The Yellowstone Character Whose Disappearance Is Still A Mystery
Much like its Montana backdrop, Yellowstone's narrative is expansive and sprawling. It's broadly focused on John Dutton (Kevin Costner), whose family owns the largest ranch in the U.S., and the battles he must fight to keep his land from being taken over by various outside forces. But within that broader story are lots of smaller threads and lots of supporting players. Just like in the real Montana, sometimes things go missing.
On the show's subreddit, one fan felt compelled to put together a virtual search party for a long-missing Yellowstone character. After three seasons, they realized a potentially important player seemed to have completely vanished from the action (yet another reason the Duttons need a better security system). In fact, the character in question only actually appeared in the very first episode of the series.
User u/RNutt laid it out in the title of their thread: "What happened to Senator Huntington?" In it, they posed the question, "Was she ever seen after the pilot episode?" Unfortunately for the good senator from Montana, the answer is a resounding "No."
Here's why fans have felt the need to put up a virtual "Missing" poster for this Yellowstone character.
Yellowstone's elusive Senator Huntington
It's not at all unusual for characters to come and go on a TV series, but the main issue with the disappearance of Senator Huntington (Jill Hennessy) is that it looked like she was meant to be a substantial supporting player in the action of the show.
She was introduced in the Yellowstone pilot as an ally of Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) in his ongoing battle to wrest control of the Yellowstone Ranch from the Duttons. Being a senator, one would think this would make her an important and substantial power player. However, as u/RNutt and several other Redditors noted, she was never seen again after the pilot.
This is especially strange considering that the character wasn't billed as a one-off. In a casting announcement that appeared on Deadline before the premiere of the first season, Hennessy was listed (along with Patrick St. Esprit, Ian Bohen, and Denim Richards) as a recurring player on the show. Other than St. Esprit, who was slated to play A.G. Mike Stewart (a part eventually played by Timothy Carhart), the other actors did go on to appear in multiple episodes. As for Hennessy, it looks like her role got significantly reduced between that announcement and the premiere.
Of course, this wasn't the last time the show would introduce an important character, only to suddenly drop them from the series.
One of Jamie's major political rivals also vanished...
Senator Huntington isn't the only government official who made an abrupt exit from Yellowstone. In one of their most devious plots, season 2 of the series saw John and Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) handpicking a formidable opponent for Jamie (Wes Bentley) to lose to in his bid to become Montana's Attorney General. That opponent was Cassidy Reid (Kelly Rohrbach), a rodeo rider turned prosecutor — the perfect resume for Montana politics.
Reid would go on to be appointed as the state's attorney general after Jamie drops out of the race, at which point she was set up to become another political power player in John's orbit who could help him get one over on his rivals. At least, that's how it seemed. She actually just disappeared without adding anything else to the story.
Reid's abrupt departure was noted by fans on Reddit in the thread about Senator Huntington. Although user u/MontanaJoev notes that her sudden exit after a few episodes was attributed to the fact that "she took a job with the federal government," they also concluded that she "feels like a wasted character."
...as did the woman carrying his unborn child
Another important figure in Jamie Dutton's orbit who up and vanished (no, we're not talking about that reporter he murdered) is his girlfriend Christina (Katherine Cunningham). They got close on Jamie's attorney general campaign, for which Christina was his campaign manager. So close, in fact, that Christina became pregnant with his child. However, viewers haven't seen hide nor hair of Christina or the wee baby Dutton since the end of season 2.
Similar to the Senator Huntington discussion, a Reddit user named u/King_Baboon started a thread titled "Whatever happened to Jamie's girlfriend being pregnant?" in which they noted, "That whole situation seemed to drop off."
Fans were divided on how they felt about this one. Some saw Christina's absence throughout season 3 as yet another instance of the series not being able to skillfully juggle its many characters and storylines. Those people include u/someguyfromsk, who theorized, "Probably another side story they didn't have a plan for that just got dropped in hopes everyone forgets about it."
Others had more hope that she'd make a return in Yellowstone season 4, though. User u/RipsLittleCoors predicted, "We will see this one again. It is too juicy to drop, unlike some of the other dropped bits. She will make a return, probably at a moment that maximizes the problems for Jamie."
As to where all these missing characters have disappeared to, let's hope it's somewhere they can have a stiff drink and toast to not being involved in all the drama on Yellowstone.