[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the season two finale of 1923, “A Dream and a Memory.”]
“What took you so long?”
Those are the words that viewers of 1923 will be left to treasure after the poignant two-hour season two finale of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel series. The final scene of the Western saga, which is set generations before the Duttons featured in the flagship series, brings about a moving, Titanic-style reunion between the star-crossed soulmates of this saga, Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) and her husband Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), as a needed epilogue to a heartbreaking story.
“It just hits me right in the heart every time, even just thinking about it now,” Sklenar tells The Hollywood Reporter of the final scene of the season, and perhaps series, as Paramount+ has not confirmed if the episode is a season or series ender. “I remember filming it and standing in the corner and just having to wipe my eyes because it was so beautiful. I was just crying too much all the time,” he says with a laugh.
In the beginning of the season, Sklenar had said the finale was the most beautiful script he ever read. Now viewers have seen how Sheridan wrapped up the many stories threaded into 1923, capping it all with a final scene of two lovers reuniting in heaven nearly half a century after Alex’s sacrificial and untimely death, from necrosis due to frostbite amid her harrowing voyage to get back to Montana and Spencer while pregnant. When she goes into early labor, she makes an impossible choice seem simple: She picks caring for their 6-month-old baby over amputation. “The mother that would choose herself over a child is no mother at all,” she explains in her first scene of the series with Harrison Ford’s Jacob Dutton, Spencer’s uncle.
A voiceover from Elsa Dutton — another Dutton, played by Isabel May, who received a tragically heroic ending from Sheridan in the first prequel series 1883, and who narrates 1923 from the grave — explains to viewers in an epilogue that Spencer never stopped loving Alex until his dying day. He would go on to find comfort in a widow and have another son, but he never remarried. He died an old man lying next to Alex’s grave.
The finale also likely served as the origin story for why the “train station” goes on to become a Dutton code phrase for murder in Yellowstone. After an all-out war between Jacob and his enemies, scores of lifeless bodies are left on the platform in a win for the current and future Duttons, including that of Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn). The prequel’s biggest bad, Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton), is later taken out by Spencer.
But there was another epic train moment first, when Alex and Spencer, after being separated since the season one finale, serendipitously set eyes on each other, leading to an embrace for the ages. Spencer leaps from a moving train and runs to Alex, who is frostbitten and stranded on the side of the road. “It was the first scene we shot together this season, which I’m sure was not by accident,” Schlaepfer tells THR in the same conversation. “When we got to film that scene, for both me and Alex, I felt like I exhaled.”
Below, in a joint conversation, Sklenar and Schlaepfer go inside the highs and lows of filming that epic train reunion to their gut-wrenching hospital goodbye and afterlife sendoff, as Sklenar doesn’t rule out continuing to play Spencer with spinoff 1944 on the horizon and Schlaepfer opens up about what playing Alex has meant to her: “I think I will be processing this entire experience and that day in particular for the rest of my life,” she says.
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I’m not sure I can handle this conversation! You two filmed so much of this season apart after filming season one together and apart from the rest of the cast on location in Africa. Can you take me inside your epic reunion scene at the train? Not only are you two finally filming together, but your characters are reuniting after such an agonizing separation.
JULIA SCHLAEPFER That scene is the first time Alex and Spencer are reunited. It was also the first time Brandon and I were reunited as actors. It was the first scene we shot together this season, which I’m sure was not by accident, scheduling-wise. It was so surreal. We do spend so much of the season not together. As Alex, I was in survival mode all season.
The language that Alex used with the people she met along the way was different than how she speaks to Spencer, because she was on guard. She was trying to stay alive and didn’t know who she was going to encounter. So when we got to film that scene, for both me and Alex, I felt like I exhaled. The language just started flowing so naturally between them because they have this poetic rapport. Everyone on the crew was pretty emotional that day because after they both had such hard journeys, it’s so nice to see them back together again, and to also give Brandon and I a little bit of a win in the filming process.
