SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Yellow stone» Season 5, Episode 9, “Desire is All You Need.”

Sunday’s episode of “Yellowstone” was a game changer, as patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) was killed after the actor decided not to return to the series. As shocking as the event was, the aftermath had repercussions that set the scene for the entire season.

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Director Christina Alexandra Voros spoke with Variety about the intense emotions evoked while filming the episode, how the crew supports the actors during complicated filming days and what the sequel series “The Madison” will have in common with “Yellowstone.”

There was a lot of time between filming the first and second half of Season 5, and Kevin Costner also left before filming the second half. What was the atmosphere like on set bringing everyone together for the first time?

It was pretty awesome. We’ve all been together for so long as a family, and then we had this long break between the strike and Kevin and everything. I think everyone was really excited to be together, but also with a huge sense of obligation as storytellers. I think when everyone finishes the show, everyone is tired and wants to go back to their families and take care of their lives. But when all that time was up, everyone was really happy to be back together in the same beautiful place – summer in Montana – to tell this incredible story. It was truly wonderful.

What was the biggest challenge in the long gap between filming the two parts of the season?

We are very lucky because it really is a big family. There are people who have been on the show every day since the first season, so there is a huge shortcut. Coming back isn’t as hard as you might think because we’ve all been doing it for so long. It’s muscle memory.

I think the challenge this year is that the writing was so ambitious, so resonant, so deep and so tough. The cast had to go to places they hadn’t been before this season, and it took a lot out of them. There were seasons when the fireworks were explosions, shootouts, and horses rolling down the mountain. This season’s fireworks are truly emotional and performance-based. The actors left everything on the floor. One of the highlights of my career was watching some of the performances that Wes (Bentley) and Cole (Hauser) and Kelly (Reilly) and Luke (Grimes) gave on the show this season. It’s just breathtaking.

Kelly’s screams during this episode were so primal. How did you discuss these scenes that required so much emotion?

My creative relationship with Kelly is one of the things I cherish most about my career as a storyteller. She always brings it. I don’t think anyone knows how hard she works, how deeply she searches, how vulnerable she allows herself to be. But I also think there is a deep trust in his fellow actors, in the team. We are sure that we will take care of her, that we will give her the space she needs to exploit a performance like that. There is a lot of communication.

My first AD, Kether Abeles, is a maestro at designing schedules to protect stakeholders, to help them preserve their resources. It’s a holistic approach to building a season where much of it is based on the emotional demands placed on the actors. Let’s repeat, get everything ready, wait for the light to be perfect, know exactly where the cameras are moving for the second setup, get our focus marks ready. Then it’s almost like Tai Chi: you go from one to another and everyone knows where it’s going. Everything is very calm, no “Oh, my God… We have to get this before sunset.” You can’t do that on a stage like that and get that performance. You have to set the table for that performance to come to you.

How did you decide which part of the crime scene with John’s body to show?

I can’t speak to (creator) Taylor’s (Sheridan) thoughts while writing it, but what I will say is that it was definitely a choice to recognize that death becomes real when you see the effect of it about people who are still alive. You could have a three minute shot of a body on the ground and that would mean less than 30 seconds on Kelly’s face looking at that body. The emotional impact of death is more interesting than death itself, and I think that can be said of the entire season.

You could have done an entire season of “Oh, how’s John Dutton going to disappear?” » Or you could go in the first five minutes, and then we’ll know that no one knows what’s going to happen next. This leaves so many other questions unanswered. I was shocked when I first read the script, but when I started to see where it was going with the rest of the season, it made so much sense. It was such a bold decision. This left much more room for the characters and the actors who play those characters to become the truest, purest versions of themselves – the strongest but also the most vulnerable. The juxtaposition in these flashbacks of life and the harsh reality of this new paradigm is a wonderfully complicated way to deepen the impact of this loss. I think the audience is going to be a little offbeat, in the same way that the characters are offbeat.

You’re also working on the “Yellowstone” sequel, “The Madison.” What could “Yellowstone” fans expect from this show?

It’s such a different story. The common point is the landscape. We’re in Montana, but we’re seeing it from a completely different perspective, so it feels like another side of this cut stone that’s been polished. There are parallels in the scope of the landscape and in the place of the human being in this space, but we approach it from a completely different point of view.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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