Former Solider Jake McLaughlin Plays Kayce’s Friend on Yellowstone—and He Feels Pretty Important

ONE THING THAT’S always been fun about Yellowstone is the cast. Not only the series regulars—which long included the talented Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser, Luke Grimes, Wes Bentley, and, until these final episodes, Kevin Costner—but the recurring and guest players always make a major impact as well. A few highlights to remember: Lost legend Josh Holloway popped in for a fun stretch of season 3 and 4; Neal McDonaugh and Terry Serpico played a great pair of villains in season 2’s Beck brothers; Lainey Wilson made a fun acting debut in the first part of season 5, and Dawn Oliveri is currently lighting it up as Sarah Atwood.

As the second half of the show’s fifth (and perhaps final) season heads toward a major conflict following John Dutton’s mysterious death, it’s giving Yellowstone a great excuse to bring in a couple more key, exciting players. And in the specific case of season 5, episode 10 “The Apocalypse of Change,” that means Kayce gets to hit up an old friend named Cade McPhereson, played by actor and former soldier Jake McLaughlin.

Let’s set the table a bit: after Jamie (Bentley) couldn’t look Beth (Reilly) in the eyes when faced with the reality of their father’s death, Beth drew her conclusions—Jamie and Market Equities had John killed, his death staged as a suicide. Beth told Kayce (Grimes), and he jumped into action, calling one of his old military buddies to get the ball rolling. That’s where Cade, played by McLaughlin, comes in. He seems like a jovial fellow, but is also ready for anything; when Kayce is clearly talking business, he tells him to download an encrypted app and call him through there so they can talk freely.

When we next see Cade—after Kayce does as he was asked and downloads the app—he’s putting several guns of varying sizes away in storage. Clearly, this is a guy who can cause quite a bit of damage of needed. And after he tells Kayce the information he needs to know (a company called EMRS in Houston could be responsible, they’re made up of some guys who used to work for the CIA, aka “The Company,” and a hit on someone of John Dutton’s magnitude would cost somewhere in the range of $40 to $50 million), he lets him know that they’ll keep in contact.

Feels like we’re just seeing the beginning of Cade McPhereson on Yellowstone. Here’s more of what you’ll need to know.

Former soldier Jake McLaughlin plays Cade McPhereson on Yellowstone

When he was in his early 20s, Jake McLaughlin joined the United States army and became a Dismount Infantry Squad Automatic Weapon Gunner during the Iraq War; he was deployed between 2002 and 2006, when he was eventually discharged following a back injury. Eventually, he transitioned into acting when he got the opportunity to act alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the 2007 film In The Valley of Elah, a debut that certainly hit close to home considering it’s a movie that’s based on true events actually involving troops who were deployed during the Iraq war.

Stream In The Valley of Elah Here

McLaughlin, now 42, has been acting consistently ever since. While he landed small roles in major films like Cloverfield, Super 8, and Warrior, audiences today likely know him best for his work on the small screen. He’s been a series regular in the second season of the TV adaptaiton of Crash (the 2005 Best Picture winner, not the David Cronenberg movie), the short-lived, Alfonso Cuarón-produced show Believe, and Quantico, which lasted three seasons.

Most recently, he’s figured into Apple TV+’s Emmy-winning limited series Black Bird (which starred Taron Egerton, Ray Liotta, and Paul Walter Hauser) and is a series regular on ABC’s hit procedural drama Will Trent.

How will Cade McPhereson figure into Yellowstone?

Given McLaughlin’s lenghty résumé as an actor, it’s safe to assume that we’ll be seeing more of the seemingly quite resourceful Cade McPhereson as Yellowstone continues its run through season 5, part 2. Not only have they established that Kayce and Cade are friends and go way back, but Cade has now also been set up as a key figure in the emotional core of Yellowstone—he can be the one to finally, completely confirm that Jamie took out a hit and is responsible directly for John’s death (murder).

Given that we saw Cade carrying massive bags of equipment and tusseling with firearms in his first minute of screen time on Yellowstone, it feels safe to assume that he’s being set up for quite the action-packed role. And since he’s an old friend of Kayce’s—and seems to know almost exactly, already, who got called in to take John out—it seems likely that we’re going to be seeing quite the showdown in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned for fireworks, people.