Warning: this article contains spoilers Yellow stone season 5, episode 12, “Counting Coup”.
John Duton. Sarah Atwood. And now Colby Mayfield. The last season of Yellow stone accumulates quite a few corpses.
In its final episode, Colby (Denim Richards) makes his way into the barn to find young Carter (Finn Little) trapped by the 3-year-old horse that Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith) declared a “man-eater” after trying to tame him for a handful of episodes. When Carter went to refill the horse’s water, he got stuck. So, Colby steps in to save Carter, but when he does, he takes a kick (or two) to the chest, and unfortunately, it’s the end of the road for the cowboy who’s been with the show since the whole beginning.
Weekly Entertainment spoke with actor Denim Richards about his goodbyes.
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I feel like I’m still processing this. I really thought that with the death of John (Kevin Costner), and then Sarah (Dawn Olivieri), everyone was safe.
RICHARDS IN DENIM: Yeah, the cowboy life is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Obviously bad things happen on the show, but I think sometimes, between all the beautiful shots of Montana, we can forget how dangerous it is.
Yeah, it often gets mixed up between the big sky country riding with the cattle and the poker and the bars and the whiskey drinking, and then all of a sudden we’re kind of spiced up into a tragedy, which, I guess, imitate a little life. We don’t always know when the end is. It was certainly an interesting and sad ending, but it all ends well. It was wonderful to be able to see such a visceral response from our incredible fans, which hopefully means we did a job well done.
Were you notified before the start of the season? How did you discover it?
I found out I was thinking about it maybe a day before they sent me the scripts. I was actually coming back from Texas and I got a call saying that’s what was going to happen. So it must have been in May. So much of our lives have been tied to this incredible show for so long, but the work itself, when you take it down to its simplest form, is to serve the story and hopefully have a real experience and you like to overcome a little pride and ego, and to serve history. That’s what I hope we’ve been able to do with Colby over the last five seasons.
There are so many ways to die Yellow stone. What was your reaction to the way Colby came out?
I feel like this season, (creator) Taylor (Sheridan) is really emphasizing the realities of cowboy life. We have this saying that everyone will fall off their horse at some point in their life. It’s not if, it’s just when and how much. It’s not a phenomenon. These things happen, so I think there’s this element where I think it’s about really wanting to emphasize that this is a reality. It’s a bit poetic because in season 3, Colby gets trampled several times by a horse in the river. And so maybe these were the ancestors of these horses coming back for revenge. But more than anything, it was about as clean as it was possible to cause a death.
It took a long time to shoot that scene, over a few weeks, because of delays from rain and lightning and all these other things. So you kind of prepare yourself to spend a day and do it, and then you realize, hey, we’re not going to shoot it today. We’re actually going to shoot it in two weeks. So staying in that pocket was a little difficult.
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I wanted to ask you about the shoot itself. Were you really there with a horse? How was it?
There was a real horse in there. It was definitely a very expensive confidence game, but we have the best wrestlers and coaches in the world who are a part of this show. As wild as this horse may seem, he is very in control. But when you get into a pin with the stallion and it’s literally just you and the stallion, anything can happen, or so it seems. But it was exciting. And then of course, with everything, you’re shooting so much and you never know what’s going to happen in the final cut at the end of the day. And I think they showed enough of what it was all about. I think this was supposed to be less about Colby being trampled, and more about the how, why, and result, and not necessarily the horror of what it would be like to be trampled multiple times by a horse in a locked enclosure. .
Yeah, I have to say, I’m glad you didn’t show him getting stomped on anymore.
Yeah, it was really hard when we were doing the rehearsals. We try so many different variations, and of course you, as an actor, really try to live up to the character. “Do we really need any more stuff?” I have been able to be a part of this show since 2017 and it has been an extremely incredible run. And so when you’re in those moments that everyone knows are very sensitive, I think everyone kind of understands what it’s like. And of course, the moment Taylor gets his hands on it, it transforms into this beautifully woven fabric that everyone gets to wrap their arms around.
And a lot of that was told through the reactions of the other characters, which I think worked.
Yeah. I think that’s part of the problem, right? It was a difficult season, I think, for everyone. It was a long break that we had, and so coming back together, it was a little different because you would think there would be some sort of giant fanfare, and we’re all together all the time doing all these things. We spent so much time together in these kinds of emotional rabbit holes, and getting to the end without being able to be a part of it was also a challenge. But it was really beautiful to be able to just see the reactions. It was truly a beautiful piece of cinema.
Only a few episodes left Yellow stone overall, so were you able to stick around?
Yeah. I mean, it’s not as bad as SurvivorRIGHT? You were rejected and you left. I didn’t leave, but I didn’t really come there after that. It was such a different season with filming in Texas and Montana, and I think everyone was really trying to figure out what it was all like. I was able to stay and we had dinners and things of that nature, but I definitely didn’t show up after drawing my straw.
The last thing I’m going to ask you is: do you remember the very first thing you filmed on the show?
I think it was when we were all riding in season 1, episode 1. I just remember we were in an arena or just outside the arena, and we were getting some sort of grandiose instructions by John Dutton, and then we all had to shoot disabled. And I was terrified of even lining up my horse with all the other cowboys at that moment. So if you watch the first two seasons of Yellow stoneyou will often see my horse trampling in moments when he needs calm. And so I guess because of that, it’s only fitting that I also get trampled by a horse.
Yellow stone airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, on Paramount Network.
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