1923
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The final season of1923reeked of death.
This is not the picture of a ranch clawed back from the brink of extinction.
Theres no vitality in this valley.
And that was before Lizzies husband was murdered by a double agent.
Before baby Johns mother died from necrosis.
An entire generation, dead or grieving, is missing from1923s dismal final portrait.
They follow the smoke of Teonnas smoldering fire to find the bodies of Renaud and Runs His Horse.
It ends with Teonna killing Marshal Clint and being hauled to Amarillo in rope cuffs.
Mamie insists the courts will deliver justice, but Teonna knows better than to believe in this countrys institutions.
She and her family were forced onto an American reservation.
America sanctioned the school where she was abused and tormented.
What Teonna couldnt yet understand is that Americas cruelty is so often matched by its incompetence.
The prosecutor is too lazy to collect new testimony.
Freed by a judge eager to clear his docket, Teonna wonders aloud what to do next.
Shes a 16-year-old Indian girl in a world that hates Indians and girls.
He suggests California, where there are more fruit trees and fewer white people.
On the one hand, Two Spears might be making a throwaway comment.
The last time we see Teonna, shes riding West all alone, but at least shes riding.
For example, Zane begs her to go inside, where its less easy to get shot.
Cara ignores him, which he finds charming.
They dont make women like you anymore, says Zane.
Its the men they make different.
Its a terrific line, but not one worth dying for.
Give poor Zane a break and go inside.
This wouldnt be a huge deal if this particular land war werent being fought across these exact lines.
Dutton takes to survive; Whitfield takes because he relishes suffering.
Maybe he could try his hand at trawling fish in Portland.
At Livingston Station, Banner runs into Jacob, who he knows will be there.
Even if you beat Whitfield, there will be more Whitfields to follow, Banner surmises.
The long-delayed Battle of Livingston Station is once more delayed by a motorcar thats caught fire near the tracks.
Alexandra has spent the last day sharing a cab with Hillarys dead body.
Eventually, shes reduced to grave-robbing.
From Hillary, she takes a slender pair of velvet gloves with little hope of blunting the Montana cold.
She runs out to Pauls body and steals his lighter.
When the notebook paper runs out, she starts feeding it Spencers letters.
In the absence of much shared history, a lexical callback will have to do.
When they get on the train (psych!
They immediately start to warm her with wet towels, but Alexs feet and fingers are black from cold.
The doctor remarks that womens bodies are miracles.
If theres a way to protect the child, your body will find it.
Am I missing something?
McDowell kills Banner, who dies saving Jacob from that snake Clive, whom McDowell hired.
Its a good death.
A heros death if you forget that Banner is the reason Clive is shooting Jacob in the first place.
He doesnt have scrapes.
Spencer does total annihilation of his enemies.
When the train departs Livingston for Bozeman, Banners family are aboard, assisted by Spencer no less.
And so is Jacob, weeping blood from old bullet holes.
Ill meet you in Bozeman, Spencer tells her.
Stop stalking your own family.
Until Spencer shows up after nightfall to alter the math, that is.
This guy doesnt miss.
At the hospital, a story line that I didnt think could get more infuriating becomes scream-at-your TV dumb.
(I did not have to watch it, because I covered my eyes with my hands.)
Why not try saving both lives?
Let Jacob hold the baby while a doctor stops Alexs infected body from decomposing.
If she really believes her miracle son can survive, then this hour isnt special enough to die for.
A mother who would choose herself over her child is no mother at all, Alex says.
No, a dead person is no mother at all, because they are dead.
Moreover, she isnt dying to save her baby.
Still, maybe deal with the problem of having one hand tomorrow?
Be alive to have the problem in the first place.
By the time Spencer arrives at the hospital, the decision is irrevocable.
His son, called John, is swaddled in Alexs arms, which are also swaddled.
The lesson here is clear: Never choose a life of love and adventure.
In the morning, Spencer immediately calls for Aunt Cara.
Babies are womens work.
And Spencer has a mans job to finish.
He marches into the Whitfield mansion and frees the sex worker Mabel.
(Finally, someone frees Mabel!)
Hes got the family ranch, and all it cost him was his family.
Spencers wife is gone.
Spencers nephew is gone.
Its old ladies like Aunt Cara who will remember Jack best.
Theyre in love and dancing again, because I guess Aunt Cara is wrong sometimes.
The young dont have to move on.
They can let their undying love raze a whole lifes happiness.
The second and final season of1923ends as it began: well lit and miserable.
And yet, the series continued to compel throughout its run.
Regardless, maybe Whitfields violent death does echo around Bozeman for decades.
Theres also the matter of obsessively plotting the Dutton family tree.
How to connect the dots between1883andYellowstonehas been a preoccupation of1923fans, myself included.
Disappointingly, John Dutton IIIs parentage is still muddled (I think).
But how would we jump from John I to John III in a single generation?
Also, John III once told Jimmy that his grandfather lost a leg.
How many times will our great and terrible God come for one familys limbs?
Alternatively, maybe John III is Jacks grandson.
This lineage also more tidily explains that John Dutton III is referred to as a fifth-generation rancher.
If he were Spencers grandson, Im pretty sure hed only be a fourth-generation rancher.
That could be the plot of the newly announced spinoff1944.
Star-crossed lovers, each the child of warring ranchers in fair Paradise, where we lay our scene.
Every generation he can squeeze between JD3 and1883s Tim McGraw is more cash in his saddlebag.
Personally, Im not sure Ill be tuning in for the next installment.
OnYellowstone,John Dutton starts out a hero.
To root against John is to root against a thoroughly American way of life.
