After dealing with the losses of John Dutton and Colby Mayfield, Carter came out on top in the Yellowstone Season 5 finale.
Finn Little's Carter was introduced in the first episode of Yellowstone Season 4. Beth met him as a little boy who was dealing with a dying father, and she tried to comfort him as best she could.
Fast forward a bit, and Carter found himself a job at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, establishing himself almost as the adopted child of Rip and Beth.
What Happened to Carter at the End of Yellowstone Season 5?
Carter was absent from a good chunk of the first few episodes of Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2, as were most of the other cowboys who weren't in Texas.
However, he definitely played a more prominent role in the last few episodes of Season 5, especially since his fate was so closely tied to a couple of other important characters.
For example, Carter was the center of attention in Episode 12 when he was cornered in a horse stall by a three-year-old male horse who could not be controlled.
Carter was in the stall by himself, but Colby luckily walked by and saw that Carter was in trouble.
Colby jumped in the stall and tried to push the horse back, which gave Carter time to crawl out to safety, but Colby couldn't make it out and was instead killed by the horse.
Colby's death bothered Carter a lot, especially since he felt as though it was his fault. However, it didn't help that John Dutton had also just died within the last couple of days, which also affected Carter greatly.
In the Season 5 finale, though, Carter was shown being a little happier, and his character received proper closure, at least for the time being.
Near the beginning of the episode, Beth revealed to Rip that she had bought a 27,000-acre ranch in West Montana, and it seemed as though the two of them were going to go live there after the Yellowstone was purchased.
However, at the end of the episode, when it showed Rip and Beth at their new ranch, it also revealed that Carter came along with them. So, he at least got to stick around with the people he thought of as family, and he received a happier ending than most of the other characters did.
Will Carter Ever Be Seen Again?
Neither Paramount nor Taylor Sheridan has announced whether or not Season 5 will be the last season of Yellowstone.
Based on the ending, it seems as though the flagship show is finished, but that doesn't mean that the characters won't live on.
A sequel series titled The Madison, which will feature Michelle Pfeiffer is already in the works and could be released as soon as 2025, and another spin-off was recently reported to be led by Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser (Beth and Rip).
If that is true, Carter will almost definitely be brought back as well, especially since he is so closely tied to Rip and Beth now.
He is obviously going to live there on the new ranch with them for the time being, and he's really a stranger to the outside world since he has no real family or connections to anyone outside the ranch.
So, Carter will likely be brought back in some capacity for at least one of the sequel shows. However, it is possible that he could be cast in multiple spin-offs moving forward.
Yellowstone Seasons 1-5a are streaming on Peacock.
Find out why Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 is not streaming on Paramount+.