Brandon, I was thinking about our conversation in the beginning of the season where you talked about doing your own stunts. You run to Julia and carry her back to the train to safety. From your perspective, what was that reunion like?
BRANDON SKLENAR The stunt stuff is easy. I’m good with my body, so that’s nothing. I just had to hold Jules and run in place, which was more funny than anything at first. But emotionally, it was a trip. Like she said, it was the first time we had worked together in season two. It’s also the first time Spencer and Alexandra are seeing each other in a long time, and it was emotional. We went through a lot filming season one and being away for so long. It was such a wild experience. Then we had the big gap [between filming seasons one and two] with the [SAG-AFTRA] strike. It was like, “Are we shooting? I think we’re gonna start. No we’re not. OK.” So finally getting that moment, there was a lot of energy coming behind it, as both people and as the characters.
I don’t think that Taylor could have written it any better. And I love what Jules is saying. As soon as they embrace and he picks her up, they’re right back to where they were, just jabbing at and playing with each other. Their vibe is so special and it’s so much fun to play in that.
Brandon Sklenar as Spencer Dutton at the end of 1923 season two, when he boards the train that will eventually reunite him with wife Alex. Lauren Smith/ Paramount+
We don’t get that for long enough. Julia, when you are looking out of the train window after you then send Spencer off to war, we hear Elsa Dutton’s words and that tips us off that this is likely not going to end well.
SCHLAEPFER Funnily enough, that was the last scene we shot together. Us looking at each other through the train window and her thinking she’s never going to see him again, which was also just a trip emotionally for both of us.
SKLENAR Yeah, that was weird. It’s like, all right, there you are 20 feet away, through a piece of glass. It’s so internal for both of us. There’s so much physical space and separation. It’s a very isolating moment for both of them.
We’ve been rooting for them to get back together, but now we realize it’s not about her getting back to Spencer anymore. She’s getting back for this baby. Then when having to make this impossible decision to sacrifice herself for her child, she is still so sure of herself. We hear it in her language, like you said, and it plays out on in a train scene between you and Harrison Ford, which was your first scene with him. Meanwhile, I don’t think we’ve seen a premature birth scene play out on TV in such detail. What was it like filming those train scenes?
SCHLAEPFER Once I was in the hospital bed and started the contractions and Jacob walks in, that was all filmed in order until the end of my conversation with Harrison. That was a wild, wild day. I was pretty much quarantined to the hospital bed because I was all bandaged, so I couldn’t really get up. There was also so much [labor] goo all over me and it’s all so emotional, I just wanted to stay there.
That was my first time filming with Harrison Ford. It was everything I ever could have dreamed of, times a million. He took such care of me that day when I was fully intending on letting him completely take the lead, because he’s Harrison Ford. I was so excited and I learned so much watching him. But I think he knew what the content of the scene was, and he wanted to make sure I was good. He knew when to crack jokes at the right time to keep things light. At the end of the scene, we both just stared at each other and cried, and he held me while I was on that bed with this baby.
Alex really needed someone to take care of her and give her a hug in that moment, and Harrison was that for her. But also, I needed that and I didn’t even know it. Because it has been a long season, and he was that for me. So it was just surreal. I think I will be processing this entire experience and that day in particular for the rest of my life.
Alexandra Dutton’s (Julia Schlaepfer) traumatic transcontinental voyage back to Spencer included being sexually assaulted when she arrived at Ellis Island from England, being sexually assaulted again and nearly killing her assaulter while working on a train and nearly freezing to death on her last leg when traveling by road to Montana. Lauren Smith/Paramount+
She names the baby John, the name that will go on to carry down in the family through John Dutton III (played by Kevin Costner on Yellowstone). Brandon, you also previously said that you got your answer about the big question around the Dutton lineage. Did knowing that baby John can then go on and carry on the Yellowstone legacy make Alex’s death any easier to swallow?
SKLENAR Who John becomes bears no significance to Spencer’s emotional life and his feelings about her. Because he doesn’t know who he’s gonna be, he’s just a baby.
