The second season of Yellowstone’s latest Dutton prequel has been juggling more characters and plotlines than ever—so many that at times it was hard to keep track of all the balls in the air. As we approach the endgame for the season—and possibly for the series itself (the show was originally slated for only two seasons, and we’ve still heard nary a peep about a surprise renewal)—it’s time to clear the board, and that’s exactly what we see happening on this week’s new entry. Some long-running storylines are brought to a close and some characters get a permanent farewell, just as others rev up toward what’s certain to be an action-packed finale next week.
Here, all of the biggest shakeups to keep in mind ahead of the season finale.
Terrible Place for a Gun Fight
Back on the ranch, the Duttons and their new housemates—Zane, Alice, and their two children—are enjoying a brief moment of relaxation (don’t worry, it won’t last.)
Miraculously, we get an actual timestamp as Zane tells us it’s been a week since he had his skull drilled into and despite that fact that that seems like an absurdly short amount of time to recover from said hole-in-skull, Zane is raring to go after the Dutton family’s enemies. Jacob agrees with me that Zane needs to take a little more R&R, while Cara informs Jacob that now that the chicken coop is repaired, she’s going to be buying some new chickens because she’s tired of not having eggs to eat. The Duttons, they miss eggs just like us!
They also note how this is the first time every seat at the table has been filled since before the war and it’s very sweet for about 5 seconds. Of course, they couldn’t make it through one whole meal without something going wrong, so the sheriff shows up and informs Jacob about the call he received from Spencer last episode saying that he’s taking the train from Abilene to Montana.
Given that 1923 is set in the era of telephone operators having to manually connect every call, it’s likely one of them listened in and may have told someone. This assumption seems relatively vague and I’m not sure whether he’s suggesting that the operators just love to gossip about the Duttons or if he thinks Whitfield is paying some of them for information, but it doesn’t really matter because the plot needs this information to get to Whitfield somehow or other so we’ll just wave that right along.
After hashing out a guess that it will take 2-3 days for Spencer to arrive, the sheriff takes some deputies down to the Livingston train station while Jacob splits up his own posse between defending the homestead and staking out the station.
Jack, Zane, and a few other ranch hands (who for some reason don’t get invited to meals) are tasked to stay at the ranch and protect the womenfolk, despite the fact that Cara could probably take care of this whole place herself, Rambo-style. Jack is upset about this, wanting to join Jacob and the others at the train station, but Jacob talks him into staying behind… or so he thinks.
Arriving at the train station, Jacob finds the sheriff sleeping, but it’s fine because there’s no one else around. Jacob determines that, if he was going to ambush someone here, he’d do it on the platform and escape during the chaos, so that’s probably what Whitfield’s men will do too. We’ll have to wait until next week to see if he’s right.
What Can One Man Do?
However the word gets out, the sheriff was right about the operators having loose lips, because Banner and his livestock commission cronies know all about Spencer Dutton’s impending arrival. One of them appears to be something of a Spencer fanboy, as he’s able to tell them all about how Spencer received the Medal of Honor for fighting in the First Infantry in Argonne (there’s a little Easter egg for all of you WWI buffs) and also clarifies the Dutton family tree for everyone.
Banner’s not impressed with Spencer’s heroism, saying, “Heroes are the first out of the trench, the first to get dead,” but he nonetheless takes the information to his boss. Whitfield, who is of course in the middle of some kinky sexcapades while this whole interaction happens, tells Banner to kill all of the Duttons and dump them at the metaphorical Train Station (not to be confused with the literal train station also featured in this episode.)
This is at least the fourth or fifth time this season he’s given Banner that order, so I’m not sure why we need to keep having this conversation—I’m going to blame it on Whitfield’s management style. He also has some truly nonsensical dialogue that I assume is supposed to sound ominous but comes across like he was trying to hit the word count on a college essay (“We’re not subject to our deeds. We decide the deeds and our decisions become the truth.” What??) but Timothy Dalton is talented enough to almost make it sound cogent.
Lauren Smith
Banner doesn’t seem to notice anyway, possibly because he’s distracted by the bound, naked woman being spanked five feet away (we’ll get there in a minute), and finally dismisses himself to go tell his men to set up the ambush Jacob already knew was coming at the train station.
As he leaves, he nods in the direction of Whitfield’s sexual exploits, admonishing, “You know, that’s someone’s daughter.” With arch, seething malevolence, Whitfield tells him, “That she is. And if her mother were here I’d do the same to her.”
Someone’s Daughter
Look, if you’ve been reading these recaps all season, it’s no secret that I, like many 1923 fans, have gotten tired of the sexual abuse storyline with Whitfield and his “girlfriend” Lindy, but this week it seems like they may have finally reached the thematic point that show creator Taylor Sheridan has been driving at with his insistence on returning to it over and over. Either that, or I’ve just hit the wall with it and begun trying to find meaning for the sake of my own sanity. You decide!
