1923 Season 1 Episode 4 Recap: War and the Turquoise Tide

The fourth installment of 1923 begins in turmoil. In “War and the Turquoise Tide” we see the aftermath of the previous episode, where Banner and his men went after all of the Duttons.

John died instantly from his wounds in a horrendous way. Banner shot Jacob so many times it’s a miracle he wasn’t killed instantly too.

Questions were finally answered. In the premiere episode we saw Cara chasing down a young man with a shotgun with no real reasoning behind it.

In episode 3 we saw her finish him off, justice for her family. Cara is not a woman you cross; she has no mercy when you mess with the ones she loves.

Cara was so badly trying to keep it together and it took all she had. She wrote a letter to Spencer to come home and step back into his birthright.

It will eventually take three months for him to receive the letter. Cara tells Zane to take the letter.

He informs her she should send it by wire, but that can’t happen. The world can’t know what really happened as the sheriff and livestock association cannot know yet.

She can go in his place until Jacob is once again healthy. He thankfully survived the night.

Zane believes it’s best for Cara to say goodbye to him now while she still can. However, she is not giving up on a miracle.

Zane isn’t a pessimist, but he’s never witnessed miracles, so it’s hard for him to believe in them. Emma is still shocked, stunned and missing half of her heart.

She goes down by herself next to Margaret’s grave and starts to dig. She’s soon joined by the team, working together so they can lay John to rest.

Elizabeth, Jack’s fiancé was shot in the side of abdomen during the fight. Resting in bed, Jack has not left her side.

She is resting with a fever but can’t take aspirin due to the blood loss. Jack came out of it with a wounded arm.

Elizabeth’s father’s fate did not turn out as lucky as he died in the battle too. On the other side of the world, Spencer is having the time of his life on the beach with Alexandra out in untouched paradise.

It’s a place that would be an out of this world honeymoon location, even today. Alex asks Spencer to promise her it will always be an adventure with them.

He promises that it will never be dull. And we already know at the Yellowstone nothing is ever dull.

1923 Season 1 Episode 4 recap – The devil exists in Scottish form

Banner gets back home and has no intentions of leaving. Only three of his men made it out alive.

They have to build a bigger army if they are going to take on the Duttons’ once and for all. Banner Creighton meets with Donald Whitfield, a powerfully wealthy businessman.

He tells him that John and Jacob are dead and that he’s going to overtake the ranch. Once he does, he will give Whitfield rights to the minerals.

The powerful man isn’t quite sure of the confidence in the man to do it, but he does accept his offer and will discuss money on a later date. He tells Banner that killing a King doesn’t make you a King, it makes you an assassin.

And assassins don’t usually rule a Kingdom. Whitfield knows he doesn’t have the money to buy it or the men to take it.

He agrees to give Banner the money to find his own men. The mountains will be his and the rest of the land will be Banner’s.

This is a businessman who doesn’t play games and isn’t one to cross. For now he does pay for his impending army, which won’t bode well for the Duttons.

If killing John, and possibly Jacob wasn’t enough, Banner then goes after the cattle on the east camp of Yellowstone. He takes some cattle that isn’t Yellowstone tagged.

That may come back to bite him. Elizabeth’s mother comes to get her daughter and her husband’s body.

She wants her child to come home but Elizabeth doesn’t want to leave and Jack doesn’t want her to take her. She offers for Jack to go with them but isn’t giving them any other options.

With emotions running high, Jack steps out of line with her which issues a smack to the side of his face. Cara doesn’t let any of that slide and slaps her mother back.

She will be the one to discipline her nephew and only her. Elizabeth tells Jack she chooses him and the ranch after Cara tells her this is her home if she wants it to be.

Her mother, however, is still not backing down to Cara and says she will send a car for her daughter. She tells Cara you have no reason to decide her daughter’s fate as it is her right and her right alone.

But she is a grown woman. Cara snaps back that this land is the Yellowstone and she have no rights here.

Helen Mirren has the best and most powerful lines of the show. She plays one of the strongest women I’ve ever seen in that time in history.

If she doesn’t win an Emmy for this role, it will be a travesty. The cattle in the east camp are now gone and the ranch is now aware of it.

Jack immediately storms off for revenge, but Cara stops him. She can’t lose anyone else and can’t have him being a cowboy right now.

Emma just lost her husband, and she can’t lose her son too. Jack is a hot head and fuels off emotions, but Cara is a stubborn woman.

She goes to Jacob and holds his hand in prayer, telling him the cattle was gone and they have no leader. Jacob arises some from his sleep and tells her to be the leader.

He knows she is one. The cattle is not worth another life.

Jacob says there’s only lives that we can’t afford to lose, they’ll find the cattle. Until Spencer gets home, the cattle can roam.

Cara forbids the love of her life to die. He smiles and she can’t get rid of him that easy, he’s too stubborn.

She then heads back out to Zane and Jack to tell them they will let the cattle go. It’s not worth the risk.

Jack isn’t happy about it but Zane does a great job keeping everything in order. Cara will go in Jacob’s place at the livestock meetings.

Shortly after she sits down in the field overlooking the view and takes a moment talking to God, refusing to hope. God would have already taken Jacob if he was going to.

"“There are only three answers to a prayer yes, and not yet, and I have something else in mind for you. Man’s great challenge is trusting not yet or something else and avoiding the foolish notion of hope. Wishing to nothing that your unanswered prayer is granted. Hope is the surrender of authority to your fate, and trusting it to the whims of the wind. My family does not hope. We fight for what we believe until we have it. Or we are destroyed by the pursuit. -Elsa Dutton"

1923 Season 1 Episode 4 recap – Rain turns into fire

The battle for Teonna is far from over. In her friend’s defense, she took on another nun.

This led her to being knocked out by a shovel by Sister Mary.  They once again try and beat her into submission by trying to beat out her savage spirit.

Teonna wants no part of God or being saved. No matter how much she is beaten she won’t back down to what she believes in.

She finally submits wanting the abuse to stop and tells Mary to save her. Sister Mary grabs the back of her braid and chops off her hair.

You could feel the pain of the past she had to let go of. That huge part of her heritage.

These are horrendous conditions these girls have to go through. I am glad Taylor Sheridan is shedding a light on the mistreatment of these schools and how they tried to turn them into something they aren’t by sheer fear and submission.

Teonna prepares to leave and wants her friend to go with her but she won’t. She packs a bag filled with Bibles and beats Mary with it while she’s in her bed.

She stuffs her mouth with a cloth and suffocates her speaking the last words she ever hears in her native language and kills her. The same ruler she used to beat Teonna with, she sets on fire and places it on her skin.

Now she can wear that mark forever. She leaves and is now on the run to go home.

The livestock meeting commences, and Banner arrogantly is present. Cara walks in with Zane in her husband’s place.

Expressing that her husband is in Wyoming looking for cattle thieves she explains these thieves are also murderers and they killed Bob Strafford. Cara said now is time the livestock commission needs to have the authority to make arrests.

Having jurisdiction over the entire state and have the power to issue warrants as well as to prosecute offenders, including the theft of livestock. It would be like secondary police.

They have asked the Governor to sign off on it. It’s the best way for things to be done in a lawful way without everyone just killing each other over land cattle and rights.

It was signed by Jacob which gave her the authority for voting. Ironically, she signed it herself as Jacob is still far too weak.

But it was because of this motion that had led the Yellowstone and other ranches to have land security. And it’s still in place to this day.

Cara asks for a vote. More votes are in favor of for the creation of the police.

She adjourns and completely took control of the room from the moment she entered until the moment she left. It wasn’t common to see such a powerful woman of the time.

She really is the trailblazer for being a Boss Queen. Following the meeting, Banner tries to call her out by calling her a liar.

He attempts to put her in her place as a woman and the very little rights she would have without Jacob. He believes her charade will only last so long.

Cara spits in his face saying when her charade is over, so will he. His fight is now with Cara, and it will be much slower.

It won’t be like with men who fight with a bullet and kill quick. At the end of the conversation Cara tells Banner she can’t wait for her to meet his nephew.

He’s not impressed with Jack. He has no idea what’s in store for him when Spencer arrives, the true heir to the throne so to speak.

1923 Season 1 Episode 4 recap – Letters of the Heart

Alex finds all of Spencer’s letters. He hasn’t read any of the ones Cara had sent him.

Missing home and dreaming about it has killed more soldiers. He was trying to survive.

Spencer credits not reading them for keeping him alive. She wasn’t going to allow Spencer to hold onto the daemons and will help him chase them all away.

Alex begins to read him the letters one by one in order. Cara talks about his beautiful smile.

“It is my sunrise, and I miss it with all my heart,” praying for the day that he returns. He’s very emotional but tells her to keep going.

You can really sense that Spencer is Cara’s heart. She talks to him with such eloquent love and affection.

There were funny stories and sad stories. It wasn’t until she got to the very last letter where her demeanor changed.

She didn’t want to read it and told Jack he needed to, not wanting to repeat those words. He keeps telling her to read it.

Eventually she does, telling him his brother has been killed and that his uncle has probably been killed too by the time he reads this letter. His legacy is in peril with the war.

This is the war he needs to come home and fight and put the war with himself on hold for now. I do love the relationship between Spencer and Alex.

They are both so free, but you can see the way Alex has changed him. He’s no longer afraid to face his past and as long as he has her, he has the courage to stand up to his demons and do the right thing.

1923 will now be on its winter break with season 1 episode 5 coming back to Paramount Plus on February 5th.

Let us know what your thoughts of the 1923 season 1 episode 4 in the comments below!