1923 Recap With Spoilers: Nature's Empty Throne
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of the Yellowstone prequel 1923… The episode "Nature's Empty Throne" opens with Spencer Dutton being attacked by the leopard as he was at the end of the series premiere, but he manages to fight it off. His associates come to his aid, but one is attacked. It allows Spencer and the surviving associate to kill the leopard, but they are unable to save the man. Spencer then enlists the aid of a doctor amongst the tourists to clean the wounds from the leopard that attacked him as leopards have very filthy claws. Spencer also confronts the leader of the tourists about how he didn't disclose that there was a pair of leopards.
In Montana, Jacob and the others hear the gunshot and ride to see what happened. They find Jake pinned under his horse, which was shot by the sheep herders. They're stopped before they can kill him and Jacob confronts Banner. Banner claims he doesn't know who shot at him, but Jake says they were all shooting at him. Banner tries to defend himself by saying that nothing grazes up that high. Jacob orders his men to round up the sheep and send them towards the reservation where people are starving. Jacob then has Banner and his men put in nooses and then on their horses, leaving them to either hang if the horses ride off or otherwise somehow get themselves free.
At the school, the nuns continue to "educate" the native girls about how to be American women, this time about sweeping and cleaning and they are brutal to them when they don't do things exactly right. Teonna disobeys deliberately. Later, during dinner, there are maggots in the food and Teonna speaks her native language, prompting a nun to discipline her which in turn prompts Teonna to fight back. She's punished by being left in a hot box by the priest.
Back at the house, Cara and Emma sit on the porch and talk about how Elizabeth more grew up out East rather than on the ranch and how she's only going to feed Jake's recklessness. Back out on the property, Banner has survived and manages to get himself free. Not all of his men were so lucky as most of them ended up hanging to death when their horses rode off. On the reservation, Issaxche (Amelia Rico) meets with the superintendent and asks for Teonna — her granddaughter — to be brought back home to the reservation, but to do that, Issaxche will have to adopt her as Teonna is only her granddaughter. Meanwhile, Zane gives the natives the sheep and they accept them and give Dutton thanks.
At the school, Teonna is removed from the hot box. She's very weak and is taken to the baths, but she's sexually assaulted by the nun bathing her. Sister Mary intervenes, though she continues to try to defend her own cruelty towards Teonna and the other girls and the aim of the school before beating her. In Africa, Spencer heads to Nairobi and is at a bar at a nice hotel. He's approached by a British woman who is surprised he's American. She flirts with him. He confirms that he works for the Protectorate and kills maneaters, something she finds romantic but he doesn't. It's revealed that she's engaged, but she's interested in Spencer and it seems he's interested in her. Spencer's employer asks if he's able to use a rifle with his injuries from the leopard as he's been hired to kill a spotted a hyena attacking railroad engineers.
The woman, Alexandra, it turns out, is in an arranged engagement that she doesn't really want to be in. The next day, as Spencer is heading off to deal with the hyena, she takes her bags and runs off after him. She ends up running away with him.
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