Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Yellowstone season 5, episode 12, “Counting Coup.”
Season 5B of Yellowstone has delivered another gut punch. Most fans expected John Dutton, the family patriarch to be killed off, but the same could not be said of one of the beloved ranch hands in the bunkhouse.
After playing the Dutton patriarch for four and a half seasons, Kevin Costner very publicly took his leave of the series. This event was dramatic which made Colby Mayfield’s death so shocking. Played by Denim Richards since the first season, Colby was part of the Yellowstone family and had some of the most romantic storylines in the series. His death follows his love admission to Teeter (Jennifer Landon) as he is killed by a bucking horse trying to save young cowboy, Carter (Finn Little). Fans naturally have a lot of questions and Richards gave some answers to The Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive interview. While he has had to ride on to greener pastures, Richards states his send-off was satisfying.
“Part of the whole reason I ever wanted to get into acting — I’ve been wanting to do this since I was 5 years old — was the ability to change people emotionally. You’re either making them feel happy or sad or indifferent. So as much as, of course, I’m sad to be killed, it feels fulfilling to know that it was impactful. That people actually cared about it. Hopefully that means we did a job well done. If there was gonna be one, I guess it should be like this!”
Fans have spoken about Colby’s shocking death, and it’s safe to say they are not happy. Their surprise was evidently shared when Richards first learned of his demise a few months ago.
Denim Richards was surprised by his Yellowstone death
In retrospect, Denim Richards hasn’t known about his death that much longer than fans. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he got these script in May and quickly got a call from the director, Christina Voros about what would happen.
“They had sent me a script the night before, but I was traveling and hadn’t read it yet. And Christina, in the gentleness that she is, kind of just told me, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening.’ And this and this, ‘if you want to talk about it.’”
Richards explained that he was initially surprised at the sudden direction of where his character was going but ultimately understood his role in the series. He had to keep this secret but wanted to honor the show and tell the story as intended. Richards noted that this death differs from much of the violence in Yellowstone. The Duttons are notorious for doing what they have to hold onto their ranch. This includes murder, destruction of property, and intimidation.
Colby’s death doesn’t fall into this category. What makes it so heartbreaking is that this was a natural death that could happen on any ranch. Voros previously spoke to The Hollywood Reporter that in her experience, many ranch hands and wranglers have died just by the hazard of the job. As Rip (Cole Hauser) tells Teeter, a cowboy’s life is suffering. Despite this suffering, Richards has been honored by the response to the character’s death.
“I think the job is that the death moved people. As an artist, that’s all I could hope for, that if you do get killed off, people care that your character goes. But I definitely appreciate and I’m definitely overwhelmed by the amazing emotional response.”
While this is the end of the road for Colby, Richards hopes to still be part of the extended Yellowstone universe in the future. For now, fans can relive the heartache by watching the neo-Western on the Paramount Channel.