We all wanted better for Alex Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer) in 1923 season 2’s finale, but I’m glad that another character lived instead. 1883 and 1923 are prequels to screenwriter Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone saga. Where Yellowstone has more neo-Western tones, reimagining the traditional Western with modern context and drama, its prequels have more conventional genre elements. In 1923 season 2’s finale, there were two proper gunfights, and Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) helped his aunt and uncle, Cara (Helen Mirren) and Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford), win them all.
Concurrently with the Dutton family’s saga, we’ve witnessed the story of Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves), a girl who begins at the U.S. School for Native Americans in North Dakota in 1923 season 1. Teonna is from the Crow tribe, and she, too, calls Montana home, though we don’t know how Teonna connects to the Duttons of Yellowstone, even after 1923 season 2’s ending. Still, since they share a surname, Teonna Rainwater is probably linked to Broken Rock tribal chairman Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), who began as John Dutton’s (Kevin Costner) adversary but now has stewardship of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.
Teonna Lived In 1923’s Finale, While Alex Dutton Died
Teonna Rainwater Redeemed Her Awful 1923 Story
After all the horrible things that happened to Teonna Rainwater in 1923, she faces trial for the murders she committed in the series finale. In 1923 season 1, Teonna killed the nuns who abused and sexually assaulted her, retaliating against behavior that was common in genuine assimilation schools that existed throughout America at the time. After meeting Marshal Mamie Fosset (Jennifer Carpenter), who offers to testify that Teonna isn’t linked to the deaths of Marshal Kent (Jamie McShane) and Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché), Teonna attends her trial to find that her case is dismissed, and she is free to go.
Considering all of her misfortunes, we are just as awestruck as she is that Rainwater has a clear pathway to start anew. Still, Teonna’s conclusion is far from a traditional uplifting ending. As she says to Two Spears (Dougie Hall) after her court appearance, Teonna’s freedom cost her everything, including the lives of Pete Plenty Clouds (Jeremy Gauna) and her father, Runs His Horse (Michel Spears). Still, surviving to create something from her perils, Teonna lives, and we can’t say the same for Spencer’s wife, whose death tops the list of horrible things that happened to Alex Dutton in 1923.
Alex Dutton, too, experienced a tragic and unforgettable story. Spencer’s partner endures horror after horror in 1923 season 2, from being beaten at Grand Central Terminal to experiencing sexual assault on the train to Chicago. While she faced challenges from the start, Alex has a particularly devastating story in 1923 season 2. That said, I expected more wins for Alex in the finale to balance her heartbreaking journey. Instead, Alex ultimately experiences another tragedy in the end, dying of frostbite after delivering John Dutton prematurely. In contrast, Teonna Rainwater lives to redeem her awful 1923 story.
Why Teonna Rainwater’s 1923 Story Was Subversive
Teonna’s Win Is Vital To Taylor Sheridan’s Storytelling
While I would have loved to see Alex survive and meet Spencer’s family, reflecting on 1923 season 2’s finale, I was glad that Teonna Rainwater got 1923’s happy ending. In Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone stories, happy endings are hard to come by, and only so many characters can get one. That said, Teonna getting one of 1923’s better endings was important because a resilient conclusion for Teonna helps to rethink preconceptions about the American West. Native Americans have traditionally been misrepresented and underserved within the Western genre, and Teonna’s story paints a more complete picture of what their life was like.
In traditional Westerns, Native Americans like Teonna are the villains, and there’s rarely an explanation for their hostile behavior. While Teonna is indeed hostile in 1923, her boarding school arc explains her motivations, showing the authentic assimilation practices happening around the United States in the 1920s to eliminate Indigenous culture. We see this in Sister Mary’s (Jennifer Ehle) attack on Teonna for speaking her language, and the death surrounding Rainwater. From the beginning, contextualizing Teonna’s plight in 1923 season 1’s story, Sheridan helped to undermine the narrative perpetuated by film and television that Native American aggression is unwarranted.
Taylor Sheridan subverted expectations for a Western tale by making Teonna a main 1923 character.
Along with being associated with unhelpful tropes like the tendency to act with unwarranted hostility, Native Americans are often relegated to the background in Western stories, with the genre benefiting from their aesthetic but not their stories. Taylor Sheridan subverted expectations for a Western tale by making Teonna a main 1923 character, bringing a Crow story to the foreground, and making it a central thread of 1923. Sadly, Western stories also typically killed or disappeared Indigenous characters, and 1923’s finale breaks these tropes with Teonna’s story continuing. In that case, I’m glad Teonna got 1923’s happy ending.