1923 (2022) s02e06 Episode Script

Previously on 1923.
[TENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[SCREAMS, GRUNTS]
[HILLARY] Officer. You
are arresting the victim, sir.
[RUNS HIS HORSE]
We can't split up out here.
We don't know this land.
Won't be gone long.
Not one of us ever escaped.
Keep up, Father. We got 'em.
Hyah!
Ha!
- [HORSE SQUEALS]
- [GRUNTS]
Whoa, whoa.
- [PETE WAR CRIES]
- [GUNSHOTS]
- Where you headed?
- Montana.
[MCDOWELL] You better stay in Texas
if your plan is coming back here
- and starting a war.
- War's already started.
And you ain't stopped it.
Tell my aunt I'm coming home.
- Are you all right?
- I'm better than all right.
[JACK WHOOPING]
[JACK] She's gonna have a baby!
[CARA CHUCKLES]
We going after 'em?
- For what they done to us?
- Yeah.
For what they done to all of us.
[WIND WHISTLING SOFTLY]
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
[WHISPERING INDISTINCTLY]
Here.
[CARA] The boys have
finished working on the coup.
There's a woman in
Pray who sells chickens.
I'm waiting for the question.
There is no question coming.
I'm simply informing you that
the coup has been repaired
and that a woman in Pray sells chickens.
You may now correctly
assume that I shall be buying
some of those chickens
and placing them in the coup.
I've had my last bloody
breakfast of beans.
This ain't breakfast. It's supper.
I know which meal it
is, Jacob. I prepared it.
But tomorrow, I will
be preparing breakfast,
and I shall be doing it without eggs,
a dilemma I shall remedy by noon.
Think I'm gonna ride tomorrow.
- Doc said wait.
- [ZANE] It's been a week.
A week's long enough to heal anything.
I can't think of one thing
that can heal in a week.
A cut doesn't heal in a week.
Flu doesn't.
A bruise doesn't.
Hell, it takes six weeks to heal a bone.
That bone in your head
that we drilled through,
I promise you, is not healed.
We can't have beans
for breakfast no more?
[ELIZABETH LAUGHS]
[SCOFFS]
What? Hey, what's funny?
Nothing. I'm sorry.
This is the first time
every seat at this table
has been filled since before the war.
So it is.
Wasn't sure you'd noticed.
I noticed.
[QUIET, EMOTIONAL MUSIC]
[CAR APPROACHING]
[TENSE MUSIC]
Jacob!
[JACOB] It's the sheriff.
Somebody die?
[MCDOWELL] Nobody died.
Somebody in trouble?
What's with the deputies?
Marshal from Amarillo called.
Asked if I could vouch for a
Spencer Dutton from Bozeman.
Why'd he do that?
Came across him. Said
he's coming this way.
- Did you know?
- I hoped.
He reached me by telephone, Jake.
Switchboard operators heard every word,
and those are very loose lips.
He take the train to Livingston?
I don't know, but that'd be my guess.
I need a schedule, and I need you
to park some deputies at
that station till he arrives.
Headed there next.
- I'll send some cowboys.
- You cowboys stay right here.
I got a badge, too, Bill,
and I don't need your
permission to use it.
I'm trying to prevent a war here.
It ain't preventable.
It's what he wants.
It's what he needs to
take this place from us.
When did he call?
This afternoon.
From Amarillo.
That's two days by train.
If Denver's open. If not,
he goes to Fargo and over,
and that's three days at least.
Cool heads, Jacob!
If Whitfield finds
out, he'll kill him, Bill.
And if he does, I swear to God
I will burn his fucking house
to the ground with him in it!
I guess we're gonna find out
whether you can ride after all.
What happened? Jacob Dutton, stop!
Spencer's coming home.
Why did you kill him?
'Cause he ran.
Running is not a crime.
Well, running from me is.
All this death you make.
And we are no closer to justice.
[SCOFFS]
That boy's a Crow.
That's her people.
Why else he'd be here except for her?
He look Comanche to you?
I can't tell the tribe
by looking at a face.
Neither can you.
I've seen enough Crow to
know one when I'm looking at him.
We are looking for a girl,
but you, you keep killing boys and men
who know nothing of this girl we seek.
Know nothing, huh?
He's a scout, scouting
for water for her.
You have been tasked to
bring justice to a murderer!
