The wildly popular Yellowstone series launched their latest spinoff TV show, 1883 (Season 1), created by Taylor Sheridan. It’s a neo-western slice of heaven depicting the road journey of some immigrants and the Dutton family, who two fearless sheriffs lead. The characters’ journey to Oregon has a dash of everything, including family drama, romance, and bloodbath. Their accent, cowboy lifestyle, and intense dialogues between characters will keep you hooked until the last episode. Of course, the show misses its beats once in a while. However, the satisfying closure is worth sticking to your seat till the end.
1883 (Season 1) Recap:
The opening scene is undoubtedly the most gripping scene in the entire series. Elsa (Isabel May), one of the female protagonists, is seen lying on a field. She opens her eyes and witnesses devastation all around her. As her carriage is seen burning to ashes, she loses her calm and starts shootings at the Native Americans in a fury. That’s how we are introduced to the fierce and bold Elsa.
The scene cuts to an old man sitting on his porch sobbing. It’s Shea Brendon (Sam Eliott) mourning the loss of his wife and daughter. After deliberating suicide for a few minutes, he decides against it and is now accompanied by his colleague, Thomas (LaMonica Garrett). When they are on their way to their detective agency, they witness a group of bandits trying to steal a carriage. The single man, James Dutton (Tim McGraw), who is riding the carriage alone, takes them out one by one with his shotgun.
These are the main protagonists of 1883. The show gets a great start, and the first four episodes are absolutely thrilling and interesting. We see how Elsa’s aunt, Claire Dutton, and niece dislike her and tell Elsa’s mother that she needs to be controlled. She treats Elsa poorly for being an “ill-mannered child.”
The entire series is about the immigrants and the Dutton family’s journey from Texas to Oregon. It’s a bleak background story of the Dutton ancestors’ attempts to flee poverty. Shea offers James a chance to travel with them, and he agrees to it. The viewers get the idea early on that this isn’t going to be an easy trail. The characters will be met with destruction, death, and desolation.
What happened to Claire Dutton?
Clair Dutton, Thomas’s sister, is depicted as a jealous and unhappy woman from the get-go. She even goes on to slap Elsa mercilessly in the first episode. She has a daughter, Mary Abel, who is about the same age as Elsa. Just like her mother, even she hates her guts. While camping in the hot Sun, Elsa joins her father and others in finding wild cattle they can eat during their journey.
Things go horribly wrong in their absence. A bunch of cowboys interrupts their halt. Even though they intend to get some river water for the horses, Claire Dutton threatens them and starts throwing rocks at them. A massacre takes place when the cowboys begin shooting in wrath. During this savage shootdown, Claire’s daughter gets shot and dies.
James tries to convince Claire to ride again with them as they head out. However, she refuses and stays back, sitting beside her daughter’s grave. She is broken beyond words. She has had seven children and lost all of them. While the rest of the caravan is moving, James feels he shouldn’t leave his sister alone. When he returns to get her, Claire takes the gun and kills herself. James buries her right next to her daughter.
Who is Ennis?
It’s established from the first episode that Elsa Dutton is not like the rest of the women. She is fierce, ambitious, and a feminist in her own way. Her father and mother support her when she wears pants instead of the traditional corsets and gowns. When she rides with them to find cattle, she meets a young cowboy named Ennis.
They begin to form a good connection, and James approves of courting his daughter and warns him, “You break her heart or get hands, you and me are gonna have a problem.” She falls in love for the first time. She has her first kiss with Ennis, a sweet cowboy who makes her laugh, compliments her, and shares romantic evenings with her under the stars.
When Elsa’s mother, Margaret Dutton, catches them having sex one night, she takes matters into her own hands. She informs James about their physical relationship, and he punches him in the face. Elsa interrupts their fight and says she loves him. They agree to get married, and Elsa is happy.
Sadly, their romance is short-lived. Elsa’s happiness soon turns into grief when Ennis dies in a shootout. She is overcome with sadness. This is a pivotal change in Elsa’s character development. She is no longer the fun-loving girl. Ennis’ tragic death turns her into a cold and hardened woman. In the fifth episode titled, “Today My Eyes Died”, she narrates, “I chose to love him. He chose to love me back. Then chose to protect me. Then a man we’ve never met chose to kill him. And made me colorblind.”
Who is Sam?
The two episodes after Ennis’ death are a little slow, but it soon picks its pace in the 7th episode when the viewers get introduced to Sam. The travelers have decided to halt when they see a vast expanse of dry land. The land belongs to the Indians. Elsa starts talking to a man named Sam. He praises her horse-riding skills and calls her “Lightning Yellow Hair,” hence the episode’s title.
Shea and James discover that the roads ahead are full of bandits, and they will face terrible times. Meanwhile, a ferocious storm engulfs them. The tents are flying, the cattle are gone, the wagons are destroyed, and everyone falls on the ground to not get carried away by the wind. During this tornado, Elsa kisses Sam.
Elsa wants to stay with Sam, but she is met with a vehement refusal from her parents. However, she agrees to ride to Oregon and says she will return to live with him. She braids her hair, and Sam calls her “the wife of a warrior.” Elsa is stronger now, but there is no guarantee about what will happen in their journey and whether they will meet again or not.
1883 (Season 1) Ending, Explained:
Did Elsa really die?
The plot gets intense as Elsa leaves Sam behind. The travelers are on the move again. After some time, they notice some Lakota lying dead on a field. A bloodbath where women and children are dead. They are worried that they might be blamed for this bloodbath. Shea, Thomas, and James decide to hunt these killers before the Lakota kills their entire caravan.
While some of them stay back and wait for them to come back after killing the bandits, Elsa also decides to stay back. They kill the people who are responsible for the bloodbath. Unfortunately, the scene here is getting wild as the Lakota find the caravan and start killing them all. Elsa is shot with an arrow, but she still manages to stop the fight by speaking Comanche.
James finds Lakota and informs him that they’ve killed the ones responsible for the death of his friends and family. Lakota tells him his daughter was the one who stopped the fight, and it’s better to get her to the fort to treat her wound. James rides to Elsa and examines her wound. Sadly, the arrow has pierced her lungs, and he knows Elsa will die.
James takes her to the fort to treat her, but no men would look after her wound. She has a week to live. When Elsa wakes up after three days, her pain is relieved. James doesn’t let her know that she will die, but Elsa knows. She sees it in his eyes. Elsa says goodbye to Shea and Margaret. Elsa chooses the place she wants to be buried. She lays on her father’s lap and whispers to her father that she is not scared.
Meanwhile, Shea fulfills his wish to see the ocean before his death. He sits by the ocean, remembering his wife and daughter, who died of smallpox. As he is enjoying the view of waves crashing against the shoreline, he is joined by a hummingbird implying to the viewers that it’s his wife. Shea finally receives the peace he wanted from the first episode and kills himself. His death is indeed tragic, but that’s what he wanted.
1883 (Season 1) Review:
The story of 1883 is straightforward. There are no layers to it, and the pace may seem slow to many people. However, that doesn’t stop the makers from keeping the story interesting with vivid characters, romance, and explosive shootouts. The music is excellently composed and adds a poetic touch to the events of the show.
Furthermore, Elsa is brilliant as a narrator. The landscapes are spellbinding and will leave you wanting more. This western drama will require patience from some, but some will find it absolutely enthralling and fascinating. It’s a slow-burn series with beautiful narration, interesting characters, and a solid story-line.
