Summary
Home and sanctuary seem further away than ever in “Only Gunshots to Guide Us”, which continues to put Alex in particular through the wringer.
It’s very much a cliché that the journey is more important than the destination, but it seems pretty true in 1923 because the journey never ends. How naïve we were to think in the halcyon days of Season 1 that Spencer Dutton might make it home. Season 2 is well underway at this point, and he’s geographically closer but still impossibly far away. So, too, is Alex, who suffers mightily in Episode 5 – again! – and continues to plod onwards to a destination she might never reach.
“Only Gunshots to Guide Us” is wearing in this sense. It takes focus away from the Yellowstone and instead directs it to the people trying and failing to get there. In the case of Teonna, she’s technically running away from something, rather than towards it, but functionally, what’s the difference? Everyone is on the move, constantly, forced to surmount one obstacle after another just for the reward of keeping moving in vaguely the right direction. Until the next tragedy, the next snowdrift, the next creepy man, the next racist Marshal. Until whatever they’re running from catches up, or whatever they’re running at charges out to meet them.
Everywhere Is America
This idea of endlessly running for safety and never finding it is perhaps most completely embodied by Teonna’s story. After discovering the wanted posters at the Amarillo fair, Runs His Horse leads her and Pete Plenty Clouds north, away from the posters, but into a featureless plain where there’s nowhere to hide from their pursuers.
And their pursuers are right behind them. All it takes is $250 and a blessing from Father Renaud to convince Anders to give them up. I was disappointed by this initially, since it felt contrary to what we’d seen in previous episodes. But you’ll notice that it’s Renaud’s testimony that’s the clincher. It’s easy to forget how god-fearing these people are. It’s never considered for even a moment that a man of the cloth might be lying, might be deliberately mischaracterizing Teonna’s crimes to cover up the litany of abuses she suffered at the hands of God’s supposed children. His divine endorsement gives Marshal Kent, who is clearly just a bigoted psychopath who sees the Natives as no different from any other species that should be eradicated in the name of progress, an excuse.
Teonna, Runs His Horse, and Pete quickly find they have no place to rest, let alone lie low, so Pete breaks away in search of water and shelter. It’s he whom Kent and Renaud find. The horse chase is futile, since there’s nowhere for him to run. 1923 Season 2, Episode 5 fades to black before the outcome of the subsequent shootout is revealed, but it’s virtually a given that Pete came out on the wrong side of it.
Trains Are the Worst
Nobody is suffering more than Alex Dutton this season, and the laundry list of indignities she has suffered continues to grow in “Only Gunshots to Guide Us”. She’s now aboard a train, which is ostensibly good news, but after being robbed in Grand Central Station, she can’t afford the meal service. So, she instead endeavours to work for her supper as a waitress, which perhaps wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if it weren’t for the clientele.
One of the train’s passengers is a posh pervert who immediately takes the opportunity to torment Alex by forcing her to dab spilled coffee from his groin, holding her hand there in the process. It’s obvious that he’s not going to let sleeping dogs lie, and sure enough, he’s there the next morning, wriggling his hand up Alex’s skirt while she pours him coffee.
Aminah Nieves and Michael Spears in 1923 Season 2 | Image via Paramount+
This guy has bitten off more than he can chew, though. Alex beats him half to death with the coffee urn, and rightly so, but she’s predictably thrown into a cell by the conductor to face pending legal ramifications in Chicago. Luckily, a very exaggeratedly upper-class British couple were watching, and they give statements that exonerate Alex. She’s allowed to go free, but since the connecting train to Fargo is cancelled due to a snowdrift, she has nowhere to go. Hanging around at Union Station seems like a bad idea after what she endured at Grand Central. So, she elects to go home with her new British friends, whose names are Hillary (Janet Montgomery) and Paul (Augustus Prew), according to the credits.
Given how much trauma has been piled on Alex, the safe bet is that this decision will also backfire in some manner. But we’ll have to wait and see.
Right Place, Right Time
The only person who fortune seems to favour in 1923 Season 2, Episode 5 is Spencer, who is woken up from a nap by Mamie Fossett. It’s a remarkable coincidence, but honestly, without something like this happening, it’s highly likely that Spencer would have never made it home.
And if nothing else, Spencer is definitely intending to go home. Mamie takes him to Amarillo, where she’s able to get a call through to Sheriff McDowell to confirm Spencer is who he says he is and not some kind of crazy vagrant. The tone of Spencer’s voice alerts McDowell that he’s going to have to do some work, since Spencer makes his intention to wage war against Banner and Whitfield very clear and is holding McDowell personally responsible for allowing things to escalate as much as they have.
Mamie, to her credit, books a train ticket and sends Spencer on his way. Based on his words, she’d much rather he become someone else’s problem. And that’s understandable. From an audience perspective, though, it’s also a relief. It’s obvious that Spencer isn’t going to get back in time to do much in Season 2, and that the inevitable third season will be based around his efforts to save the Yellowstone. But until I see him on that ranch, I don’t think I’ll believe he’ll ever get there.
RELATED:
