1923

5 Details You Might Have Missed In The Season One Finale Of ‘1923’

The final episode of the "Yellowstone" prequel's first season hinted Teonna may run into a character from "1883" and teased another pregnancy.

Kelly ReillyMay 23, 2023

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Warning: There are spoilers ahead for episode eight of “Yellowstone” prequel, “1923.”
The finale suggested that Teonna may run into a character from prequel series “1883” in season two.
Elsewhere, it teased that Alexandra may have fallen pregnant before she was separated from Spencer.

While onboard the ship bound for London, Alex had motion sickness — or another kind of sickness.

At the beginning of the episode Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) and Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) board the Majestic, a luxurious ocean liner bound for England, only to discover that her former fiancé, Arthur (Rafe Soule), and his family are also taking the same ship.

This leads Alex’s nerves to get the better of her, which isn’t helped by the motion sickness she’s begun to experience, as she tells Spencer.

“The North Atlantic wasn’t this rough,” she comments as Spencer tries to console her.

It’s rather unusual to show Alex feeling seasick on the voyage, given that she has categorically encountered choppier seas before now, especially on her and Spencer’s first vessel, the rickety tugboat helmed by Lucca (Peter Stormare).

It’s possible that Alex instead could be suffering from a different kind of sickness: morning sickness.

It turns out that there is room for either explanation as Schlaepfer told The Hollywood Reporter that she has “not been told a single thing” about where Alex’s storyline is heading so made sure that either outcome could work.

“When I was filming those scenes, there were definitely some moments where I was choosing to believe that maybe it was more than motion sickness,” she said. “But there has been no confirmation from Taylor at all, so it could have just been those waves.”

Teonna is heading toward a Comanche reservation in Wyoming where an important “1883” character resides.

We last see Teonna (Aminah Nieves), her father, and Pete (Cole Brings Plenty) in the finale on the run from both the authorities and the ruthless Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché).

Planning their next move, Runs His Horse (Michael Spears) suggests they head south to Wyoming where he knows “some Comanche on the Washita River” who might be able to give them refuge.

Fans of the first “Yellowstone” origin series “1883” might recall that Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) was married to Comanche tribesman Sam (Martin Sensmeier), who she met while heading toward Montana, likely in the same state.

There is a chance that when they arrive at the Comanche reservation, Sam could be there and this is how the Rainwater and Dutton storylines eventually tie together. The young warrior viewers met in “1883” would likely be somewhere in his 60s and played by a different actor given that more than 40 years have passed since the events of the earlier series.

Donald Whitfield has spies everywhere in Montana.

At one point in the episode, Jacob (Harrison Ford) goes to the bank to discuss getting a loan so that he can purchase hay for his cows, which will in turn help the ranch become profitable come spring. However, his banker (Wallace Langham) turns him down and instead suggests he take out a mortgage, an idea which Jacob resolutely refuses.

As Jacob leaves the building with no money, no plan, and his debts still unpaid, the camera pans to one of the tellers manning the phones in the foyer, who we see watch him walk away before picking up his phone and making a call.

As we learn by the end of the episode, someone has informed Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) of Jacob’s situation, allowing him to come up with a dastardly plan that catches the Duttons in a double bind.

Whitfield has paid the ranch’s first property-tax payments for the year, meaning that Jacob now owes him the money, not the bank. What’s more, if the Duttons don’t repay him by the end of the year, he explains, “the deed reverts to me.”

It’s clear that Whitfield now has employees of the bank in his pocket, as well as those that purportedly serve as livestock agents, meaning it’s going to be even tougher for the Duttons to take him down.

The characters of Arthur and his parents may have been inspired by real British aristocrats.

In episode eight, we learn a little bit more about the man that Alex jilted just days before their meticulously planned marriage. Young Arthur is the son of the Earl of Sussex (Bruce Davison) and the Countess of Sussex (Jane Carlson), making him a viscount.

Later, it is revealed that the aristocratic family has close ties to the royal family, or may even be royalty themselves as there is a prince in succession to the throne on the ship who has ordered Spencer’s removal after he throws Arthur overboard.

Alex herself also has some blue blood, as she is referred to as a countess and it turns out that showrunner Taylor Sheridan may have turned to the history books to help flesh out this storyline.

Prince Arthur of Connaught, born in 1883, was a British military officer and a grandson of Queen Victoria who served as Governor-General of the Union of South Africa in the 1920s. His father was the Earl of Sussex and also named Arthur, just as in the show.

The younger Arthur married his first cousin once removed, the Duchess of Fife, who was the granddaughter of Arthur’s uncle, King Edward VII, and named Alexandra. The real-life story goes that they had a son together and lived happily ever after (although Alexandra did secretly become engaged to another man before meeting Arthur their plans to wed were called off as her parents disapproved).

Of course, fans of “1923” know the storyline in the show goes in a markedly different direction to real-life events, but it seems too much of a coincidence that these real historical figures had the same names and titles as the characters in the show and more likely that Sheridan leaned on their story when coming up with the plot.

Cara doesn’t send her last letter to Spencer or add it to her journal. Instead, she crumples it up, knowing that writing to him has become futile.

In a previous episode, Cara (Helen Mirren) told Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) that she had taken to writing letters addressed to Spencer as a way to get all her thoughts and worries down on the page.

“I supposed you could call it journaling,” she said in episode seven of her letters that she had written, but not sent to her nephew.

However, it’s perhaps interesting that this last letter that we see Cara write in season one, which she pens after she learns that the ranch is in danger of being taken from them by Whitfield, gets crumpled up and left out in the snow.

Does this indicate that Cara has given up? Or that she just can’t find solace in the habits that once soothed her worries? It’s a damning end that shows the Duttons are out of luck and out of hope.