Warning! Spoiler ahead for 1883, 1923, & Yellowstone.
Taylor Sheridan has failed to answer a John Dutton III mystery from the Yellowstone series premiere. The corresponding scene is a deep pull from Lee Dutton’s funeral, but it contains mysterious information about the Dutton family tree that the show didn’t touch for another 5 seasons. Yellowstone‘s conclusion elicited a mixed reaction from fans and critics. The ending leaned into the expansive lore of long-forgotten Dutton family members, fulfilling a prophecy set up in 1883, Sheridan’s prequel series that explains how John Dutton’s ancestors arrived in Paradise Valley, Montana.
Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequels, titled 1883 and 1923, respectively, for the year they occur, weave together a rich tapestry that makes up the Dutton family. The Yellowstone prequels inform viewers about the seven generations of characters who exist within the 140 years the family occupies what became the largest contiguous ranch in the US — from Elsa Dutton’s 1883 tragedy to Spencer’s heroic journey in 1923. Still, one mystery critically linked to John III remains unsolved, leaving Sheridan with sparse options to clear up the identity of two mysterious characters from the series premiere.
John Dutton III’s Connection To Chance & Ned Dutton Explained
John Dutton Remembers Chance And Ned Dutton In Yellowstone Season 1
The Yellowstone series premiere set the tone for the franchise, with a modern range war erupting between the Dutton family and the Broken Rock Tribe. After a herd of cattle mysteriously migrates to the Broken Rock Reservation, the tribe’s new chief claims the cattle as his people’s. Unwilling to accept he’s lost a fraction of his herd, John III plays into Thomas Rainwater’s setup and arrives with a convoy of livestock agents and cowboys to take the beef back. Unfortunately, it’s a fatal mission, and John’s oldest son never makes it home.
After Lee Dutton’s death in Yellowstone season 1, episode 1, John III and his loved ones attend his eldest son’s funeral. As the sorrowful music plays and the service begins, John closes his eyes and lifts his head to the sky, momentarily transcending. As he does this, he remembers something, with the scene cutting to a picture of two tombstones within the family’s grassy graveyard. The weathered tombstones read the names of Chance and Ned Dutton as they flashed on the small screen. While one could expect the names to reappear, Yellowstone doesn’t mention these characters again in five seasons.
What Yellowstone Has Revealed About Ned & Chance Dutton Thus Far
We Know Virtually Nothing About Chance And Ned Dutton
The most mysterious element of Chance and Ned’s one-off mention is that Yellowstone reveals so little about them. Only the carving of a date is visible on Ned Dutton’s gravestone, which appears to read March 16, 1863. Tall meadow grass has grown over the tombstone. Still, if the year is correct, it only confuses Ned’s place in the family tree since the Dutton family settled in Montana in 1883, putting the date two decades before their arrival. The date on Ned Dutton’s gravestone could be a continuity error since Sheridan created the prequel three years after launching the flagship.
Chance’s tombstone is similar in size and shape to Ned’s, so it’s probably safe to assume they died around the same time. Much less is known about Chance Dutton, whose gravestone is illegible besides his name. Another possibility, instead of a continuity error, is that Chance and Ned Dutton’s graves serve as symbolic monuments for fallen family members. These people, children possibly, could have died before the Dutton family settled in Montana. That said, James Dutton is embroiled in the Civil War during the death year on Ned’s gravestone, 1863, ruling out Ned as a child Margaret lost in childbirth.
Can The Yellowstone Franchise Still Answer The Mystery Of Ned & Chance Dutton?
Yellowstone Can Solve The Mystery Of Chance And Ned Dutton In 1923 Season 2
Without any word on Yellowstone season 6, the opportunity to address Ned and Chance’s fate on the flagship is gone. The mystery is likely an intentional move on Sheridan’s part, with his Yellowstone series often complementing and informing one another. Sheridan could be leaving the mystery for another Yellowstone spinoff to solve. The next one to come to the small screen will be the second installment of 1923. Moreover, 1923 season 2 is the most likely chapter of all the Dutton family’s stories to answer the mystery now that the flagship has wrapped up John Dutton’s story.
It could be that when Jacob and Cara arrived from New York, turning James’ dream into an empire, the couple erected monuments to their fallen children.
It’s unlikely, if not impossible, that Chance and Ned were James and Margaret’s children, but the graves could still be a monument. The boys could have been the sons of Jacob and Cara Dutton, who arrived in Montana in 1894 after Margaret pleaded with her brother-in-law to save her husband’s dream. It could be that when Jacob and Cara arrived from New York, turning James’ dream into an empire, the couple erected monuments to their fallen children. From the 1923 story, we know that Jacob and Cara don’t have children in Yellowstone, having raised Spencer and John Dutton as theirs.
