‘1923’ Episode 2 Offers a Gun Fight, Hangings + a New Romance [Spoilers Alert]
1923 turned up the heat on several fronts during Episode 2, which premiered on Sunday (Dec. 25) on Paramount+. The episode featured more action and adventure than the first episode, but it also highlighted a fun new relationship that looks like it could turn into romance for an unlikely character.
What Happens to Spencer Dutton in 1923?
As the second episode of the Yellowstone prequel 1923 begins, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) is fighting for his life against a leopardess that attacked him in the final seconds of the season premiere. He kills the leopardess, but not before she kills one of the guides who was accompanying him. That leads to an unpleasant confrontation with the host who hired him to hunt the animal, who did not provide accurate information, and we see how Spencer is capable of dispensing his own version of the rough truth that is the Dutton family trademark.
Injured in the attack, he travels to Nairobi for medical treatment, where he meets a spirited young British woman named Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer), who is engaged against her will to a man she does not love. They form an instant bond, and when he is reassigned to a new hunt, she runs from her husband-to-be and their friends who are there to witness their wedding and joins him in the car against his initial objections, yelling back to her now-former fiance, "Find someone who loves you!" as they drive off together to end the episode.
What Happens With Jacob Dutton in Episode 2 of 1923?
Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) ends up dispensing some classic Dutton frontier justice in Episode 2 of 1923, after one of Banner Creighton's (Jerome Flynn) men shoots at Jack Dutton (Darren Mann) when he discovers their sheep grazing on land that belongs to the Duttons. A gunfight between Jacob Dutton and his men and Creighton and his men ensues, and Dutton ends up pistol-whipping Creighton before telling him that he is going to make good on what he told him would happen if he grazed his sheep on anyone else's land.
Dutton has Zane (Brian Geraghty) take Creighton's herd and give the sheep to the Native American reservation to use for food, clothing and whatever else, and he takes the men responsible for the attack and puts each one on his horse with a noose around his neck, riding away to leave them to die.
He later relates to John Dutton Sr. (James Badge Dale) a hard truth that is the Dutton credo: that other men are the greatest threat to what they've built, and they have to be too scared to act on their greed if the family and the ranch are to survive. He actually wants some of the men to survive so they can warn others, but it might be a case of "be careful what you wish for," since Banner Creighton himself is the one who literally slips the noose, leaving one of the Duttons' principal antagonists free and angrier than ever after the loss of his herd and his men.
What Happens to Teonna Rainwater in Episode 2 of 1923?
Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) continues to deal with abuse from Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) at the Catholic school where she resides after being taken from her family ... only, not really. Unlike the other girls, she does not passively accept her lot in life; in fact, she attacks Sister Mary physically again in Episode 2 of 1923, causing Father Renaud (Sebastian Roche) to threaten her life if she steps out of line one more time.
Sister Mary tells her that she is trying to prepare her for her new life even as she continues her abuse, but we also see a slice of Teonna's backstory in Episode 2 as her grandmother tries to petition for her return to the reservation. Teonna was taken from her family after her mother died during the Spanish Flu pandemic and her father had to accept a job that takes him away from home, and now her grandmother has to formally adopt her if she wants to bring her home — a process not made any easier by an uncaring system that does not recognize the needs of the Native Americans as having any importance.
1923 airs every Sunday via the Paramount+ streaming service. As part of Taste of Country's comprehensive coverage of all things Yellowstone and 1923, check out the Dutton Rules podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.