Juan Pablo Raba says he doesn’t see an actual moment in the Dutton Ranch finale where Joaquin kills Rob-Will, arguing the episode keeps key questions open for the next season.
The moment came fast in the Dutton Ranch season finale: Rob-Will walked down to open a door, and then the lights changed with a gunshot.
Juan Pablo Raba, who plays Joaquin, pushed back hard on what that shock is supposed to mean. Talking about the finale that premiered on Friday. July 3. Raba told TVLine. “When I first read it. I was like. ‘Oh my God. how is this going to play out?’ But as I flip through the pages. I don’t see an actual scene where Joaquin kills [Rob-Will].”.
In Raba’s view, the episode doesn’t present a clean answer so much as it stages doubt. He pointed to what viewers are shown: Joaquin in a car with a gun, “and a lot of doubt and heartbreak.”
“You see Joaquin in a car with a gun, and a lot of doubt and heartbreak. He’s not getting pumped to do something that he’s never done before,” Raba said. “All we see is Joaquin in his car giving some hard thought to something. And then we see him later, in the same car with the same gun … but did he do it?”.
There’s another layer, too—Joaquin’s dad. Raba asked viewers to weigh the motivations and logistics on the other side of the family line. saying. “If you’re Mariano. and you’re saying [demeaning things] about your son. and then you tell him to go kill his brother. wouldn’t you also send someone to make sure things have been done?. I’m just saying!”.
The finale itself follows a roller-coaster of its own. Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind) took a pregnancy test and learned she was expecting a baby, but she didn’t tell Carter (Finn Little). The couple did reunite anyway, and they made plans to leave Texas behind.
Oreana’s dad, Rob-Will (Jai Courtney), noticed her packing her bags and shared a sentimental father-daughter moment—until it broke the second he went to open the door and was shot by Joaquin.
“There was no climax, no discussion,” Raba told TVLine. “This guy literally just opened the door and somebody shot [Rob-Will]. That’s a stone-cold killer if you ask me. Now, is Joaquin capable of doing that?. Maybe the heartbreak [of losing the 10-Petal] was too much for him to handle, but I have no idea.”.
He also suggested that the show’s unanswered question may be intentional. “You can always have the killer revealed, maybe in a flashback, if you need to in the future, but it was much better to leave the possibilities open for a storyline in the second season.”
Raba’s take fits the broader emotional design of the series. He described the appeal of Taylor Sheridan’s world, where morality doesn’t come in neat labels. “I love this about Taylor Sheridan and the universes that he creates where it’s really hard to say that somebody’s good or bad. We have our heroes. of course but if you go back — in retrospective —some of the things they’ve done I would not consider to be very good. ” he told Us Weekly. “But they’re still our heroes and you understand them. I hope I can do same with Joaquin — no matter what direction he takes.”.
He added what he hopes the character’s arc can do next: “I hope that I get the chance to really expose what can happen to someone who has been stripped of everything — even hope.”
Dutton Ranch. which first introduced viewers to the fictional Dutton family when it premiered in 2018. launched into a wider universe after Yellowstone ended in 2024. The Paramount Network show’s legacy expanded with Luke Grimes’ CBS show Marshals and Dutton Ranch, which premiered in May. The series is streaming on Paramount+.
New faces have already joined the ranch—Annette Bening and Ed Harris, plus Courtney, Lind, J. R. Villarreal, and Raba’s Joaquin—making the finale’s unanswered “did he do it?” feel even more consequential as the story turns toward what comes next.
Dutton Ranch Juan Pablo Raba Joaquin Rob-Will Jai Courtney Natalie Alyn Lind Finn Little Oreana Carter Paramount+ season finale