Yellowstone Universe
‘1923’ Finale: Mapping Spencer & Alex’s Love Story & Road to Reunion (PHOTO)
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the 1923 Season 2 finale, “A Dream and a Memory.”]
Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) and Alexandra’s (Julia Schlaepfer) love story stretched around the globe in 1923, which just concluded its second (presumed final) season on Sunday, April 6, on Paramount+. After meeting in Kenya in Season 1 and quickly falling into a passionate love, the pair trekked dangerous terrain while getting to know each other more intimately. Animal attacks, shipwrecks, and a dangerously bitter ex couldn’t kill the bond between these soulmates, but they were forced to separate at the end of the first season when Spencer was arrested after a duel with Alex’s ex-fiancé.
Season 2 tracked their road to reunion, and Swooon is doing the same with an original map of their trips around the world. In the graphic below, we map the many stops on their long journey to Montana, starting in Season 1, where they met in Nairobi, Kenya, and stretching all the way to the story’s dramatic conclusion.
The nearly two-hour Season 2 finale reunited the love birds — and expectant parents — at last after they spent the entirety of the previous six episodes traveling alone. Their final destination was the Dutton ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana, but that’s not where their paths met in the end. Fate had a more unexpected reunion for this pair in more ways than one.
Photo-Illustration: Katie Song / Swooon
In Season 1, Spencer and Alex traveled from Nairobi, Kenya, to Zanzibar and Mombasa and then survived a shipwreck and potential shark attack in international waters. They were married on the British Naval ship that saved them, and from there, they eventually transferred to a cruise ship headed for London. Alex’s ex-fiancé, whom she left behind in Nairobi, and his travel party were on the same ship, and a duel between Spencer and the ex resulted in Spencer being arrested and taken to Marseilles, the nearest location to the cruise ship. We’ve marked Marseilles as the point of their separation on the map above.
After several lonely months in her home of Oxfordshire, Alex got to America on a transatlantic ship. Spencer found passage on a merchant ship headed for America. What started as a happy arrival in America for Alex turned into a grueling journey west. She had harrowing experiences on Ellis Island, in Grand Central Station, and on her train to Chicago. A kind British couple, Paul (Augustus Prew) and Hillary (Janet Montgomery), took Alex into their Winnetka, Illinois, home for a brief respite and offered to drive her to Montana themselves. Their journey had stops in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota before their car ran out of gas near a snowy mountain pass somewhere near Buffalo, Wyoming. Paul and Hillary froze to death, and Alex nearly did as well. She built a small fire in the car to keep herself alive. And keep in mind, she took on this entire journey while pregnant.
Spencer arrived in America in Galveston, Texas, and he faced his own life-threatening obstacles on the way home. His journey took him from Galveston to Fort Worth and from Fort Worth to Amarillo. There, he crossed paths with Marshal Mamie Fossett (Jennifer Carpenter), who bought him a train ticket directly to Montana after questioning. He had no troubles on his train north, but conflict was waiting for him at the Livingston, Montana train station.
The same snow drift that canceled Alex’s travel to Fargo rerouted Spencer’s travel plans. He wound up switching to a train in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a train that fatefully passed right by where Alex was stranded in her frozen car. They reunited in this area somewhere near Buffalo after Spencer saw Alex and her burning car from the train’s window. He jumped off the back of the train and ran to her. They would be separated once more in Livingston, when Donald Whitfield’s (Timothy Dalton) men attacked Jacob Dutton’s (Harrison Ford) in an attempt to kill Spencer when he arrived at the station.
Alex’s frostbite needed immediate medical attention. Jacob got injured in the shootout. They stayed on the train and got off in Bozeman so they could go to the hospital. Spencer, meanwhile, got off in Livingston to finish the battle at the Dutton ranch in Paradise Valley. When that fight was won, he went back to Bozeman. During all of that, Alex gave birth prematurely to their son, John Dutton II. Her legs and hand had gone necrotic from the frostbite; the only way to save her life was to amputate her legs and hand. The preemie baby survived, and Alex rejected the surgery. Alex, Spencer, and baby John spent one night together in the hospital, and Alex died in her sleep. She never made it to Paradise Valley alive, but it became her final resting place.
Spencer lived for 45 more years and never fell in love again. He died lying at her grave, and the series ended with them reuniting in the afterlife as their younger selves. It was a grueling, unexpected road to reunion for these two, and the paths were paved with tragedy. Remember their journeys home in the graphic above.
1923, Seasons 1 & 2 Available Now, Paramount+
