1923 Season 1 Episode 8 Review: Nothing Left to Lose

Really? REALLY?

Multiple cliffhangers within the midst of a sprawling 16-episode first season torn in two weren’t what I had on my 1923 BINGO card.

Yet 1923 Season 1 Episode 8 ran for 68 minutes with out making a dent within the story.

I actually could not have been alone in hoping that the 1923 Season 1 finale would finish with Spencer reuniting along with his household on the Yellowstone.

With the best way this story goes, he’ll arrive on the finish of 1923 Season 2 Episode 16, adopted by an epilogue about their destiny (it does not actually matter because the Yellowstone is within the Dutton household’s palms a century later) or teasing a prologue earlier than the subsequent iteration of the household saga.

Either approach, this abrupt finish leaves a slightly disagreeable style in my mouth.

I’m delighted that Teonna has a sliver of happiness in Pete. But I’m not thrilled that she, too, continues to be on the highway to wherever she’ll ultimately land.

If it is really the Cherokee reservation and the Marshalls and the despicable Father Renaud are there ready for them, what is the level? Just just like the Dutton’s place sooner or later is cemented with Yellowstone, so is the Rainwater legacy.

And suppose Teonna is not Thomas Rainwater’s ancestor. In that case, the story is even much less attention-grabbing and extra pointless aside from what it has to say about how poorly the Native Americans have been handled.

I’ve mentioned it earlier than. That’s a narrative value telling, but it surely deserved its personal spinoff, particularly if the 2 tales shall by no means meet throughout 1923. As Teonna is heading towards Wyoming and away from Montana, it is a protected wager this can be a era of Duttons and Rainwaters with no interactions aside from an analogous mindset.

They’ve been attempting to kill me since they took me. I do not consider in later. I consider in proper now.

Teonna

Another story that did not want to be advised on this explicit episode? Zane’s. He’s been barely a blip on the radar for all the season, and abruptly he is having fun with his blissful household and getting laid.

When he requested for the evening off, I anticipated him to be murdered. It’s a trope I might use much less of in tv — getting to know somebody solely to solid them away.

In this case, it wasn’t a full castaway, but it surely was simply sufficient to make Zane much less in a position to struggle the Dutton trigger. All as a result of he fell in love with and married an Asian lady.

It’s gross that miscegenation was a phrase, not to mention outlawed. But it is unfair that we did not have the chance to get to know Zane’s household naturally throughout the season so {that a} scene like this may have extra affect.

Just like shedding John Sr. and Emma rolled off our shoulders, their destiny does not carry any weight if we do not know the characters.

Sure, what’s occurring to Zane and Alice and their seemingly lovely youngsters sucks, but it surely sucks extra for us as a result of his consideration shall be wanted someplace aside from the Yellowstone.

Instead of getting to know Zane and his household, we have been getting to know Whitfield. Oh, that is been joyful. Why is it extra attention-grabbing to learn the way evil somebody is for an prolonged time frame than how a lot Zane had to lose?

I discover it way more attention-grabbing that Zane married somebody sudden and saved it beneath the radar and that he has such a beautiful household however nonetheless spends the preponderance of his time with the Duttons. Just as a result of he is not one of many two largest landowners in Montana does not make his story much less viable.

By distinction, I might have most well-liked that Whitfield not be drawn with cartoon villainy. I imply, come on. Casting Timothy Dalton is about as shut as you will get to having a dwelling and respiratory Snidely Whiplash on the scene.

Sure, he is utilizing belts now, however how lengthy earlier than he is tying Lindy and Christy to railroad tracks?

There’s nothing all that fascinating a couple of corrupt man who would corrupt others to get his rocks off. He has no redeeming qualities. It would have been stunning if he had been portrayed in a different way all through the season, solely to reveal his true nature when everybody least anticipated it.

Instead, it was an actual head-scratcher why Cara, who has a eager sense of character, requested if he had no sense of decency and puzzled what that they had accomplished to warrant his conduct. Does she not pay attention to her husband when he talks?

It was solely a few episodes in the past when he defined how individuals have been gobbling up land on all sides of them, that they have been and would at all times be a goal, and that the gentrification of the west would not do them any favors.

It’s extra probably her consciousness of her fellow man was swept beneath the rug to make the scene work.

Whitfield: As I’m positive you are conscious, if I’m not repaid by the top of the 12 months, the deed reverts to me.
Cara: We have accomplished no hurt to you. Why would you do that to us?
Whitfield: Because I can. I’m a businessman. The phrase respectable does not apply to me.

Her query allowed Whitfield to converse on behalf of huge enterprise even within the twenty first Century. Business is not respectable. It’s all about cash, and the 2 do not typically mesh.

