1923 Season 2 Episode 7 Recap: A Dream and a Memory

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This is a complete, scene-by-scene recap of “A Dream and a Memory.” There is no commentary or fluff; just the facts. For a discussion of the finale, visit our 1923 Season 2 Episode 7 review.

Now, before you go any further… turn away if you haven’t seen the episode!

Cara sits on the porch while Zane walks the perimeter of the house. He wishes she were inside rather than out. She thinks she has plenty of time to run inside if the bullets start flying. 

She’s determined that Spencer will be home today. Elizabeth joins her on the porch. She’s worried since Jack never came home. Cara asks her to sit. 

Jacob has made it 80 years without Jack’s help, but her nephew thought he needed it nonetheless. Jack can’t make decisions alone anymore because he’s got a family. There are consequences for his actions that affect more than him. Cara just hopes he’s learned his lesson before it’s burned into her memory.

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Cara shooshes Elizabeth inside before she catches her death. “Death is the only thing you can catch out here” is Elizabeth’s retort.

At the train station, nothing has happened yet. They’re just waiting around. Jacob asks who the extra guys are, and the sheriff tells him how he and Cara hired them.

Banner’s wife finds him sitting in the dark. He’s struggling with not being a good man. He got fed up with being taken, but he’s not evil. He doesn’t take pleasure in another man’s pain. He’s considering working on a fishing trawler for $20. He thinks Jacob is the biggest taker in the state, but he’s not evil.

Whitfield is evil. His heart is black as coal. Banner respects Dutton, but he fears Whitfield, who takes so others can suffer. Seeing Whitfield in action with the whores really struck Banner. He seems terrified for his soul. He won’t be able to look his son in the eye, not anymore.

Banner wants Ellie to get packed. They’re leaving.

Alex is struggling with the cold. She gets angry, screaming her frustrations out loud. She climbs into the front seat and opens Hillary’s purse, taking out a small flask. She looks outside the car and returns quickly. Her hands appear to be frostbitten. She takes Hillary’s gloves and puts them on. They are not gloves that will provide warmth.

Anger gets the better of her, and she darts into the cold toward Paul. She rummages through his pockets, finding and discarding his cash. She finds a lighter and rushes back to the car. She opens the windows. She’s going to start a fire right there in the car.

She can barely work the lighter. Her hands are frozen, so it’s no surprise. She burns paper, but it’s hardly enough to warm her. She adds a handkerchief and more paper. The camera pans out, and you can see the fire inside of the car.

Servants put out breakfast at Whitfield’s house. The whore is showering with her prey so that the rest of us can vomit. Time to fast forward. Five whole minutes wasted on that nonsense.

Mamie and a Native tracker have come across Pete’s Pete’s body and the nasty marshal’s. She wonders if it’s the girl, but the tracker says it was the priest. They spot smoke in the distance — the priest.

Whitfield’s men are making their way to Yellowstone. The signal? There is no signal. Just start killing.

Jacob waits uneasily by the train tracks, eyeing the fellows Sheriff McDowell hired. The sheriff reports that the train will arrive at 2:20. The station is filling up with strangers. 

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Jacob’s first opinion is that everyone is a traveler. Then Banner and his family enter the station. It’s $67 for a sleeper car. If the train arrives early, it leaves early, too.

Jacob says this is cowardly camouflage. He is under indictment, so he can’t leave. Banner says he can’t leave the country, but he can leave the state. He’s getting out while he still can.

He tells Jacob that he’ll never keep his land. There will always be someone else coming for it, even if Whitfield dies. Banner says they’ll never let Spencer leave the station alive, and Jacob says he won’t let Banner get on that train, either. He started this, so he doesn’t get to leave until it’s finished.

As long as his family leaves, Banner will remain behind. He doesn’t want the lessons he’s been teaching his son the last to go. Banner also tells Jacob that this isn’t the only place where Whitfield’s army will be.

When he rejoins his family, Banner transfers his money to Ellie’s bag. He gives her instructions about how to act when the platform becomes chaotic. 

