In the 1923 season 2 ending, Alex finally realized that war isn’t some metaphor to the Duttons… It is a part of their daily lives. The tragedy is, people die in war, but Alex wasn’t afraid of death anymore. [Spoiler Alert] After crossing half the world to meet her lover, Alex understood a very simple thing in life. Fortunate are those who can choose to die with dignity. And that’s the decision Alex made in the season 2 finale. Her hands and feet were affected by frostbite. The doctors wanted to amputate so she could have a chance to survive, but Alex didn’t want to live like that. She sacrificed her life so her baby could see another dawn and be an emblem of their love’s odyssey. In the end, Alex gave birth to John II and passed away in Spencer’s arms. The shooting star that melted a hunter’s heart finally faded into its grave.
Cara will raise John II
It wasn’t the first time Spencer had lost someone so precious to the cold. When Jacob and Cara arrived in wild Montana, they found Spencer’s mother, Margaret, frozen in a snowdrift. Her two boys, John Dutton Sr. and Spencer, were half-starved, and it was Cara, who’d never had a child of her own, raised the two boys so they could take their father’s dream and turn it into an empire. I guess what I am trying to say here is that history repeats itself, and in the Duttons’ case, it repeats itself quite often. Cara now has the duty to raise another John, because Spencer, devastated by Alex’s death, wouldn’t know how. He’s good at gathering cattle and shooting three men in a row, but being a father is a totally different rodeo. The show’s ending doesn’t tell us what kind of dad Spencer turned out to be, though it does tell us that Spencer never remarried. He did take the comfort of a widow and “made” another boy, but one day, the widow was gone, likely with her child. It ended with Spencer’s heart being broken again, and he pretty much lived a lonely life after that.
Spencer Dies 45 Years Later
The ending sequence of the 1923 season 2 finale took place in 1969, some 45 years after the main events of the show. Here, we saw an eighty-year-old Spencer visiting his wife’s grave, likely because he knew his end was near and therefore wanted to spend the last moments of his life with the love of his life. Spencer never really forgot Alex and longed to meet her in this life or the next. Lying near her grave, all Spencer could dream about was meeting his wife in the afterlife, and that’s what the proceeding ballroom scene was all about. As Spencer drew his last breath, we saw a shooting star in the evening sky, either implying Spencer’s death or his reunion with Alex, who was previously referred to as a “talking shooting star” by Jacob Dutton. In 1923’s ending, Elsa’s voice-over pointed out that her brother, Spencer, joined her (Alex), further implying that Spencer joined Alex in the afterlife. It wasn’t in the destiny of these star-crossed lovers to live a happy life together on earth, but in heaven, they finally found their solace.
The Lovers Reunite In Heaven
The final scene is eerily similar to James Cameron’s magnum opus, Titanic, where Rose, dying of old age, suddenly dreamt about the sunken ship and all the people who died with it, especially her lover, Jack Dawson. However, in 1923’s case, it was Spencer who found himself in a crowded ballroom trying to find Alex. The gentleman owed his lady a dance because the last time they tried to spend some time together, their happy moment was interrupted by Alex’s fiancé, the young Earl of Sussex, Arthur, who held a grudge against Alex and her new husband, Spencer. As the scene continues, Spencer finally spots Alex in the crowd and quickly walks to her, seeking her hand for a dance. Here Alex tells him that it took him long enough to show up, suggesting that her soul had been waiting for her lover for the past 45 years, and Spencer had finally arrived in heaven, putting an end to their separation. As the two dance together, the scene freezes and turns into a still-photo frame, almost evocative of the last shot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Elizabeth Leaves Yellowstone
This might not have come as a surprise for most of us, as we already knew that the only thing keeping Elizabeth on the ranch was Jack. And with him gone, there was nothing holding Elizabeth back. She left Montana, likely to spend the rest of her life with her mother in Boston. The show’s ending didn’t reveal what happened to the child in her womb. As far as I remember, this child doesn’t make an appearance in Yellowstone either, so maybe it is safe to assume that she may suffer another miscarriage or maybe she won’t ever tell her kid who their father really was, likely to protect them from their wild roots.
