Nearly two years after one of the most abrupt and heartbreaking exits in Yellowstone history, Denim Richards continues to feel the emotional weight of Colby Mayfield’s death. Speaking candidly at a cast panel during Fanboy Expo Knoxville on July 10 alongside co-stars Jen Landon, Jefferson White and Ian Bohen, the 37-year-old actor admitted he has never watched the episode in which his character was killed.

“I absolutely did not watch it in the window when the time came,” Richards said. “It was definitely hard. I’m still thankful, but the ego part of one’s personality would have liked to have kept going.”

A sudden and simple end

Colby’s death came in one of the final episodes of Yellowstone Season 5B, which aired in December 2024. While helping young Carter (Finn Little), the ranch hand was trampled by a horse in what director Christina Voros later described as a “freak accident.” The moment stood in stark contrast to the season’s larger conspiracies and power struggles. Its simplicity made it all the more devastating.

Voros told The Hollywood Reporter at the time that the scene was “gut-wrenching” precisely because it felt so grounded in the real dangers of ranch life. “It’s a dangerous job, and this kind of thing happens, and it happens in a split-second,” she said. “This death comes as a shock because it’s so simple, and it’s so grounded in the world in which all these characters work that it’s profoundly tragic. The thing that I think is such a gut-punch about Colby’s death is that in a season where there are all these twists and turns and dark forces and giant narrative swings, Colby’s death is so powerful because it’s so simple.”

Richards’ own perspective

When the episode first aired, Richards told Entertainment Weekly that he found a strange poetry in the way Colby died. In Season 3 the character had already been trampled by horses in a river scene. “So maybe this was those horses’ ancestors coming back to get retribution,” he said with a wry smile. “But more than anything, it was about as clean as you could possibly do a death.”

He also saw the moment as Taylor Sheridan’s deliberate choice to underline the harsh realities of cowboy existence. “We have this saying that everyone’s going to fall off a horse at some point in their life. It’s not if, it’s just when and how bad. That is not a phenomenon,” Richards explained. “These things do happen, so I do think that there’s that element where I think it is about really wanting to emphasize that this is a reality.”

Coming to terms with the exit

At the Knoxville panel, Richards returned to the theme of artistic control. Referencing comments made earlier by Jefferson White, he said: “There’s very little that we as artists control. So you should just be happy that you have the opportunity to be a part of something much larger than yourself.”

The remark captured the complicated mix of gratitude and disappointment many actors feel when a long-running role ends abruptly. Richards remains proud of his time on Yellowstone and of the contribution Colby made to the series, even if the manner of the character’s departure still stings.

Colby’s relationship with Teeter (Jen Landon) had given the ranch-hand storyline some of its warmest and most human moments. Their pairing offered a quieter counterpoint to the high-stakes drama surrounding the Dutton family, which made the sudden loss feel especially personal for many viewers.

Yellowstone is available to stream in full on Peacock. For Richards, the decision not to watch the death scene appears to have been a form of self-protection — a way of preserving the character as he lived rather than as he died. Two years on, that choice still speaks volumes about how deeply the role affected him.