Summary
Season 2 of 1923 gets off to an ominous start as the tight grip of winter and the sinister machinations of Whitfield have the Duttons on the back foot.
It has been quite a while since the first season of 1923 ended on a relatively sour note. To recap, since Episode 1 of Season 2, “The Killing Season”, picks up on all these plot threads a few months later: Spencer and Alexandra have been separated after the former accidentally killed the latter’s fiancé, making his journey home even longer and more arduous, Teonna Rainwater is still on the run from Father Renaud and Marshal Kent, and Whitfield has ransacked the Dutton estate with his tax-based offensive, leaving Jacob and Cara almost destitute.
In the midst of all this fun, Elizabeth has only just lost her baby, Alexandra is pregnant with her own – though separated from Spencer, much to her chagrin – and there’s a lion on the loose. Yes, Taylor Sheridan is using animals as metaphors again, much like how he did in Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, and Landman. If it ain’t broke…
The Lion Hunter Fights for Sport
A lot of the drama of Season 1 was predicated on whether Spencer Dutton, who seems the most capable member of the entire family by a considerable margin, would make it home in time to save the ranch, and it certainly seems like Season 2 is going to operate on this basis as well. For now, he’s stuck working the engine of an Italian freighter heading to Galveston, Texas, which is still far from Montana, but he isn’t exactly keeping his head down on the journey.
In a sickening turn, Spencer discovers one of his crewmates, Luca, being raped in the night, and savagely beats his attacker. Luca’s so dismayed about having become someone’s plaything on the journey that he decides to commit suicide, but his thank-you note to Spencer tips him off to his intentions and he saves him once again, this time from himself.
As luck would have it, Luca has his uses. He gives Spencer the idea of fighting the other crewmen for money, with Luca taking twenty percent for brokering the bets. Spencer’s able to beat up a couple of deserving candidates for $420 – enough to buy himself passage to Montana from Galveston. Something tells me it won’t be that easy, but I suspect the fact that Luca’s cousin waiting for him in Galveston is connected to the Sicilian Mafia is a plot point that will crop up again.
Alexandra is Pregnant and on her Way to Montana
While Spencer sweats away in that ship’s bowels, Alexandra, who reveals to her best friend Jennifer that she’s pregnant, tries to figure out a way to reunite with her husband and ensure that their child grows up with his father. But the Countess of Sussex has her ways.
Those ways consist of selling a lot of very expensive family jewelry, some of it belonging to the estate itself, to buy cheap passage to America aboard a Cunard ocean liner. She instructs Jennifer to take significantly less than the jewels are worth and ends up traveling second class with the “thieves and beggars”, which is probably not a great idea considering she’s a pretty posh woman whose wardrobe consists entirely of clothing befitting a member of the British Royal Family.
But whatever. I don’t expect Alex’s journey to be simple – she’s heading to New York, for a start, not Montana, and she doesn’t seem to have a clear idea of how she’ll be making the second leg of the journey – but at least she’s heading in the right direction. Hopefully, Spencer gets home first, though, or she’ll probably have some explaining to do.
This Show Has Great Bad Guys
Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) visits town in 1923 Season 2 | Image via Paramount
You’d have thought that Whitfield was enough of a sadist to dominate the villain contingent of 1923 Season 2, but Episode 1 gives him a rival in Marshal Kent, who is certifiably bonkers and hot on the heels of Teonna, Hank, and Pete Plenty Clouds.
Not that Teonna and Pete are very concerned, since they’re in the midst of a pretty intense romance, so while Hank softly laments the erosion of Native skills and beliefs thanks to the intervention of the white man, Teonna sets out to make sure that they don’t have anything for dinner by seducing Pete while he’s out hunting deer.
Through a friendly passing cowboy, Pete learns that they’re in Texas, and have missed Oklahoma by about 100 miles, which is perhaps just as well, since we the audience know that’s where the search party is. Marshal Kent is perfectly willing to threaten the life of a young boy for information about Teonna and then trample him to death with his horse when he doesn’t get it. The guy’s bonkers, and I don’t relish the thought of what he might do to Teonna when he catches up.
The Duttons Have Been Outplayed (And There’s A Lion on the Porch)
Finally, we come to the Yellowstone, which isn’t faring especially well in 1923 Season 2, Episode 1. Thanks to Whitfield’s tax shenanigans the herd has been thinned down to almost nothing, and the harsh winter is keeping the family indoors, close to starving. The lion, which Jacob first encounters when he leaves the house to head to Boseman for Zane’s hearing, is the latest example of Sheridan’s favorite technique of using local wildlife to make a really obvious point about the characters. In case you missed it, the Duttons are at risk of being eaten by predators.
Things aren’t looking good for anyone, least of all Zane, who has been hospitalized while his wife has been imprisoned and their children have been remanded by the state for the very serious crime of not all being white. This is reported to Jacob in a speakeasy by Sheriff McDowell, who also warns him that he needs to settle his tax bill before Whitfield hoovers up even more of his land. But frozen ranches don’t make much money.
In his position of power, Whitfield is simply lounging around and torturing his sex slaves in celebration, believing the battle is already won. For now, it certainly seems to be, unless Spencer can get home pretty quickly or – this in a bit of whisper – Banner decides that being wealthy isn’t worth the moral sacrifice of allying himself with a sadist like Whitfield. Maybe that’s wishful thinking.
It’s probably telling, though, that the lion doesn’t survive. At the end of the premiere, it returns to the Yellowstone in the hopes of a meal and almost finds one in the form of Elizabeth, but Cara shoots it dead. The Duttons aren’t totally defenseless just yet, and they won’t be handing over anything without a fight.
