Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for 1923 Season 2 Episode 4.
If one thing can be said about the second season of 1923, it’s that Taylor Sheridan isn’t pulling any punches. The Western period drama continues to pick up steam as the Duttons brave the dark winter, and their kin fight tooth and nail to return home to help in the war that continues to brew in Paradise Valley, Montana. Harrison Ford’s Jacob Dutton and Helen Mirren’s Cara Dutton continue to carry the series, though the rest of the cast has proven time and again that they can hold their own during this Prohibition drama. “Journey the Rivers of Iron” continues all this Dutton drama, bringing our cast one step closer to intersecting.
Donald Whitfield Has His Sights Set on Monetizing Montana Tourism in ‘1923’ Season 2 Episode 4

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The episode opens in Montana, where Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) talks with America’s elite class, hoping to sell an “experience” of Paradise Valley leisure that would “cost nothing to create because it already exists.” He introduces three phases to his plan that will feel eerily familiar to fans of the flagship Yellowstone series: an airport in Bozeman, road pavements through Paradise Valley all the way to Yellowstone National Park, and a “winter park resort.” Within moments, Whitfield gets his financial support for the resort, and he beams with greedy excitement. “That’s Jake Dutton’s land,” Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) says to him privately, to which Whitfield replies that Banner will have to find him the army he promised.
Back in New York City, Alex Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer) is in the bathroom where she is encountered by the sinister man from the end of the last episode. He grabs Alex and shoves her into a bathroom stall, where he takes her money and some of her extra items. In the process, Alex is beaten mercilessly by the man and left unconscious. When she wakes, she rushes as fast as she can to the train, but it is already pulling out of the station. With no other option, she runs after the train and jumps on, just narrowly making it. Judged by everyone on the train for her disheveled appearance, Alex makes it to her room, which she will be sharing with a single mother and her children. When the woman asks what happened to her, Alex notes that she was robbed as she tucks herself into her bunk. “He took everything,” she says.
The Duttons Receive Two Miracles in “Journey the Rivers of Iron”

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Back at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, Jacob and Jack (Darren Mann) prepare a device that will keep Zane Davis (Brian Geraghty) still as Dr. Steven Miller (Mark Daneri) prepares him for surgery. Though Alice (Joy Osmanski) doesn’t want to leave her husband’s side, she is pushed out by Cara, who walks with her for a while. As the Davis kids build a snowman in the yard, Alice reveals that she wants to move to California, but Cara says they will run into other issues there. She tells Alice that her family was attacked to get to the Duttons, which confuses Alice at first before the Dutton matriarch explains how the land is sought after by men like Whitfield. Meanwhile, Dr. Miller begins the procedure on Zane, first using chloroform to put him to sleep — but the ranch foreman wakes up as Miller digs into his skull. Jacob and Jack hold him down, and after the fluid is extracted from his brain, Zane is relieved. His head bandaged, Zane gets up, and the pressure is gone. He walks a little before Jacob takes him to his wife. Jack commends the doctor for his work, and Miller reveals that he didn’t believe it would even work.
The second miracle comes into play after a bit of time. After seeing Zane back on his feet, Jack goes to tell Liz (Michelle Randolph) the good news, only she isn’t interested. When he calls her an affectionate name, Liz tells him to leave. “I’m no such thing to you, not anymore,” she claims. Upon hearing from Cara that Liz intends to leave, Jacob decides to go talk to her himself. When Liz tells Jacob that she gave Jack a choice, and he chose not to go with her to Boston, the Dutton patriarch gives her some additional insight into his nephew’s mind. “This ranch is under attack,” Jacob says. “In his heart, he believes you’re asking him to abandon that fight, to abandon his family.” He tells her that, for Jack, the sun rises with her, noting that he hopes Liz will come back when the winter is over. When Cara comes in with her next dose of rabies vaccine, Liz takes the shot herself, but something isn’t quite right. Her reaction to the vaccine is too strong.
After Cara gets the doctor, Liz is overwhelmed by good news. It turns out that she’s pregnant, and she runs off to tell Jack. When Cara asks Dr. Miller if Liz will be able to keep the baby this time, he says that a prayer or two wouldn’t hurt. Liz goes out to see Jack, and she tells him the news. He is overjoyed, and the two seem to make up instantly. Cara and Jacob watch from afar, and Jacob takes credit for things going right between them, believing that his talk with Liz did the trick. This leads to a playful exchange between Jacob and Cara before his heroic notions are soon dashed. Jack screams that Liz is going to have a baby, and Jacob is put back in his place. Thus, the second miracle comes to pass.