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
But the murderer is you.
[CHUCKLES]
It is you who needs justice.
Your path is the walkway to perdition.
And I shall not walk it with you.
Great.
That's fine.
Go fuck off back to Montana.
You hear me, Father? Go fuck yourself.
- [GUNSHOT]
- [GRUNTS]
[GUNSHOT]
[GROANING WEAKLY]
Now you go scream with the devil.
[MAJESTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC]
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
He's a war hero with a temper to match.
War hero?
We all fought in the war.
Didn't see no heroes.
Heroes are the first out of
the trench, first to get dead.
He won the Medal of Honor
with First Infantry at Argonne.
This Dutton was in the First?
This is Jacob's son?
Nephew, I think.
Word is, when he comes
back, the Yellowstone is his.
He runs it.
What's his name?
Spencer.
War's been over six years.
Where's he been since then, huh?
Bottom of a bottle in Paris, I reckon.
- [CHUCKLING]
- Word is Africa.
He was a hunter for the
Brits, killing lions and whatnot
while they built out roads.
And when's this Spencer returning?
Don't know.
She said he's on the rail.
Any day now.
Looks like you boys finally
get to use them badges.
Get to the train station.
If this Spencer Dutton
steps off, put a hole in him.
I'll take my chances with the old man.
I'm not getting caught in a gunfight
with some fucking soldier
boy raising an army.
Can I take a few more men?
After you've killed the nephew,
we kill the whole lot of 'em.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
[JACOB] First thing we do is
get badges on that platform.
I'll take Judge, Carl
and Spade to the station.
We're gonna be there for a while.
We don't know what
train he's coming in on.
He could be coming
out of Denver or Fargo
or Deadwood.
They got a late snow in Fargo.
Those snowdrifts shut that
train down pretty regular.
Yeah. Put the rest on patrol.
Put two at the gate.
We'll let the rest ride
between here and the barn.
You take the house.
What about me?
You take the gate, too.
If there's gonna be a
fight, I need to be in it.
The two most precious things we have
are sitting right over there.
I'm asking you to protect them.
Yes, sir.
I'd say be careful, but
seems a waste of breath.
I'll be as careful as I can.
Bring him home.
Yeah.
And bring yourself home.
[EMOTIONAL MUSIC]
Promise.
I can't make that promise.
You're gonna make it
or I'm riding with you.
I promise I'll try.
No, no, no. Not good enough.
In 56 years, you've never
broken your word to me.
I don't expect today
to be any different.
Now, promise, or shall I grab my coat?
[CHUCKLES] I promise.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
Oh, my. You have been a busy, busy bee.
I did good, huh?
You did very good.
The challenge will
be this, my dear Lindy:
make her enjoy it.
Do you think you can do that?
Can you make her look
past the pain and the fear?
Can you make her body betray the panic
she feels at this moment?
If she will surrender her body to you,
then you can make her do anything.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Like that.
[SLAPS]
You try.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[DONALD] Yes.
Like that.
[PANTING]
[KNOCK ON DOOR]
Not now.
[SERVANT] Sir, it's Banner Creighton.
He says it's urgent.
Send him in.
[DOOR OPENS]
This Lindy was a real find, Banner.
The kind of find that
manipulates politicians.
She's going to be incredibly useful
when I'm done teaching her.
Jacob Dutton has a nephew. War hero.
He was a hunter for the Crown in Africa.
It seems Jacob sent for him.
One man, Banner?
What can one man do?
Lead other men.
Teach them tactics.
This is why Jacob has done nothing.
He's been waiting.
Is this nephew here now?
Arrives by train.
Then I suggest you meet
him when he steps off.
- I've men headed there now.
- [MABEL PANTING]
Did you find our little
sanctuary on the border?
I did.
Put him there,
then put the rest of
them right beside him.
The sheriff's on his side.
And the courts are on mine.
- [HARD SLAPPING]
- Your only worry
- is failing to kill them all.
- [GRUNTING]
History isn't a retelling
of events in our past.
History is events the
victorious chose to retell.
We're not subject to our deeds, Banner.
We decide the deeds,
and our decisions become the truth.
- [LOUD SLAP]
- [MABEL GRUNTING]
- [LOUD SLAPPING CONTINUES]
- [MABEL GRUNTING]
You know,
that's someone's daughter.
That she is.
