Martin Sensmeier guest stars as a Comanche warrior who makes quite an impression on Elsa Dutton.
Warning: This is an overview of Episode 107 of 1883, so there will be scads of spoilers here. We strongly recommend that you not read this if you have not yet watched the episode on Paramount+.
Mother Nature unleashes her fury on the party, Margaret Dutton gets mighty dang furious — and lethal — and series creator Taylor Sheridan drops by to play a legendary rancher. What are we to make of this? Here are our five takeaways from “Lightning Yellow Hair,” Episode 107 of 1883.
Takeaway No. 1
All you folks who have been complaining about the salty language on 1883 — go ahead, admit it: You were laughing out loud when Margaret (Faith Hill) slapped the taste out of Cookie’s mouth for dropping the F-Bomb in front of young John (Audie Rick), right? Well, we can’t say we didn’t chuckle a bit ourselves, even as we wondered whether it’s ever a good idea to hit the fellow who prepares your food. But we were even more impressed when, later in the episode, while Margaret was galloping off to check on how Elsa (Isabel May) was faring in a shootout with cattle thieves, a fleeing bandit made the big mistake of impeding her, then doubled down by drawing his gun and demanding her horse. Margaret responded by aiming her shotgun at the guy and blowing him to kingdom come. Mind you, she felt real bad about it afterwards. But only afterwards. Let there be no room for doubt: This lady is one tough Mama Grizzly.
Takeaway No. 2
As for Elsa, well, we don’t want to go passing judgment or anything, but she appeared to forget real quick about mourning her recently deceased sweetheart — R.I.P. Ennis (Eric Nelsen) — the minute she saw Sam (Martin Sensmeier), one of the Comanches who politely but firmly collected “tax” from the party for traveling across their ancestral land. A mild flirtation led to a horse race — which, of course, Elsa won while riding her steed of choice, the aptly named Lighting. When Sam complimented her on her “golden hair,” she impetuously cut off a lock and gave it to him. All of which led to the dramatic moment when, as they hunkered down while a massive tornado ripped through the area, they comforted each other (yeah, right) with a lengthy and passionate lip-lock. Sam later made himself useful during the showdown with the aforementioned cattle thieves before riding off. Before he departed, however, he offered Elsa a variation of the old Beverly Hillbillies “Y’all come back now, hear?” farewell. Elsa smiled.
Takeaway No. 3
By the way: In case you’re wondering why a Comanche warrior would call himself Sam, he explained: After a paleface with that name killed one of his loved ones, “I killed him and took it.” Sounds reasonable to us.
Takeaway No. 4
Miraculously, no one was killed during the tornado. And Cookie (James Jordan), who had vamoosed in order to get ahead of the storm, returned with his chuck wagon, evidently harboring no ill will about being slapped. But Mother Nature’s furious onslaught did smash many of the other wagons into kindling, and scattered the cattle off to where they would be nabbed by thieves who’d need killing. Worse, the lovely (and expensive) looking glass that Thomas (LaMonica Garrett) purchased for Noemi (Gratiela Brancusi) in Episode 106 got smashed to pieces during the storm. And her wagon wasn’t in great shape, either. Not to worry, though: When Noemi tearfully despaired that “Now we have nothing,” Thomas comforted her: “I got enough for the both of us.” Sounds like this relationship is getting really serious.
Takeaway No. 5
Yes, that was series creator Taylor Sheridan as legendary Texas rancher Charles Goodnight — or Charlie, as his old buddy Shea (Sam Elliott) addressed him — who showed up in the nick of time to help tip the scales in favor of the good guys during the shootout with the bad guys. “Killing cattle thieves,” he told Shea, “is one of the West’s five great pleasures.” It should be noted that Shea did not dispute this.