Banner Saves Jacob’s Life
A whole lot of goons had gathered at the Livingston train station to take out one man, i.e., Spencer Dutton. However, Jacob was ready for such an ambush, and therefore had summoned as many officers as he could, though he didn’t know about the mole in his own team. He had no idea that the Irishman named Clyde, whom his wife had appointed as an officer, was working for Banner Creighton from the very beginning. In season 2’s finale, Clyde tried to shoot Jacob, but Banner, who’d had a change of heart, killed Clyde to save his enemy’s life. The thing is, in a way, Banner sacrificed his life to save Jacob, because Sheriff McDowell, being a righteous lawman, wouldn’t have shot Banner unless he shot someone, especially if that person was a man of the law. Except for Banner, no one exactly knew whom Clyde was working for, but it would have been too late by the time they found out the truth. Banner was going to leave for Portland with his wife and son, yet he decided to wipe clean the blood on his hands, and shot Clyde without worrying about the outcome. In the end, McDowell shot Banner, and he died a good man.
Spencer Kills Whitfield
I am not sure why Spencer blamed Whitfield for Alex’s death. He literally had nothing to do with it. He didn’t even ask Jacob to summon him from Africa or get him thrown off the cruise. Well, one could argue that it was Whitfield’s involvement that gave Banner the power to rally an attack on the Dutton family, because of which Cara was forced to write a letter and summon Spencer home. Maybe none of it would have happened if Banner and Whitfield hadn’t crossed the line. In such a case, Spencer and Alex have continued their love story somewhere in Africa and built a new life there without being worried about getting to America. But because Whitfield made things pretty complicated, Spencer was left with no other option but to leave everything behind to travel to Montana. Maybe this was the reason why he held Whitfield responsible for Alex’s death and, in the end, shot the vicious rich man dead in his own mansion. And yes, he also killed the little monster, Lindy, that Whitfield had created. In the end, Jacob and Spencer set his mansion on fire so as to erase all evidence of their crimes, and I am sure his house help wouldn’t have minded their master’s brutal death, considering the kind of man he had been all his life. His death also sent a loud and clear message to all the influential friends he had who were planning to set foot in the valley and own the land. I guess, with Whitfield gone, they’ll pretty much stay away from Paradise Valley as long as possible.
Teonna Decides To Travel West
Teonna’s court trial seemed like a farce, or maybe it was Marshal Fossett who had pulled a few strings to make sure Teonna was set free. She was arrested for three counts of murder at an Indian school in North Dakota, but all eyewitnesses related to the case were already dead. Fossett didn’t charge Teonna for the murder of Father Renaud, likely because no one had witnessed the crime, nor did anyone survive to report the crime. However, you may raise a question, why didn’t she charge Teonna for the murder of her deputy, Clint Patterson? I think this makes it quite obvious that Fossett really wanted to help Teonna from the very beginning. I know it was Patterson who defied his senior’s orders and pulled the trigger, which means Teonna shot him in self-defense, but he was still an officer of the law, and not bringing this whole mess to the court only means Fossett didn’t want to make things complicated for Teonna and let her escape the cursed land as quickly as possible.
In 1923 season 2’s ending, Two Spears gave Teonna a gun and a horse and asked her to travel west towards California, where she might be able to make a decent living. There are more Mexicans and Indians than Whites out there, which means she’ll stay out of trouble, at least for some time. However, before his death, her father had hinted that Teonna should return to the land where they actually belonged, which makes me believe she’ll go back to the Crow Reservation in Montana, and from there… Well, you know the rest of the story.
In the end, 1923 was as much about the Yellowstone ranch as it was about Alex and Spencer’s tragic love story and how their child will continue the Dutton family line, thereby raising a kid who’s going to take Yellowstone to its zenith in the near future. Yes, Taylor Sheridan did mess up John Dutton’s arc and gave him the most undignified death of all, but who am I to complain? This mess cannot be undone, no matter how many sequels and prequels come our way.
