1923 Season 2 Episode 3 Explores the Immigration Experience Through Alexandra’s Arrival in America

Check out our review of 1923 Season 2 Episode 3 as Spencer and Alexandra as make their way to Montana and Jacob and Jack come home.

The post 1923 Season 2 Episode 3 Explores the Immigration Experience Through Alexandra’s Arrival in America appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Despite the 1923 Season 2 Episode 3 title, I don’t want to “Wrap Thee In Terror.

” I’m ready for a win already, aren’t you?

And surprisingly, the Duttons scored a couple. Logically, they have to win now and again, or else they’ll just give up.

Since we know they keep going through 2024, the line survives in the face of the neverending horrors in their paths.

First, the woman gnawed to death by a wolf in the Yellowstone living room? A random woman we’ve never seen before. Do they have servants? I thought they were all alone up there. 

Elizabeth was bitten in the chicken coop, and Cara gets food in the root cellar on her own, and they cook it themselves. Who the hell was that random woman on their floor?

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Well, she’s dead now, and Elizabeth is alive. She’s ornery and angry, but she’s alive.

She was serious about leaving Montana, too, and she’d already begun packing when Jack returned. He’d just suffered his own ordeal, but no loving arms were awaiting him.

Nobody thought anyone surviving the blizzard under the overturned wagon would die, but it was going to be problematic for them to get home.

We weren’t part of that journey, though. Just as the doctor was heading out, he spotted Jacob, Jack, and Zane’s family coming over the hill.

I hope he has no family because caring for the Duttons is a full-time job.

Elizabeth made no bones about how angry she was when she saw Jack, and when it was time for her next rabies shot, she wanted him to remain in the room so he could see exactly why she wants him to follow her to Boston if he wants to have a future with her.

Things may have been less than desirable for Elizabeth, but Zane and Alice haven’t exactly been living the life of Riley, either.

It’s 1923, and it’s the middle of Nowheresville, Montana, and Zane needs his skull drilled to relieve the pressure on his brain, or else he’ll die.

How could you not chuckle when Jacob gave him the “‘I’ve got some good news and some bad news” speech?

Zane is a pragmatic guy, so he’ll likely take it in stride, but brain surgery without anesthesia doesn’t sound fun. Although I understand they do it frequently, the most painful part is, of course, drilling the hole.

Harrison Ford’s comedic timing works so well in this role. Although his family may always be in danger, his dry humor is like an instant salve for even the worst circumstances. 

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As for Jacob’s other nephew, he’s still fighting his way back to Montana. But he’s not playing games anymore.

Luca’s cousin made it seem like the journey would be quite easy with the cash he’d given them for roadblocks to, effectively, remove them. When Spencer saw men with guns looking for booze and who knows what else, he decided parting ways with the easily swayed Luca was the best option.

Within minutes, Luca was dead. Spencer may be back in the US, but he’s still got a long way to go to reach Montana.

It’s not the same journey his parents took on 1883, but structural growth hasn’t caught up with the human mentality trying to control it.

That couldn’t have been more evident than on Alexandra’s leg of the journey home. 

She’s in America, too, but she’s discovering that Lady Liberty isn’t as welcoming as the advertisements proclaimed.

Taylor Sheridan loves America, but he doesn’t shy away from its ugliness, either. Coming to America could be quite daunting, especially when you had nobody waiting for you on the other end.

Of course, Alex’s seemingly tall tale was entirely true, but when there are thousands of people sharing similar (untrue) stories, you can’t necessarily blame immigration officials for being somewhat insulting.

What you can blame them for is the lack of humanity they showed throughout the process. I think they got so used to the huddled masses that they treated them no better (and sometimes worse) than the cattle raised in the West.

Alex is extraordinarily strong but couldn’t hold herself together during multiple full-body exams. It was humiliating and frightening. 

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Pregnant women without predetermined plans or an escort into the country were particularly vulnerable during the process, as their need to prove their value to the country was made more difficult by the extra mouth to feed and their physical condition.

But was there anything more satisfying than how Alexandra used her intelligence and wit (the latter of which at first almost landed her in hot water) to take down the sleazy immigration officer? 

Understandably, you’d be wary of falsehoods, but to demand sex for entry or insult new arrivals makes you the problem, not the people you’re supposed to be welcoming in or weeding out.

Getting an idea of what awaited people at Ellis Island was worth the time. It’s especially interesting from Alex’s point of view as royalty-adjacent. It didn’t (and still doesn’t) matter who you were elsewhere. It matters how you arrive and what support you have waiting for you.

Circumstance is everything.

In her letter to Spencer, which closed out the episode, she imagined what fresh hell might be awaiting her, as nature does everything in its power to keep them apart. Right behind her, a pickpocket trails. 

That’s a significant red flag on the play.

The episode also incorporated Teonna’s story in the vast land of Texas, not far from Spencer but seeming a world apart.

I’m still not sold on telling these disparate stories in the same series. A full-fledged companion series for all Native American stories would have been fantastic. 

Instead, they are underused and shoehorned into the Dutton narrative when the Rainwater narrative is valuable itself.

Their experience during America’s growth was entirely different from the Dutton family’s, and I would have loved the opportunity to explore it a bit more.

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As it stands, Teonna’s journey is similarly one of survival, but it’s marked by being a target. She’s been targeted in one way or another since birth. 

Whether it was to renounce her faith and accept Christianity or to live according to white men’s customs, she’s spent a lifetime trying to prove she’s worth existing as she is.

We got a preview of what’s ahead for her when Runs His Horse met a local cowboy (a grizzled C Thomas Howell) who suggested that if they wanted to help herd cattle, he could promise them much more than free camping.

Mamie Fossett is another character who should have gotten her own series. We already have Lawmen: Bass Reeves, about a well-known black US marshal, so why didn’t Mamie get her own chapter of the existing series? 

On 1923 Season 2 Episode 2, she placated Renaud and the nasty marshal (sorry, but I cannot remember his name and he’s too awful to bother) by posting flyers to help capture Teonna. Still, I suspect she’s going to reconsider now that she learned what they’d done to the Cherokee people.

Since 1923 Season 2 is not confirmed to be its last, perhaps we’ll be lucky enough to spend even more time with all of these characters. The title referring to a year can be limiting, but it’s TV, and we’re willing to go the distance.

What did you think about “Wrap Thee in Terror”? If you’ve got thoughts about this episode or what comes next for 1923, I hope you’ll share them below in a comment. 

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The post 1923 Season 2 Episode 3 Explores the Immigration Experience Through Alexandra’s Arrival in America appeared first on TV Fanatic.