1883 Episode 2 Recap: The Herd Thins
The path west is filled with dangers for Capt. Shea’s wagon train in 1883‘s second episode, and before the hour is up, two (!) members of the Dutton family are no longer with us. But who loses their lives, and how? And, um, aren’t we only a few miles from where we were in Episode 1? Wait until they get into the real wilderness!
Anyway, read on for the highlights of “Behind Us, A Cliff.”
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WAR IS HELL | We open just after the Battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862. James comes to in a field full of dead men, staggers to his feet, and is having trouble processing what’s happened as some Union soldiers come riding by. One of them dismounts and approaches him, addressing him as “Captain” as he sits down next to James. And if you’re like, “That guy looks like Tom Hanks,” it’s because the Union soldier, Gen. George Meade, is played by Tom Hanks.
The general is full of sympathy for Capt. Dutton, who is so overcome, he can’t speak. As James drops his head and weeps, Meade puts his hand on James’ shoulder in comfort. “My father won’t speak of the war,” Elsa’s voiceover tells us. “When men ask if he fought, he says no.” She adds that he spent three years in a Union prison. “When he came home,” Elsa says, “my mother said he weighed 97 lbs.”
ELSA’S NEW JOB | Back to the Duttons’ journey, which has temporarily paused by a river in Texas. Shea asks James for help seeing a man about a herd of cattle, so Papa Dutton tells Elsa to watch little John while he heads out with the captain and Thomas. When the cows prove too costly, Shea decides that they’ll round up some wild beasts by themselves; he hires two cowboys, Ennis and Wade, to provide their services to the wagon train. And when there aren’t enough Germans who know how to ride properly, James tells Elsa to saddle her horse: She’s coming with him.
“How am I supposed to make her a lady when you keep treating her like a man?” Margaret wonders, irked. “Plenty of ladies in this world. Pretty short on decent men, though,” he shoots back, reminding her that her sister, Claire, is kind of a pill and, in a scrape, more apt to make things worse than better. Then he puts a gun in Elsa’s saddlebag, instructs her to stay close to him, and they join up with the cowboys, Shea and Thomas. They hook up with another bunch of cowboys, and the cow hunt is on.
After a night sleeping under the stars, the group gets going well before the sun is up. They’re successful in rounding up a whole bunch of longhorn cows, and Elsa. Is. Hooked. Her smile is huge, and when Shea asks for a volunteer to push the herd from the rear, she happily takes the job. “Freedom is riding wild over untamed land with no notion that any moment exists beyond the one you are living,” voiceovers.
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IN WHICH CLAIRE, AS PREDICTED, MAKES THINGS WORSE | Back at camp, Claire and Margaret bond over being irritated by the Germans’ tendency to carouse at night, complete with loud (though beautiful) live music. But when Claire goes on to bemoan the lack of “civilization” in the place they’re headed, Margaret has had enough. “I don’t recall anyone forcing you on the train, Claire,” Margaret tells her sister. “Fate forced me when it robbed me of a husband and robbed my child of a future with him,” Claire shoots back. They snipe at each other a little more, then Claire stalks off.
The next morning, a band of men ride into camp. They’re menacing, and they don’t like it when Claire demands that they “be gone!” They like it even less when she starts hurling rocks at them as they water their horses; pretty soon, their leader has Claire pinned to the ground. The only thing that stops him from doing what he wants to do is Margaret, who points her shotgun at him long enough for Josef to get the jump on the guy and hit him upside the head. That kicks off a melee, and it seems for a moment like the women and the Germans have managed to drive off the interlopers. But then the gang circles back, firing randomly into the camp and hitting several of the wannabe settlers — including Claire’s insufferable daughter, Mary Abel, killing her instantly.
SWIFT JUSTICE | On the way back to camp, Ennis rides up next to Elsa and asks her to take off her hat so he can better ascertain whether “maybe you’re too pretty for me.” She flirts with him a bit but then acquiesces, and he’s struck. “Yep, too pretty for me, dang it,” he says, as they both laugh.
The levity ends, though, when the cow-herders realize what’s happened to their fellow travelers. Shea asks James to go into town with him, Thomas and Josef to talk with the marshal. Dutton instructs Elsa to sleep with the gun he gave her, then agrees to join the party seeking justice. They meet up with Marshal Jim Courtright (played by Billy Bob Thornton), who deputizes James before they head to the local saloon, where the bandits are likely to be.
The men bring Josef inside and take note when he points out the men who attacked the camp. “Yeah, I know this crew,” Courtright says, then proceeds to shoot them all — with Shea & Co.’s help — right there. “There’s only one killer in Ft. Worth, and that’s me,” Courtright tells the crowd just before he leaves. Shea then tells James that the wagon train has to get moving the next morning, because everyone in town is going to be out for revenge.
CLAIRE’S TRAIL ENDS HERE | Bright and early, Shea is giving the Germans general “how not to die on the trail” tips when James and Margaret see that Claire is not planning to leave her daughter’s gravesite. He tells her she’ll die if she stays, but she’s not moved. She explains that she’s had seven children and they’ve all died, and she’s ready to stop doing… everything. He tries one mor time, she damns him, and he leaves her crying by the river.
Then it’s time to move out! The cowboys decide to keep working with the wagon train. Margaret, who’s driving the Dutton’s wagon, is angry that James didn’t do more to get her sister to come with them. He swings back, taking the shovel with him, and gets there in time to watch his sister-in-law shoot herself in the head next to her daughter’s final resting place. James digs her a grave, and Shea — who also lost a teen daughter and who says he admires Claire’s “courage” — helps.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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