he performed an indigenous ritual to be accepted as a full member of Monica's tribe. In the process, he undertook a “ghost search” and experienced a series of hallucinogenic visions that could have foreshadowed the future and general fate of the Duttons.

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One of the biggest critics of the use of Kayce's character was Riley Utley, an editor for CinemaBlendwho even wrote a whole piece about it with the title “I love Yellowstone, but I have yet to pick a bone about how the series uses the character of Luke Grimes”. Utley had written that Kayce had always been her favorite child of John and Evelyn, which made her even more upset by how much the series isolated him from his family and how distant he had become from the larger conflicts in the series' plot.

Given that Paramount has already confirmed a sixth season, there are many more opportunities to involve Kayce more heavily in larger and more important storylines. With the second half of season five yet to premiere, the series has even more time to make up for the amount it previously had on Kayce's development.

Did Season 5 make better use of Kayce's character?

Luke Grimes has hinted that bigger things are ahead for Kayce

• The second half of Yellowstone The fifth season is scheduled to premiere on November 10th on Paramount Network.

In the first half of season five, Monica was shown to be pregnant, as she and Kayce were expecting a second child after moving away from the ranch. Unfortunately, they later got into a car accident that tragically killed their unborn child, although both of them and Tate survived. After another brief separation and another warm reunion between him and Monica, Kayce also agreed to take over management of the ranch after John won election for governor. In the aforementioned article, Utley also pointed out that while Season 5 gave him more to do, especially with the reunion between him and Monica, it still wasn't quite enough.

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It's established very early on that Kayce is a character who is actually far more complex than the series actually allows. Accordingly Business Insider, Luke Grimes has hinted that Kayce is in for a “big moment”. and the character will clearly “rise.” However, with the rest of season five just around the corner, viewers will just have to wait and see how the series delivers on that promise.

The series follows the conflicts along the shared borders of the Yellowstone Ranch, a large cattle ranch, the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, Yellowstone National Park, and land developers.

Release date

June 20, 2018

Pour

Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, Brecken Merrill, Jefferson White

Seasons

5

Creator

John Linson, Taylor Sheridan

Number of episodes

47

Streaming service(s)

Paramount+, Peacock

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