Laws are bent in lots of instructions within the Yellowstone universe, but it surely should not take too lengthy to suss out {that a} banker gave away private info and allowed an entire stranger to pay taxes he had no proper to pay.

Was that even a factor? It appears unlikely, so if somebody has analysis from the period that means individuals might swoop in and pay taxes that weren’t late in an try to steal their land, I’d like to see it.

As if all of that doom and gloom wasn’t sufficient, Elizabeth miscarried, which supplies Dutton followers in all places extra to chew on when it comes to the Yellowstone household tree.

But earlier than we soar onto that, Jack’s persona continued to shine throughout “Nothing Left to Lose.” He was fairly gratifying throughout the dinner dialogue on 1923 Season 1 Episode 7, and his comforting phrases for Elizabeth after her miscarriage confirmed that it wasn’t a one-time factor.

Jack: Maybe that is your function, too. Be a mom to people who ain’t bought one. A trainer to those that want classes. We select our function. Word you are lookin’ for is future, and if you need to give God a very good snigger, you inform him what you suppose your future is.
Elizabeth: And if I can not ever have youngsters?
Jack: Then you may’t have youngsters.
Elizabeth: And you will by no means be a father.
Jack: I suppose it ain’t my future. You’re my future.
Elizabeth: You simply mentioned you may’t select future. You selected me.
Jack: One take a look at you, and I had no alternative in any respect. Destiny. Look in any respect the issues God had to provide you with to select me. Poor judgment, dangerous imaginative and prescient, horrible style in males. We take what life provides us. It’s all we will do.

Jack was raised partly by a girl with extra motherly instincts than his personal mom. Cara raised Margaret and James’s sons and cared for the wounded after the battle. She did not want to give beginning to discover her function, and Jack assures Elizabeth that if it comes to that, she will not both.

Of course, now the query shall be whether or not or not Elizabeth and Jack will go on to have youngsters, particularly since Alex was probably not affected by movement illness aboard the ship however morning illness.

It was odd to choose up with Alex and Spencer with out seeing how Arthur reacted to their presence, however that was nailed down as soon as they have been on the ship. The royal snit had his tighty whities all twisted at what he thought of a slight by Spencer for stealing his lady.

It’s dangerous sufficient that males of the occasions (and now, actually) thought of girls amongst their possessions, however add royalty to the equation, and it is even worse. Did Arthur stay beneath a rock? How might he be the one particular person on the planet not conscious of Spencer’s prowess for the kill?

Well, what a multitude you have product of my household. And what a humiliation you have develop into to yours.

Arthur’s Father

If Arthur’s dad thought Alex was a humiliation to her household, how on earth will he go on after that topside debacle that left his son, a famous swordsman, defeated with fast wit?

As if we would have liked one other second to pound dwelling the perils of the highly effective. The humorous factor is that the Duttons will not be with out energy. They are landowners and not using a mortgage, with sterling reputations. Even although they’re robust and robust, they aren’t seen as dastardly.

So, absolute energy does not corrupt completely, solely when within the palms of people that do not work for it honorably and wield it responsibly.

Spencer and Alex did not want one other impediment. Being a world away from his household once they wanted him essentially the most was impediment sufficient. Their love does not want to be examined at each flip for them or us to know it is the actual deal.

You might query the wedding, sir, however tough to query their sincerity.

Captain

But their preventing spirit and the way the household is relying on Spencer to lead the cost in opposition to these inflicting them hurt does give us hope that we have had the household line flawed, and John descends from Spencer, who extra intently aligns along with his departed sister Elsa and his dad and mom, who conquered mountains to discover their dwelling in Montana.

Most of this angst that I really feel can be gone if there was multiple extra eight-episode season earlier than us. But the pacing right here did not precisely lend itself to confidence in reaching a worthy conclusion.

It appears that Taylor Sheridan’s prequels are extra concerning the journey than the conclusion, which is sensible to a degree.

After all, we all know the place the household is in 2023. But we nonetheless fall in love with characters of the sooner generations and would really like an thought of how their quick tales pan out.

For 1883, it was the journey to Montana. Is Spencer’s journey to Montana the 1923 ending line, or is there one other level within the story that we do not but know that can mark the top?

And if it is a Dutton-related journey, how does Teonna’s story match into it? What is her endpoint that can start the subsequent a part of the Rainwater story?

Hopefully, you, expensive readers, can add your ideas on the matter. Were you as pissed off as I used to be with this finale?

Please take a second to drop under and go away a remark. I share my opinion in evaluations. Now it is your flip!

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