‘Yellowstone’ Star Brecken Merrill Takes Fans Behind the Scenes of Season 5’s Devastating Car Crash [Watch]
Yellowstone's Season 5 premiere ended in a devastating car crash that injured both Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille) and Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill), resulting in Monica losing her baby boy, John, just one hour after he was born. Now Merrill is showing fans how some of the special effects for that scene worked in a post to his social media.
Merrill shared a video from the makeup trailer via his Instagram after the first few episodes of the season had aired, giving fans some insight into the process he went through to mimic the facial injuries his character sustained in the accident, which also resulted in a broken arm for Tate.
"Bloody up the boy," the 14-year-actor writes to accompany his clip, sharing a long string of hashtags afterward.
Monica's loss of baby John has been one of the primary story arcs for the first four episodes of Yellowstone Season 5, culminating in an indigenous funeral ceremony in Episode 4. Taste of Country spoke to Kelsey Asbille as part of a press junket in advance of the season premiere, and she tells us that Monica Dutton's emotional conversation with John Dutton (Kevin Costner) after the funeral is the catalyst for a major change for her character in Season 5.
"There's a really definitive moment for Monica, actually, when she speaks to John Dutton at the funeral," she states. "And I think it's in that moment that she chooses life."
Asbille says portraying the grieving mother has been the biggest challenge of the season.
"Going through that Monica goes through, I think you really wanna do that storyline justice," she tells us. "And also all of the really messy, human, complicated feelings that come with it, which, I think [Yellowstone co-creator] Taylor [Sheridan] does a really good job of writing this arc for her."
Despite that, Asbille says her character's Season 5 storyline isn't all dark. It involves "how she finds healing, as well," she shares.
Yellowstone airs Sunday nights on Paramount Network at 8PM ET. Season 5 is an extra-long season consisting of 14 episodes, which are slated to air in two arcs of seven episodes apiece.
As part of Taste of Country's comprehensive coverage of all things Yellowstone, check out our Dutton Rules podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.