And if her mother were here
- [LOUD SLAP]
- [MABEL GRUNTS]
I'd do the same to her.
Close the door on the way out, please.
- [LOUD SLAP]
- [MABEL GRUNTS]
[GROANS]
Now pleasure.
Now pain.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
You see, Lindy?
She doesn't know the difference anymore.
[SIGHS]
Can we build a fire?
Here. If you're cold,
- take my blanket.
- No, no. No, for Pete.
So he can find us.
If Pete can see a fire,
so can everyone else.
No wood to burn anyway.
You think he's lost?
I think the sun went down on him,
so he's staying put
so he doesn't get lost.
He can use the stars.
Stars are different here.
Those are too low in the sky.
And that one.
I don't know that one.
Stars will trick him.
[SIGHS] Something's wrong.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
I feel it in my heart.
Do you feel it?
Tomorrow, we'll follow his tracks.
[TAKES DEEP BREATH]
How many my uncle take?
[JASPER] Three, I think.
Yeah, three.
That ain't enough.
What's he gonna do with three men
if he gets in a scrape?
I'm gonna try and catch up to 'em.
If three ain't enough,
I don't know what four's gonna do.
[SAM] Them griz are out of their dens.
Watch out you don't
run into one on the road.
I'll let Zane know he took off.
Don't get bushwhacked while I'm gone.
I'll do my best.
[ELIZABETH] What are you knitting?
[GASPS, SIGHS]
Good Lord, girl.
Sorry.
You should be asleep.
So should you.
I never sleep when he's gone.
Me, neither.
Jack's fine. He's just down the road.
What are you knitting?
Oh, I don't know.
Haven't given it much thought.
Well, looks like I've
gone right past a scarf
and I'm approaching
something like a sweater.
Sweater it is. [CHUCKLES]
Seems surreal to me.
What's that, darling?
It's the 20th century.
We have the motorcar and the airplane,
- movie theaters.
- Mm-hmm.
And yet we have men
guarding our front porch
to prevent other men from taking it
and killing us in the process.
Yes.
And that won't change, no
matter what man invents next.
Don't let the fancy suits
and the cars fool you.
We're still animals,
and we have much more
in common with the wolf
than we ever will with the rabbit.
I mean, take the Ten Commandments.
Shouldn't be too difficult to follow.
Don't kill, don't lie, don't
steal and don't covet.
And that's the one, Elizabeth,
that will lead you to
commit all the others.
Desiring what another man
has his land, his money, his wife
that has led to every atrocity
this world has ever seen.
You watch, Elizabeth,
the human race will covet
itself right out of existence.
God should start over
and make sure the next version of man
behaves nothing like the first one.
[FOOTSTEPS]
Could I trouble you to
make us a cup of tea, darling?
Of course.
What is it, Zane?
Jack rode off to Livingston
to meet up with Jacob.
Who's with him?
He went alone, ma'am.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
Stupid boy.
[APRIL] I don't understand.
How long will they hold the train?
I don't know, ma'am.
Once the storm breaks,
a crew will try and clear the drift.
How long will that take?
Well, that depends on the drift, ma'am.
I've seen it take a week.
A week?
Is this drift east or west of Fargo?
East. The tracks go through
a dip in the valley there.
Gets covered up every year.
Maybe they shouldn't have
put the tracks in the dip.
They were a little more
concerned about Sitting Bull
spotting them than any
snowdrift back then, sir.
Tracks to Livingston clear?
Snow didn't hit there,
but from Big Timber to
Minneapolis, the world is white.
Got an arrival time
- for Livingston?
- Let me see your ticket.
Well, you could switch in Fargo,
or you could take a train
to Billings out of Sioux Falls.
Would it make much of a difference?
Weather's bad everywhere,
but Fargo's gonna be a mess.
Not one of those trains is getting out.
I'll book you through Sioux Falls.
You'll wait a day on the train,
but at least you'll
know when it's coming.
- Thank you.
- You do have
a sleeping car booked, sir.
I I can't sleep in those things.
Where were you stationed?
Argonne.
What battalion?
The one they lost.
Gonna sit here if you don't mind.
Don't mind at all.
[ALEX] And then the captain
had him removed from the ship,
loaded onto a dinghy
and paddled to the harbor in Marseille.
[PENSIVE MUSIC]
How how did you know where to go?