The train is making its way. A little boy spots buffalo, shouting excitedly. Spencer talks with him about the animals and Montana. He tells the boy about the battle of Little Big Horn and Custer’s defeat. (FYI: it was one of my father’s favorite historical moments.)

Spencer removes a lion’s tooth from his pocket. It’s from Africa. The kid offers to trade his pen knife for the truth. The boy says it was from the revolutionary war. His mom doesn’t know he has it, so he can’t get in trouble for trading it away.

Spencer was planning on giving the tooth to his son one day. Tucker wonders what his name is, commenting that you don’t meet your son, you have to create him. Spencer gives Tucker the tooth, and the boy calls him a sucker. You can get a pocket knife anywhere, but that’s probably the only lion’s tooth in the whole country.

Mamie finds the other bodies. The tracker thinks the priest probably killed Runs His Horse. The priest ran out of ammo, and the girl who protected herself. The tracker thinks that the problem isn’t the girl, but the men who are doing all the killing. 

While her cohort reminds her of the warrant, she has no reason to follow it. They were sent here to find the men, and they did. But then Teonna shoots at them, and now the chase is on.

Mamie asks the marshal not to shoot, but he does anyway, knocking Teonna off her horse. She’s without bullets and running like a caged animal. Mamie is taking Teonna in, regardless. Teonna’s words about the abuse she suffered has a profound effect on Mamie. 

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Mamie didn’t know about the schools, but the tracker does. She gets Teonna’s rifle and asks if the men lied about her killing. Teonna killed those who tried to kill her and her cousin. The tracker puts cuffs on her. They get the other marshal’s badge and boots.

Teonna has been captured.

The posse of cars filled with men have arrived. They descend on foot toward the ranch or toward the station. It’s hard to tell which. A ranch lookout wakes up, waking up the other guy. The men on foot are definitely heading toward the ranch. 

If we didn’t know the Duttons survive to this day, I’d wonder if Whitfield might win. 

Cara hears a horse outside. She opens the window and hears gunshots — lots of them. As the man makes his way to the ranch, Cara directs Elizabeth to get the rifle and hide in the conversation pit. Zane gives her more directions. Get high and give them cover.

More men are on the ranch, opening the gate so that cars can come through. These guys don’t stand a chance.

Zane orders them to shoot the drivers first and then get back to the house to fight them from there. He gives each man a driver to shoot. It’s a fairly effective strategy. Zane just wants to slow them down while the other men to get on the roof for a better vantage point.

There are more cars coming. Inside, one of the men tells Zane’s wife to take her children to the basement, Elizabeth, too. Elizabeth wants to hold her position.

That roof is so steep.

Four more cars have arrived. 

Cara is taking down the man, saying, ” Of all the things I had to do for this ranch, this takes the cake. This takes the bloody cake.”

This is like a bloody war. The shooting never stops. On the plus side, the high vantage point is working. The infiltrators retreat to their cars.

The train is approaching. Jacob spots the arrivals. There are a lot of them. He looks so old and incapable by comparison. There are about a dozen men, plus Banner and whoever else they haven’t mentioned yet. McDowell thinks they can stop them before it comes to bringing in reinforcements. Jacob disagrees.

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Banner’s son asks what’s in Portland — his future. Banner says men get rich somewhere else and then return to Montana to get even richer. 

Alex has run out of fuel for her fire, and in tears, she begins burning Spencer’s letters from Cara. She sobs when she lights the first one. She asks God, is this your plan for us? To let us know loves and reap it from us? To give us a child, drag her through hell, and freeze her to death, just hours from her love? What kind of God does that?

The train whistle sounds outside. Yep, she’s going to be on Spencer’s train when it reaches the station.

She gets back in the car and looks for the flask. She’s going to need a bigger fire. As it’s set, she jumps out of the car and begins waving her arms. The conductor sees her. Spencer sees her. He books like a mother to the rear of the train. He jumps.

The other conductor sees him. Alex thinks she’s dreaming of Spencer, but he’s really running down the tracks and calling her name. They run into each other’s arms, and she sobs. She laughs. You lept from the train? Did you by chance ask the train to stop for us?

