1923 Recap With Spoilers: The War Has Come Home

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the latest episode of the Yellowstone prequel 1923… The episode “The War Has Come Home” opens with a voice over reminding viewers that there are no weekends on the ranch, and we see the Dutton women taking care of chores when Cara sees the men riding in. Elizabeth, Jack’s fiancée, excitedly runs out to greet him. Cara affectionately gives Jacob grief. Elsewhere, Banner returns home as well and is in bad shape, telling his family “the Duttons happened.”

The Duttons go into town and the ladies marvel at the electric appliances, though Jake’s got some questions about how it all works though Cara concedes that the washing machine does seem like a good idea. Jacob talks to the sheriff about the hanging, who admonishes him for his actions. Jacob tells him to get deputies out on the land or his brand of justice will continue. The whole Dutton group ends up having to stay in town for the evening, but unbeknownst to them they’re being watched. Jack and some of the others go to a speakeasy and later, Jack and Elizabeth end up spending the night together.

In Africa, Spencer gets brought up to speed on the hyena he’s hunting at the railroad camp. After getting up, Alexandra and Spencer talk about how big and beautiful Africa is and how old and Alexandra asks him to show her the location he’s told her of — where a child’s footprint from a long time ago is molded into rock. He takes her out and while there, they talk some more. He asks her if he can call her Alex rather than Alexandra in a rather long speech. She says he can and then says she won’t hold her breath for a proposal which prompts him to do just that and propose. They kiss and go looking for the footprints. They spend time together and while distracted, an elephant ends up charging at them. They manage to survive — Spencer kills the elephant, but it’s turned over the car and damaged it. They must seek refuge in a tree. Lions and hyenas show up at night to eat the elephant and Spencer must start shooting them to protect himself and Alex. Rescue eventually comes for them. Spencer asks Alex if she’s still his fiancée and she says they’ll talk about it in the car.

In the car, Alex says that looking death in the eye was awful and she doesn’t want to feel like that again while Spencer tells her that was the only way he could feel anything until he met her and now, he doesn’t want to feel that way again either. She tells him he is going to get a new job. They start making out and having sex in the back of the car.

Back in Montana, the Duttons head back to the ranch and despite Zane suggesting otherwise, Jacob has the cowboys ride on up ahead of the others. As the family travels through the clearing, they encounter gunfire and they have almost no backup. Elizabeth is shot in the abdomen. Jack is hit in the shoulder. Jacob tells everyone to get out of the wagon as he and John Sr. start returning fire. Elizabeth, in shock, doesn’t get out and the horses take off with her still in the buggy, but Jack takes off and jumps onto it and stops it before worse things can happen, taking Elizabeth to hide with everyone else behind a boulder. Banner then shows up in a car and pulls out a gun and opens fire, screaming that he’s a man of his word, hitting both Jacob and John as Cara and Emma run.

Zane and the cowboys show up to help, but Banner drives away. Cara finds Jacob bleeding from several wounds, and it soon becomes clear that John is dead. Cara then sees one sheep herder who has escaped and is limping away, and Cara goes after him. Then we see the scene from the series premiere where Cara kills the sheep herder and screams. At the ranch, both Jacob and Emma are laid out on tables as they try to sort out their injuries. Jacob says it’s no use to try to save him, but Cara refuses to quit. He also says that Spencer needs to be brought home from Africa. When the doctor arrives, Cara goes to write a letter to Spencer telling him that his brother is dead, his nephew wounded, and is uncle will probably also be dead by the time the letter arrives. Spencer must come home to fight this war with his family at home.

What did you think about the latest episode of 1923? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!