The final episode of season 5B called back ‘1883’ and could function as a series finale.

[This story contains major spoilers from the season 5B finale of Yellowstone, “Life Is a Promise.”]

Yellowstone circled back to the beginning in order to deliver its ending.

Heading into Sunday’s season 5B finale, the mega-hit Taylor Sheridan series had not confirmed if the supersized episode would, in fact, be the series finale. But to those who tuned into what Paramount Network described as a special season finale event, the ending certainly felt like an ending. Yet, it also set up where the Yellowstone-verse could go next.

[Major spoilers ahead…]

Directed and written by Sheridan, the one-hour-and-26-minute long episode, titled “Life Is A Promise,” revealed the fate of the Yellowstone, as the Dutton family’s ranch was sold back to the Broken Rock Reservation, finally freeing Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) of his father’s legacy while also giving his own family a future. Beth Dutton’s (Kelly Reilly) master plan was also revealed in the episode’s most shocking scene when she fatally stabbed the brother she has loathed, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), in the heart.

“You made me promise not to sell an inch, and I hope you understand that this is me keeping it,” Beth says to the casket carrying her late father John Dutton (played by departed star Kevin Costner; who is not shown), as they lay him to rest on Yellowstone land. “There may not be cows on it, but there won’t be condos either. We won.”

She later whispers, “I will avenge you.”

Beth collected on those final words to her father by setting up a perfect murder of Jamie, who is likely to go down for the death of his father, the former Governor of Montana, and who is declared missing to end the series.

“The last thing I will ever say to my father was making this promise — I’m gonna keep it,” Beth told husband Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), before asking him to take her brother to the Dutton “train station,” which is when their enemies go away and are never seen or heard from again.

Beth walks away from the attack on her brother bruised, battered and concussed. But she soon heals, and the episode begins to look ahead at what’s next for the ensemble and possibly the Yellowstone-verse at large by perfectly teeing up the reported Beth and Rip spinoff (more on that, below). Beth buys her and Rip a new ranch 40 miles west of Dillon, Montana, just far enough away from the airport, tourists or any land developer’s dreams; Carter (Finn Little) goes with them. The ending also kickstarts a new legacy for Kayce, who starts his own brand and purchases 300 cattle with son Tate (Brecken Merrill) and wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille).

The former ranch hands all move on following the tragic death of cowboy Colby (Denim Richards) and the selling of the Yellowstone, including Teeter (Jennifer Landon) getting a job at Bosque Ranch, prompting another onscreen appearance by Sheridan in the finale as horse trainer Travis Wheatley, and Ryan (Ian Bohen) reuniting with the woman who got away (played by country star Lainey Wilson).

The episode concludes with the fictional Broken Rock Tribe moving into Yellowstone, and dismantling the ranch. But when they begin taking down the headstones of the Dutton family ancestors buried on the land, they are stopped by Mo (played by Mo Brings Plenty, who is also the American Indian coordinator consultant for the franchise).

That’s when 1883‘s Elsa Dutton rises from the dead — as Isabel May ties the whole series, and franchise, together in a surprise voiceover cameo. (Her “seventh generation” reveal may also answer the theory about John Dutton’s grandfather). Here’s what she says:

One-hundred-and-forty-one years ago, my father was told of this valley and here’s were we stayed, for seven generations. My father was told they would come for this land, and he promised to return it. Nowhere was that promise written. It faded with my father’s death, but somehow lived in the spirit of this place. Men cannot truly own wild land. To own land you must blanket it in concrete, cover it with buildings. Stack it with houses so thick, people can smell each other’s supper. You must rape it to sell it. Raw land, wild land, free land can never be owned. But some men pay dearly for the privilege of its stewardship. They will suffer and sacrifice to live off it and live with it, and hopefully teach the next generation to do the same. And if they falter, find another willing to keep the promise.

The final shots capture the cascading Montana land, as both Kayce and Beth are seen settling into their new lives as they seek fresh starts, with Kayce in the former Yellowstone’s East Camp and Beth with Rip in their new new home.