SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the first episode of 1923, which dropped at midnight on Paramount+.
1883 star Isabel May is back as Elsa Dutton — but in voice-over form only — in 1923, Taylor Sheridan’s newest Yellowstone prequel that provides more of a backstory on how the Duttons came to amass so much power (and land) in Montana.
In the first installment of the eight-episode season, we learn that Harrison Ford plays Jacob Dutton, the brother of Tim McGraw’s James Dutton who was first introduced in 1883. Elsa explains that Jacob came to Montana in 1894 to help raise his brother’s two sons — Spencer (Brandon Sklenar), an ex-WWI soldier plagued with PTSD and the urge to never leave Kenya, and John Sr. (James Badge Dale), a bonafide cowboy who stayed behind to help his father run the ranch. (Elsa died at the end of 1883. Boo!) John Sr. and his wife Emma (Marley Shelton) are also the parents of Jack Dutton (Darren Mann), a ball of fire who needs to learn a thing or two about managing his fiancée’s expectations when it comes to owning cattle.
Jacob Dutton is an “agent of the state” and holds immense power as a member of the Montana Livestock Association, which is in the crosshairs of the local sheepherders who are frustrated at the notion that their flocks can only graze on land they lease. The biggest complainer of the lot is Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn, best known for playing the beloved Bronn in Game of Thrones), a lippy Irishman who thinks the grass belongs to God, not the likes of Jacob Dutton. The struggle to find grazing land actually mirrors the action in Sunday’s episode of Yellowstone, which depicts John (Kevin Costner) having to move his cattle out of the drought-ravaged Montana and into another state — an expensive endeavor that prompts his daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) to think of a better way to make money.
Spencer, meanwhile, has carved out a tidy trade hunting big cats who get in the way of upper class safaris. We learn about his true ties to Montana when we see his stepmom Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) writing him letter about how his uncle, brother and nephew are busy pushing the herd up the hill while he’s somewhere in Nairobi “seeking that part of you that you lost after the war.”
Then Spencer is viciously attacked by the very animal he’s trying to hunt and kill. He’ll survive, no doubt.
And in a rather jarring pivot, the action moves to a residential school for indigenous girls who live in fear of a ruler-swatting nun (She Said‘s Jennifer Ehle) and a sadistic priest (The Man in the High Castle‘s Sebastian Roché), who appear to have no affection for their young charges like the brave Teonna (Aminah Nieves). The episode may have started with Elsa saying “violence has always haunted this family,” but it seems to drive the local Catholics, too. No sign yet on how this nastiness will impact Yellowstone ranch.
There are a few other interesting characters in the background, like the young beauty named Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) who’s dying to marry Jack, and the welcome edition of Robert Patrick, who plays Sheriff McDowell. And how about those street boxers and placard-waving ninnies who were protesting outside the bar?
It’s going to be a few weeks before we learn more about what happens in 1923: The show doesn’t return until Jan. 1 on Paramount+. Until then, what did you think of this latest prequel?