‘1923’ Star Explains Why Elizabeth Fears She’s ‘Signing a Death Warrant’ in Season 2
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for 1923 Season 2 Episode 2, “The Rapist Is Winter.”]
Elizabeth Dutton (Michelle Randolph) is not enjoying her time at the Dutton ranch. The newlywed, originally from a cushier life on the east coast, is struggling to assimilate to the rugged rancher life while husband Jack (Darren Mann), Uncle Jacob (Harrison Ford), and the rest of the Yellowstone’s cowboys are away during a brutal winter in 1923‘s second season.
Season 2 Episode 2 furthered Elizabeth’s hardships in the form of a bad wolf bite, but now she’s making it harder on herself by resisting being vaccinated against rabies, much to Aunt Cara’s (Helen Mirren) disappointment. Elizabeth was nearly attacked by a mountain lion in the Season 2 premiere, and then she was bitten by a wolf in Episode 2 — a wolf that returned, broke into the Dutton home, and killed the nurse providing Elizabeth’s medical aid.
Is Elizabeth at risk of dying at the Dutton ranch, too? Well, they all are. If animals or disease won’t kill you in this time period, lack of resources in a bitter winter could certainly do the trick. And then, of course, there’s the rivalry with Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) that already left her with a gunshot wound, killed her father-in-law, and led to her mother-in-law’s suicide. Randolph tells TV Insider that Elizabeth fears death is right around the corner if she stays much longer.
“At this point she just wants to survive and she feels like, and for good reason, staying on this ranch is signing a death warrant,” Randolph explains to TV Insider. “Everyone around her is dying. I mean, Zane’s [Brian Geraghty] head, a mountain lion, a wolf, the nurse gets eaten in the living rough room. She’s like, is no one seeing this but me? Am I the only one going crazy here? And so that is going through her mind, but that doesn’t make her love Jack any less.”
Trae Patton / Paramount+
A healed gunshot wound has left Elizabeth’s ability to conceive a child up in the air (she had a miscarriage in Season 1, its cause unknown), and the wolf bite made her scared to get the rabies injections in her abdomen. She wanted to take her chances with the rabies, since they didn’t know for sure if the wolf was rabid. But she was forced to take the treatment by being held down while the doctor injected the shot. It was to save her life, but it was distressing for Elizabeth nonetheless.
“This is too much. I love him, but this isn’t living. This is surviving,” she sobbed to Cara after the shot. “Barely at that.” Mirren’s sympathetic aunt/mother figure replied, “Winter’s always hard, and this one’s been harder than most. But then spring comes and there’s nothing so splendid as the mountains in the spring. Wait. Wait ’til you see it.” Elizabeth insisted that she won’t be around to see Montana come back to life. “When the storm passes, I’m going home,” she declared.
“I don’t think she wants to” leave Jack, Randolph says, but as Elsa Dutton’s (Isabel May) narration at the end of the episode warns, “Hell is winter, and winter is here to ravage all of us.” Elizabeth might soon reach her wit’s end.
Are you a fan of all things Yellowstone? Make sure to check out TV Guide Magazine’s Beth Forever special issue.
1923, Sundays, Paramount+
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