So good of you to join me in this pickle, so free from the burden of a solution. Big Timber is two miles from here. This scene is what the entire season has been missing. As he runs her, lighter than an elk quarter, she tells him it’s his fault she’s heavy. She supposes he’ll be tall like Spencer.

The train is returning, and they’re soon safe inside. She’s not doing well, though. She’s practically frozen through. An on-board doctor is here for her. Alex’s fingers are black. The odds she’ll keep them are pretty slim. Her feet, too, are badly affected. 

The doctor asks for warm water and towels fast. He explains how little research there is about cold, but her clothes are as cold as she is, and they have to remove them fast. Shivering is good because it’s her body trying to fix her.

Alex was minutes away from death when they found her. The doctor wonders if she was hallucinating or anything, but Spencer says she always says such stuff. The doctor can’t believe they are husband and wife. At what point is Spencer going to use his nude body to warm hers? 

Alex is six months pregnant and her body will do what’s necessary to keep the child alive. She teases Spencer, “my body is a miracle, you hear that?” He says he was always coming for her. She didn’t have to go through this. 

They have to take Alex straight to Bozeman to the hospital. 

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Meanwhile, at the ranch, things are quite perilous. The men ran down the hillside. They’ll be there until tonight. Zane doesn’t think that it will be that simple. When he finds Cara, he laughs. He thought the men were getting lucky shots. 

They need wind. Will God provide?

If they get in the house, just pray for wind and a bright moon. Cara will ask for wind and pray her husband returns with Spencer right behind him.

The train is late, but it’s right around the bend.

Alex’s temperature is rising. They have another 30 miles or so, Spencer says. 

Banner gives Ellie more instructions. There’s enough money for her to start over, start clean. He’s going to join the fight, but will he be fighting for or against Jacob Dutton?

Spencer spots the impending chaos on the train platform. Alex is right next to the window. 

The fat redhead that McDowell and Cara hired takes a shot at Spencer in the train. Jacob is standing there as bullets whiz by. Banner’s wife and child get on the train, helped by Spencer. Banner holds his eyes.

McDowell is on the ground and kills Banner. Only Jacob is still standing. He is surprised that Banner is a man of his word after all. He promises Banner again that his family will get to Portland. Jacob finds Spencer on the train. What was this, Spencer wonders?

Fear and arrogance, Jacob says. It’s a massacre inside, too. The doctor sees Jacob is shot. The doctor says to carry on to Bozeman. Spencer chooses to accompany Alex. When Jacob says he may not have a home if he goes, Spencer introduces Jacob to Alex. “War isn’t a metaphor in this family, I’m discovering,” she says.

Spencer is leaving her to go fight for his family. If they want a life here, he has to fight. She urges him to go. War is why he came here.

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Jacob will be accompanying Alex to Bozeman. He says, “I got a funny feeling you have quite a story to tell.”

Jacob takes what he needs from McDowell and joins the men.

Elsa pipes up. “In her heart, she feared she’d never see him again. But she saw him, tasted him one last time. For her, that was enough.”

Spencer has his elephant gun that can shoot through corners.

The fight is on at the ranch — one man is already down on the roof. Height is no longer an advantage. As soon as Zane lifts the slats on the blinds, the gunshots ring out full force. The combatants lob a firebomb inside. Zane puts it out.

He runs for the stairs, but Elizabeth is still under the coffee table, and she shoots their ankles. She’s a little slow reloading, and Zane saves her. 

Whitfield is blathering on about changing the wild beauty of Montana into a playground for the rich. God. I hate him so much.

Alex is being loaded into an ambulance. Jacob will ride with her. In fact, he demands it. She asks him to check to see if there is sufficient fuel for a five-to-six mile journey. He never heard a woman ask that question before. Once bitten, twice shy, Jacob.

Spencer and the others arrive at the ranch. They’ll continue under the cloak of darkness.

Cara can’t get a good shot on one of the drivers. Then she sees two additional cars coming. Wait! It’s Spencer! Spencer is here!

