This post contains spoilers from the 1923 season 2 finale below.
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. And sadly, 1923 has come to an end. While it may be over, the history of the show is engrained deep in western-drama television. The Dutton family has been one of the most popular families in the last decade. Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford have given fans such an experience with their legendary acting and awe-inspiring chemistry.
The seventh episode of season 2 premiered as a mini movie much like how Yellowstone’s series finale came to an end. For months, fans have been asking in frustration, "When are Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) and Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) going to reunite?' Not only was that reunion pivotal, but so was the reunion with Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) and Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) with the future of the Dutton's legacy. And will Teonna survive and find peace somehow? All those questions were answered, and more.
Last week, in the penultimate episode “The Mountain Teeth of Monsters,” we saw a colossal blood bath. Father Renaud and Marshal Kent met their satisfying demise, but unfortunately so did Teonna’s father leaving her to fend for herself. Alexandra made great progress to Montana but alas, the tundra had put another roadblock in her plans of reuniting with her husband. The rest of the Dutton dynasty members awaited Spencer’s return to protect their future livelihood. While they were fully-equipped to assemble for war, Jack Spencer met his untimely death in a nonsensical storyline. All the man wanted to do was to fight for his family. It should have been the way he died, as a hero.
Did Alexandra survive and reunite with Spencer?
Alex and Spencer have a love story that is written in the stars. Even her newly found English friends couldn’t believe the magnitude of their love story. And for fans, they’ve been anticipating the magical reunion between the star-crossed lovers. All season has been building up to this stupendous moment. Turn after turn Spencer and Alex kept hitting barriers that prolonged being in each other's arms again. Now we’ve reached the finale and everything has come down to this moment. Was the payoff everything we’ve put our time and effort into?
Alexandra Dutton has tried to move heaven and earth to get back to the love of her life. She left her cozy life, all her comforts, money, and freedom to become part of a family she has never met. She’d gone through sexual assault more than once to take the long journey out west to her future. Now, if anyone deserved to survive and have a shred of happiness, it’s her.
In the episode prior, Alex looked as good as dead trapped in the blistering freezing snow. When Alex takes the gloves off her deceased friends, she ventures out to the cold to take a lighter and money from Paul. Alex is resourceful enough to start a small fire in the confines of the car after cracking the windows for ventilation. A very clever move in the hope of survival.
When Spencer’s train nears her path she sets the rest of the car a flame to send a smoke signal to the conductor. Miraculously Spencer spots Alex from the window and catapults off the back of the train to his beloved. Seems a little too good to be true. Right spot at the right time, and the two share a loving embrace that fans have been dying for all season. In each other's arms, where they’ve always belonged.
How do they react to Jack’s death?
Jack was one character that deserved a better send-off than he got. He’s hot-headed like most cowboys and loves to stay in the fight, but he never gets the chance to die in an honorable way. Not to mention he was too seasoned of a cowboy to not smell the threat surrounding him in the woods. It’s a shame he couldn’t take one last stand and fight for his family. Shocking deaths are only satisfactory when they make a little sense.
There wasn’t much writing that went into the reaction to Jack’s death. I think that deserved a little more time in the two-hour finale. I know that Cara was devastated by it. She raised him and Spencer as their own. It’s a shame he couldn’t have a better farewell, but we will never forget the soft warmth and loyalty he had for his family and his ranch.
How did the war go?
Banner and Whitfield’s impending war against the Dutton family has been set in stone since season 1. Creighton was once ready to grab Spencer off the train before Jacob and the sheriff got the chance to end the threat before it begun. However, Jacob and Spencer had other plans.
War has always been inevitable. Even if Whitfield wasn’t trying to take Jacob’s land, home, and status in Montana there would still be a battle against the justice of nearly killing him and stealing the life of Spencer’s brother. In every Yellowstone show there is a villain who has to be dismantled. Donald Whitfield is no more special than the rest.
When the battle comes to the doorsteps of the Yellowstone, Cara wastes no time getting onto high ground and showing off her sharp-shooting skills. A special shoutout goes to Zane Davis, who came back from the brink of death to protect his family and the Dutton’s in their time of need. It wasn’t always pretty, but when their backs were against the wall, Spencer made his fantastical debut and took down Whitfield’s men. Then came the embrace I’d been waiting all season for, Cara and Spencer. It was as glorious and heart-warming as I always expected it to be.
Did Elizabeth stay in Montana?
It wasn’t that long ago Elizabeth was ready to leave Jack and go back home to her family in Boston. To call this character an annoyance all season would be an understatement. However, at times she does have her moments when she listens and learns from Cara. With Jack dying, it seemed destined she would return to the East Coast following the grieving process.
I've always predicted she would be the one to kick the bucket this season. She’s nearly been killed by a mountain lion, then a wolf, and needed a long set of rabies vaccinations. Losing her husband not even that long after losing her father. The girl has been through hell, and she’s not as strong as the other females on the show.
With that being said, no Elizabeth decides to part ways in Montana. There’s a high chance we will see Jack’s son one day. But until that day comes she live out her days in Boston.
What becomes of Banner Creighton?
Banner has had signs all season of a moral dilemma upon taking Donald Whitfield’s requests. Against man, Banner Creighton has never taken much issue in laying down the law, but when it comes to the treatment of women, he hasn’t been willing to comply with Whitfield’s atrocious treatment of the other sex.
