‘1923’ Season 1 Episode 1 Recap: “1923”

A familiar voice greets us upon entry into this brand new corner of Taylor Sheridan’s expansive Yellowstone universe. Isabel May, whose narration as fated Dutton daughter Elsa lent her bold spirit to the events of 1883, also guides us through the opening moments of 1923, where both man and lion soon meet the business end of a Dutton firearm. “Violence has always haunted this family,” Elsa says as Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) advances on her target, double-barreled shotgun leveled and blood spilling from her temple. From the Scottish Highlands and the slums of Dublin, Elsa continues, to the Civil War killing fields at Antietam, and all the way to Montana, where it lurks beneath the pines, violence has been the Duttons’ constant companion. “We seek it.” And out on the African savanna, a hunter patiently waits for his big cat quarry to break cover. Crack!

Back in Montana, we immediately recognize the forested contours of the Paradise Valley. But something’s wrong. Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) and his trusted nephew, John Dutton Sr. (James Badge Dale) overlook the cattle herd, where many lay dead. “We should move ‘em,” John offers. But where? A twin pestilence of locusts and severe drought has made a battlefield out of every blade of viable grass in the valley. Combine that with a stagnated market for livestock – the Great Depression hit hard and fast in the American West – and it’s no wonder that the streets of Bozeman bustle with angry cattlemen and their even more frustrated counterparts, the sheepherders. In his capacity as livestock agent, Jacob joins Sheriff McDowell (Robert Patrick) in an attempt to pacify the mob. But Banner Creighton (Game of Thrones standout Jerome Flynn) and his fellow sheepers aren’t having it. Yes, they’ve pushed their hungry flocks onto ranchers’ land leases. But what of it? God owns the grass. Well, maybe. But in these parts, a land-rich rancher like Jacob Dutton is kind of like god, and he wants everyone to suck it up and respect the rules. “I’ve been here since 1894 – I do not remember an easy year.”

America was technically one big dry county by the early twenties, though the Volstead Act was difficult to police all the way out west, even with temperance society ladies pointing self-righteous fingers in town. But in 1923, Prohibition isn’t the only federal initiative bubbling up in Montana. At a desolate residential boarding school operated by the Catholic church, Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) and other young Native American women forcibly separated from their families and tribes are subjected to humiliating emotional and physical abuse at the hands of Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) and Father Renaud (Sebastian Roche). At night, in the dorm, Teonna and Baapuxti (Leenah Robinson) whisper in their own tongue. Is survival even possible in this place, let alone freedom? Teonna Rainwater has determined that escape from the school is her only recourse. And her last name is no coincidence.  

John Dutton Sr.’s young son Jack (Darren Mann) is the most eager and able cowboy this side of the Rips and Lloyds of Yellowstone’s future bunkhouse. Jack’s also about to be married to Elizabeth Strattford (Michelle Randolph), a college-educated rancher’s daughter from a neighboring claim. But the planned ceremony will have to wait, because in Montana, the priority is always cattle, and if the herds don’t make it up the mountain to available grass, there won’t be any cows left to push. Cara reassures Elizabeth about her delayed nuptials, and entices the younger woman with the rhythms of ranch life. There is hard work. Unending toil. However. “You will be free in a way that most people can barely conceive.”

Remember the hunter in Africa? He is revealed to be a fully grown Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), who we last met in 1883 as the redheaded youngest son of James Dutton (Tim McGraw). As his train steams into Nairobi, Spencer is disturbed by dreams of his time on the front lines of the Great War. Manning a Browning heavy machine gun as his position is overrun. Resorting to brutal and bloody close quarters combat. Here in Nairobi, he’s been hired to hunt a leopard that’s been hounding an English safari encampment. But in Africa, everything is dangerous, as he reminds one of the refined guests. And when she asks where this quiet, determined American is from, he gestures to the savanna. “The mountain version of this place.” In her letters from Montana, Aunt Cara wonders if he’ll ever come home. But war changes people, and Spencer is still searching. And besides, there are more pressing matters. “Once they get a taste for man,” the hunter tells the Englishman operating the camp, “that’s all leopards want to eat.”

Cara and Emma (Marley Shelton), John Sr.’s wife and Jack’s mom, hold it down on the Dutton ranch while Jacob, his nephew, his grand-nephew, and a brace of cowboys push the cattle high up onto the mountainside. There’s good grass here, and by combining all of the ranchers’ herds on Jacob’s advice, they might be able to save most of the area’s livestock. But there are also hungry grizzly bears at this elevation, and Emma wears her worry more openly than Cara, whose perspective as the family matriarch is one of understanding the long game. Ultimately, it isn’t the bears the men have to worry about. The battle for grass has also led Banner Creighton and his fellow sheepherders to the high country, and they even snipped a few barbed wire ranch fences to reach it. When Jack ambles his horse over the ridge only to discover a vast flock of grazing sheep, he’s initially too startled to notice the armed rider down below, who turns and draws a bead on the young Dutton rancher. Crack!

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges