Journey the Rivers of Iron

Last week I rated that episode a 4, this week an improved 6, for several reasons: Elizabeth Stratford (Michelle Randolph) finally stopped whining about her rabies shots; Alexandra (Julie Schlaepfer) finally quit acting like entitled Royalty; and most importantly, more time was spent focusing on Montana and the Dutton Ranch, and the two people I consider the heart and soul of this series: Harrison Ford (Jacob Dutton) and Helen Mirren (Cara Dutton).

However, the interminable and completely uninteresting journeys of Alexandra and Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) continue, hence my Rick Steves reference.

And then, it revisits a storyline I care absolutely nothing about, the Native American on the run, Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) which completely detracts from what should be the central focus: The Dutton Ranch!

Episode four of the second season of "1923," entitled "Journey the Rivers of Iron" and directed by Ben Richardson, propels the series into its grisliest, most complex territory yet, marked by distressing violence, intricate power plays, and moments of fragile hope. It's an episode that not only tests the resilience of its characters but also deepens the thematic scope of the saga, blending a sense of impending modernity with the raw, elemental struggle for survival and dignity.

The chapter launches with Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton), the season's central villain, hosting a gathering of wealthy businessmen. Whitfield's presentation about transforming Montana into a playground for the rich-complete with paved highways, winter resorts, and modern air travel-sets up the primary external threat: the commercialization of the wilderness, mounted squarely against the Dutton family's way of life. This plan is chilling in both ambition and disregard for the region's cultural fabric, positioning Whitfield as the architect of a new, bleak frontier where profit supersedes legacy.

Meanwhile, Alexandra faces immediate peril in New York, violently mugged in a train station bathroom. Her wrenching ordeal is symptomatic of her vulnerable position as a pregnant immigrant alone in a vast, unforgiving city. She manages to board her train to Montana but does so stripped of resources and dignity, heightening the tension around her homecoming and emotional reunion with Spencer. The drama captures both the brutality of urban spaces and the resilience required to traverse them.

At the Dutton ranch, the narrative pivots to a rare spell of optimism as Zane Davis's dangerous surgery proves successful. Fleischmann's performance as Zane is wrenching, his struggle for recovery and the surrounding family's anxiety made palpable through Richardson's intimate filming and restrained script. The success of the surgery injects long overdue hope into a household battered by the ravages of winter, violence, and emotional distress. A domestic miracle is paired with the revelation that Elizabeth is finally pregnant-a long-awaited emotional climax that brings joy and trepidation in equal measure. Jacob's reaction to the news, mixing practical concern with paternal devotion, underscores the persistent tension between hope and the constant threat of loss.

Richardson's camerawork excels at capturing the contrast between the warmth of family and the chill of the looming threats. Muted, icy palettes and close-ups convey the physical and emotional exhaustion felt by the Duttons, while wider frames allow Montana's splendor-and, ironically, its desirability as an investment-to play an ominous supporting role. The episode's editing keeps multiple plot lines distinct but contiguous, balancing Spencer's odyssey, Alexandra's struggle, Zane's convalescence, and the increasingly grotesque developments at Whitfield's estate.

Spencer's journey home is fraught with danger. Detained by law enforcement in Texas, forced into bootlegging schemes, and finally attacked by "tax collectors" on a moving train, his path embodies the series' penchant for escalating, visceral peril. Sklenar brings an embattled, determined energy to Spencer's character, whose running battles, escapes, and brief act of compassion in helping a humiliated sex worker draw out his arc as a beacon of decency amid chaos.

Whitfield's storyline moves further into sadistic territory, baldly exposing the depths of human cruelty. The brutal murder of one of Whitfield's girlfriends and his careless disposal of her body at the now-notorious "train station," a jurisdiction-less dumping ground established by the series, connects the villain's modern ambitions to the Duttons' own future legacy of violence and secrecy (referenced in "Yellowstone"). Banner Creighton's reaction-horror, discomfort, but tacit complicity-complicates his own trajectory, and the scene blurs moral boundaries, pointing to evolving forms of evil in a rapidly modernizing West.

The episode's pacing is purposeful and unforgiving: moments of calm give way to rolling confrontation, the sense of spring's promise set against the knowledge that greater violence and loss lies ahead. Richardson trusts in his cast to elevate these transitions. Michelle Randolph's Elizabeth is a standout, capturing the haunted joy of impending motherhood, while Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren's Jacob and Cara display a mixture of relief, persistent anxiety, and resolve. Alice's watchful fear during Zane's operation and subsequent moments of renewal are delicately rendered as well.

