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‘Yellowstone’: How This ‘1883’ Photo Could Reveal a Major Season 5 Spoiler

If history does repeat itself on “Yellowstone,” there’s a possibility that we’ve been staring a major spoiler right in the face for at least a year. It all comes down to promotional material for “Yellowstone” and “1883,” thematic elements, and some particular foreshadowing.

Let’s take a look at the “1883” photo in question. In this scene, Margaret Dutton, James Dutton, and their son John are standing together, with daughter Elsa Dutton further to the side, as shown in another angle. There is a noticeable gap between Margaret and James like a fourth person should be standing there. Paired with the fact that Elsa is standing off to the side, that gives us a pretty strong sense of foreshadowing that something might happen to her. As we know, the series ended with her death and the Duttons settling in Paradise Valley.

Photo Cr: Emerson Miller/Paramount+ (C) 2022 MTV Entertainment Studios.

Now, looking back at this promotional image from season 3 of “Yellowstone,” we can see that someone is missing. This could have just been an aesthetic choice to have the two couples on either side of John Dutton. But, if we take the foreshadowing elements from the “1883” image and superimpose them onto the “Yellowstone” image, we can speculate that, possibly, Jamie may die in the future. It’s been two seasons since that image came out and it didn’t happen then, so maybe it won’t happen in season 5. Or maybe it will. Maybe season 5 will be the end, but then again, maybe not. There’s just no telling with this show.

How Two Images and Some Foreshadowing Can Lead Us to Jamie’s Demise

What do we know about Jamie’s situation right now? In the big picture, he’s now firmly under his sister Beth’s thumb. She threatened him into killing his biological father, Garrett Randall, and then took photos of him disposing of the body. She has some pretty heavy blackmail material against him now. And, Kelly Reilly says that Beth is going to be much more unhinged in season 5. Could she be gearing up to use her blackmail against her half-brother?

(Image Credit: Paramount Network Press)

Jamie has constantly been in hot water with the family, and he’s more or less everyone’s least favorite character. Ask any “Yellowstone” fan who their favorite character is and I bet no one says Jamie. So, could Jamie have been set up in the beginning just to eventually fall? It’s possible. But that’s possible of any character. There’s really no predicting who’s going to live and die on “Yellowstone.”

Foreshadowing is an extremely powerful tool, though. It’s interesting that “1883” used it the way it did, with the obvious, unsettling space between Margaret and James. With “Yellowstone,” I feel like foreshadowing is used pretty sparingly in favor of surprises for the audience. Like I said above, it’s hard to predict events on “Yellowstone” because the things that happen are usually outlandish and surprising, and not something one usually thinks of. So, if this season 3 promo image foreshadows Jamie’s death, that’s a big deal for the show. That’s deliberately leaving Jamie out of the group to create that kind of speculation. Overall, we can speculate all we want, but we’ll never know for sure until November 13, when “Yellowstone” returns.