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“I can’t wait to let the cat out of the bag,” she says during an interview just days before the second half of the fifth season was about to premiere.

In that episode (spoiler alert!), Patriarch John Dutton dies, leaving the others to pick up the pieces and move on.

For Asbille and Luke Grimes, who plays her husband Kayce Dutton, it has been a grueling year. In the first half, a pregnant Monica loses her baby following a car accident. Kayce is put in control of the Yellowstone ranch while sister Beth and brother Jamie duke it out in the world of politics.

While creator Taylor Sheridan has suggested this second half will be the end of “Yellowstone,” both Asbille and Grimes would consider a sequel or a continuation.

“We’ve both kind of said if Taylor were to call us and say, ‘I’m writing more,’ we would be open to that,” Grimes says. “If it were other writers, maybe not as much, just because I don’t think anyone else knows how to tell this story or speak for these characters the way Taylor does.”

Getting to work with Kevin Costner, Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, among others, has been like a master class for Asbille. “I’m constantly learning,” she says. “That’s the privilege of working on a show for seven years. You’re never done.”

Because of breaks for various reasons, “Yellowstone” has been in production for some eight years. That has created tight bonds, Asbille says, and a sort of confidence. “I don’t know how to do this without them.”

Grimes, an actor for 20 years, says being unemployed “is part of the gig. You know you may never get something that’s as good as this. But maybe life will surprise us again.”

The six episodes in the second half of the season are emotional, Asbille says, “but because it’s the last one, we just wanted to put everything into the season. We’re really proud of it.”

Where the family sits after the first episode – with Beth and Jamie Dutton at each other’s throats – is anyone’s guess. “A little sunshine and rainbows” emerges, Asbille says. “And then, ‘Yellowstone’ comes back to bite us.”

Monica and Kayce, who have represented a sense of calm for the series, have given the actors something to hold onto while the storms rage elsewhere.

“Kayce is such a good person, even though he has demons,” Grimes says. “He always wants to do the right thing and I’ve looked up to that in him and tried to incorporate a bit of that goodness into my own life.”

To remember the character, he grabbed Kayce’s hat and jacket before he left the series. “They’re the quintessential pieces of wardrobe I got to take home.”

For Asbille, the exit wasn’t as definitive. “I didn’t think of anything…I need to go back to the set” and get something, she says with a smile.