Despite my pleas to the entertainment gods last week, Mabel (no, her name still hasn’t been said on screen, yes, I will die on this hill), the sex worker Lindy recruited/seduced last episode, did not go off and start a senior dog rescue but is, instead, tied naked to a bed with her head and hands in medieval-style stocks. Whitfield instructs Lindy on what to do to her (he later tells Banner than Lindy will be useful for manipulating politicians when he’s trained her, so I guess that’s supposed to have been the endgame of all of this?) going through a whole speech about how the trick is to make it so that she can no longer tell pain from pleasure, which does, at least in the moment, seem to work on Mabel.
“You see, Lindy, she doesn’t know the difference any more,” he smirks, and I can only assume that this is meant to tell me something thematic about Whitfield as a character or the fundamental principals of his plan. Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure what that “something” is, nor am I clear why we’ve had to spend 6+ (this storyline technically started in season 1) episodes to get here or why one female character had to be murdered mid-coitus to achieve it. Then again, maybe the idea that we’ve completed this plot is all just wishful thinking on my part and this is just another bit of sexual violence dressed up as titillation. Guess we’ll find out next week.
Get a Head Start
Oh, did you think Jack was actually going to stay put at the boring ol’ Dutton ranch and potentially prevent men from attacking and killing his great-aunt and newly-pregnant wife in their home? Ha! You clearly don’t know Jack! No, the youngest Dutton wants to be where the real action is, at the Livingston train station. So, naturally, Jack waits until dark to sneak off and ride after Jacob and his men, telling Zane to look after the girls.
Zane reports this to Cara, who, sensing something’s amiss, manages to trick Elizabeth into leaving the room first. It may some some drama in the moment, but there’s not going to be any getting around it next week, because Jack’s decision to leave turns out just about as well as you might expect.
On the road to the train station Jack encounters two of Banner’s men. They have a relatively unremarkable conversation considering they all clearly know that the livestock men are on their way to kill Spencer and Jack is on his way to stop them. For the second time this episode, Jack clarifies how all of the Duttons are related and brags on his uncle Spencer, saying he’s the best with a gun in his hands. Roguishly, he adds, “I’m a close second,” and is almost instantaneously gunned down by Banner’s men.
It’s a genuinely shocking turn of events for the Dutton heir-apparent, and certainly not the glorious death defending his family that Jack would likely have preferred. The show has spent relatively little time on Jack this season beyond his wavering relationship with Elizabeth (love her or hate her, there’s no denying she’s had more interesting things going on in season 2) so his swift dispatching maybe doesn’t have the same emotional impact that it would for one of the other Duttons, but it’s still undoubtedly one of the biggest moments of the season in terms of its plot ramifications, and we’ll likely get some more emotional depth out of it next week when Jack’s nearest and dearest discover the tragic news.
Trae Patton
These Acts of God Are Annoyingly Effective
Another Dutton making a long and potentially deadly journey into night is Alex, who starts this episode enjoying the brief comfort of her new British ex-pat friends Hillary and Paul, who have generously taken her into their home after her brush with working class life last episode. The couple are wowed by the tale of her romance with Spencer (and they don’t even know Spencer’s half of this season!) and volunteer to drive her the rest of the way from their home outside of Chicago to Immigrant, Montana, where the postmarks on Cara’s letters are from.
“I can think of very little that I wouldn’t do to be some small part of this odyssey that you’re on,” Paul says kindly. He has no idea what he’s getting himself into.
The trip, which they determine will take 3 days by car (3 days! The same as Spencer’s train journey! How ironic!) starts out with an adorable road trip montage. They’re laughing, they’re drinking cocktails from Nick and Nora glasses (just the girls, Paul’s driving), they’re getting driving lessons (unclear how long after the drinking Paul tries to teach them to drive, but I don’t think anyone was thinking about that in the 1920s). It’s all very cute and I could have watched a lot more of it.
Sadly, Alex is nearing the end of her luck upswing and is now headed for a downturn again, because, of course, it starts snowing. They make it to Buffalo, Wyoming, where a gas station attendant advises them to get the train from Sheridan* (see: Assorted musings for notes) instead of trying to drive because there are no more gas stations from here on in.
Of course, we know that if she were to hop on the train, she’d likely be on the very same one Spencer is traveling on, which mean’s there’s absolutely no chance of Alex actually taking the train, even though it’s perfectly logical.
Instead, she, Paul, and Hillary carry on, plowing ahead through the driving snow. It’s freezing, and Hillary insists on Alex keeping all of the blankets because she’s pregnant. It’s clear that Hillary and Paul know things aren’t going well as the gas tank indicator sinks ever lower but they keep a stiff upper lip, letting Alex fall asleep in the back seat.
She’s in for a rude awakening the following morning, when she finds the car stopped, almost completely snowed in, Paul nowhere to be found. She reaches for Hillary to ask where he went only to discover her friend has frozen to death in the night. Opening the car door, she sees Paul has met the same fate while trying to walk for help, leaving Alex is trapped alone in the frozen wilderness. It’s a bleak ending for her storyline this episode, but if 1923 has proven anything, it’s that Alex doesn’t give up, so I think we can expect something truly epic from her in the finale.
