Who Killed Sarah Atwood in Yellowstone? Full Breakdown & Suspects md06

One of the most memorable moments from Yellowstone‘s final season was also the most unexpected. Dawn Olivieri’s Sarah Atwood had a major effect on the series following her introduction in Season 4. A cutthroat corporate executive dead-set on obtaining the Dutton Ranch at any cost, Sarah seduced and manipulated Jamie Dutton into betraying his family. Just when it seemed that their plans were finally in place, an assassin’s bullet unceremoniously ended Sarah’s life. Who was behind Sarah Atwood’s assassination and why did they want her dead?

Who Killed Sarah Atwood in Yellowstone Season 5?

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In Season 5, Episode 11 of Yellowstone, entitled “Three Fifty-Three,” Sarah Atwood meets her unceremonious and sudden end. After an argument with her partner and co-conspirator, Jamie Dutton, Sarah takes off in her car. Jamie calls to patch things up, only for Sarah to become distracted by another car that pulls up beside her at a stop sign. The couple inside urges her to roll her window down and asks for directions. When she can’t help them find their location, the man catches her off guard, asking if she is Sarah Atwood. Before Sarah realizes what is going on, the man pulls out a pistol and kills her with a single shot to the forehead. Jamie, still on the other end of the phone, is forced to listen as Sarah dies, helpless to do anything. This marks just another mysterious death in Yellowstone‘s final season, though this one was perhaps the least expected. The couple who killed Sarah Atwood disappeared after this moment, never to be seen in the series again. However, they weren’t really the ones behind this assassination.

Earlier in the season, it is revealed that Sarah Atwood was behind the assassination of John Dutton. Finally fed up with the governor’s refusal to sell his land, Sarah went to her last resort. She met with a secret organization of former black ops soldiers who farm out their skills as mercenaries and assassins. On her order, several of these assassins broke into the Governor’s Mansion and murdered John Dutton in his sleep, framing it to look like a suicide. However, Sarah was under strict orders to do nothing that could potentially expose the organization she had hired to dispose of Dutton, under threat to her own life. In the fallout of John Dutton’s death, his children took the investigation into their own hands, eventually discovering that their father hadn’t committed suicide after all. When news of this broke, the leader of the mercenary group feared that Sarah would expose his organization. To make sure this wouldn’t happen, he sent assassins after her. In a strange twist of fate, Sarah paid the ultimate price for the murder of John Dutton, meeting the same fate that she had reserved for her greatest enemy.

Sarah Atwood’s Death Was Disappointing for Yellowstone Fans

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Many Yellowstone fans were understandably shocked by Sarah Atwood’s sudden and unexpected death. The character had been the de facto main antagonist of the season up until that point, and with only a few episodes left to go before the series finale, no one expected her to die this early. Sarah Atwood’s death was a missed opportunity for Yellowstone, especially as John Dutton’s children rallied in search of revenge for their father’s death. With Sarah taken out of the picture, the Duttons had no real threat to face for the last several episodes of the season, save for Jamie. However, it was Sarah who was really responsible for John’s death, with Jamie little more than an unwitting accomplice who later helped cover up the crime. Sarah’s death meant that Beth and Kayce never got a chance to avenge their father’s death. It also means that fans would never get to see the highly anticipated showdown between Beth and Sarah, which Yellowstone had hinted would come later in the season. What could have been the greatest rivalry the series had ever seen quickly dissolved into nothingness as Sarah was killed in a random episode several weeks before the finale.

Sarah’s assassination nearly derailed Yellowstone‘s final season. As the main antagonist of the season (and, in many respects, the entire series), Sarah was far too vital a character for Yellowstone to lose with three episodes left. With its main villain missing, Yellowstone created a major void in these penultimate episodes that was never truly filled. It is a miracle, then, that Yellowstone‘s ending turned out as satisfying as it did. The series makes a crucial fumble with Sarah’s death that could have doomed its final season, as so many other popular series have done in their last installments. Thankfully, Yellowstone manages to root its finale in the emotionality of the Duttons finally losing their ancestral ranch. Sarah’s absence is still felt, but it does not destroy the series finale as it easily could have.

Sarah’s Death Makes Room For the End of Jamie Dutton’s Villain Arc

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The real reason that Yellowstone killed off Sarah Atwood three episodes before the series finale is to make room for Jamie Dutton as the new main antagonist. The “black sheep” of the Dutton family, Jamie’s villain arc persisted through all five seasons of the series as he drew farther and farther away from his adopted father and siblings. By season five, he had fully committed to destroying his family by taking their ranch and selling it to the highest bidder. He even helped Sarah Atwood cover up John Dutton’s assassination, even though he only knew about the plot after the fact. With Sarah gone, Jamie steps up as Yellowstone‘s main villain, pitting himself against his siblings one last time. Unfortunately, Jamie never realizes his full potential as a villain in the same way that Sarah did. Whereas Sarah made for an intimidating force that viewers believed was fully capable of destroying the Duttons, Jamie never achieved that same level of villainy. Jamie was always viewed as the weakest of the Duttons, both in strength and will. Audiences never truly believe that he will prevail over his siblings, even after he vows revenge for Sarah’s death. Thus, Yellowstone‘s final episodes lose their momentum as they exchange one excellent villain for a far less intimidating one.

Jamie Dutton meets his ultimate end at the hands of his sister Beth, just as she had spent the last several seasons promising him. Their decades-long rivalry comes to a head when she breaks into his house, goading him into a physical altercation. In a rare moment of legitimate strength, Jamie overpowers his sister and nearly kills her until the fight is interrupted by Rip Wheeler, who restrains his brother-in-law long enough for Beth to plunge a knife into his heart. Even the vengeful antihero, Beth forces her adoptive brother to look her in the eye as he dies, promising him that she will be the last thing he ever sees. As emotional and impactful as this moment is, Jamie’s villain arc is still a disappointment, especially after he failed to live up to the high bar that Sarah Atwood set earlier in the season.

Sarah Atwood’s death is a turning point in the final season of Yellowstone, and not in the right way. Nevertheless, she loses her life as a direct result of her own actions, at least making for an ironic and thematic end to one of the show’s wickedest characters.