Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for 1923 Season 2 Episode 5.
As we dive into another new episode of Taylor Sheridan’s latest hit series, 1923, “Only Gunshots to Guide Us” is an interesting pivot away from the story of Jacob (Harrison Ford) and Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren), focusing instead on the next Dutton generation. Well, at least the Duttons who aren’t settled in for Paradise Valley’s winter months. As Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) and Alex (Julia Schlaepfer) continue their respective journeys, they each come another step closer to arriving in Montana. But it’s the dangers in the meantime that they ought to be most aware of.
“Only Gunshots to Guide Us” Centers Largely on the West Texas Plot

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In Texas, a cattle drive heads right through town as Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché) watches from the side of the road. “What fresh hell is this?” he exclaims as Marshal Kent (Jamie McShane) speaks with Anders (C. Thomas Howell), hoping to find out if he knows anything about Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves). In the process, Kent compares her (and other non-conforming Native Americans) to the missing link between men and animals. “We’ve given them every opportunity to embrace the modern age,” Kane says, believing that Teonna chooses to remain an animal. “I’d like to help you, but I haven’t seen her,” Anders replies, not trusting Kent at first. However, when Father Renaud enters the saloon and speaks with Anders, the priest explains that Teonna is evil, and evil doesn’t need a reason to do what it does. Anders admits that Teonna and her companions helped him in the previous episode, but he doesn’t know where they are now. Upon taking them to the Amarillo Fairgrounds, Kent finds a trail that sends them north.
Further up the road, Teonna, Runs His Horse (Michael Spears), and Pete Plenty Clouds (Jeremy Gauna) ride, heading north now before they plan to cut west and then south to Mexico. Pete goes off in search of water, believing that nobody will be looking for him. Teonna doesn’t believe they will make it, citing that others, like Chief Joseph and Geronimo, never escaped America. Yet, her father holds onto hope. He notes that men like Chief Joseph and Geronimo never wanted to escape because they had people to look after. Because they don’t have people anymore, they will make it. Elsewhere in West Texas, Spencer Dutton wakes to see Marshal Mamie Fossett (Jennifer Carpenter) and her companions. They ask if he has seen Teonna, Kent, or Renaud, but he notes that he’s just trying to get home. When he reveals that home is in Montana, Fossett notes that she doesn’t believe in coincidences, and that he is going to go with them to Amarillo.
Alex Endures New Horrors as She Travels to Chicago in ‘1923’ Season 2 Episode 5

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On the train, Alex waits for food, but receives none because she did not pay for food service. However, the servers take pity on her, and she is soon offered a job in exchange for food. Alex serves tables and washes dishes in the kitchen. When she accidentally spills tea on a man named Bernard Anthony (Chad Doreck), he forces her to dry off his pants, refusing to let her remove her hand from his crotch. Eventually, she leaves and later receives her meal in the kitchen before returning to her room. There, she speaks to Mary (Hayley McFarland), the mother she shares her room with. Mary explains to Alex that “In America, you’ve got to make it, marry it, or steal it.” They discuss Spencer, and Mary tells Alex that she doesn’t have the grit for this place. “Mothers can endure anything,” Mary notes, and the episode pivots to Elsa Dutton’s (Isabel May) narration, as the ever-present spirit of the Dutton family concludes that mothers have an instinct of love that goes beyond words.
The next morning, Alex returns to work, but not before Mary asks if she can grab some bread for her boys. She pays for one meal a day, nothing more, and so Alex says that she will try. As she had the night before, Alex serves on a British couple, Paul (Augustus Prew) and Hillary (Janet Montgomery), and then butts into the conversation, noting the inadequacies of the French franc. Paul admires Alex’s spirit and offers a generous tip in return. Unfortunately, she is forced to wait on Bernard again too, and he soon intimidates her. As she serves him coffee, he sexually assaults her as Paul and Hillary watch. But before Paul can do anything, Alex pours hot coffee on Bernard and beats him bloody with the pot. Alex is soon taken to the back of the train where she is locked in a cell. She tells the conductor that Bernard molested her, but he notes that her fate is now up to the Chicago police.

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‘1923’ Season 2 Episode 5 Leaves Certain Characters’ Fates Unknown

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In Amarillo, Fossett and Spencer arrive in town and meet with Marshal Hutchinson (Todd Terry). Fossett uses the telephone to contact Sheriff William McDowell (Robert Patrick), who confirms Spencer’s identity as well as his Medal of Honor. Spencer talks with McDowell, who warns him not to come home and start a war. However, Spencer still wants to get revenge on those responsible for his brother’s murder, and tells McDowell to tell his aunt that he’s coming home. Though McDowell tries to convince Fossett to detain Spencer and keep him from returning home (to keep him out of trouble), she notes that he hasn’t broken any laws. Thus, Spencer gets a train ticket up north. Elsewhere, Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) and Clyde (Brian Konowal) arrive at the future Train Station and dispose of Christy’s (Cailyn Rice) body, while Lindy (Madison Elise Rogers) searches for another sexual partner for Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton).
In Chicago, the train pulls in and Paul and Hillary watch as Bernard tells the police his version of what happened. When the cops arrive to take Alex, she refuses to cooperate, wondering why they don’t want to hear her side of the tale. Paul and Hillary quickly intervene and tell the officer the truth as witnesses to the assault. Paul admits that he would have intervened himself, but Alex was capable and took care of Bernard all on her own. The officer lets Alex go and Bernard is taken away by the Chicago police. The officer tells her that she needs to file a formal complaint so that he can be prosecuted. Distracted, Alex follows Mary and her children from the train, seeing that they’ve stolen her baggage and money. She takes it back from Mary, who tells her that when she’s a mother she’ll understand. Alex reveals her pregnancy and notes that she already understands far too well.
Unfortunately, things for Alex seem to go from bad to worse as she discovers that her train to Fargo has been canceled due to a snowdrift. Unsure of what she is going to do next, and left alone in another train station in another big American city, she cries. Taking pity on her, Paul and Hillary offer for Alex to join them in Winnetka, a village north of Chicago where she can get out of the city and away from her troubles for a while. She agrees and heads off with them. Meanwhile, in Texas, Pete rides off to find water but is all turned around. When he sees a deer running off, he rides after it and soon finds water — only Marshal Kent and Father Renaud had found it first. They chase Pete, and his horse struggles to continue, plummeting to the ground. In the heat of the moment, the episode ends with both Kent and Pete shooting at one another, and it all cuts to black.
New episodes of 1923 Season 2 are available every Sunday on Paramount+.

1923

1923 is slowing down a little, but only to regroup and (hopefully) pick up more steam.

Release Date

2022 – 2024

Network

Paramount+

Directors

Guy Ferland

Pros & Cons

Spencer is finally closer to home than ever.
It’s good to see Alex finally make a friend in America.
Intersecting plotlines is a good way to keep the narrative fresh.

At some point, all the hell Taylor Sheridan is putting Alex through gets to be too much.
Please, 1923, don’t kill Pete.