Warning: This article contains spoilers for Yellowstone season 5, episode 2.The first flashback in Yellowstone season 5, episode 2 not only offers a violent look into John Dutton's past, but also helps reveal his real vision for the future of the Dutton family ranch. Notably, the flashback occurs following a scene in the present where ranch hands Ryan and Colby mistakenly killed GPS-tagged wolves from the national park. After Ryan and Colby realize their mistake, the episode cuts to younger versions of John, Lloyd, and Rip poisoning a land developer with his own lethal weed killer. There's a reason why these scenes are juxtaposed in the show.
The flashback in Yellowstone season 5, episode 2 - like the scene in the present that comes before it - examines John Dutton as Yellowstone's complex villain. In a way, the flashback also explains why John wants to put a conservation easement on the ranch. Here's everything else audiences need to know about the Yellowstone flashback in the two episode long season 5 premiere.
What The Yellowstone Season 5 Premiere Flashback Means
Ultimately, both the flashback and Ryan and Colby's wolf-killing mistake are reminders that the Duttons will do anything to protect their land. While the two scenes seem very different at first glance, they're actually similar in various ways. In both instances, the crew of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch exterminates threats to the ranch and the land - through highly illegal and dangerous methods. Though it wasn't John who killed the GPS-tagged wolves, their deaths are on his hands because Ryan and Colby were acting through John and Rip's mandate.
Moreover, the Yellowstone season 5, episode 2 flashback is also a reminder that John isn't afraid to get his hands dirty when necessary. It shows that young John Dutton hasn't changed at all in terms of his singular goal: protecting the ranch at all costs. The only real change between John then and now is that he wields much more power as both the patriarch of the ranch and the governor of Montana. John's methods may have slightly changed, but what drives him remains the same.
Yellowstone's Conservation Easement: Is John Giving Up The Ranch?
In the Yellowstone season 5 premiere, the biggest reveal is that John wants to put a conservation easement on the ranch, and just like the flashback, this also shows how he'll do anything to keep the ranch intact. Essentially, the flashback is an explanation of why John would go so far as to seek a conservation easement for his property, which would halt and block any new developments in the future of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. As a younger man, John was already privy to how land developers and the EPA conspire to poison the land for profit, which is why he has no qualms about giving up control through a conservation easement, which would ensure that their land remains undeveloped by any party for the decades to come.
All this suggests John might really be giving up on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in Yellowstone season 5. However, the truth of the matter is a little different. If John is sincere about a conservation easement, he is giving up control of the ranch precisely because he wants to ensure its future - and to make his legacy a little less bloody, as the Yellowstone season 5, episode 2 flashback further emphases the blood price of protecting the ranch so intensively.