Despite all the success and acclaim that Yellowstone had throughout its run, its fifth and final season brings the series to a satisfying conclusion. Even so, there are still plenty of unanswered questions fans are desperate to have answered. It turns out that a few of these unanswered questions extend to one of its supporting characters: the loyal Yellowstone ranch hand, Lloyd.
Throughout the show, Lloyd displays many qualities that have turned him into a fan-favorite character. As the series progressed, his role in its story grew bigger and more integral. Especially as of recently, he’s been through some pretty tough times that have even threatened his life at several points. As of now, Lloyd’s future is uncertain, and with the show nearing its end, there are plenty of different ways that it could go about concluding its journey. But how exactly has that journey unfolded, and where has it left him as of the end of Season 5?
Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on August 5, 2025: Yellowstone has concluded after five seasons, bringing many characters’ storylines to an end. Ranch hand Lloyd Pierce survives the series finale, but his fate isn’t as conclusive as it might seem. What happens to Lloyd at the end of the series? This article is updated to include additional information and reflect CBR’s current publication standards.
What is Lloyd’s Story in Yellowstone?
The Family Ranch Hand Has a Small Story Presence
Introduced in Season 1, Lloyd is a middle-aged man who has served as one of the ranch hands on the Dutton Family’s titular Yellowstone Ranch for several years. Like most of the other ranch hands, he also bears the mark of the Yellowstone brand, indicating that he also harbors a criminal past and has traded a lifetime of service to the Dutton family and their property for protection from the law. Throughout the show’s first two seasons, his role was relatively small.
Lloyd’s participation in the overall story and his given lines of dialogue were extremely limited. However, the brief interactions that did occur between him and the Dutton family showed his loyalty and commitment to them. There was also the wholesomeness of the friendship between him and Rip, as well as the father-son-like dynamic between him and fellow ranch hand Jimmy, which the fans also grew to love watching.
As brief as some of these moments were, and while they didn’t have much impact on the overall main story of Yellowstone, they did reveal that there was more to his character and helped to make him the fan-favorite he became. His role in the show has been that of a mentor figure to the lesser characters—one who shows them the ropes and hopes they follow through. His role was expanded a bit in Season 3 when he gained a love interest through barrel racer, Laramie, but it was within Season 4 that he truly became a much more realized and fleshed-out character.
Season 4 of Yellowstone Gave Lloyd More Time To Shine
Tensions and Rivalries Boil
In Season 4 of Yellowstone, viewers got to see more development and complexity from Lloyd’s character, as he was even given his own little story arc that lasted several episodes. The already bitter rivalry between Lloyd and Walker, one of the other ranch hands at Yellowstone, reached a new level of animosity after Laramie abandoned the romance she had with Lloyd in favor of a more serious relationship with Walker. The tension between the two finally came to a boiling point when Lloyd smashed Walker’s guitar and even threw a knife in his chest (barely missing the heart) after being challenged to a fight.
On the surface, Lloyd’s pettiness seemed to be rooted in Laramie choosing Walker over him. There’s certainly an aspect of Lloyd being insecure about his age, but implicitly, there was a reasonable layer to the situation. Lloyd has been a cowboy at the ranch longer than anyone else. He’s sacrificed any type of life, killed for the ranch, and covered up heinous crimes to keep the Yellowstone-Dutton Ranch out of the law’s way. That’s the philosophy of the branded cowboys: they live and die on the ranch and would do anything to protect it. When they break the rules, there are harsh consequences. Depending on the situation, they’re sometimes punished with death.
The Ramifications of Lloyd and Walker’s Feud on Yellowstone
They Resolve Their Differences, But Not Without Violence
As a result of the two hands having broken the rule of “no fighting in the bunkhouse,” John and Rip forced them to settle their situation by making them fight to exhaustion over several hours—undoubtedly one of Yellowstone‘s wildest sequences. However, even though Lloyd emerged as the fight’s victor, Rip still felt that Lloyd needed to be taught a lesson for all of his behavior. His method of doing so was by jumping him and practically beating him to a pulp.
What Happens to Lloyd at the End of Yellowstone?
Lloyd is Safe (For Now)
At the end of Yellowstone’s fifth and final season, John Dutton’s death throws the entire Dutton ranch into disarray. After this untimely demise, the remaining Duttons must sell the Yellowstone Ranch back to Thomas Rainwater and the Broken Rock Reservation, facing an impossible sum in inheritance taxes. They reluctantly do this despite knowing that this will protect the land from developers who otherwise would have gotten their hands on it. This ending is bittersweet, as it forces the Duttons and their employees to leave the land for good.
Despite an offer to come work at Beth and Rip’s new ranch, Lloyd decides to retire from cowboy life altogether. Yellowstone is surprisingly vague in depicting Lloyd’s fate, revealing only that he plans to find work in a different field, presumably remaining in Montana. This ending doesn’t rule out appearances from Lloyd in any of Yellowstone’s upcoming spinoff series. Nevertheless, for now, Lloyd has left one life behind to start another, marking a worthy end for one of the Duttons’ most loyal cowboys.
Will Lloyd Appear in an Upcoming Yellowstone Spinoff?
The Door Is Open for Future Lloyd Appearances
Conversely, Lloyd may fit better in the upcoming Kayce Dutton spinoff, Y: Marshalls. The upcoming show is expected to take a different approach than any of its sister series, following a procedural format that depicts Kayce’s continuing adventures as the livestock commissioner. Since Kayce and his family will remain in the same local area as the events of Yellowstone, Lloyd may pop up from time to time as he looks for a new purpose in life. However, if Sheridan and his team really want to push the boundaries of where they can take Lloyd as a character, he could show up in the upcoming 6666 series, which will take place on the Four Sixes Ranch in Fort Worth, Texas. This series will take the Yellowstone franchise to new corners of the country, depicting the robust dealings of the Texas cowboys who work the iconic ranch. Lloyd would fit in well among these people and could even become one of the series’ regulars on the spinoff.
Hopefully, fans haven’t seen the last of Lloyd after the events of the Yellowstone finale. There are endless avenues to be explored with the fan-favorite character on any one of the upcoming Yellowstone spinoff series.
