1923
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Journey the Rivers of Iron is an especially grisly episode of a series thats never easy on the squeamish.
Alex, the most delicate Dutton, is the victim of an aggravated assault.
When Lizzie eventually asks for a needle to self-administer her rabies vaccine, I hardly flinched.
Id already seen too much, and yet I hadnt seen the worst of it.
The Dutton family is diminished, but this week, on the eve of springtime, theyre finally recovering.
Zane is on the mend, and Spencer is only two or three states from the ranch.
Lizzie is pregnant, and Alex is en route.
If they can just survive whats left of this brutal winter, they might survive forever.
Step one: Develop the modern airliner.
Step two: Pave a freeway through Paradise Valley at the governments expense.
Step three: Build a resort.
They use their minds.
Hands arent mere metonyms for the men they belong to; handsarethe man.
But can it really be so simple?
Or that the Scots will be content to graze their sheep on a ski resort in the low season.
Before he pledges his men to Whitfield, Banner talks it through with Ellie.
She wants her son to go to university; she wants her grandsons to inherit a good name.
Its Whitfield that Banner needs to outwit.
Because, from what weve seen in1923,being prince of the valley is punishing.
Take today as an example.
Jake watches him wake up mid-surgery, in agony, with a shop-class hand drill burrowed into his head.
Somehow, the surgery is successful, but thats only Jacob Duttons morning.
One calamity down, he says wryly.
Thats why shes having such an adverse reaction to the rabies vaccine.
After that, Jacob heads to the porch to grab a few quiet minutes with his wife between debacles.
Aunt Cara was negging long beforeThe Pick-Up Artist.
Maybe he ruminates on the lien on his house as Cara lies next to him.
Or maybe its guilt that chases his sleep away.
Look what happened to Zane.
Maybe it would be better for everyone if Jake just walked away from the Yellowstone.
Better for Zane and Alice, who could move to California, where mixed-race marriage is legal.
Better for Jack and Lizzie, who could raise their baby in the relative warmth of Boston.
Better for doc, who hasnt been home since before the blizzard because the Duttons make so much trouble.
And all of this?
This happened on a relatively quiet day for the aging prince of Paradise Valley.
Things didnt go nearly so well for the Dutton diaspora beyond Montana state lines.
After being robbed and beaten in Grand Central Station, Alex flings herself onto a moving train.
She hasnt a penny left.
The worse news is that shes sharing a bunk with other peoples children, at least until Boston.
Spencer, meanwhile, continues his run of bad luck that momentarily disguises itself as good luck.
(Personally, I was surprised to learn Luca is such a squawker.
Wasnt he raised on omerta?)
Why just bust down the door with no plan?)
you’ve got the option to take a mans ranch, but not his savior complex.
Because there arent roads in the Montana that Spencer is from.
Theres no river of iron to drop his wife at a nearby station.
Just wait until Spencer hears about the ski resort, and the freeway, and the airplanes.
About the lien on the land thats belonged to his family since before Montana was a state.
Teonna, Pete, and Runs His Horse are still in Texas, too.
Theyre helping ranch hands drive cattle in the only1923story line that has any joy or vibrancy to it.
Ive never seen Texas look prettier than it does when Taylor Sheridan shoots it.
But soon, I worry, there wont be any Texas in Texas either.
The fairgrounds where the cowboys stop for lunch are plastered with Wanted posters bearing a sketch of Teonna.
America is coming for her, like it came for Paradise Valley.
In1923,though, it seems like its always famine, and famines less fun to watch.
This weeks episode offered us longer days and brighter evenings the promise of story lines reaching fruition.
Frustratingly, it also warns us against the same longing it conjures.
Then blankets that hope in snow.
