After a tragic death and a tension-filled cliffhanger at the end of last week’s episode of the Yellowstone prequel 1923, this week’s episode, “War and the Turquoise Tide” answered the questions around the fate of Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) as well as saw the arrival of a new antagonist for the Duttons, not to mention saw Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) finally have to face some things he had been avoiding for some time as his story prepares to intersect with that of the Duttons back home. However, while the episode certainly set the stage for the next big challenge in the series, fans will have to wait a little bit to see how things move forward from here. There’s no new episode of 1923 until Sunday, February 5th. Warning: spoilers for this week’s episode of 1923 beyond this point.
From a structural standpoint, this week’s “War and the Turquoise Tide” functions as a midseason finale for 1923. The series’ first season has just eight episodes and this week’s episode is number four. Season 2 will also have just eight episodes. However, when 1923 does return for the rest of its first season, it appears we’re looking at a little bit of a time jump. “War and the Turquoise Tide” did see Spencer receive Cara Dutton’s (Helen Mirren) letter about the death of his brother and grave injuries of his uncle, but we find out at the end of the episode that it has been three months since that letter was written.
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As for what’s happened during that time back in Montana? That’s anyone’s guess. Last we saw Jacob he was alive, but seriously injured, not to mention there was the new threat of Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) and Cara is trying to handle things with the livestock commission for Jacob, but that’s proving difficult to do as Creighton (Jerome Flynn) believes he’s actually killed him.
On top of that, this week’s episode had some major developments for Teonna (Aminah Nieves) as well. After suffering all manner of horrors at the school, she’s finally escaped and brutally murdered Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) in the process. While one can assume that Teonna is on her way back home to Montana, one can also assume that she’s also going to face a reckoning for that crime, something that is likely to be explored more once the series comes back from this break.
For fans of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone franchise, this break however means something a bit larger. Yellowstone aired its midseason finale last week and isn’t expected to return until the summer so, at least for the next month, there are no Yellowstone-related shows airing new episodes on either Paramount Network or Paramount+.
1923 is now streaming on Paramount+. New episodes return on February 5th.
