Warning! SPOILERS For 1923 Season 2, Episode 6, "The Mountain Teeth Of Monsters"

Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) recreates his family’s 1883 journey in Yellowstone’s Dutton family. The earliest-set Dutton family story witnesses Spencer’s parents, James (Tim McGraw) and Margaret Dutton (Faith Hill), make a northwest journey along the Oregon Trail. Spencer wasn’t yet born in the show’s title year, so Margaret’s youngest child wasn’t a part of the family’s expedition from Texas to Montana.

Spencer was born after the family made it to Paradise Valley. While he missed out on his older siblings’ greatest thrills, 1923 season 2, arriving from international waters.

Spencer Dutton Recreates His Family’s 1883 Journey

Spencer Travels From Texas To Montana In 1923

Shea Brennan’s (Sam Elliott) wagon train starts their Oregon Trail journey in Fort Worth. From there, they cross the Brazos River in Texas and navigate the plains. After evading almost every obstacle the trail hurls at them, James’ family heads for the mountains. The route is similar to the journey that Spencer makes in 1923 season 2, albeit 40 years earlier. After Spencer arrives by Italian freighter at the Port of Galveston in Texas, James’ son plans to board a train in Fort Worth heading to the Rocky Mountains.

Spencer gets sidetracked and targeted after unwittingly saving Luca (Andy Dispensa), a member of the Maceo family, who operates a branch of the Italian Mafia in Galveston. After overcoming several obstacles that ultimately led to Spencer’s phone call in 1923 season 2, episode 5, Jacob’s (Harrison Ford) nephew gets a free ride on a train heading to Montana, thanks to Marshal Mamie Fossett (Jennifer Carpenter). While Spencer’s journey resembles his family’s in many ways, things are relatively smooth-sailing once he boards the train.

Alex’s Trip To Montana Upholds The 1883 Duttons’ Legacy

Alexandra Dutton Travels Like The Pioneers In 1923

While it takes place 40 years later, Alex’s journey looks closer to the reality of Spencer's family's trip. Paul (Augustus Prew) notes this at the beginning of their journey, saying they will “travel like the pioneers.” Spencer’s family was one of the pioneer groups that Paul references, and his comparison isn’t much of a stretch. While Alex, Paul, and Hillary (Janet Montgomery) make their journey by car, the trip through the mountains has the same perils. Therefore, though Alex's friends in 1923 traveled further north, from Chicago to Wyoming, their journey better replicates the Oregon Trail experience.

The Oregon Trail was the ultimate road trip. While the journey begins as fun-natured in 1923 season 2, episode 6, technology has not evolved enough in the 40 years that separate 1883 and 1923 to guarantee that the crew will make a safe voyage, especially in the winter. The biggest threat to the pioneers along the Oregon Trail was ultimately winter, which would freeze the party in their tracks. This proves to be the case with Paul and Hillary, who can’t heat themselves enough to survive, despite their fancy motorcar, when it runs out of gas and leaves them stranded.

As determined as James was to outrun winter in 1883 before Elsa’s fate caused a detour, their journey could have ended like Paul and Hillary’s at any time.

With their plans falling apart and provisions running short, Paul and Hillary recreate a true Oregon Trail experience, just as the former predicted. The fate is similar to the one that James and his family avoided, with Elsa’s death in 1883 potentially saving the rest of her family. As determined as James was to outrun winter in 1883 before Elsa’s fate caused a detour, their journey could have ended like Paul and Hillary’s at any time. From Tennessee, James’ family didn’t know much about the cold, and it could have closed in on them as winter approached, killing them indefinitely.

Alex’s 1923 Season 2, Episode 6 Story Is A Harsh Reminder Of Yellowstone’s Themes

Nature Itself Is The Only Victor Of Life’s Innate Battle For Survival

Alex’s trip from Chicago to Wyoming is a harsh reminder of Yellowstone’s themes, further tying it to the prequel. A common thread in Yellowstone is that people can’t outsmart nature. Elsa Dutton calls the viewer’s attention to the wild and untamed quality of the land throughout 1883. While Elsa initially romanticizes the journey, she has a series of sobering realizations as of her wagon train succumb to the landscape, such as when they drown in the Brazos. While humans seemed to have the upper hand by the 1920s, 1923 exists to disprove that.

In 1923 season 2’s premiere, a mountain lion hunts the Dutton family from their porch. Similarly, a wolf bites Elizabeth Strafford (Michelle Randolph) in episode 2, proving that Cara Dutton’s (Helen Mirren) clan isn’t safe despite 1923’s modern conveniences. Ultimately, man’s inability to conquer nature is a warning that the screenwriter writes into all of his stories, and Paul and Hillary’s fate is an exclamation mark for Taylor Sheridan’s message. After Alex's friends die, Elsa Dutton’s narration in episode 6’s ending soliloquy makes a grave statement, warning of a sixth mass extinction:

Man destroys everything. He has been at war with this world since he first entered it. War with its trees. War with its weather. So is everything else. If it was up to the wolves, it would be wolves and nothing else. Same goes for the bear and the snake and the spider. Trees grow tall to rob sunlight from all beneath it. Nothing coexists. Life is a constant state of battle for survival. And only one thing rings victorious: the world itself. Earth is not a benign rock condemned to endure countless little rapes from its inhabitants. It is a living, evolving, interactive being capable of wiping all existence by the simplest of wobbles on its axis. There have been five mass extinctions on this planet where almost all life was eradicated, its occupiers cleansed from this place. It only stands to reason that a sixth one is coming.

Elsa extends Sheridan’s message to John Dutton's (Kevin Costner) series, with Elsa Dutton’s Yellowstone narration capping the season 5 finale. At the end of Beth’s (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce’s (Luke Grimes) story, Elsa Dutton warns that people cannot own wild land. Spencer's sister reckons that to truly own land, you develop it and “stack it with houses so thick, people can smell each other’s supper.” Her 1923 message warns that life is a constant battle for survival, and Paul and Hillary’s preventable fate is a testament to what can happen when people take civilization for granted, losing sight of that.

How Alex Can Make It To Yellowstone In 1923 Season 2’s Finale

Alex Must Wait For Help

Spencer’s late older sister paints a grim reality in “The Mountain Teeth of Monsters.” It mirrors Alex’s predicament at the end of 1923 season 2, episode 6, prompting the monologue. Still, Alex has proven she is valiant, ready to fight for her survival, which her deceased sister-in-law stresses the importance of. Alex can still make it to Montana, as long as someone eventually comes down the road she’s stranded on. Spencer’s wife just has to hold out and stay vigilant until then, finding some way to provide herself with food, shelter, and warmth in the meantime, although her options are ittedly bleak.

Alex could add insulation, grimly repurposing her friends’ thickest layers to stay warm. From there, I don’t suppose Alex knows how to start a fire, but that’s where I would start in her predicament. In 1923 season 2, episode 2, Jacob and Jack (Darren Mann) improvise a shelter when they are caught in a similar circumstance, tipping over their wagon and crowding underneath it for heat. Alex doesn’t have the same upbringing as Spencer and his family, but we have witnessed her instinct to survive in 1923, and her brave actions thus far prove she still has a chance.