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After his meeting with Whitfield and his elite, Banner returns home, days late. He and his wife, Ellie Creighton (Sarah Randall), speak about giving his family a future, something that Banner never truly thought they could have. In describing what he may have to do to make that happen, Ellie agrees that they ought to do whatever it takes to get what they deserve. With that confirmation in mind, Banner returns to Whitfield’s mansion and reveals that he already has 35 men who are willing to fight the Duttons for their cause. Whitfield asks why he lost the first time, to which Banner replies that he needs a reason to fight. Beyond that, Whitfield notes that they will be well within their legal rights since Whitfield has paid all the Duttons’ back taxes. If Jacob cannot pay him back, they will be able to claim the land for themselves.
Wanting to ensure that there is no legal issue with what Banner is about to do, Whitfield reveals a secret county on the border of Montana where there is no real jurisdiction. Murder can be committed there, and nobody can be tried for it, since it occurs in a county where a “jury of one’s peers” cannot be assembled. For longtime fans of the original Yellowstone series, this is indeed the infamous “tain station” where the Duttons end up stashing an unknown number of bodies over the years. However, here on 1923, Whitfield offers it to Banner as a dumping ground for his enemies. Just then, Lindy (Madison Elise Rogers) walks in and tells Whitfield that Christy (Cailyn Rice) is dead, so Whitfield orders Banner to take her corpse with him and get rid of it, “as practice.”
Could ‘1923’s Two Texas-Based Storyllines Soon Converge?

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Down in Texas, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) is stopped by a Texas police officer, Sheriff Hastings (James Healy Jr.), who offers him a ride but not as a request. As vagrancy is a crime in the county, he says he’ll take Spencer to the rail station in Fort Worth himself. However, the officer reveals that he knows about what happened to Luca (Andy Dispensa), and that Spencer was a part of it. He takes him to the truck that Spencer left behind where other officers are waiting. It turns out that Luca revealed Spencer’s inclusion in the bootlegging racket before his untimely death. As a result, Hastings forces Spencer to continue to deliver the booze, and Spencer has no choice but to agree or be thrown in prison. He drives the truck to its destination, with armed men hiding inside ready to surprise the lawbreakers.
Arriving in Fort Worth, Spencer notices a woman being marched through the street after having been tarred and feathered for prostitution by the women of the Temperance League. When he arrives at the drop-off point and pulls up, Spencer is asked about Luca’s whereabouts, and the police jump out of the car and start shooting. One officer handcuffs Spencer to the truck, telling him not to leave, but he shoots through the cuff and drives off anyway, blocking the police from getting to him by crashing the truck. Running through the street, Spencer also frees the woman he took notice of before in the process. Hastings tries to catch up with him as the train leaves the station, but Spencer hops aboard one of the train cars. He soon realizes that he isn’t alone, as three others are in the car with him, two men and a young girl. The others demand that Spencer pay the “train tax,” and after a standoff that lasts the night, Spencer pretends to fall asleep to catch them in the act of attempting to kill him first. Of course, the Great War vet fights off those wishing to take his things, killing the two men and knocking out the girl. Having gotten far enough from Fort Worth, Spencer bails, and the episode ends with him wandering once more.
Just because the episode ends with Spencer doesn’t mean there isn’t more that happens in “Journey the Rivers of Iron.” Elsewhere in Texas, various cowboys, including the apparent foreman Anders (C. Thomas Howell), head down to the spot where Runs His Horse (Michael Spears), Pete Plenty Clouds (Jeremy Gauna), and Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) are camping out. The cattle come through, and the trio helps drive the cattle along the land. They camp out on the ranch and discover what rodeos are for the very first time. When Teonna wanders off to look around the fairgrounds, she notices her wanted poster. Frightened, she tears it down and shows her father, who has found one himself. It turns out, there are dozens of them posted all around, and this likely isn’t the only place. Now that Spencer is in that part of the country, it seems that maybe the Dutton and Rainwater paths might cross long before Yellowstone a century later.
New episodes of 1923 Season 2 are available every Sunday on Paramount+.

1923

The Duttons are another step closer to being reunited in 1923 Season 2 Episode 4, just in time.

Release Date

2022 – 2024

Network

Paramount+

Directors

Guy Ferland

Pros & Cons

Jack and Liz’s apparent reconciliation comes at the perfect time.
Spencer and Alex are closer now to their goals than ever.
Connections to Yellowstone’s train station are surprisingly welcome.

Everything with Whitfield and his prostitutes is hard to watch.
The Teonna plotline often feels like an afterthought.