Spencer finally caught a break on 1923 Season 2 Episode 5, but nobody else was as fortunate.
Is this the first episode all season where we haven’t had a single scene from the Yellowstone ranch?
It was an awkward hour that didn’t do much other than remind us that Taylor Sheridan’s version of America is built on misery, and not much else.
There were only three story elements for “Only Gunshots to Guide Us,” and it was one of the few times that I couldn’t peg the title reference.
The entire hour settled on Alex and Spencer’s separate journeys through America, along with the seemingly never-ending and pointless hunt for Teonna.
Let’s start with the nasty marshal (whose name I really don’t care to know) and how imbecilic it is that Father Renaud has placed the responsibility of tracking down Teonna in his hands.
I simply cannot believe that, at some point, Father Renaud had a purpose other than pain and torture for accepting the calling to be a priest.
But this is Sheridan’s story, and if I can’t believe it, he seems wholly aware there is no good in the man.
He’s stood behind and watched that marshal murder people without a second thought, but he’s still following in his footsteps.
It was comical that Renaud would struggle walking into a gentleman’s club when she so mercilessly approaches every other aspect of the priesthood.
How can a priest honestly find a gentleman’s club more horrifying than blatant murder?
Not to mention the lies he tells, mostly to himself. He lies so effortlessly about everything in the name of God that he has come to believe that he has no idea why Teonna killed the nuns, other than she’s evil incarnate.
Only evil incarnate would be able to peg a fellow lost soul, but this time, he’s on the wrong side of righteousness.
And while the frame went dark before we learned if Pete killed the marshal or vice versa, Teonna doesn’t get to have nice things, so Pete is probably a goner. We can only hope the marshall and Renaud go with him.
In another bright tale, Alex is fighting for survival on a train without any money or protection. And, of course, she pays the price for her unfortunate beginning in America.
Thankfully, she didn’t starve to death. A train is essentially a moving hotel, and the employee manning meal services offered her the chance to eat in exchange for her services.
At first, she thought “her services” would be more in line with the tarred and feathered woman from 1923 Season 2 Episode 4. Instead, she assumed the position of a meal server.
Anyone else in her shoes from her old life would have probably been insulted and incapable, but Alex is a fighter. She won’t back down unless it’s absolutely necessary.
So, of course, it became absolutely necessary for her to put it all in jeopardy when a haughty man with more reverence for his own junk than humanity first assaulted her and then raped her while she stood helplessly before him.
That scene bordered on what we see from Whitfield regularly, and what really hit me is that it might not be far from how Sheridan sees himself now that he’s one of the most prolific TV storytellers of his time.
After all, on Yellowstone, his character, Travis, had no problem treating women as whores. I’m sure any of you who watched remember his character surrounded by scantily clad women who served no other purpose than to serve him.
Yet, at the same time, he can also craft caring love stories like what we were lucky to experience during 1923 Season 1 with Spencer and Alexandra or how Jack was so kind to Elizabeth after her miscarriage.
But right on the heels of Alex’s misfortune, another man, Paul and his partner Hillary, come to Alex’s rescue. They discovered something in common with her and couldn’t let her rot.
Yet I still have a nagging feeling in the back of my head that he or they are not who they claim to be and that Alex is stepping out of the frying pan into the fire.
Spencer’s break was well deserved after he’s been humiliated time and again on his own journey.
Mamie Fossett stumbled upon him sleeping, which was apparently enough to drag him into town. They proclaimed that whether he was a good guy or a bad guy, they saved his life. After all, there’s no water in the desert.
The purpose of that scene was to bring awareness of his impending arrival to his family. Well, that’s all well and good, but it also increased the timeline of the impending war Whitfield is waging with the Duttons.
Sheriff McDowell even suggested to Mamie that she arrest Spencer for his own good rather than returning home to fight for his family. God forbid he find Whitfield in the wrong and stop him.
I guess money always wins, and Whitfield has it. Look what it’s done to Banner. He wasn’t a great guy in the first place, but now he’s just another one of Whitfield’s goons in what was probably a long line of them.
I’ve stopped watching Whitfield’s scenes. There is no purpose for them, just like finger-raping Alex was entirely unnecessary. It’s the kind of debasement that should be seen nowhere by civilized eyes.
The best I can say about Whitfield is that he might be one of the first bodies at the Train Station. After all, we know that the Duttons become its keepers, and their deepest secrets wind up there instead.
Sadly, that just means that the Duttons essentially became Whitfield. If you can’t beat him, join him, I suppose. That kind of tears down the entire Dutton story, if you think about it.
Overall, I wasn’t a fan of this episode. In fact, I’m not a fan of this season compared to the last. It’s disjointed and lacking structure. Everyone is alone, fighting for their lives, and the fleeting moments of joy and perseverance we enjoyed from the previous season have all but disappeared as a result.
If it was really this hard to settle the American West, I don’t think we’d be here. It’s great to point out that the struggle was real, but every once in a while, you need to throw us a bone about why they didn’t give up.
Because where this story is right now, I’d take Elizabeth’s approach and take my chances back east before I considered escaping this country altogether.
But what about you? Are you as enamored with 1923 Season 2 as you were with 1923 Season 1?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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