The Walkway to Perdition
Well, it’s hardly a surprise after the ending of last episode, but we now have confirmation that poor Pete has met his end at the hands of Marshal Kent. Having shot the young man for the crime of “running away when he saw Kent,” Kent now insists that he can tell by looking that Pete was a member of the Crow tribe and must have been scouting for Teonna. It’s a weird leap, made weirder by the fact that he’s right and I don’t know how to feel about it.
How Father Renaud feels about it, though, is very clear: he’s furious. “You have been tasked to bring justice to a murderer, but the murderer is you,” he shouts at the marshal, telling him he won’t go any further on this journey with him. Kent tells him that he can go fuck himself to which Renaud replies with a bullet. And another. And another.
Over the course of this season, Renaud’s pairing with Kent and his partner have positioned him as the reasonable and morally upright one of the group, but this cold, unemotional slaying is a reminder of the pointed violence he used against Teonna and the other women and girls at the boarding school in season 1. (Still, it’s nice that Kent’s dead.)
It doesn’t take long before Teonna and her father realize something’s wrong, and after a night waiting for Pete to return, they see vultures circling on the horizon. They find the bodies of Pete, his horse, and Kent, and both are, naturally heartbroken. So far from their home territory and the terrain they’re used to, there’s no way to give Pete the funerary rites he deserves, but Teonna’s father tries to find some comfort for them both, saying Pete, “gave his life to free you. You’re free from this now.”
Again, like Kent, this is a weird leap considering that Teonna’s father has never seen Kent before and has no way of knowing he was the marshal trying to hunt them down, but, like Kent, he’s also right, so… I don’t know. Apparently the show spent too much time ignoring this plot this season and now they have to rush ahead.
Believing that all of the people chasing them are dead and that it will now be safe for them to return to Montana now, Runs His Horse lights a fire and begins planning for the future. Teonna says, “I don’t see the point. Life hasn’t shown me many reasons to keep fighting for it.”
He tries to tell her that she has to live so that the world will remember the Crow, and that one day the world will need them to teach everyone how to live in harmony with nature again. Teonna asks why they should teach people when they’re the ones ruining the world, and he has no answer. (Once again, this feels like some sort of political thesis from Sheridan and once again, it lands neither here nor there.)
While Teonna and her father may think they’re in the clear, we of course know differently. Renaud (who I guess has just been wandering around the plains all day?) catches sight of their fire and sneaks up on the duo in their sleep. Runs His Horse wakes up in time to take a shot at him, but Renaud gets the better of him and shoots him first.
“The darkness cannot hide from the light, and I am the light,” Renaud tells Teonna as he holds her at gunpoint and tries to force her into repenting before he kills her. She refuses, telling him she renounces his salvation, and he tries to shoot her too. But! He’s out of bullets!
Thinking fast, Teonna grabs a handful of embers from the fire and shoves them in Renaud’s face. She then stabs him repeatedly and shoots him with her father’s gun.
Now, at last, she’s free of him, but with her father and Pete dead and a price still on her head, where will she go from here?
Assorted musings:
- Despite the fact that Spencer is central to most of the plot lines this episode, relatively little happens to him. He meets a guy on the train and briefly alludes to his service during the war, and shares some comments on the weather with another woman, but that’s really all he has to do this outing. Honestly, good for him, he’s earned a break.
- Speaking of Spencer, it’s mentioned this episode that he’s going to come back and run the ranch. This has been alluded to before, but it’s the first time it’s actually come up since he made it back to North America and with the death of Jack, it reminded me that that’s confusing. Jacob has been functioning as the patriarch and ranch owner for years, despite the fact that John (Spencer’s brother who died in season 1) should theoretically have inherited the land from his father, then passing it on to either Spencer or Jack. Jacob has no children, of course, so everything would go to his nephew anyway, but considering that inheritance has been a major theme of the Yellowstone universe, it just leaves me with some legal questions.
- Multiple times this episode we get mini primers confirming how all of the Duttons are related to each other. It’s an incredibly confusing family tree (that’s why we made our own version of it to help you keep track!) and I appreciate that the show seems to be aware of that, but one episode before the finale of your second season feels like a weird time to bother to get into the details.
- In keeping with this show’s entirely inconsistent use of title cards to tell us where scenes are taking place, we get a whole slew of them during Alex’s road trip montage—a moment when it’s the least useful! Thanks, 1923.
- Sheridan, in addition to being the surname of 1923’s creator, is indeed a town—in fact there’s one in Wyoming and one in Montana, near Dillon, which some may remember as Beth and Rip’s new home in the Yellowstone finale. I assume in this case we’re looking at the Wyoming one since that would appear to be a more direct route, but it’s a fun little wink to have in there regardless.
- If there are no gas stations between Buffalo and the Dutton ranch, where is Whitfield getting gas for his car?
- I realize that in canon none of the characters are referring to the Train Station (the body dump at the state line made famous by Yellowstone) by that name yet, but fans already know it by that term, making the proliferation of other, literal, train stations this season extra linguistically complicated for this recapper.
Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.
