It’s no secret that this season of 1923 has not been nearly as romantic as the Yellowstone prequel’s first installment. The love story between the first season’s breakout characters, Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) and Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), has become recognized by many as the Yellowstone universe’s greatest romance, with no other couple coming close. As Spencer and Alex fell in love and then fought for said love amidst every new trial and tragedy, I hoped to see them grow old and happy together. Unfortunately, Taylor Sheridan wrote a different ending entirely, one that did not remotely live up to my hopes and expectations. I’m still mad that Spencer and Alex didn’t get their happy ending.
‘1923’ Put Alex Through the Wringer With Little Payoff
The second season of 1923 was not as forgiving as the first. For one thing, Alex, in particular, was thrown around like a rag doll, forced to endure horror after horror as she was ripped away from her husband and left to carry their child all alone. On top of that, as Alex first journeyed to and then across America, she was robbed, beaten, abused, and even raped, pushing her far beyond anything she had ever experienced before. Frankly, 1923 mistreated Alex throughout Season 2, and every time she found a new hope to cling to, her future was almost instantly ripped from her. The emotional rollercoaster of Alex’s travels across the United States felt almost too terrible to endure, and while it certainly says something about her strength as a character, it was difficult for me to watch. More than that, it was difficult to come to terms with, given her untimely end.
There is no doubt that Alex sacrificing her own life for the sake of her son is quite a noble effort. In many ways, it expresses exactly what it means to be a parent, a theme that the Yellowstone franchise at large has explored in various ways. Throughout Season 2, Alex learned that being a mother is as challenging a task as anything she had previously endured, and that she was fighting not simply for her own survival, but for the future of the Dutton bloodline. By the end of “A Dream and a Memory,” her decision to choose the well-being of her child and not herself was the narrative culmination of her storyline. When viewers first met her in the first season, she was nothing but a “spoiled child” (something she warned her husband about concerning their son, asking Spencer to be patient with the boy), but by the end, she had grown into something far more.
This is why it’s so tragic that 1923 chose to kill Alex off, especially after a penultimate episode that annihilated half the supporting cast. Considering how much her adventure across the world had changed her, Alex deserved to be at peace with her husband. Even if her injuries did not allow her to live as long as Spencer, there is nothing I craved more than for the two of them to live together on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, raising their son to take over when they are long gone. Instead, Spencer was left alone in his remaining years, and though the series reveals that he fathered another son with a grieving widow, he never married again. Considering all that Alex endured to get herself and her child to Montana, it feels wrong that her story ends there, especially given that it would have been far more interesting to see her learn to live the ranch life alongside Spencer and young John. She has already had to adjust so much to the American way of life, but to do so on the ranch with Spencer would be infinitely more compelling than anything until this point.
Taylor Sheridan Seems to Prefer Tragedies, but ‘1923’s Best Romance Deserved Better
As noted before, a major factor in the success of 1923 — apart from dynamite performances from Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, of course — was the Spencer and Alex love story. In many ways, it was the cornerstone of the entire two-season series, and certainly its emotional anchor. Watching them fall in love, escape death, and begin their voyage to America was a breath of fresh air to the flagship Yellowstone narrative, which, in many ways, had begun to grow quite stale. Romance has never been the Yellowstone universe’s strong suit. Kevin Costner’s John Dutton had never had much of a love story, and though many rooted for Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) and Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly), theirs was not exactly traditional, thrilling, or exceptionally romantic. 1923’s Spencer and Alex really changed all that, offering a romance that I could root for.
It’s for this reason that it’s such a disappointment that these two hardly had any time together at all. In Alex’s final hours, she was still largely separated from Spencer, who was singlehandedly saving his family legacy from jealous men who would claim it for themselves. Yes, the two had quite the triumphant reunion on the Wyoming frontier, and were ultimately together in Alex’s final moments as well — but the whole thing still felt too little, too late. The damage had been done, and Alex’s death (the doctors probably could have saved both her and the baby, right?) sullied the impact of what could have been. Alex Dutton did not have to die for 1923’s premier love story to mean something. In fact, sometimes living even with the weight of all you’ve suffered is a far more heroic venture, one that could have strengthened Alex and Spencer’s marriage and love for one another more than anything else.
The unfortunate thing about all of this is that Taylor Sheridan seems to prefer love stories that end in heartbreak. Viewers saw this with both of Elsa Dutton’s (Isabel May) romances on 1883 (she also died unexpectedly in the series finale), and also in John Dutton’s (Josh Lucas) own life through the death of his wife on Yellowstone. While the 21st-century Duttons have been largely immune to that sort of personal tragedy, and both Beth and Kayce (Luke Grimes) are happily married, it’s sad to think of what could have been with Spencer and Alex had they been allowed more time. Considering what they were willing to sacrifice for the other, I can only rest easy knowing that eventually they were happy again, even if it took death for them to reunite.