I have letters from his aunt.
The address is on the postmark.
Or, at least, the address
to the post office is.
But the man is in Marseille.
Mm.
I doubt he stayed a night there.
His family needs him,
and he knows I'm coming.
Knows how?
I shouted from the
starboard side of the stern
that I would meet him in Montana.
Shouted it from the stern. Paul.
That's the most fantastic
thing I've ever heard.
I'm tempted to drive you to the
home of Edgar Rice Burroughs
this moment and force him at gunpoint
to write down every
word just as you told it.
[CHUCKLES]
Well, sadly
there is much of the
story that's unwritten.
Seems a snowdrift has
thwarted me this time.
I've overcome everything else,
but these acts of God
are annoyingly effective.
Perhaps I can offer a solution.
Do you have an airplane?
[PAUL CHUCKLES]
I don't.
But I do have a car.
You have a car.
I have a car.
I don't know how to drive.
I also have the ability
to drive the machine.
Yes, Paul. Let's do it.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
You would do that for me?
I can think of very little I wouldn't do
to be some small part of this odyssey
that you find yourself on.
[CHUCKLES]
We must plan.
[TAKES DEEP BREATH]
Right, north to Saint Paul.
Avoiding North Dakota,
we go west to Pierre,
then up through Buffalo.
Yes, there's a small town in
South Dakota called Buffalo,
even though there's no such thing
as buffalo in the United
States. They're called bison.
Bison is a terrible name for a town.
Better they call it Buffalo.
From there, Miles City.
Uh, Big Timber, then Livingston,
and down to
What's the town in Montana?
The postmark is in Emigrant.
Ah. Here it is.
- How far?
- Hmm.
[PAUL MUTTERING INDISTINCTLY]
Six hundred, so 400,
give and take, 300
[CONTINUES MUTTERING INDISTINCTLY]
Roughly 1,500 miles.
Three days by car,
if we limit our stops.
Paul, you can't drive
for three days straight.
Once we're out of the city,
I'll begin driving lessons.
You'll be experts by the
time we reach the Rockies.
[ALEX CHUCKLES]
Oh, this is terribly exciting.
We must pack.
Warm coats, heavy scarves.
Food, water.
All our provisions.
[LIQUOR POURING]
We journey the path of the pioneers
in the name of lost
love soon to be found.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
Thank you.
[HOPEFUL MUSIC]
[GENTLE, ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC]
Hey, hey, hey!
I'm in no mood to get shot, Bill.
What's the train schedule?
There's a passenger
train coming in at noon.
From Billings. He
ain't gonna be on that.
There's a train coming in from
Fargo, but that's been held up
'cause a big snowdrift
shut the line down.
Best guess is he comes in from
Deadwood day after tomorrow.
Any way to reach the conductor?
When dispatch gets
here, we can send a wire,
but not sure we want to do that
'cause it'll tell the world
exactly when he gets in.
You seen any of Banner's goons?
No. So far, it's just us.
What a terrible place for a gunfight.
Yeah. It's gonna be worse
when it fills up with travelers.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
They're gonna use the crowd outside.
Take him there.
Make off in the chaos.
What makes you think that?
That's what I'd do.
How many men you got?
Three men plus me.
But I sent word to have
agents from town come on out.
I guess we're just gonna be sitting here
for the next three days.
Lucky for us, the Murray
is right across the street.
[SCOFFS] Yeah.
I need you sitting in
a bar for three days
like I need the doctor
picking at my hemorrhoid
with a fish hook.
That was a little too descriptive
for first thing in the morning, Bill.
I'm gonna scare me up some coffee.
- You want some?
- Please.
[HORSE WHINNYING IN DISTANCE]
Whoa.
[TENSE MUSIC]
[CLICKS TONGUE, SMACKS LIPS]
Step out of them trees there.
We're agents of the
Livestock Commission.
Out of them trees where we can see you.
[CLICKS TONGUE]
Headed to the train depot?
We are. You?
The same.
He your brother then, this Spencer?
My father's brother.
[ALEC] Everyone acts
like he's something special.
[CHUCKLES]
With a gun in his hand,
there's no one better.
That a fact?
Well, I'm a close second.
You don't say.
[JARRING, TENSE MUSIC]
[BREATHING WEAKLY]
If you're a close second,
I'm not much worried about the first.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
You heard what Banner said.
