5 Yellowstone Episodes You Can Skip On A Rewatch

The most intense moments of Paramount's "Yellowstone" are nothing short of riveting. The neo-Western saga of the Dutton family has been known to toss viewers game-changing developments at breakneck speed while offering interesting character development, stunning views, and plenty of criminal activity on the side. On paper, this could be a recipe for a show that's appointment viewing across the board — which "Yellowstone" arguably was during its original run. In practice, however, every single show in the world has some episodes that are simply worse than others, and don't contribute to the grander narrative quite as much. "Yellowstone" is no exception.

While prospective viewers should absolutely watch the entire show from start to finish during their first round, rewatching Taylor Sheridan's flagship series is another matter. There are several "Yellowstone" episodes that you can easily skip on your rewatch marathon, either because they don't bring much plot development to the table or because they just aren't all that interesting — or even a combination of both. Today, we'll take a look at five such episodes and see what makes them skippable.

There will be a handful of "Yellowstone" Season 5 episodes on this list, which is no surprise given the fact that it places last on our ranking of all five seasons of "Yellowstone." In fairness, much of this is because the viewers were aggrieved with John Dutton's (Kevin Costner) exit from the show, but the season also has pacing issues that leave several episodes spinning their wheels. One episode suffering from this is "The Apocalypse of Change," which is a "calm before the storm" episode.

We see flashbacks to the weeks before John died and characters have tense face-offs that don't lead to any climactic action just yet. There are promises about things getting exciting in the future, from Beth Dutton's (Kelly Reilly) confirmed suspicions about Jamie Dutton's (Wes Bentley) duplicity to the looming fate of the Dutton Ranch. Yet, the episode itself doesn't really feature many such changes, opting instead to awkwardly shuffle on toward the more interesting things that future episodes may bring.

This in itself doesn't make "The Apocalypse of Change" awful, of course. In most shows, there simply are some episodes that have to do the heavy lifting for others to reap the rewards and deliver the payload. Even so, a "Yellowstone" rewatcher already knows what's coming after this and doesn't really need to devote time to "The Apocalypse of Change" setting things up.

"No Kindness for the Coward" is a particularly strange "Yellowstone" episode in that, at times, it barely seems like a "Yellowstone" episode at all. A bunch of the runtime is spent well outside the contemporary Duttons' orbit, instead offering windows to other looming Taylor Sheridan projects. The episode picks up with a lengthy preview sequence of the then-upcoming "1883" spin-off prequel miniseries. This is obviously unnecessary for a rewatcher, given that the said show dropped in 2021.

There's also a significant amount of time devoted to the titular location of the yet-to-materialize Sheridanverse spin-off "6666". Likeable as Jimmy (Jefferson White) is, the Four Sixes scenes are always removed from the central action, and the overall effect is that the viewer feels that they're watching three shows over the course of the same episode. The experience isn't always particularly pleasant.

It's actually a shame, because "No Kindness for the Coward" has something going for it. John Dutton and Rip Wheeler's (Cole Hauser) robber shootout at the end of the episode isn't a bad bookend to the "1883" opening, and there are some interesting things for each Dutton kid to do, as well. Even so, there really is nothing here that a seasoned "Yellowstone" viewer absolutely needs to see again, and the "6666" and "1883" content rigs this particular episode's numbers game toward zero when it comes to rewatchability.

"Yellowstone" Season 1 does a lot of world-building and nearly every episode features something that future seasons will expand on. However, "Coming Home" could just as well be titled "Treading Water." It features few important developments and is largely devoid of the big beats that a good "Yellowstone" episode has in abundance. This is especially noticeable because "Coming Home" follows "The Long Black Train," a wham episode that reveals to us that John Dutton has colon cancer and introduces the infamous train station, thus revealing just how brutal the Duttons and Rip Wheeler truly are.

"Coming Home" mostly concerns itself with John's machinations to pull Kayce's (Luke Grimes) family back in the Dutton Ranch's orbit. Meanwhile, Beth is having a bad time at the bar, and her terse relationship with Jamie is expanded upon. Still, if you're rewatching, the chief hook of the episode is reminding yourself what Beth's chemistry with Jamie is at this point in time compared to what it is at the end of the show — and there are other episodes that do the trick just as well. Even the side plot of Rip recruiting Walker (Ryan Bingham) as a new ranch hand isn't all that captivating, even though the show does cleverly use Walker's branding scene to show Monica (Kelsey Asbille) just what sort of place she's walked into.

Ideally, any show's final season would always follow an "all killer, no filler" ethos as the story nears its climax. Yet, this isn't always the case. Consider the "Yellowstone" Season 5 episode "The Dream is Not Me," which devotes itself to things that aren't filler, per se, but simply don't amount to anything particularly interesting from a rewatcher's point of view.

At this point, we all know how faithful Rip is to John Dutton, so of course there's some bloody event in their past that made it so. While it's cool that we see precisely how this devotion started, it doesn't really add any new layers to either character. Elsewhere, Jamie finds himself dealing with surprising red tape that causes him and Market Equities to start plotting for John's removal from office. We also witness some surprising trouble with bisons, financial distress, and a lot of conversation.

Is this all necessary to show us in the grand scheme of things? With the possible exception of the Rip flashback, sure. Still, when a "Yellowstone" episode's biggest beats are political, it really doesn't speak volumes of its rewatch allure — especially since a rewatcher will already know that the whole impeachment plot goes nowhere fast and John will die before anything comes of it. 

Sometimes, you only realize in hindsight that a "Yellowstone" episode is truly skippable and doesn't contribute much to the plot. Other times, the episode promptly becomes known as one of the worst "Yellowstone" episodes right out of the gate. The episode in question is "Give the World Away," a strange side quest that inexplicably serves as the series' penultimate installment. This episode decides to pump the brakes of the story momentum that should come with any major TV show's endgame. Instead, we get to spend lots and lots of time with uber-cool rodeo champion and overall stellar specimen Travis Wheatley ("Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan).

"Give the World Away" sends Beth Dutton to the 6666 Ranch in order to secure Travis' support in a horse auction. This, however, seems like an excuse to flex Travis' awesomeness. He can ride, he's a great businessman, beautiful women love playing strip poker with him (and losing, naturally), and he gives great advice. Even the implacable Beth can't help but notice his charm, just a little. At one point, the episode wheels out Travis' partner, played by Bella Hadid. We get it, Taylor Sheridan, your guy has a supermodel girlfriend.

Yes, there's some other stuff going on, too, such as Jamie Dutton dreading his (at this point inevitable) fate for his role in John Dutton's death. Still, unless you're very, very invested in Sheridan's character on the show, there's no real reason to rewatch "Give the World Away."