It's no secret that Yellowstone creator and writer Taylor Sheridan likes to find ways to sneak himself into the show. For those who didn't know, he actually got his start in Hollywood as an actor, starring in Sons of Anarchy, CSI, Veronica Mars and more, but when he got axed from SOA, he decided to try his hand at writing and quickly became the biggest thing in television.
We've seen him appear in his own shows including Special Ops: Lioness as Cody, and in a couple episodes of Yellowstone prequel 1883 as Charles Goodnight, but most fans will recognize him as the obnoxious and arrogant horse trainer on Yellowstone... Travis.
Travis is pretty much your run of the mill douchebag horse trainer, and I get that it's all part of the character, but Sheridan is seemingly giving fans a double shot of... himself... in the second half of Season 5. Particularly the most recent episode, "Give The World Away."
Spoiler alert... if you're not caught up yet, roll on through...
Beth has to fly down to Texas to meet with Travis about selling their horses, and of course, she finds him playing strip poker with super models, including a cameo performance from well-known supermodel Bella Hadid, who plays his girlfriend.
It's pretty over the top, but then he gets Beth into a weird game of strip poker in exchange for him coming up to Montana to help with the auction up there. And right after she says Rip will murder him for this and is about to shed some clothing, Travis reveals he's just messing around. Plus, him and Rip are good friends who go way back. Rip also reveals later in the episode why they're such ride or die kind of friends.
Nevertheless, I think fans have had enough of Travis... especially since none of this side story really advances the plot at all. It just kind of seems like a way for Sheridan to show off his horses, his horse skills, and that body he's clearly spending a lot of time on.
I mean, it was never gonna be great without Costner, but I have to say, I haven't been overly impressed. Sheridan filling up the second to last season? I don't even care about that as much as I feel like there is just a lot of filler here.
I also can't help but feel like the ranch is somehow going to be given to Thomas Rainwater and The Broken Rock Reservation, which would make it protected land, and then if they lease back to the Duttons in Tate's name (he's part Native American), they'll be able to continue running it without the crippling tax burden. Pretty cool ending... except everyone has been predicting it for years and years... ever since the cost of the ranch first became an issue. Meanwhile, everyone who stars in the show... Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes, Wes Bentley... they've all been saying we'll NEVER see the ending coming. Sure seems like we're all about to see it coming.
Either way... I guess we'll find out next week in the highly-anticipated series finale.
On a more positive note, how cool was it seeing the Turnpike Troubadours performing live on the show? If that isn't a step in the right direction for country music, I don't know what it. Say what you want about Taylor... he knows how to pick a song.
HUGE shoutout to music supervisor Andrea von Foerster and Taylor Sheridan for putting together a phenomenal collection of country songs. The Yellowstone Effect is REAL.