Kill this Spencer,
then the rest of them.
May as well get a head start.
Hee!
[QUIET, SOMBER MUSIC]
[PANTING]
Hee!
[TEONNA CRYING]
[HOPEFUL MUSIC]
[DIALOGUE INAUDIBLE]
[GASPING, YELLING]
[ENGINE GRINDING]
[DIALOGUE INAUDIBLE]
[UPLIFTING, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
We seem to have hit a spot of weather.
Where are we?
[PAUL] Wyoming.
Is there a town ahead?
The booming metropolis of Buffalo.
Fifteen miles.
[GENTLE MUSIC]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[WIND WHISTLING]
What on earth are they doing?
So you don't slide off the road.
Where are you headed?
Emigrant, Montana.
- In a car?
- Mm.
How you gonna do that?
We've made it this far.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
Take the train from Sheridan.
Car won't make it.
Are there no roads?
Yeah, there are roads,
just no more of these.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
He's ready.
Let's go.
[PANTING]
They'll see it.
There's no one left to see it.
I don't see the point.
Life hasn't shown me many
reasons to keep fighting for it.
[SOMBER MUSIC]
I'll tell you the reason.
If you don't live
someday they won't
remember we were even here.
This world will need us someday.
When white men
concrete the whole world
and the world revolts,
man won't know how
to live with the land then.
She will need some of us to teach them.
Why teach them anything?
They're the ones destroying it.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
[WIND HOWLING]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
[BLOWING SHARPLY]
It will be warmer on the floorboard.
Hillary, take a blanket.
Keep the blanket. You're pregnant.
It's freezing.
We live in Chicago, dear.
We're used to freezing.
We'll warm ourselves like the Irish.
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
[SHUDDERING BREATHS]
[SHUDDERING BREATHS]
Quite the adventure.
Quite, indeed.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
- [GUNSHOTS]
- [GRUNTS]
[PANICKED BREATHING]
[SHUSHING]
And
and I am the light.
[GASPING]
I commend you, dear
sister, to Almighty God,
and I entrust you to your Creator.
May you return to him
who formed you from
the dust of the earth.
May the Holy Mary and the
angels and all the saints
meet you as you
go forth from this life.
May Christ, who was crucified for you,
give you freedom and peace.
[SOBBING]
Repeat after me, my child: "Dear God,
I beg forgiveness for
my sins with all my heart."
Repeat it, child.
Repeat it!
I will not.
I am trying to save your soul
and to free you from eternal perdition!
I'm not sorry.
You be sorry.
You beg for forgiveness.
You beg.
- You are renouncing salvation!
- I renounce it!
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
[CRYING]
Then to the devil with you.
- [GUN CLICKING]
- [GASPING]
[SHOUTS]
[SCREAMING]
[GROANING]
[INTENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[PAINED GROANING]
[MOURNFUL MUSIC]
[PANTING]
[SOBBING]
[SCREAMS]
First time in the mountains?
First time in a long time.
Odd this weather. It's
the middle of spring.
- [BELL RINGING]
- [TICKET AGENT] Now boarding.
Deadwood, Sheridan,
Billings and all points west.
All aboard.
You know what they say.
There's only three
seasons in the Rockies:
July, August and winter.
[TRAIN WHISTLE BLASTING]
[TENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[SHIVERING]
[GASPING]
[WIND HOWLING]
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
[VOICE SHAKING] Wh Where did he go?
Hillary, where did he
[JARRING, TENSE MUSIC]
[GASPING]
[PANTING]
[WIND WHISTLING]
[GASPING BREATHS]
[ELSA] Man destroys everything.
He has been at war with this world
since he first entered it.
War with its trees.
War with its weather.
So is everything else.
If it was up to the wolves,
it would be wolves and nothing else.
Same goes for the bear
and the snake and the spider.
Trees grow tall to rob
sunlight from all beneath it.
Nothing coexists.
Life is a constant state
of battle for survival.
And only one thing rings victorious:
the world itself.
Earth is not a benign
rock condemned to endure
countless little rapes
from its inhabitants.
It is a living, evolving,
interactive being
capable of wiping all existence
by the simplest of wobbles on its axis.
There have been five mass
extinctions on this planet
where almost all life was eradicated,
its occupiers cleansed from this place.
It only stands to reason
that a sixth one is coming.