Dutton and Whitfield’s war comes to a blood-soaked close, but who survives the series' conclusion?
But theYellowstoneprequel isn’t going quietly.
The finale opens on the Dutton ranch, where everyone’s on edge over Whitfield’s imminent attack.
Helen Mirren as Cara in ‘1923’ season 2, episode 7.Credit:Trae Patton/ Paramount
“I’m not a good man,” he tells his wife.
Sitting in the dark, he goes on to detail the depths of Whitfield’s evilness.
He can’t take it anymore.
Aminah Nieves as Teonna in ‘1923’ season 2, episode 7.Lauren Smith/ Paramount
He asks his wife to pack their belongings.
“We’re leaving.”
But the tenacious duchess has an idea.
She returns to the vehicle and builds a tiny campfire on its floorboards.
The scene starkly transitions from Alex burning newspapers to Whitfield reading the day’s news at breakfast.
The Crow Native American helping her with the investigation quickly connects the clues to determine what happened.
He also spots smoke in the distance.
Unaware she’s about to be left alone, Teonna takes a shot at the group from a distance.
Fossett and the men catch up with her, and a shoot-out ensues.
Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton and Robert Patrick as Sheriff McDowell in ‘1923’ season 2, episode 7.Trae Patton/ Paramount
Teonna kills the deputy, but Fossett gets the jump on her before she can get off another shot.
The Marshal clearly feels for the girl, but tells her a judge will have to decide her fate.
Back at the train station, Jacob encounters Banner.
Jennifer Carpenter as Marshal Mamie Fossett in ‘1923’ season 2, episode 7.Lauren Smith/ Paramount
The former assumes the latter is there to join his men and kill Spencer when he arrives.
Jacob tells him that he’s not allowed to run from the war he started.
He agrees to spare the sheepherder’s family, but demands Banner stay to finish the fight.
Banner may have abandoned Whitfield’s war against the Duttons, but his men didn’t get the memo.
Four cars full of armed goons arrive at the ranch.
Severely outnumbered, the tiny Dutton army does its best to hold off the attackers.
But it’s not looking good.
Her angry prayers are answered, however, when she hears a train in the distance.
Not just any train her husband’s train.
She ignites the dying fire with the remaining whiskey from the Brits' flask.
Spencer sees the burning car, then spots Alex waving her arms.
The reunion we’ve been waiting literal years for finally comes to fruition.
It’s a beautiful, emotional moment punctuated by Alex revealing that she’s pregnant.
“No, it slipped my mind,” he dryly replies.
Prepared to carry her to the next town, Spencer scoops her up in his arms.
Unsurprisingly, their feel-good moment is interrupted when Alex winces in pain.
Luckily, they spot the train up ahead it has stopped and is waiting for them.
Alex is immediately seen by a doctor, who removes her gloves and socks to reveal her extreme frostbite.
He also notices she’s pregnant and suffering from dehydration.
Back at the ranch, Cara and the cowboys have managed to hold off the gunmen.
In fact, Banner’s army is retreating.
Zane knows better though.
As she sobs, wondering what he’s about to do, he kisses her and his son.
“Trust me,” he says, before heading outside.
He leaves Alex, who’s beginning to warm up.
As expected, chaos ensues.
Whitfield’s forces who are seemingly everywhere respond in kind, while civilians chaotically scatter.
As gunfire fills the air, Clyde spies Spencer in the train.
He takes a shot at him, but misses.
While bodies drop left and right, Banner’s family attempts to board.
The two exchange a friendly glance.
Before Jacob can take a breath, though, Clyde gets a bead on him.
But Dutton is saved once again, this time by Banner, who shoots Clyde dead.
Sheriff McDowell, who’s on the ground wounded, sees Banner kill Clyde.
Unaware of the livestock agent’s betrayal, he puts two bullets in Banner’s chest.
His wife screams from inside the train as he’s gunned down.
When the dust finally settles in Dutton’s favor, no less Jacob approaches the dying Banner.
He respects that his enemy kept his word and stuck around to finish what he started.
In turn, Jacob gives Banner his word that he’ll ensure his family gets to Portland safely.
Jacob pops his head out to confirm the sheriff is okay.
McDowell is propped up on a bench and still breathing, so all good.
Spencer takes his uncle to meet Alex and figure out their next move.
He kisses his wife goodbye and says he’ll meet her in Bozeman.
The tommy-gun-toting attacker lays down cover fire while another dozen or so men charge the house.
