Taylor Sheridan never revisits Thomas Rainwater’s backstory in Yellowstone, but there are still opportunities to rectify Gil Birmingham’s character history. The Yellowstone executive producer’s flagship work came to an end with Yellowstone season 5, part 2, which saw the death of John Dutton III after Kevin Costner’s controversial Yellowstone exit. After his death, John’s kids handled the family’s legacy as best they could, with Kayce (Luke Grimes) selling the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch to Thomas Rainwater and the Broken Rock Tribe.

The events of Yellowstone season 5, part 2 had disappointing elements, primarily due to John’s death, but the Broken Rock Tribe’s win was a triumph. By selling the land back to the ancestors of its Indigenous stewards, Kayce Dutton fulfilled Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prophecy from 1883, in which John’s ancestor, James Dutton (Tim McGraw), promised Spotted Eagle (Graham Greene) that the Dutton family tree would return the land to the Crow people in seven generations. Still, we don’t get the complete picture of what this triumph means for Rainwater, since Yellowstone never follows up on Thomas’ backstory from season 1.

When becoming chairman of the Broken Rock Tribe, Thomas tells a visiting Montana senator that he didn’t grow up on the reservation. Contrasting the scene, as Thomas is adorned in traditional regalia, Rainwater tells the lawmaker that he thought he was Mexican until he was 18 years old, only learning that he was Native American after his adoption records were unsealed in adulthood. Yellowstone season 1 gives us one more tidbit in Thomas Rainwater’s threat to John Dutton, with the chairman saying he studied at Harvard and worked in acquisitions and mergers at Merrill Lynch.

After Yellowstone season 5’s finale, rewatching the first season of Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western show exposes some harsh realities.

After Yellowstone season 1, we learn little else about Thomas Rainwater’s background. However, Thomas plays a pivotal role in the series’ conclusion, making the landmark deal with Kayce Dutton that restores the land to his people. The end of Yellowstone was controversial for many fans, who didn’t want to see John die or the family lose the land. Understanding more of Thomas’ backstory and thereby his motivations could have aided Yellowstone season 5’s reception. Other fans who also watched 1883, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the Yellowstonefinale, viewed its events as a triumph for the franchise.