Gil Birmingham On Yellowstone Season 5 & Rainwater’s Possible Undoing

Season 5 of Yellowstone premiered on Sunday, November 13 with what looks like a thrilling double episode. However, while John Dutton (Kevin Costner) celebrates a victory, his nemesis, Thomas Rainwater isn’t in a good place. Gil Birmingham recently opened up about the new season and says the storyline is “very ambiguous.”

Thomas Rainwater in Yellowstone season 5

Speaking to TVLine, Gil Birmingham, who plays John Dutton’s frenemy Thomas Rainwater, opened up about his role in the fifth season. According to him, the impact of Dutton’s new role as Montana’s governor is “very ambiguous.” Birmingham explained that, saying, “because it’s kind of the deconstruction of some alliances and plans that already been set in place in season 4.

Gil, who plays the chairman of the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock went on to add:

Market Equities was not anticipating John being a policy maker and entering the political field, which is going to be a very different power position of leverage for him.

I know that his objective is for his own land, so I’ve got to reassess. I don’t know quite how that’s going to affect us.

Will Dutton’s win stop the casino?

While the Yellowstone actor doesn’t know how it will affect his people, he can make some educated guesses. In fact, he is confident that John Dutton will do his utmost to ensure that no roulette wheel is ever spun at the planned casino Rainwater has in the works with Market Equities. Birmingham said:

I know it’s going to disappoint the tribe because there are 300 jobs that are going to be lost.

And there are promises that Rainwater’s made to the reservation, and those things are gonna [sic] fall apart, which will make him vulnerable. We’ll have some internal conflict as a result of that.

Meanwhile, according to Gil, Rainwater could find himself in over his head with Market Equities. He said that was always the risk. However, Birmingham added that it is very appealing to think that [Rainwater] could accelerate his own objective of raising revenue. He said that to be able to acquire the land faster and get down the road further was always a risk. However, if his plans fail, Birmingham says:

That’s what happens when you take risks.

Season 5 of Yellowstone premieres on Sunday, November 13, at 8/7c with a double-whammy episode on the Paramount Network. Listen to the full interview on TVLine’s website here.

Readers, are you keen to see what happens with Thomas Rainwater after John Dutton’s win as Montana’s governor? Let us know your thoughts by dropping a comment below.