Before Yellowstone comes to an end, it can still tie off its bizarre dinosaur bones storyline from the first season. Yellowstone has proven a shock success since its 2018 debut, as its endless spinoffs can attest. Nearly every episode of Yellowstone has been penned solely by creator Taylor Sheridan – which is both a strength and a weakness. It’s a strength in that the show has consistency in both voice and tone, but current TV show king Sheridan has some bad habits that have developed across the show’s run. One of the biggest is just dropping characters and subplots without any kind of wrap-up.
Some notable examples include a bomb being planted on the Beck Brother’s plane near the end of season 2, Monica (Kelsey Asbille) never really addressing the fact her husband killed her brother in later seasons or Jamie (Wes Bentley) murdering a journalist and quickly moving on. While not exactly a dropped storyline, there was also the abrupt murder of Roarke (Josh Holloway) in season 4, like the series just got tired of his plotline. Probably the most famous dropped thread came from season 1 and involved Kayce (Luke Grimes) and Tate (Brecken Merrill) unearthing some dinosaur bones near their trailer.
Yellowstone’s Dinosaur Bones Could Help The Duttons
Some thieves later steal the dinosaur bones and race off, but while Kayce briefly chases after them, this entire arc was soon forgotten. Reportedly, there was once a plan for Yellowstone’s season 1 finale to pay this off, with Kayce finding and recovering the bones, but the story moved in another direction. In one sense, this entire arc may have been symbolic of the fact that there are always people looking to take things away from the Dutton family, but the way this whole thread just petered out irritated some longtime Yellowstone viewers.
There’s still a belief Yellowstone could swing back around to the dinosaur bones story though. According to a Reddit fan theory, the ranch might be saved if these bones are (somehow) recovered and found on the Duttons’ land, which would obviously make the ranch of archeological importance and hold off any potential land development. John Dutton (Kevin Costner) has been shown to resort to any means necessary, so if he thought such a scheme would work, he’d probably try it. It would also be a neat way to tie up a plot that should have been paid off years prior.
Why Yellowstone Shouldn’t Ignore Its Dinosaur Bones Story
In Yellowstone’s defense, it has paid off some unresolved plots. The strange disappearance of Avery (Tanaya Beatty) from the show was later explained in series 4, in which she told Kayce she left because she had feelings for him she knew could never be returned. Most of the time when a subplot is dropped from Yellowstone it just feels like sloppy planning, or perhaps the showrunner got bored of it. It sounds like there was a plan for the dinosaur bones plotline, so it would be in the show’s interest to pay it off somehow, especially if Yellowstone might be coming to an end soon.
