Who Died in the '1923' Season 2 Finale?
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't watched the Season 2 finale of 1923, stop reading and return after you do.
Wow. Just wow. The Season 2 finale of 1923 might be one of the most satisfying and entertaining season finales on record. Even though there were some deaths we weren't happy to see, it was still an emotional two-hour roller coaster ride. The epic gunfight at the Dutton Ranch lasted a good, long while and must have taken days to film!
Here's everything that went down in the 1923 Season 2 finale.
What happened in the Season 2 finale of 1923?
There was a lot to digest in the two-hour Season 2 finale of 1923. As we suspected, the body count rose up several notches as Jacob (Harrison Ford) and his posse prepared for the oncoming fight with Whitfield's (Timothy Dalton) goons. While many of the newly deceased were red shirts from either side of the fence, there were a couple of key players who didn't make it to the end of Season 2.
Related: 7 Burning Questions We Have Going into the Season 2 Finale of 1923
Did Jacob and Cara survive in 1923?
While I thought for sure these two were goners, both Jacob and Cara (Helen Mirren) survived the battle against Whitfield, even though they seemed to be outnumbered 3-to-1. Cara held down the fort with Zane (Brian Geraghty) and some other ranch hands (the original Bunkhouse Boys, perhaps?) while Jacob waited for Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) at the train station.
Related: The Duttons Recover From That Shocking Death in the Season Finale of 1923
What happened to Teonna Rainwater?
Marshal Fossett (Jennifer Carpenter) and her men caught up to Teonna (Aminah Nieves) and took her into custody, but Fossett sympathized with her plight and was willing to give testimony on her behalf. When Teonna went on trial for the lives she took, there turned out to be no actual evidence or witnesses to give testimony, so the prosecution asked for a dismissal. The judge ruled in Teonna's favor, and she was set free! Free at last!
At a loss for what she should do now that she was no longer on the run, but with no one she could run to, Two Spears (Dougie Hall) advised her to head out to California where the Chumash tribe lives. Perhaps it is there she becomes an entrepreneur and opens a casino near what we now know as Santa Barbara.
Fun fact: Dougie Hall, who plays Marshal Fossett's Indian guide, Two Spears, is a professional bronc rider and social media influencer. This was his acting debut!
Did Alexandra freeze to death in 1923?
The resourceful Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) managed to stay warm for a while by retrieving items from Hillary (Janet Montgomery) and Paul's (Augustus Prew) corpses to light a fire. As a last resort, she had to sacrifice the letters she and Spencer exchanged. When things couldn't look any more bleaker, Alex heard the whistle of a train, not realizing there were train tracks near the road she was on.
As she tried to flag down the train for help, Spencer, who was on that very same train, saw his love, made a beeline for the caboose and took a flying leap off the end. Surprisingly, he suffered no injuries and was finally reunited with his bride. Literally sweeping her off her feet, Spencer intended to carry her into the next town when it appeared the train had come to a stop to retrieve them.
Once on the train, a doctor (Damon Carney) came to help Alex. It turned out she was minutes from death with parts of her hands and feet so damaged with frostbite that necrosis had set in and would require amputation. The doctor advised Spencer to go straight to Bozeman, where an ambulance would be waiting to take her to the hospital. But as they came to the next stop in Livingston, all hell broke loose when a gunfight ensued between Whitfield's goons and Jacob's crew. Whitfield's goons seemed to be terrible at hitting their marks because Jacob and his men seemed to make it out unscathed, but not before making mincemeat of the goons.
Once they got Alex to the hospital, Spencer was torn between wanting to stay with his wife or go with Jacob and finish this thing with Whitfield. Alex understood Spencer's love for his family and told him to go even though it might be the last time she would see him. Leaving her and Jacob (who had to have a wound tended to), Spencer headed out to help secure the ranch from Whitfield. He did so in short measure and returned to Bozeman with Cara to discover Alex had given birth to their son, but was knocking on death's door. Having given the last of her strength to her newborn son, Alex ultimately dies from her injuries. After all that she went through to reunite with Spencer, she only had a few moments of bliss before she headed for the hereafter. Her death gave Spencer a renewed energy to seek out Whitfield and end things once and for all. I was sad to see this character's fate would not be a joyous one.
What happened to Elizabeth Dutton in the 1923 Season 2 finale?
After learning that Jack (Darren Mann) was dead, Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) decided to go with her original plan of leaving Montana and heading back to Boston. There's no mention of what happens with her unborn baby. Is there another Dutton family line out there somewhere on the East Coast?
What happened to Banner Creighton in the 1923 Season 2 finale?
I was right about Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn)! Creighton turned out to be a better man than Whitfield as his conscience grew weary of all the things he'd done for his boss, including dumping the body of Whitfield's female "companion" like yesterday's trash after she was used and literally abused. Even Creighton thought his boss' hobbies and tastes were strange and ultimately wrong.
Hoping to hop a train with his family to Portland and avoid the gunfight to come, Banner found Jacob at the train station and confronted him. Accepting his fate, Banner asked Jacob to at least allow his wife Ellie (Sarah Randall Hunt) and son Henry (Justin Stella) the chance to live and leave Montana to which Jacob agreed. During the gunfight, Banner saved Jacob's life just as one of the goons was about to shoot Jacob. Sadly, Banner was shot by Sheriff McDowell (Robert Patrick) and died.
What happened to Donald Whitfield in the 1923 Season 2 finale?
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who cheered at the television screen when I saw Whitfield finally get his just desserts. After leaving his dead wife, Spencer and his uncle headed to Whitfield's ostentatious manor. Once there, Spencer quickly wiped that smug, cringeworthy smirk off Whitfield's face, and the world was better for not having him in it any longer. While I could have done without Whitfield's tastes for bedroom antics, his actions only served to make him more deplorable causing the audience to revile him, ultimately making his demise that much more satisfying.
What happens to the Duttons at the end of the 1923 Season 2 finale?
Cara takes charge of her premature grand-nephew, John, and one wonders why she is sitting out in the freezing cold bottle feeding him. As far as we know, Cara and Jacob live the remainder of their lives in peace. Spencer had another boy with a widower who he refused to marry as he would always be Alex's husband. He worked the land, eventually laying at the grave of his one true love before he takes his final breath 45 years after Alex's death.
We never find out how the Duttons learn about the "Train Station." With three potential Dutton bloodlines continuing on (John Dutton II, Spencer's second (unnamed) son, and the child of Jack and Elizabeth), do all three continue the Dutton legacy or is John Dutton II (Dabney Coleman in Yellowstone) the only one that stays? What of his younger brother?
The last scene is reminiscent of a scene at the end of Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour reuniting in the hereafter. In our show, Spencer reunites with Alex in the afterlife in what should have been their life in the here and now - in a ballroom in their best finery, sipping champagne and dancing the night away.
Will there be a Season 3 of 1923?
Unlikely. While Paramount+ won't confirm that the Season 2 finale of 1923 also serves as the series finale, it seems doubtful there will be another season unless it fast forwards some two decades to 1944, which is supposed to be the next journey in the Dutton Family Saga.
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