Paramount+’s 1883 season one episode 10 – “This Is Not Your Heaven” – was absolutely heart-wrenching and powerful. The season finale tied up a few storylines and found the Dutton family finally making it to the gorgeous valley they’ll call their home for decades to come.
Full confession: I was not emotionally prepared for 1883’s season one finale. Kudos to Taylor Sheridan and his entire team in front of and behind the camera for delivering an incredibly compelling, immensely entertaining first season. And thank you Paramount+ for the early announcement of a second season of the Yellowstone prequel instead of keeping fans anxiously waiting for months.
And now on with the season one finale recap:
The few survivors of the grueling journey are on the move. Elsa (Isabel May) is still riding Lightning although she admits in a voice-over she’s in pain. She sees the world with renewed clarity. She considers death and how everyone and everything has a limited time on earth.
They make it to Fort Casper which, at this point, isn’t much of a fort. Elsa passes out in pain and falls from her horse, and James (Tim McGraw) carries his daughter in to see the doctor. Unfortunately, the doctor is ill-equipped to handle real emergencies. The fort’s in its dying days and he doesn’t have any staff.
The doctor makes the mistake of questioning Shea’s assessment of a battle and is immediately put in his place. He suggests taking Elsa to Fort Laramie since, due to the building of the railroad, Fort Casper’s been abandoned. Wagons aren’t crossing this way anymore.
The doctor doesn’t believe Elsa will survive much longer; he’s not even sure she’ll make it to Fort Laramie. Her liver’s damaged and the arrow might have been dipped in poison. He believes they’ll be lucky if she wakes up long enough for her family to say goodbye.
When he leaves to retrieve his medical bag, James lifts his unconscious daughter from the exam table and returns her to the family’s wagon.
Shea (Sam Elliott) learns the young men manning the fort are actually with the CY Ranch which now owns the fort. CY Ranch is part of the Wyoming Stock Growers Assn, and Shea realizes the men they just killed were probably associated with this ranch.
Shea fills James in on who controls the fort and they realize it’s likely they’ll be connected to the deaths of the WSGA deputies. Shea reminds James that Elsa needs a doctor, but James knows a doctor won’t be of any use. She’ll either die within the next three days if it doesn’t heal or maybe she’ll have a full week left if it does. Either way, she’s going to die soon.
Shea gets teary-eyed and James pats his shoulder before walking away to speak with Margaret. They decide to head north. “Where she dies is where we stay. She’ll be with us and you can visit her any time you want,” says James. Margaret (Faith Hill) assures him she’ll visit Elsa’s grave every day.
Shea gathers the group and informs them the plan is to head north and spend the winter in Bozeman valley. They’ll continue their journey to Oregon in the spring. The immigrants aren’t happy about that decision and decide to stay at the fort before heading out on their own to Oregon – without any help from Shea or Thomas.
Shea doesn’t argue. The immigrants have made their choice.
Josef (Marc Rissmann) wants to go with Shea but his leg’s in horrible shape. He can’t walk or drive, and neither can Risa. Noemi (Gratiela Brancusi) volunteers to drive their wagon, but Shea’s certain Josef and Risa are going to die on the road.
“Then they die. They’re free people now – that’s what they chose,” says Noemi.
Wade (James Landry Hébert) and Colton (Noah Le Gros) are the next to say their goodbyes. Shea no longer needs them to round up the cattle and asks what they want to do. Colton says that if they’re not moving cattle, they’re really of little use to the group.
Elsa rides in the wagon as the small group, which now includes the Duttons, Thomas, Shea, Noemi, Josef, and Risa, heads to Montana. Wade and Colton catch up with the wagon to say their goodbyes to Elsa. Colton calls Elsa the one who got away and Elsa replies, “You got to be pretty damned good-looking to think the one you never had got away from you.”
Wade and Colton laugh as they ride off.
In a voice-over, Elsa wonders what became of Wade and Colton. We watch as they leave the fort and Elsa suggests they might have settled in this area or maybe they made it to Oregon. She then concedes that based on what she’s seen, their future probably lies in the abyss of unmarked graves.
Night falls and Margaret sings to Elsa while soothing her fever with a cold cloth.
Josef’s leg is infected and Risa’s condition hasn’t improved. Thomas (LaMonica Garrett) tells Josef they’ll either have to amputate his leg or he’ll die. Josef agrees they should take his leg.
James and Shea relax by the fire and Shea notes Margaret’s been holding out. She never sang before and her voice is beautiful. James explains she only sings for the kids, not him, but did inform him she’ll sing at his funeral. She also made him promise she’d die first. “So, I got horse-traded out of my song,” says James, chuckling.
Shea shares a story about his wife sending him a telegram during the war claiming she was running away with a lover on Friday. He received the telegram on Monday, sharpened his sword, and headed home. Turns out she had had a nightmare that he would die on a battlefield in Gettysburg and wanted him to come home. “That dirty little liar saved my life,” says Shea.
Relaxing time is over as Thomas announces Josef’s leg needs to come off now. Josef needs to get good and drunk first, laughing when Shea suggests half a bottle should do it. Josef says at half a bottle he’s just hitting his stride.
The group hold Josef down as Thomas removes his leg. Josef screams in pain as the knife cuts into his bone and then, fortunately, he passes out.
Elsa makes it out of the wagon and wants to sit by the fire. She moves slowly and wonders if they’re in Montana. Her dad says almost as Margaret offers Elsa some food. Elsa jokes she’s glad she didn’t get shot in the leg and reveals the pain’s lessened. She’s even hungry for some bacon, which is a good sign.
Elsa’s shocked to learn she’s been out of it for three days; she didn’t realize she’d been asleep that long.
The sun rises and Elsa’s able to get back on her horse. She rides next to her dad and appears to have fallen in love with this area. She admires its beauty and thinks they should have aimed for this place from the start. James agrees.
Elsa confesses her greatest fear about dying is being forgotten. Her father insists that will never happen. He also says she should be dead but it appears she’s not dying. “You pay about as much attention to the rules of nature as you pay to mine,” jokes James.
Elsa believes her dad looks at her like she’s dying but he says he looks at her like what she is – the most thing to him on the planet.
They discuss the immigrants they left behind and James confesses he doesn’t think they’ll make it out of Wyoming. (A short scene showing their slaughter proves he’s right.)
James briefly separates from the group to hunt for food. He shoots an elk as a short distance away the pain is getting to Elsa. She’s riding a few yards ahead of the group when she spots three Native Americans coming toward them. In a brief moment of panic, she turns to ride toward the trees but the pain is finally too much and she passes out, falling off of her horse.
The strangers ride up to Elsa and Shea tells Margaret and the others to hold their positions. Shea speaks with the leader, Spotted Eagle (Graham Greene), and explains Elsa was shot by a Lakota. Spotted Eagle calls for one of his companions to retrieve a doctor and suggests Elsa needs to be placed in the cold creek to stop the bleeding.
Elsa comes to and Spotted Eagle asks Shea to call for her father. He fires three shots into the air and James returns from his hunt to find Elsa being cared for by the Crow. They pray for her and tend to her wound, but there’s nothing they can do to extend her life.
Spotted Eagle asks James what he knows of war and informs Elsa’s dad that the Lakota dip their arrows in manure. An arrow wound is normally fatal and one to the liver is certainly a death shot. James confirms he’s aware she’s dying and says where she dies, they make their home. He knows he needs to find a place to settle soon and Spotted Eagle suggests the perfect spot. He gives James directions to a valley that would make a good place to call home – a place called Paradise.
However, he warns James that in seven generations his people will rise up and take it back from them. “In seven generations, you can have it,” replies James. Now, if my calculations are correct that would mean the Yellowstone Ranch would return to the Native Americans when Tate’s child is in charge.
1st generation – James Dutton (Tim McGraw)
2nd generation – John Dutton Sr (currently played by Audie Rick)
3rd generation – John Dutton Jr (Dabney Coleman)
4th generation – John Dutton the 3rd (Kevin Costner)
5th generation – Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes)
6th generation – Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill)
7th generation – Tate’s child
Spotted Eagle says by wagon it will be a five-day trip and Elsa doesn’t have that long. He hopes James remembers him when his family seeks to hunt that land. James says they’re welcome to hunt that land whenever they want to.
James returns to Elsa’s side and she sobs, realizing she’s definitely dying and that he lied when he said she isn’t. Seated, she leans into her father and makes him promise she can pick out the spot to be laid to rest. He promises she can.
The weary travelers are either in bed or ready for it as Thomas and Noemi have a heart-to-heart. Her children haven’t spoken to her since Texas, but Thomas reveals they talk his ear off. He believes they don’t talk to their mom because they don’t know what to say. “It’s the journey that keeps them from talking to you,” says Thomas, explaining they’re worried she’s fragile and will break.
Once they get to Oregon, they’ll find a valley with water and make it their home. The boys will talk to her again when the journey’s over.
Shea and James have a quiet chat by the fire, and Shea thinks Elsa’s already outlived them all. She’s packed more life, more smiles, more love into her short life than the rest of them have managed to do. James tells Shea that Elsa wants to pick where she’ll be buried but the wagons won’t make the trip in time and John can’t handle it on horseback. He asks Shea to explain to Margaret that he needs to take Elsa away to die and tell her she can’t go.
“She’ll hear the logic in it from you. From me, all she’ll hear is the cruelty in it,” says James.
He begs Shea to do this for him and Shea agrees. This relationship has progressed to a genuine friendship over the course of the trip, in large part thanks to Elsa.
Shea repeats what James said and Margaret reacts as you’d expect. Margaret’s initially angry and calls James a coward, but Shea insists he’s not as they see James crying by the fire. “It’s shame that the question’s even being asked,” says Shea.
Meanwhile, Risa has passed away in the wagon next to her loving husband.
James and Elsa head out the following morning after Margaret’s had a chance to say goodbye to her daughter. Elsa appears to be on death’s door as she mounts Lightning behind her dad and hangs onto his waist. Margaret says she loves them both with all her heart and Elsa tells her she’ll see her in the valley.
As they’re about to ride off, they pause to say goodbye to Shea. “I hope you prove them all wrong. I hope we laugh about this in 20 years,” says Shea with love in his eyes for this fierce young woman who’s become like a daughter to him.
She promises to meet him on the beach and he says he’ll save her a spot. Shea assures John he’ll watch over his family like they’re his own and will be following as quickly as they can.
Shea never takes his eyes off their backs until they’re out of sight.
James and Elsa ride for hours and then suddenly Elsa sees the perfect location for the family to settle. They’ve arrived at what will become the Yellowstone Ranch and Elsa points out a tree she wants to be buried beneath.
All the color has drained from Elsa’s face and she’s in terrible pain as James carries her gently to the tree. He sits with his back against it and she takes a seat between his legs, her own stretched out in front of her against her father’s. James wraps his arms around his beloved daughter, and they have a quiet discussion as she rests in his embrace.
Elsa asks about his first memory and he recalls something from when he was just three. Elsa struggles to keep her eyes open as she listens. She smiles at her father’s story and then shares a memory of birds in the field behind their house after a rain. Elsa remembers thinking the birds were smart for waiting for the earth to soften.
They stop talking and simply share each other’s company as the day passes and shadows fall around them. Elsa briefly wakes when she hears a bird and she spots it just a few feet away. James wakes as Elsa comments on birds once again, and he turns her face toward him. A small smile crosses her face as she says, “I understand it now.” James asks what she understands and Elsa replies, “I know what it is…I’m not scared. I’m not scared, daddy.”
Elsa dies in her father’s arms.
James is absolutely grief-stricken. He doesn’t move and instead continues to sit with Elsa between his legs, his back against the tree.
The action moves forward one year and we see Josef removing his wedding ring. He’s by himself with a wagon and two horses, and he throws a bundle of wood over his shoulder and sets out on crutches to build his home.
Thomas, Noemi, and the boys make it to Willamette Valley, Oregon and find the perfect spot to settle.
Shea sits on the beach and looks out over the Pacific Ocean while talking to his deceased wife, Helen. A hummingbird buzzes within inches of his face and he smiles for a moment before shaking his head. His journey is at an end, and the camera pans back as a single gunshot rings out.
Fittingly, Elsa’s voice-over closes out season one. She talks about her Heaven which includes her husband, Sam, and endless days of sunshine and racing like the wind.
She knows death now and it didn’t have fangs. “It smiled at me and it was beautiful,” says Elsa.
- Yellowstone Season 4 Episode 10 Recap: “Grass on the Streets” Finale
- 1883 Series Preview
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 1 Recap and Review
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 2 “Behind Us, A Cliff” Recap
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 3 “River” Recap
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 4 “The Crossing” Recap
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 5 “The Fangs of Freedom” Recap
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 6 “Boring The Devil” Recap
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 7 “Lightning Yellow Hair” Recap
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 8 “The Weep of Surrender” Recap
- 1883 Season 1 Episode 9 “Racing Clouds” Recap
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