Billy Klapper’s Tribute Is the Best Thing About the ‘Yellowstone’ Premiere

This story contains spoilers from season 5, part 2 of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone’s shocking midseason return featured death and despair for the Dutton family. Creator Taylor Sheridan honoured one beloved cowboy while writing off another major figure. Since Sheridan reportedly feuded with lead actor Kevin Costner for nearly two years before the Western drama’s return, I’ll let you guess which fate belonged to John Dutton.

Regardless of what you thought of Yellowstone’s direction moving forward—which fans are certainly not happy with!—one moment in the midseason premiere was surprisingly heartfelt. The scene takes place in the latter half of the episode, when Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) is in Texas right before you-know-who bites the dust. At Lloyd’s (Forrie J. Smith) request, he pays a visit to Billy Klapper’s workshop in Pampa, Texas. Lloyd tells Rip that he ordered a bit from Klapper more than fifteen years ago and never came around to collect.

If you didn’t pick it up during the scene, a tribute at the end of the episode that reads “In Loving Memory of Billy Klapper” should clue you in. Klapper was a real-life spur maker for six-plus decades in Texas. Before his passing just this past September, he was one of the few remaining steel artists of his caliber left in the country.

Thematically, the moment acts as a significant passing of the torch from the old cowboys to members of the new generation, like Rip. Now Yellowstone season 5 will likely spend its remaining episodes setting up who will lead the Dutton family ranch.

“You brought that herd down from Dixon Creek?” Klapper asks Rip before he gifts him a pair of spurs. “You’re gonna need them more than that cattle did.” Later, Rip speaks to another cowboy from the 6666 Ranch. “When he’s gone, we’re all out of legends,” the other man tells Rip, “with nobody trying to be the next one.” I don’t know about you, but I have a hunch that the next one is Rip.

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