Season 5 of Taylor Sheridan’s smash-hit Western series “Yellowstone” is already halfway over. Given everything that went down in the first seven episodes of the season, it’s safe to imagine the next seven cannot get here fast enough for fans. Thankfully, “Yellowstone” die-hards won’t have to wait too long to see where Sheridan and company are leading the narrative — as the second half of the season is set to debut on Paramount Network on January 8, 2023.
Now, the “Yellowstone” creative team surely have a few head-spinning twists (and shocking acts of violence) already plotted out for the back half of Season 5. But they’ve also got their work cut out for them if they’re looking to top some of the more upsetting moments which they tossed at fans in the first half. And there were indeed quite a few scenes that threw “Yellowstone” viewers right from the saddle in those seven episodes. So much so, in fact, that it was tough to figure out which to feature in a recent Looper fan survey dedicated to crowning the most upsetting scene of the season.
However, Looper polled you, and it seems that fans of the show are in agreement about which moment from Season 5 of “Yellowstone” — so far — has hurt them the most.
According to our poll, Taylor Sheridan should think twice before killing another dog on Yellowstone
Looper tallied a total of 4.3k votes from “Yellowstone” fandom for that poll. But it may surprise even a few of those fans that a whopping 60% of them agreed the killing of dogs is the single most upsetting event that’s transpired in Season 5 to date.
It’s unclear if those numbers are in response to a scene where wild wolves are shot by Dutton Ranch hands, or a far more troubling scene in which Secret Service agents callously gun down stray dogs on the Broken Rock Reservation ahead of a presidential visit. Considering the horrified outcry from fans over the latter, it’s likely the one most directly reflected in the poll.
The scene is, of course, meant to be upsetting. But given how vehemently fans reacted to it, one has to wonder if Taylor Sheridan won’t think twice about depicting such senseless violence down the road. After all, “Yellowstone” fans apparently found that very scene more disturbing than even Beth Dutton’s (Kelly Reilly) brutal throwdown with Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo), the harrowing early season car crash that kills Monica Dutton’s (Kelsey Asbille) unborn child, and a flashback scene in which young Rip Wheeler (Kyle Red Silverstein) viciously murders a fellow ranch hand for besmirching the name of Beth Dutton (Kylie Rogers).
It wasn’t even close, either, with those devastating scenes netting just 12%, 19%, and 9% of the vote respectively. And with numbers like those, killing dogs has clearly become the one trigger Sheridan perhaps needs to avoid pulling in future episodes.