Taylor Sheridan has been super generous to Taylor Sheridan on Yellowstone recently.
The co-creator and showrunner plays horseman and trainer Travis Wheatley on the series. The character has previously made brief appearances on his Paramount Network hit -- typically astride a horse and engaging in a bit of transactional business with ranch hands. But not only does Travis have a surprisingly meaty role in the hit drama's final run, Sunday's episode featured his character in perhaps the most flattering manner possible within the Yellowstone creative world.
The action began with Travis hosting a strip poker game with three attractive young women in various states of undress (Travis is winning, of course). One of the women present is then revealed to be Travis' girlfriend, played by supermodel Bella Hadid.
Enter the show's fan-favorite tough-as-nails Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly), who accuses Travis of "violating workplace harassment laws" and says she would "rather have a gasoline enema" than join his game.
But in the next scene, in a rodeo arena, Beth and Hadid's character watch as Travis shows off his horse-riding skills. Beth says to Hadid: "[Travis is] probably the most arrogant man I've ever met in my life. Misogynistic. Condescending. Twenty-five years older than you. Can you please explain the appeal?" To which Hadid dreamily replies, "You ever seen him ride before?" This is followed by shots of Sheridan/Travis maneuvering a horse (impressively!). Beth admits: "Okay, yeah, I get it."
(For Hadid, this sentiment reflects real life -- she's dating champion horse rider Adan Banuelos and has recently spent plenty of time in the Fort Worth rodeo world).
In a subsequent scene, a buff and shirtless Travis is partying in a pool with beautiful women, and lures Beth into a one-on-one strip poker game. Not surprisingly, Travis wins again -- though he spares Beth the indignity of having to remove her clothes. (This follows a recent Sheridan shirtless appearance in another one of his series -- his Paramount+ CIA drama Lioness, where he plays CIA operative Cody Spears).
Now in the previous week's episode, Sheridan enjoyed a different kind of promotional moment in a scene set in an Amarillo hotel bar. Beth orders a Titos and soda and is told by the bartender they only serve Four Sixes brand vodka in this here cowboy town. This is actually Sheridan's spirits company, which is branded after the sprawling and iconic 277,000-acre Texas ranch he purchased in 2022. The bartender says, "Okay, Sixes and soda," which sounds a bit like trying to make this order become a trend (admittedly, "Sixes and soda" does have a rather nice ring to it). Like with Sheridan/Travis' horse skills, Beth is dutifully impressed by the cocktail/embedded advertisement for the writer-producer's spirits company. (By and by, in case you're curious, that speakeasy bar is the real-life Paramount Recreation Club in The Barfield, and, according to their current cocktail menu, they serve Titos).
So, putting this all together, there are a fascinating number of things that Yellowstone is kinda-sorta demonstrating or suggesting during these last two episodes about its own creator: Sheridan's Four Sixes spirits brand is awesome. He's a savvy seller of horses (Sheridan sells horses in real life). He's an unbeatable poker player. He horse-riding ability is incredible. He got a muscular 54-year-old physique. He might be "arrogant and misogynistic," but women love him anyway. He can seduce a 28-year-old a supermodel and earn respect from Beth Dutton -- who, across five seasons of Yellowstone, tends to annihilate any man who has the misfortune of coming across her path (except for her husband Rip, played by Cole Hauser, and a couple of family members). Let's call it Supporting Character Syndrome.
This is all rather bold, to be sure. It would be like if showrunner Shonda Rhimes had cast herself in Grey's Anatomy as the best surgeon in the world who then seduces Derek Shepherd while performing brain surgery right after Meredith Grey enthused about an official Shonda Rhimes line of healthcare products.
In a final interesting bit of Travis business from earlier in the season, Sheridan also gave Travis a moment last week when his character was told that John Dutton (Kevin Costner) had died. Given all the reports of behind-the-scenes disputes between Sheridan and Costner, which eventually led to Costner exiting and the showrunner writing him out of the series, Travis' deadpan "Oh really? What happened?" reaction when told of Dutton's murder was surreal. This was, after all, the writer who "murdered" John Dutton, looking casually surprised over the character homicide he committed.
"I don't think I ever questioned the meta-ness of it just because it felt very organic," executive producer Christina Voros, who directed that episode and three others of season 5B, told The Hollywood Reporter last week of the scene. "It was just a series of things that makes sense. Jimmy (Jefferson White) is now working for Travis and that is where his storyline is [at the Four Sixes ranch, where Travis finds out about John Dutton's death]. And what really struck me about that scene was that this is the first scene where we really get to see the way that [John's death] is affecting... the cumulative effect of grief and feeling helpless."
Next Sunday is the series finale of Yellowstone, which is expected to end in such a way that sets up a spinoff series of some kind, as Reilly and Hauser have been in talks for a possible sixth season.
