Yahoo Lifestyle 1923 Reveals the Origin of a Yellowstone Staple — Read Episode 4 Recap
To the train station!
Fans of the original Yellowstone got a surprise, albeit a grisly one, in Sunday’s 1923: the origin of the “train station,” aka the lawless land near the Montana border where the modern-day Duttons like to dump the dead bodies of anyone in their way.
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Turns out, it wasn’t a Dutton at all who first had the idea to cart corpses to the remote patch of real estate. The distinction instead goes to Donald Whitfield, whose predilection for nonconsensual rough sex racks up a body count during the hour. (Gross.)
Elsewhere in the episode, Spencer gets himself in two kinds of trouble, Alex has to do a full-out sprint after being knocked unconscious, Elizabeth changes her mind, and Zane undergoes brain surgery without anesthesia. (Also gross.) Read on for the highlights of “Journey the Rivers of Iron.”
‘TIME TO BUILD THAT ARMY’ | Whitfield is holding court at a dinner full of well-dressed men like himself. Banner is there. “Americans no longer rely upon their hands for money. They use their minds, their imaginations, and they are getting rich from it,” he muses. “But what are they going to do with their new money and all their free time? What do they do in Europe? They travel.” He pitches them on Montana tourism, arguing that those with lives of convenience will seek out new thrills and experiences; he proposes a ski resort that will be the area’s big pull. And he’s convincing: Nearly everyone at the table is in. When Banner quietly points out that the ski resort is in the middle of Jake Dutton’s land, Whitfield replies, “Time to build that army you promised me.”
That night, when Banner and his wife are alone in their hotel room, he paints a rosy future for their family… but for it to happen, “another family must go without. I must take it.” She’s unbothered; after all, she reasons, isn’t that how everyone makes their wealth? He then goes to see Whitfield and reports that he’s signed up 35 men to fight the Duttons, and he thinks he can get more. Whitfield shows Banner a map of Montana, highlighting an area of the state that is publicly held land with no population, no sheriffs and no judge or jury of your peers. No matter where Banner and his men kill the Duttons, Whitfield says, he’s to dump the bodies in that corner of the state. Yep: the aforementioned train station.
They’re interrupted by Lindy, who says she needs him to see something. That “something” is Christy, the other sex worker they’ve been torturing, who has died during what seems like asphyxiation play. What’s more callous: the way Whitfield tells Lindy she’ll have to go into town to find “another one,” or the way he won’t let Banner — whom he tasks with taking Christy to that remote area as “practice” for the future — cover the dead woman with a blanket as he carries her out of the room? Discuss among yourselves.
ALL ABOARD! | The robber that followed Alex into the bathroom attacks her, taking her money and punching her in the face when she bites him. He ransacks her valise and takes everything of worth, including the watch that Jennifer gave her for emergency funds. She passes out but wakes up when another woman enters the bathroom. Realizing she’s about to miss her train, Alex shoves her belongings back in her bag, takes off her shoes and sprints to the platform, where she has to run alongside the train in order to board before it leaves the station. She makes it to her sleeper car, which she’s sharing with a mother and several children, and collapses on the top bunk, defeated: The robber got everything.
THE GREAT ESCAPE | Spencer is walking along the road when a police car pulls up. The officer questions him and checks his papers, then offers to drive him to the nearest train station — though the offer is to be taken to the station, or taken to jail. He has Spencer climb in the back… and then reveals that he knows Spencer was in the bootlegger’s truck before the shootout. Too late, Spencer realizes he’s stuck: Comply with the cops’ directive that he deliver the booze (so they can ride in the back and ambush whoever’s receiving it), or go to jail for years. He reluctantly slides behind the wheel, and they go.
The minute they pull up to the warehouse in Fort Worth, the cop sitting in the passenger seat shoots the man who comes out to meet the truck. Pretty soon, every dude in the immediate area is shooting at each other, with Spencer trying to get as low as possible to save his head. Quick as lightning, the cop who picked up Spencer appears at the driver’s side and handcuffs him to the wheel, telling him to stay put as the bullets whiz by. Spencer is like THIS SHALL NOT STAND, grabs the revolver from his bag, and shoots the chain binding him to the wheel. Baller.
He purposefully crashes the car in the warehouse’s parking lot, then — because he’ s not done white-knighting for the day — he stops during his quick escape to cut free a sex worker who’s been tarred, feathered, tied up and paraded naked through town by a holier-than-thou temperance group. He sees a freight train passing through and makes for it, barely making it on.
Yellowstone‘s Dutton Family Tree: Who’s Who On the Hit Series and Its Spinoffs
SPENCER’S HOBO ERA BEGINS | Oh, think you finally have a minute to breathe, Spence? Nope — the car he’s chosen has a few unsavory-looking characters, one of whom demands that he pay the “train tax” if he wants to ride. When Spencer pulls out his shotgun double-barreled rifle and makes a show of loading it, it doesn’t faze the self-appointed “tax collector,” who lazily/menacingly explains that everyone’s gotta sleep sometime.
Indeed, the lion hunter’s eyelids eventually droop shut, which is when the tax collector and the others in the car attack. Spencer manages to fight them all off singlehandedly, but then he knows he’s gotta go. So he tosses his belongings out the open door and jumps, rolling to a stop in the middle of a field in… guys, where ARE we?
TROUBLE FINDS TEONNA | I’m going to put this here because, after two weeks of bleak episodes, I want to end the recap on an up note. (And this part is, indeed, bleak.) Pete, Teonna and Runs His Horse successfully help the cowboys drive their herd to a fairgrounds… where she panics when she sees her wanted poster is tacked up on nearly every flat surface.
ZANE AND HIS BRAIN | With Jake and a gagging Jack assisting, Dr. Miller straps Zane down and drills into the ranch hand’s skull. (I promise, it gets less horrifying.) The doctor has never done the procedure before, and he only has chloroform as a sedative — and Zane definitely wakes up, screaming, in the middle — but it’s over relatively quickly. (Side note: I am not squeamish about blood, but, uh, I feel you, Jack.) Zane immediately feels the pressure on his brain ease up, and he’s even able to stand and walk a little right after. “We goin’ after ‘em, for what they done to us?” he asks Jake, who nods and replies, “For what they done to all of us.”
When Jack brings the good news about Zane to Elizabeth, who’s curled up in bed, she orders him out of her room. “Sweetheart,” he starts, but she interrupts. “I’m no such thing, not to you.” Jake takes a stab at getting through to her next, going upstairs and saying that he understand how much she wants to be with her family in Boston. He offers that maybe she can go and come back when it’s warmer, but he also points out how devoted Jack is to her — and what a tough position Jack is in, being torn between her and his family.
The conversation seems to galvanize her; when Cara come with the next rabies injection, Elizabeth says she’ll administer it herself. When she does, though, she’s in a lot more pain than normal. So Cara runs downstairs to get the (by this point, I’m sure, exhausted) Dr. Miller to have a look at the younger woman. And that’s when the Duttons get some good news, for a change: Elizabeth is pregnant. (The pain from the injection came because she injected into a cramping muscle or something like that don’t think too much about it yay baby!) Elizabeth’s mood immediately lifts, and she runs outside to tell Jack the good news.
Because the young couple is a distance from the house, Jake can only see — but not hear — their celebration, and he mistakenly thinks that his counsel was the factor that turned the tide for Elizabeth. He gloats a bit, with Cara laughing at him because she knows what’s really up, and MAN I could watch these two just be adorable all day.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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