Destiny or Disaster? Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille Open Up About Kayce & Monica’s Path

The end of Yellowstone is in sight, and it’s also the end of a journey for Kayce Dutton, his wife Monica Long Dutton, and their son Tate. The last episodes of Season 5 have included Kayce contemplating the future — knowing that he’d have to choose between his family and the ranch. For him, it wasn’t much of a choice, and now viewers are left to see where he, Monica and Tate will end up in the series finale.

CBR spoke to actors Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille about the journey that Kayce and Monica take in Yellowstone Season 5. They spoke about Kayce’s outlook after everything he’s been through, being somewhat removed from the main Dutton family drama, and whether or not they left anything unexplored. Plus, Asbille commented on her success with the Netflix thriller Don’t Move.

CBR: Luke, audiences are well familiar at this point with Kayce’s conflicts between the family he’s built and the family obligations of the ranch. That’s all coming to a head in this second half of Yellowstone Season 5. What can you say about his perspective as things are coming to a close?

Luke Grimes: I think that’s always been his struggle on the show. That’s what his father wanted him to do. He [was] trying to line him up to take over and be able to run the ranch. But I think Kayce, deep down in his soul somewhere knows that that’s not really for him, and that’s where he’s always been. That’s why you always find him sort of sitting on a porch somewhere, not really knowing what he’s supposed to do with his life.

And I think in this final season, he has to make some decisions. It’s time for him to kind of man up and figure some things out — because he has to. There’s no other choice at this point.

He’s tried to keep his family out of the tumult going on with Beth and Jamie and all of that, and Yellowstone does give you a separate space, with Season 5 showing their new home. As actors, do you like having that distance, or is there any part of you that wants to be mixing it up?

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Kelsey Asbille: We just do that off-screen. [Laughs.]

Grimes: Yeah, but it’s weird. Even when we’re not in the Dutton drama, we have our own drama. There’s drama on the [reservation]. We have a miscarriage. There’s always something going on with us, too.

Asbille: We get in our own trouble.

Speaking of getting in your own trouble — Kelsey, you went off and starred in the Netflix movie Don’t Move, which saw you playing a woman who was temporarily paralyzed, trying to escape from a serial killer. Between that and Yellowstone, have you had more than enough drama recently?

Asbille: My goodness. I need to do a rom-com. That’s what’s next for me. [Laughs.] There’s some similarities there for sure. I think I’m getting typecast. [Laughs.]

Everyone obviously would love to see Kayce and Monica get a genuinely happy ending in the Yellowstone finale. What was it like for the two of you to say goodbye to these characters, and was there anything about them that you didn’t get to explore?