Spoiler alert: There are big spoilers ahead for both this week and last week's episodes of 1923, so if you're not caught up, stop reading right now.
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Jacob Dutton lives! Despite the bullet-riddled escapades of last week's episode, Harrison Ford's Jacob has apparently lived to see another day on the Yellowstone ranch. Granted, he appears to be seeing it in a lot of pain and lying prone on a bed, but he's breathing, so that's something!
Jake's existence is part of a big reveal 1923 threw at viewers a few minutes into the ep after opening with Helen Mirren's Cara Dutton toiling over a kitchen soaked in blood and lying on her back in a field screaming into a towel. The show clearly wanted us to think that Jake had perished, and he damn near did, but then the big reveal.
In fact, Jake's livelihood is just one of the big reveals that came on this week's episode of 1923. Here are five others that left us excited for the next episode.
Cara's running the show now and, unsurprisingly, she's very good at it.
With Jacob laid up inside the ranch house, Cara's been asked to step up and become the head of the family—all under the guise that Jacob is actually very much alive, well, and off somewhere in Wyoming hunting up cattle rustlers. As one might expect if you know anything about the type of women who bear the Dutton name, she's taken to the job like a duck to water, using Jake's blessing and advice to make decisions about the aforementioned stolen cattle, how to get word to Spencer in Africa, and what to do about the Livestock Commission.
In fact, she's actually really killing it as chair of said commission, rolling into that room full of men with her head held high, hat in place, and delivering not just an explanation of Jake's (fictional) whereabouts but also a request that the governor allows the commission to form its own police force to deliver warrants and make arrests. That gives her the upper hand on Banner Creighton, who is making moves of his own that we'll talk about here in a second. She's even got the stones to change the frequency of the meetings going forward, giving Jacob a chance to get better and maybe even make it to one of these things someday. Good for Cara. Sisters really are doing it for themselves, as it were.
Spencer's been stockpiling letters
Spencer and new paramour and/or wife Alexandra spent much of this week's episode loved up in some idyllic beachside locale. When not ravaging each other in the bed, they were ravaging each other on a beach (ouch) or in the ocean. They saved a little time for conversation, though, which is where we learned that Spencer has actually been stockpiling his aunt's letters, saying that, as far as he was concerned, having hope is what ended up getting men killed in the war and he's been keeping his heart at bay ever since. Alex tells him that she's a jealous lover and that she won't share him with whatever demons he's harboring, convincing him to reluctantly dig into the letters.
What follows is a roller coaster ride of emotion as the pair read through all the letters in order, hearing about Cara's belief that Spencer was winning the war through bravery alone and diving deeper into the backstory of characters like Jack, Elizabeth, John Sr., and Emma. Early the next morning as Spencer snoozed, though, Alex opened up Cara's most recent letter—the one we saw her write last episode—and woke Spencer up with the news that he'd lost his brother and quite possibly his uncle. As the pair cried we learned that the letter was sent three months prior, a figure that seems about right considering Zane estimated earlier in the episode that it could take Spencer a full year to get home to Montana. Hopefully that process will begin next week.
Speaking of journeys, Teonna's about to embark on one
This week's episode of 1923 was full of even more brutality at the American Indian school, where, after hitting a very horrible nun with a bucket, Teonna was clocked with a shovel, terrorized with a number of ruler strikes after being tied down, and then forced to say she wanted to be saved, lest she be beaten even more. After the nuns cut her hair off and forced her into a bath, though, they bathed her with steel wool, leading to Teonna's absolute breaking point.
Later that night, as all the other girls slept, she crawled out of bed, drew charcoal lines across her face and grabbed up all the girls' bibles. As her friend questioned whether she'd be caught, Teonna scoffed in defiance. Minutes later we see her standing over her nun nemesis, who'd been sleeping. She beats her over and over with the bag of bibles before stuffing a cloth in her mouth and suffocating her. As the nun lays dead in the bed, Teonna heats up a metal ruler and lays a brand across the nun's face not unlike all the strikes the nun had laid upon Teonna just hours earlier.
Teonna is now off to find her way home, a process that will no doubt be easier said than done but that she'll hopefully complete with flying colors.
Timothy Dalton's Donald Whitfield is even more evil than expected
When Banner and his buddies realize that their ranks have been greatly diminished, they go looking to figure out what's afoot at the Dutton ranch. With no clear sense, they decide to mount an army, going to mineral man Donald Whitfield for help. Played by Timothy Dalton, Whitfield is a sadistic, money-driven nightmare, hellbent on coming out on top no matter what. He negotiates shrewdly with Banner, who says is an assassin not a king, and tells him if he helps him and Banner ends up owning the Yellowstone ranch, he'll basically own him in turn. Whitfield wants to mine for silver, gold, and coal under the Yellowstone's mountain range and if he helps Banner come to power, he plans to do just that.
After the pair shake on the deal, though, Whitfield gets in close with Banner and tells him, horrifyingly, that if the Scot forsakes him he'll kill his wife, skin her, and then bury their children in their mother's hide. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Whitfield, it seems, is used to getting what he wants and he'll stop at nothing to make sure that's the case.
Emma and Elizabeth are Duttons through and through
Following the tragic death of her husband John, Emma wakes on the wagon and immediately starts to act. She takes his body to the family graveyard and starts digging his grave herself. Some men see what she's up to and step in quietly to help out, thankfully, though it seems like Emma will maybe need some sense of purpose going forward, lest she go absolutely nuts.
Similarly, when Elizabeth's mother comes to the ranch to retrieve both her husband's body and her daughter, the young shooting victim scoffs, asking her about the status of her wedding to Jack. When her mother tells her that the wedding is off, Jack steps in. After mom slaps Jack and Cara slaps mom, she leaves, telling her daughter she'll send a car to take her back east to recuperate. When Cara tells Elizabeth she'll always have a place at the ranch if she wants it, Elizabeth quickly jumps at the chance, making her loyalty to the Dutton family and to Jack not much of a question at all. What is it about this family that they make anyone who comes in contact with them throw all caution to the wind?
READ MORE: 'Yellowstone' Creator Taylor Sheridan Reveals the Unexpected Way '1923' Was Born
