'Counting Coup' Has a Deep Resonance With the Story of 'Yellowstone' Season 5

The second half of the fifth season of Yellowstone has been a roller coaster ride, to say the least. The series disposed of its former protagonist, John Dutton, and in an episode titled "Counting Coup," they killed off another original character and also revealed who was behind John's murder.

Given the momentous nature of the episode, many wanted to know whether there was some deeper meaning behind the phrase "Counting Coup." Here's what we know about the episode title and where that phrase originates.

In "Counting Coup," we learn that Grant Horton, a former NSA agent who now works as an assassin, was hired by Sarah Atwood to kill both Jamie and John Dutton and make John's death look like a suicide. Kayce starts looking for revenge following these revelations and tracks Grant to his daughter's soccer game, where he threatens him and hits him in the back of the head.

After hitting Grant, Kayce explains the connection to the phrase that is the episode's title.

"Where I come from that's called 'counting coup.' It means I took a piece of your soul and I'm going to keep it," he explains.

That might sound cool, but many wanted to better understand the phrase's meaning and origin. For that, we turn to Douglas Diehl of Antiques Roadshow, who explained the term during a 2005 episode.

"In Plains warrior societies," Deihl says in the episode, "Sioux warriors gained their status by being brave in battle, and one way this was done was known as 'counting coup.' What these warriors tried to do was to get close enough to the enemy to touch them without getting injured or killed. To do so was considered the highest honor for the warriors, an act considered more honorable than going in and killing and scalping them. To touch the enemy and survive was considered the greatest honor in battle."

While Kayce's explanation might have seemed a little insufficient, this fuller explanation suggests that "counting oup" means getting close enough to an enemy to intimidate them without actually killing them. It's essentially proof that you can harm another person at will. That kind of intimidation essentially makes it impossible for the other person to forget that encounter.

The phrase appears to originate, as Diehl suggested, with the plains tribes of North America, and was originally associated with counting victories between warriors. It's similar to the notion of "putting a notch in your belt." Eventually, it evolved to assume the more metaphorical meaning that it has now.

So Yellowstone's characters are certainly guilty of some light appropriation in using the phrase so liberally. Even so, the meaning seems to have been largely preserved, and the meaning is clear almost regardless of what the phrase's origins might be. Kayce wants Grant to be scared, and by invoking a "counting coup," he achieves exactly that.