The combatants break into the house. Spencer uses one weapon to take down several. It’s quite handy. Spencer enters the house and takes out seven of them without hesitation. Cara runs into Spencer’s arms. One of the other guys says, dang, Spencer, I didn’t even get to fire a shot.

Spencer tells Cara where Jacob is and that his wife is quite a woman. Elizabeth doesn’t see Jack. Spencer asks who the leader is, and Cara gives him an apt description. 

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I love how fast Jacob has come to love Alex. She’s given birth. The body is aborting the pregnancy. She refuses to give up. If they don’t amputate immediately, she will not live to see the morning. The baby is so tiny. Very, very tiny. But it’s not dead. She’s confident it’s a boy and demands they bring the baby to him.

The doctor says the baby will not survive the hour. She demands the hour, and Jacob backs her up. Good God. This is painful. The baby sucks on Alex’s breast without hesitation, while the doctor says, “no crueler thing than hope.”

The doctor says they will both die if she doesn’t have surgery. Alex says she doesn’t need one. She’s going to name him John, after his brother. Jacob says he’d like the name, but he’d like a world with her in it more. She can’t raise a child with stubs for feet or clubs for hands. 

She thinks all of her conversations with Spencer are over. In truth, she did all of the conversing. But Jacob wants her to tell him herself. She says that’s her plan, but you see how well those plans are working out.

The cowboys find Jack in the woods.

Cara and Spencer arrive to find Jacob in the hallway. Alex is still alive when Spencer visits. She has not had surgery, but she holds the baby. 

Alex says they wanted to take her legs, her hand, and her baby, and send them away like rubbish. Spencer says her legs are a long way from her heart. She isn’t a dreamer. She doesn’t imagine running through fields. She had to do it, and she would never trade what they made for herself.

She wants Spencer to be patient with John. If he’s anything like her, he’ll be a terrible child. He lays donw on the bed with them.

Cara says, I wish I could have met her. Jacob says she would have liked her. Mustang wild like someone else he knows.

Cara sends someone off for a milk goat that’s producing now. 

Cara wants to go into the room. She sees them all on the bed, but she doesn’t go in. Perhaps tomorrow.

It’s spring. The birds are nesting.

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Spencer wakes to find Alex dead and their baby alive. He calls for Cara. He doesn’t know what to do. He’s not supposed to, but she does. She takes the baby, and Spencer leaves the room. He wants to meet the man who killed his wife.

This is going to be a scene like when Beth killed Jamie. It will be momentarily cathartic, and then nothing. The girl with the black eye leaves, and Whitfield spits out that the prodigal son has approved. Whitfield blathers on about Jacob’s oath. He stands, saying to jail we go. Spencer shoots him.

Spencer takes out his grief on Whitfield, and they burn the place to the ground.

Teonna is in court, and a judge wonders why she’s even here. They have no evidence or testimony. The prosecution makes a motion to dismiss. Please, the judge says. And that’s it.

The tracker tells her she was right to fight back. She says maybe, but it cost her everything. It always does, he replies.

A funeral is held for Alex and Jack.

Elizabeth says goodbye to the family. Cara assures her that she’s not quitting. Her reason for being here is gone. She hopes she finds another reason, getting her senses muddled now and again and that she writes about all of her grand adventures. 

Cara returns her attention to the future bundled in her arms. Elizabeth is a window to the past. When Elizabeth says she’ll always love him, Cara says she won’t, and that’s OK. She’ll remember him enough for both of them.

Spencer plans on rounding up wild cattle. Jacob sits this one out to stare at his son and ponder the meaning of life, shit like that. 

Cara asks what Alex was like. Jacob says if shooting stars could talk… that’s what she was like. Who knew there could be two?

Elsa says Spencer never remarried. He took the comfort of a widow and made another boy, refused to marry her. One day, the widow was gone. Spencer’s memories of Alex never faded. They didn’t dull or fray. 

Alex was 23 when she died. And 43 years later, Spencer joined her. We get a dream sequence of them finding each other again. But would that be where they found each other? I rather think it would be on the wild plains of Africa. 

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