SCHLAEPFER But he’s my baby! Our baby.
SKLENAR Yes, he’s your baby. He’s our baby. But you know what I mean. What sort of weight he’s going to carry as a man in terms of his responsibility and carrying on a family name and a ranch and a legacy, it’s not emotionally significant in that moment. Losing his wife, his best friend, is really fucking tragic.
Talk to me about then filming your goodbye scenes lying together on the train.
SCHLAEPFER We filmed those scenes in two days back to back. Brandon did try and play with that little baby a lot, and I was like, “Get your paws off of my child,” and he can attest to that. [Laughs]
What was that baby like that you filmed with?
SCHLAEPFER There was a robot baby. We had a CGI baby that was kind of gray. And we had a kind of belly baby that was my favorite because it looked real, and if you moved your fingers a little bit, it looked like it was squirming! I got so protective over that sucker.
SKLENAR It had this little mouth and you could make it talk. It would be like, “Pick me up, c’mon!” [Laughs] The hospital stuff was incredibly emotional. Really, we had to come up with jokes because it was super heavy and it was a lot of crying. Too much crying, just crying all the time. A lot of crying!
Brandon, you also teased this ending as the most beautiful thing you’ve ever read. The episode fills in who Spencer becomes without Alex, and then Taylor Sheridan delivers this epilogue ending, where Spencer and Alex reunite in the afterlife. All we’ve wanted is to see Alex and Spencer happy again. What was it like filming the heaven scene?
SKLENAR The heaven scene is profoundly beautiful. It’s the best way to possibly wrap up that story. They’re finally both free. Him landing there, he’s just died as an old man and has no idea where he is. So that moment where I’m looking around the room, his shoulders and his face are relaxed. You want him to feel like he’s finally at peace and not holding any tension in his body or in his face. There’s no tension anymore. You want him to feel almost like a little kid, carrying this pure little boy energy.
And then she sees him through the crowd and the whole, “What took you so long?” just hits me right in the heart every time, even just thinking about it now. The hand and the spinning around … I just remember filming it and standing in the corner and having to wipe my eyes because it was so beautiful. I was just crying too much all the time. [Laughs]
Sklenar as Spencer Dutton with Schlaepfer as Alexandra back in season one. Brandon Sklenar as Spencer Dutton with Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra.
We do hear how Spencer’s life plays out with Elsa Dutton’s voiceover. Chronologically, the next Yellowstone prequel series will be 1944, and now there is this boy John and he’ll have a story to tell. Would you be interested in going back to play out Spencer’s life and explore how John grows up and carries on Alex’s legacy?
SKLENAR Yeah, definitely. I’d do it. He’s got to learn how to do things. Someone’s got to show him.
SCHLAEPFER I’ll come back and haunt you both.
SKLENAR Yeah, I would love if we did a sort of spinoff where Alexandra’s ghost is there and Spencer’s just completely lost his mind. He’s dancing with her, talking to himself. I think that would be really interesting, it would be a character study on grief.
Julia, we first talked about your harrowing season two journey after episode two. So much happened after that. You were put through a lot to get to this ending. How did you make it through and what do you hope for Alex’s legacy? How will she stay with you?
SCHLAEPFER I still honestly don’t know how I made it through. I’m still processing that! It was the hardest job I’ve ever had, one of the hardest things I’ve ever gotten to do. I’m so lucky. I was so excited to tell this story. But yeah, she’ll be with me forever. She’s a piece of me. My heart breaks for her and I learned so much from her, and I think that when she died, a piece of me died, too, with her.
I’m really still in the process of grieving everything that she went through, everything that I went through with her, because you really become one. I spent two years trying to put as much of myself into her as possible, so she’s with me for life. She’s a piece of me forever, and I don’t quite know how I will process everything this season, but I’m just trying to enjoy how beautiful and special playing Alex was. It was truly the gift of a lifetime.
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1923 is now streaming seasons one and two on Paramount+. Follow along with THR’s season two coverage and interviews.