As the cultural ambitions for Montana clash with the region's lived realities, "Journey the Rivers of Iron" examines broader questions about who shapes the meaning of land, identity, and future. Sheridan's script signals an impending transformation of the West that echoes contemporary anxieties-gentrification, displacement, and the erasure of tradition-while wrestling with America's foundational mythos of opportunity.

Despite these strengths, some viewers may find the episode's abrupt violence, including the grisly scenes at Whitfield's estate, both disturbing and narratively overwhelming. The competing threads of Spencer's escape, Alexandra's trauma, frontier medical drama, and impending land grabs risk temporal disorientation, demanding attentiveness from the audience that Sheridan rewards only incrementally.

"Journey the Rivers of Iron" stands as the season's dramatic high-water mark, juxtaposing suffering and hope, cruelty and community, tradition and transformation. Its artistry is evident in the writing, direction, and robust performances; its substance in the courage to confront unpalatable truths about history and human nature. The episode holds a mirror to both past and present, inviting reflection on what must be protected, and at what cost, as the world relentlessly reinvents itself.

Spencer escaped from an murderous sheriff, jumped on a freight train boxcar and finds himself with some murderous vagrants. So far so good, the rest of the episode is top notch and why I gave 8 stars. However, when Spencer is threatened by the vagrants, instead of simply throwing them off, he waits and predictably falls asleep. The vagrants attempt to rob him, he shoots two and knocks out the third.

Now the badly written part...instead of throwing them off the train, he decides to risk hurting himself, jumps off and finds himself in the middle of nowhere. He then proceeds to walk, in the same general direction that the train is going. Why would anyone as clever as Spencer do that?

We all wanted Elsa Dutton to live when we watched the spin-off of Yellowstone called 1883 and it didn't quite happen. If you are looking towards a romance novel on screen then this writer isn't making your fantasies come true. The writer is in fact making a story about a family who has endured decades of trials and tribulations and has intermittent joys in the face of adversity.

We all wanted John Dutton in Yellowstone to retain the ranch and survive to overcome all obstacles for stories to come. For those that hated his death scene, he died as he had lived. Unfittingly! He struggled to maintain integrity and surpass all obstacles his family and future generations would face but in the end he tragically lost his life at the hands of those he placed intermittent faith in. His greatest fears he never faced but his children produced the most heroic outcome the family could ever endure. Sacrifice!

1923 for me has been an amazing interlude that connects the generations and has surpassed my expectations in branching the family genealogy so far. Everyone loved the romance of Spencer and Alexandra. We have endured the heartache of an aging aunt and uncle that struggled to save the land their brother had claim to. The show in the era of 1923 has not only showcased the carefree life of the Roaring 20's in America but also the cursed journeys of those that had to travel 3rd class aboard ship to America. A trip my own great grandparents took with two children. I only want to see more of the tragic events surrounding the Native Americans which my wife is descended from. Perhaps the writer can make another series based on their perspective and their struggles to keep their land.

I look forward to watching the last 3 episodes and have several predictions and of coarse wants. We all want the bad guys to die and they usually do, and the good guys to win and those in love to have a forever dome. Not always a happy ending which is why I like this story! Four episodes to go and let's see what happens folks!

Painting his story on a wide canvas, Sheridan gives a revisionist view of the gritty history of not merely the Duttons and even the villains who oppose them in the fight for land, but the background of what American expansionism was based upon. One might quibble with the CliffsNotes approach and simplification, but it's impressive how his narrative skills can turn a Penny Dreadful series of graphic incidents into the semblance of an epic.

On the human side, we get to see the wry humor of our central protagonists played by Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford as well as the emotional travails experienced by their extended family. Both Spencer and Alexandra, still apart, demonstrate their amazing survival skills and tenacity in well-staged violent outbursts.

For me, the cogency of Taylor's writing as he has Timothy Dalton explain the tourism theory of conquering the Duttons' land to prospective investors is a highlight here, definitely a thinking man's Western, balanced by the red meat exploitation movie elements of his depiction of Dalton's sadism and even a rather provocative, against the grain showing of the prohibition-crusading women mistreating a prostitute with the old tar & feather treatment. I suspect that the cult classic "Lash of the Penitentes" movie from 1936 is one of the writer-director's inspirations..