Warning: This post features spoilers for 1923’s finale.
1923 was the series that reunited Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren from their 1986 film, The Mosquito Coast. It was also Ford’s first foray into television and streaming, and as we found out from the season two finale, it was also the series finale.
In season one, we were introduced to Jacob (Ford) and Cara (Mirren) Dutton and their struggle against Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) and his henchman Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn). The conflict nearly kills Jacob, but that was a tease, and he still lives. However, the idea that Harrison Ford would only do one season made sense.
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We were also introduced to their nephew Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), a former war hero hunting Lions in Africa. He begins an affair with Alexandra “Alex” of Sussex (Julia Schlaepfer), but Cara sends a letter to return and defend his legacy. Back then, there was no quick way to get a message all the way across the world, so is it too late? The two embark on a journey back to America, only to get separated.
There’s a third part to the story surrounding Native Americans and the Catholic Church. Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) is an Indian woman being raised in a Catholic school to her own horrors, being beaten and raped. Her performance was so strong during a scene where she was getting beaten by Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché) during the premiere that the audience (I was there) heard her father wail out crying, and he had to step out of the theater. Rainwater eventually rebels against the nuns who have wronged her, and she becomes a fugitive on the run from Renaud.
Season Two played like a sweeping love saga, much like Dr. Zhivago or Cold Mountain mixed with a Western. We followed a pregnant Alex as she made her way to America to try to reunite with Spencer. She endured being robbed, beaten, raped, and humiliated for us to find her nearly frozen to death during a car ride to Bozeman, Montana.
Spencer’s trip wasn’t any better with bare-knuckle fistfighting on a boat to make money, bootlegging, hopping on a train, and getting arrested by US Marshal Mamie Fossett (Jennifer Carpenter). He’s finally given a peaceful train ride from Texas to Montana when fate intervenes, and he sees Alex stranded in a car in the frozen tundra plains. The two reunite.
The journey for Rainwater isn’t an easy one either; it is riddled with danger and death. Along the way, she meets up with family and finds a love interest. She eventually lands in Texas. The pursuit also leads Renaud and Marshal Kent (Jamie McShane) to cross paths with Fossett.
In Bozeman, Whitfield has had all sorts of ideas about modernizing Montana. However, his sexual perversions with prostitutes leads to one of their deaths, eventually revealing the origins of the “train station” and dumping bodies from the series “Yellowstone.” Over time, Banner grows weary of Whitfield’s thirst for power and re-evaluates his life, which leads him to pack his bags and grab his wife and son.
Jacob and Cara also have their hands full at the ranch while waiting for Spencer’s hopeful arrival. Zane Davis (Brian Geraghty), their foreman, is in trouble for illegally marrying an Asian woman and having two children with her. He has to have brain surgery to reduce swelling that has been causing him partial paralysis, a casualty from the gunfight in season one, not a pretty sight. I didn’t even think this could be possible, considering their era, but it makes for good television. Liz Strafford (Michelle Randolph) nearly gets mauled by a mountain lion and then bit by a rabid wolf and has to endure multiple rabies shots. She later has to cope with the eventual death of her husband, Jack Dutton (Darren Mann), who gets shot before Spencer’s return.
When word comes that the “prodigal son” Spencer is to arrive, this sets the wheels in motion for a war between Whitfield’s men, Jacob, and Sheriff McDowell’s (Robert Patrick) men at the train station. This leaves the Dutton Ranch protected by only a few, including Zane and Cara herself, who isn’t too shabby with a rifle.
The climax is the train station, where there is a gunfight that leaves many dead. Banner even turns good and saves Jacob, but eventually gets shot himself and dies, but not before seeing his wife and son get on a train safely to Portland. Alex is near death from frostbite and is taken to the hospital, and Spencer heads to the ranch to save Cara. But there’s one last loose end, and that’s Whitfield, who gets shot and killed by, of course, Spencer.
Rainwater’s chase eventually leads to everyone she loves dead, but Renaud also shockingly kills Marshal Kent, who has dropped a lot of bodies along the way. Renaud too finally meets his demise at the hands of Rainwater. Fossett, a US Marshal of Texas, is the one to capture Rainwater. She is put on trial and acquitted due to no persons being alive to testify to her murderous acts.
We are still in the world of Taylor Sheridan, and even if you think there are some moments of happiness, they are constantly surrounded by tragedy. At the hospital, Alex prematurely gives birth to John Dutton II (the father of Kevin Costner in Yellowstone). Unfortunately, Alex can’t be saved from frostbite and dies in the arms of Spencer.
A voiceover from Isabel May, who played Elisa Dutton in 1883 and also narrated that series, lets us know what becomes of Spencer’s life without Alex. We see a dream sequence post-death of the two reunited in a ballroom.
The two seasons of 1923 ended perfectly. Sometimes series go on too long, perhaps 1883 was cut too short (one season), it leads me to believe that maybe 1944 the third chapter in the Dutton saga, will be three seasons. If Kevin Costner hadn’t abruptly left the second half of Yellowstone in its final season, that series, too, might have been perfect.
For Harrison Ford’s first time on television, he did not disappoint and chose a great series and character to play. In real life, he’s 82, and I wondered how he would continue riding horses and brave the elements even though he has his own ranch in Wyoming and is probably used to it. The scene stealer was Helen Mirren, playing her character with an Irish accent and showing off her gun skills.
Brandon Sklenar is a future movie star with projects lined up post-1923. The chemistry between him and Julia Schlaepfer really kept season two going. Their separation and the time that it took for them to be reunited was epic. It showed us, as an audience, that without the world of the internet and smartphones, it could be years before you see a loved one again, and in their case, maybe not at all.
What’s nice for us Yellowstone fans is that we won’t have to wait too long because in the upcoming 1944, it’s only two decades later, so maybe we’ll see the story of Spencer Dutton continue in some form. No matter what, though, this fan will tune in.
All episodes of 1923 are now streaming on Paramount+.
