[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the 1923 Season 2 finale, “A Dream and a Memory.”]
Effectively, that occurred. After grueling journeys house that stretched throughout your complete second season, Taylor Sheridan ended 1923 Season 2 (and presumably the collection at massive) with tragedy. Like the ultimate season of Yellowstone earlier than it, the western drama was riddled with stunning deaths for its characters in Season 2. Probably the most stunning was saved for the very finish. Right here, Sklenar and Schlaepfer react to 1923‘s ending with TV Insider, revealing why they anticipated this conclusion to the Yellowstone origin story.
Spencer and Alex lastly reunited about midway via the almost two-hour episode that dropped on Sunday, April 6 on Paramount+. They didn’t reunite at Spencer’s house in Montana as initially deliberate. Their reunion was extra miraculous than that, however the miracles would finish quickly after.
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Season 2’s penultimate episode ended with Alex stranded in a snow drift with no technique of escape. Within the finale, the frostbitten Alex saved herself alive by constructing a small fireplace contained in the automotive the place Hillary’s (Janet Montgomery) physique nonetheless sat fully frozen. Whereas her precise location is unknown, her group was headed to Buffalo, Wyoming earlier than the automotive ran out of fuel and Hillary and Paul (Augustus Prew) died. After switching trains in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Spencer was headed for Livingston, Montana, the place Uncle Jacob (Harrison Ford) and his males — together with the rivaling males employed by Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) — have been awaiting his arrival. The largest stroke of luck ever got here when Spencer’s prepare handed proper by Alex’s automotive. The snow was piled up so excessive, she didn’t notice she was by a prepare observe. However she constructed the automotive fireplace larger to get the prepare’s consideration. Spencer noticed her from the window and jumped off the again of the prepare to run to her.
Their reunion doubled as Alex’s rescue, and there was a health care provider on board the prepare to deal with her extreme frostbite that had made her fingers and toes go black. She revealed she was 6 months pregnant. After Spencer and Jacob survived the shootout in Livingston, Spencer and Alex separated once more. Spencer went to the Dutton ranch to complete the opposite gun combat. Jacob accompanied Alex to the Bozeman, Montana hospital so she may get emergency medical care. Earlier than Spencer arrived on the hospital, Alex gave delivery to John Dutton II, confirming the long-held fan principle that Spencer and Alex’s line can be the way forward for the Dutton legacy. What we couldn’t have predicted was Alex not dwelling to see her son grown.
Alex’s legs and one hand had gone fully necrotic. The limbs wanted to be amputated to avoid wasting her life. The medical doctors argued that the preemie child was too underdeveloped to outlive outdoors the womb. They suggested to abort and get Alex to surgical procedure. She refused each, and the child miraculously lived. Spencer quickly arrived on the hospital, Alex knowledgeable him of her option to die somewhat than lose her limbs, they usually spent one evening collectively as a household. Alex died in her sleep with Spencer laying subsequent to her, their son on her chest. Spencer and Alex spent 6 months attempting to reunite solely to have someday collectively upon reunion, and even then it wasn’t even a full day.
After solely seconds of Alex and Jack’s (Darren Mann, whose character had died the episode prior) funeral was proven, there’s a time leap narrated by Elsa Dutton (Isabel Might) that reveals that Spencer lived for 45 extra years, by no means fell in love once more however had a second son with a widow who later disappeared, and died mendacity subsequent to Alex’s grave. The season ends with Spencer and Alex’s youthful selves reuniting on a dance ground within the afterlife like Jack and Rose’s ending in Titanic.
It’s a stunning ending to say the least. Spencer and Alex each had tough and harmful journeys again to Montana, however Alex’s journey was rather more traumatizing. She was crushed and robbed in New York, sexually assaulted on the prepare to Chicago, arrested for defending herself, after which almost froze to loss of life. All of this only for her to decide on loss of life ultimately. Alex’s fiery spirit made her stay a daring and adventurous life — and a courageous one at that. When you can’t downplay the devastation that shedding each legs and a hand would deliver, it’s uncharacteristic of Alex to not boldly face adversity, particularly not when she fought so onerous to reunite with Spencer and lift their child collectively.
Schlaepfer tells TV Insider that she “all the time had a sense Alexandra would die.”
Photograph-Illustration: Katie Music / Swooon
“I mentioned it lots to Brandon and Taylor in Season 1,” she says within the video interview above, including, “I feel I’ve learn sufficient scripts and seen sufficient Taylor Sheridan the place I used to be identical to, I feel that’s in all probability going to occur. It doesn’t make it any much less devastating to learn or to behave, however I feel we didn’t understand how something would occur.”
Sklenar says he “couldn’t even learn that script. I nonetheless get emotional excited about it. It’s so fantastically written.”
“You’re feeling so tied to those characters and their tales,” he provides. “I spent three years with Spencer, so it’s actually painful. I can nonetheless really feel it the best way that these scenes performed out. I sort of knew that one thing tragic would occur, and we simply didn’t know who.”
To viewers who may be upset about Alex’s ending, Schlaepfer says, “Alex goes via a lot this season, and I feel it was so necessary to inform not solely the story of her personal resilience and the way deep she will dig to maintain going, and the way a lot a mom’s love can endure, but additionally a lot of it’s she faces a lot violence as a result of she was a girl alone within the Twenties. She was susceptible. So many ladies stay with a lot concern simply inside their our bodies always. They know what that looks like…I feel all of us want that they may stay fortunately ever after. She dies in essentially the most Alexandra manner doable. It’s the most important sacrifice for her household and for her child. It’s all born out of affection. And he or she nonetheless goes out cracking jokes. So I feel she’s made peace with that call and dealing with the truth of her scenario. And I feel she is aware of that Spencer and her will stay on a lot greater than simply this second in time that that they had collectively.”
What’s the present attempting to say with this story of affection discovered and fought for simply to be misplaced so tragically? The celebrities say it’s meant to be a profound love story.
“[Alex] doesn’t cease dwelling for one second. If she finds one thing that brings her happiness, she tastes it,” Schlaepfer explains. “When she finds this love in Spencer, she doesn’t look again. And whereas sure, it did value her a lot, the last word sacrifice, I feel actually on the finish of the day for these two folks, it was value it as a result of they did have one another. And I feel Spencer, it says within the voiceover on the finish, he lives the remainder of his life and her reminiscence by no means fades. They have been two individuals who have been meant for one another, they usually weren’t going to let something cease them. And that’s why they discover one another on the finish in that heaven sequence.”
“That kind of affection is one thing that each human being wishes and longs for,” Sklenar provides. “I don’t suppose that it occurs to all people. And it’s a particular kind of connection you can’t intellectualize or rationalize. You can try to clarify it away. And I feel that’s one thing that everyone needs. It’s what songs are written about and it’s what artwork is about. And wars have been fought over it. It’s a factor. He will get it, and he understands what that’s. What anyone will do for it, it’s actually life or loss of life as a result of it’s that particular and it’s that uncommon. And I feel the love will prevail, love in opposition to all odds kind of factor. It’s essentially the most human factor that’s common. Irrespective of the place you reside, your faith, what race you might be, gender. Everybody can relate to that, and all of us need it.”
The celebrities additional clarify Spencer and Alex’s ending within the full video interview above.
1923, Seasons 1 & 2 Accessible Now, Paramount+