We know that Banner Creighton is in this to guarantee a better future for his son. It’s almost admirable if it was so dirty-handed. There are times Banner even makes you almost want to root for him if he could garner more redeemable qualities. A desperate man for sure, but Taylor Sheridan has made sure to write layers for this character that I’ve appreciated.
When Banner attempts to leave for Portland with his family he gives Jacob a word of warning. Jacob was in no position to let him flee, he helped start the war and had to do the honorable thing now. He loses his life in the gunfight at Livingston. Ironically, it was Spencer, the man he wanted that kill, that ended up saving his family from the fire. It took his death to find out that he was on the wrong side of the fight. But even through his misdeeds, he attained enough for his son and his wife to start over.
Where does Teonna Rainwater end up?
Teonna gets tracked down by Mamie Fossett and her men. Before I start with any details, let’s talk about the acting of Aminah Nieves when she breaks down and tells Mamie the upheaval she went through. It was bone-chilling, and I hope we haven’t seen the last of Teonna yet.
Mamie was as gentle with Teonna as she can be. But they still have to take her in for the murders. I don’t think any murder she committed was without cause.
Rainwater is a name all too prevalent in the Yellowstone mothership. Thomas Rainwater grew up thinking he was Spanish. So it begs the question where does Teonna make it to? She went through a rather swift trial for the murders of the nuns, but with Father Renaud and Marshal Kent dead, there are no witnesses to speak any testimony. The case was dismissed and she was free to go. She was advised to go out west to California where there are more Mexicans and Native Americans. While we are throwing out so many Yellowstone spinoffs, I think one on Teonna Rainwater would be epically intriguing.
The journey’s end for one love
Before Spencer can be snatched off the train in Livingston, a shootout ensues. Jacob Dutton doesn’t get out of it unscathed, he is injured and knows he’s in no condition to join the fight back home. Spencer however knows it’s his duty. He bids farewell to his wife one last time before he goes to save his namesake. Jacob doesn’t know Spencer’s wife from Adam, but his loyalty is so intense he accepts this woman and doesn’t leave her side.
Unfortunately, Jack is not the only Dutton whose life was cut far too short. After an ambulance ride with Jacob to the hospital in Bozeman, the newest Spencer was born prematurely at six months of gestation. By some miracle, the fetus survived against insurmountable odds. Alex may have made her way to her long-lost husband and shared a reunion we were all dying for, but she needed both legs and one hand amputated to survive. She chose death over the ability to walk and feed her child. In the end, the ordeal she went through was too much to handle. It was profound at all that she could give birth to the next generation of Duttons. Without her, the Duttons would never be what they are today. Beth Dutton certainly inherited her fight.
I never thought it made much sense for Alex and Spencer’s baby to survive. We’ve seen Alex go through physical and sexual abuse. Nearly freeze to death. She was hit in the stomach multiple times in New York. But even through all these deaths, there is life that emerges. But can we talk about the far-fetched storyline this was? A baby was born at six months in 1923 with little medical technology in the small town of Bozeman. It's a beautiful idea to have such a supernatural child, and even more poetic that it's the birth of John Dutton's father, but in no way is it believable. Maybe they could have at least given it some oxygen?
Cara never got to meet Alex in time before her passing but there was a beautiful moment between Spencer and Cara. It took Jacob no time to see how Cara and Alex were cut from the same cloth. It’s very fitting that the love of Spencer’s life was so similar to the mother who raised him.
Spencer was burdened with a dead wife and a baby and didn’t know what to do. From that moment on Cara picked up the tiny bundle of joy and took care of him. In return, Spencer took care of the man who murdered his wife, Donald Whitfield. The train station the villain created and had Banner toss Christy into, is the same perfect graveyard location that Whitfield was tossed into. Poetic justice at its finest.
Who are John Dutton’s parents?
This has been the million-dollar question. Is Spencer or Jack the grandparent of Yellowstone’s John Dutton? Previously, Taylor Sheridan remained tight-lipped on this revelation. But now we can put this all to rest. Spencer and Alex Dutton are the parents of John Dutton II, the father of the John Dutton we all know and love.
We may be saying goodbye, but a potential 1944 spinoff could bring some of the cast of 1923 back to the canvas. Yellowstone universe fans could have the possibility of seeing an older Spencer and his children, as well as Elizabeth’s and Jack’s child. It’s fascinating to see each generation of the Duttons and watch Taylor Sheridan piece together the Dutton family tree. So we can all stop guessing!
At long last Spencer moves on with his life and takes over the ranch. He never remarries but he does have another child with another widow. He’s much like Kevin Costner’s John Dutton in that aspect. The second child’s name is never revealed, and we still don’t know the fate of Cara and Jacob. Jacob Dutton went on to retire and live his last days with his wife taking care of little John, much like they stepped in and took care of Margaret and James' children years ago.
Spencer lives another long 45 years since the death of Alexandra. Ultimately, in the closing moments of the series finale, he walks up to his estranged wife in true Titanic form on a ship to give her the dance of love she’d been waiting over four decades four. That marks the end of one of Yellowstone’s greatest love stories.