1923
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
The Killing Season gets off to a grimmer start.
(Truly, what is the point of this belabored storyline?)
Soon after, were presented with a graphic bunkhouse rape scene.
(Who appointed this monster to the service?)
Its a stream of misery punctuated by glimpses of the American landscape.
There were a few mercies scattered throughout the episode.
This isnt a ding on the series but a reality of how the soap wheel turns.
This wrong turn gives our trio of fugitives space to consider where theyve come from and what comes next.
This, he says, is how the U.S. government entrapped the Indians.
If Indians could still do for themselves as they historically had, the government would be redundant.
The loss of Native American culture is a consequence of land loss, not the cause of it.
Petes reaction to finding Teonna undressing before him can best be described as momentarily stupefied.
And the third time we meet him, Spencer convinces Luca not to plunge himself overboard.
Its unclear why Luca would be contemplating suicide now that his nightmare is over.
Perhaps this isnt Lucas first time staring down at the water just the first time anyone has noticed.
People arent defined by what happens to them, Spencer tells him, prophetically if vaguely.
They are defined by what they do.
Spencer is a hero.
Thats what he does.
And his new amigo?
Its a sign of how little time well spend on this boat that none of the opponents get names.
The second is between the Lion Hunter and the war vet, who Spencer bites bloody.
But Spencer, so far, represents what feels like a third fate.
Men who respond to the world more than they guide it.
Men who scrape by.
She cant wait around in Sussex for Spencer to rescue her because she doesnt have that kind of time.
The ranch consistently turns out matriarchs who are plucky and resolute in the ways Alex has demonstrated.
Since weve known her, Alex has bent the world to her will more than any other character on1923.
The trees are bare.
The roads are snowed over.
The common enemy of the rancher and the Indian a whole institution full of men who take.
The first episode of season two ends with something of a callback.
A whiff of spring to come.
In Bozeman, life goes on.
Winter is nothing but a season.
But on the ranch, its a threat.
Everything is a threat.
The Duttons have lost their cattle and their ranch hands.
This lodge is whats left.
The first season of1923was a form of meditation.
Meandering plotlines set against awesome vistas.
Taciturn men whose guttural consonants hit the ear like an ASMR shopping haul.
By contrast, Spencer crossing the ocean in the space of an hour feels downright hurried.
But its hard to see what that might look like from here.
Theres a sense in which the1923story feels like it ended with it.
