The longer Jacob Dutton recovers, the more determined he is to protect his land and legacy.
Here are some random thoughts prompted by “One Ocean Closer to Destiny,” Episode 106 of 1923, which premiered early Sunday on Paramount+. Please keep in mind: There will be scads of spoilers here, so consider yourself warned.
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- Damn! Another one bites the dust! What’s really terrible is, we hardly got to see much of Amelia Rico as Issaxche, Teonna Rainwater’s grandmother, after her character was introduced back in Episode 102. And what really made Issasxhe’s death all the more impactful was the cavalier way the lawman hunting for Teonna just swatted the poor woman out of his way, causing her to have a fatal head injury. Hope that SOB gets what is coming to him in a future episode.
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- Good to see that Teonna herself (Aminah Nieves) continues to benefit from her fortuitous meetup with Hank (Michael Greyeyes), the sympathetic shepherd who’s providing support for the young fugitive. In this episode, he gave her some of his own son’s clothing — all the better to disguise herself as a boy, not unlike Angela Zhou’s Mei/Fong character in Hell on Wheels — and suggested she start introducing herself as “Joe.” (A very fine name, by the way.) She seemed mildly surprised that he didn’t want her to use the alias of “Hank Jr.,” given the way white men utilize such nomenclature: “They like their names so much, they call their sons the same. Then their sons give their names to their sons. Before long, their names are numbers.” Could this be a wink-wink, nudge-nudge reference to Dutton family traditions?
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- It was interesting to see how Hank emphatically warned Teonna not to toss her Bible into the fire while disposing of anything that might link her to the Indian School (and, of course, to the cruel nuns she murdered there). Hank had good reasons for his caution, but Taylor Shreridan arguably had an even better one: Given the way he’s unflatteringly (to put it mildly) depicted Catholic clergy in this show so far, he did well not to anger Christians of all denominations with a Bible burning.
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- Meanwhile, back at the Yellowstone Ranch, Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) graduated from walking with a cane to saddling and mounting his own horse as his recovery from multiple gunshot wounds proceeded apace. Cara (Helen Mirren) inadvertently speeded his healing by spilling the beans to Sheriff McDowell (Robert Patrick) about just how Jacob wound up with all those bullet holes. When McDowell and his deputies showed up at the ranch, promising to bring Banner (Jerome Flynn) and his gunmen to justice, Jacob didn’t take kindly to the offer at all: He still wants to dole out his own brand of rough justice.
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- Did you notice Jacob’s offhand reference to Wyoming? Looks like using that state as a dumping ground for troublemakers already is a Dutton family tradition.
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- There were quite a few scenes in this episode where Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford did nothing more (or less) dramatic than talk to each other, with nobody else around, and their conversations were glorious, running the gamut from the loving bickering of a long-married couple to the quietly impassioned explanations of motivations to the angry reminders of how much suffering Jacob’s near-death experience has already caused the rest of the Dutton clan. (Note Jacob’s pointed observation that the Yellowstone ranch might get “squeezed out” by land developers mining the surrounding land.) Hope the Emmy Award voters were watching and listening.
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- While Cara interviewed candidates for the new crew of livestock agents, she had little patience for one applicant who paid her insufficient respect, but devoted considerable attention to Clyde (Brian Konowal), a considerably more polite fellow who had some unflattering (but very funny) things to say about the location of his previous peacekeeping gig. (“I don’t know what hell is like, but it ain’t worse than Chicago!”) It’s probably safe to assume we’ll be seeing a lot more of this guy.
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Brian Konowal as Clyde
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- We figured even Taylor Sheridan wouldn’t dare kill off Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) and Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) at this point — although, really, with Taylor Sheridan, you never know — but it nonetheless came as a great relief to see they actually survived the ordeal at sea atop the sunken tugboat, and even managed to get married by the captain of the ship that rescued them. Sklenar and Schlaepfer have developed great chemistry together, and it’s amusing how they leaven even the most dramatic moments with dry-witted banter. (“No matter how this shakes out, this is my last tugboat ride!”) The funniest moment: Before Spencer dove back into the water to salvage material from the tugboat while Alexandra remained perched on the boat’s hull, he told her to “Stay here!” Then, after a second’s consideration, he added: “That was a dumb thing to say.” True enough. But no dumber than all the scenes in all the movies where someone tells someone else hanging from a cliff or a tall building: “Hold on!”
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- More welcome comic relief: Liz (Michelle Randolph) may be pregnant, but that didn’t stop her and Jack (Darren Mann) from enjoying some spirited lovemaking — while a visibly annoyed/embarrassed Jacob was within earshot. Not surprisingly, he voiced his disapproval. The next sound you heard was the loud slamming of a window. Perfect.
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- No narration in this episode by Isabel May’s seriously deceased Elsa Dutton character from 1883. Can’t say it was missed.
Amelia Rico as Issaxche. Gone too soon.
Photography: Christopher Saunders/Paramount+