A literal firing squad unloads everything they’ve got into the home.
Just as Zane expected, some of the men toss molotov cocktails into the house.
The cowboy is able to put out the fire, but not before taking a slug.
But instead, she spots her long-lost nephew through the scope.
The cavalry has arrived.
He then puts several more holes in several more men who’ve breached the house.
Spencer yells for his aunt, who immediately comes running down the stairs to greet him.
After all those heartfelt letters, begging her nephew to return home, Cara finally comes face-to-face with Spencer.
The pair enjoy a beautiful, emotional embrace, but of course it’s cut short by new trouble.
Cara notices Jacob has not returned, while Elizabeth notes Jack (Darren Mann) is still missing.
Spencer tells his aunt that Jacob is safe with Alex in Bozeman, but Jack is still unaccounted for.
Cara sends two of the cowboys to look for him.
At the hospital, we learn Jacob’s injury is just an old wound aggravated during the gunfight.
He enters to find her giving birth.
The doctors tell her that the baby is premature and won’t survive.
They want to abort the pregnancy and get Alex to surgery as soon as possible.
It seems she’s also at death’s door due to her frostbitten appendages becoming necrotic.
The doctors must amputate both her legs and one of her hands.
But she’s not hearing it.
Alex insists on delivering her child.
Upon giving birth, she asks to hold her baby.
The baby begins to cry, and Alex again asks to hold it.
The doctor warns Alex that she’ll die if her necrotic extremities are not amputated.
But she’s willing to take that chance if it means getting even an hour with her newborn.
With some strong urging from Jacob, the doctor hands the baby over to Alex.
She begins breastfeeding and tells Jacob she’s going to name him John, after his brother.
Evaluating the dire reality of the circumstances, Jacob gently suggests Alex leave the baby and go to surgery.
Cara and Spencer soon arrive at the hospital.
Both Alex and the baby are still hanging on.
With tears welling in his eyes, Spencer lays down beside his wife and child.
When he wakes the next morning, Alex has passed on, but the baby is still breathing.
He wants to go see the man ultimately responsible for his wife’s death.
Before we come to that satisfying confrontation, though, we briefly return to the ranch.
The next scene reveals that the cowboys sent out to find Jack have discovered his body on the trail.
When we cut back to Spencer, he is walking towards Whitfield’s mansion.
Loyal prostitute Lindy lunges at Spencer with a knife.
He shoots her, too, before letting the other, terrified woman leave.
Jacob then enters the room.
Clutching his fresh wound, Whitfield reminds Dutton of the oath he took when accepting his badge.
Whitfield continues, “So be it to jail we go,” and begins to stand.
Spencer puts another bullet in him.
Jacob explains that they’ve already killed anyone they’d need to answer to.
But Spencer just wants vengeance.
“You killed my wife,” he growls, pointing his pistol at Whitfield’s head.
With Whitfield dead and Spencer reunited with his family, theYellowstoneprequel wraps up Teonna’s plight.
Charged with three counts of murder at the Indian boarding school, she sits before a judge.
Unfortunately for the prosecution, the only witnesses to her crime Father Renaud and Marshal Kent are dead.
But with no family left, she doesn’t know exactly where to go.
He tells her to head to California, where she’ll have an easier time starting over.
As Teonna rides west, he yells to her that she did the right thing by fighting back.
“Maybe,” she replies, “but it cost me everything.”
Back at the ranch, the Duttons hold a small funeral for Alex and Jack.
After the service, Cara feeds now-thriving baby John on the porch.
A car arrives to pick up Elizabeth.
Over by the barn, Spencer is preparing to wrangle wild cattle in the mountains.
He asks Jacob to join him, but the Dutton patriarch is retired.
They say their goodbyes, for now, and Spencer rides off to be a rancher.
As promised, Jacob joins Cara on the porch.
She asks him what Alex was like.
Can you imagine?"
“Who’d have thought there’d be two?”
he fires back without missing a beat.
The two exchange loving smiles, and the camera begins to pull back.
It briefly hovers over Spencer, as Elsa Dutton’s narration offers a teasing peek into his future.
We then see an older, grayer Spencer hobbling to his true love’s grave.
The series' final scene offers a heartfelt peek at that reunion.
In the apparent afterlife, they meet at a fancy ball.
Dressed to the nines, they smile at each other from across the room.
Spencer approaches Alex and takes her hand.
“Took you long enough,” she says.
He holds her close as they slow-dance and, finally, enjoy the happy ending they deserve.
