Elsa (Isabel May) has concluded the world doesn’t want inhabitants as Paramount+ 1883 season one episode nine opens. She’s certain winter’s eager to kill them all as they travel through inhospitable territory.
“If land can have emotions, this land hates. It hates us and everyone can feel it,” muses Elsa in a voice-over.
Elsa’s proven correct when a rattlesnake bites Risa’s horse’s leg causing her to be bucked off. Risa (Anna Fiamora) is injured in the fall and as Josef (Marc Rissmann) rushes to his wife’s aid, he’s also bitten by the snake. Colton (Noah Le Gros) leaps into action, throws his coat over the snake, and stomps it to death. Wade (James Landry Hébert) hustles off to grab a tourniquet.
Thomas, Shea, and James ride a short distance ahead of the main group and are the first to discover smoldering teepees and the dead bodies of Lakota women and children. One has been raped before being murdered, and Shea (Sam Elliott) knows whoever did this did it for sport. The murderers also took their horses.
Suddenly, Shea realizes they’re leaving tracks all over the area. Whoever comes across this is going to assume Shea’s group is responsible for these murders.
James (Tim McGraw) yells at Elsa to stay away and for once she does as instructed. She tells her dad about Josef and Risa, and he rides over to help. He arrives as Colton’s sucking out the poison.
Risa and Josef are both in desperate need of a doctor, and Shea, Thomas (LaMonica Garrett), and James also realize they need to do something about the thieves. Margaret (Faith Hill) joins them and James asks her to keep Josef as comfortable as possible.
One option is to head straight to Fort Casper. They can head there and let the soldiers take care of the thieves. Shea points out they’re about to go through Lakota, Nez Perce, Blackfoot, and Shoshone land. Everyone will be aware of the murders before they can make it to Fort Casper. Shea believes their first order of business needs to be killing (and scalping) the murderers. They can then present the murderers and their horses to the victims’ families.
Thomas suggests sending a few wagons directly to the fort right now, but Shea doesn’t think they have any guides to spare. James is certain the murderers travel at night and are sleeping in the shade right this minute. He wants to hunt them now and then move all the wagons to the fort.
James fills Wade and Colton in on the deaths and explains everyone will assume their group’s responsible because of the tracks. James wants Wade and Colton to stay with the group and if any Native Americans show up, they should take them to see the dead bodies. They’ll need to tell them they have men out hunting down the killers and promise they’ll bring back the murderers’ scalps and horses.
Elsa tries to go with her dad but, again, she actually listens and remains behind.
Margaret warns young John to hide if there’s any trouble.
Cookie rides up, learns about their troubles, and yells for everyone to mount up and head to the fort. Margaret disagrees and explains they’ve been told to stay put. Cookie insists the Lakota are hunting nearby and when they discover the dead women and children, they’ll slaughter this group.
Cookie doesn’t want to wait around and invites anyone who wants to to join him, but warns he’ll be moving fast. He hopes to cut the six-hour ride down to four hours.
All the wagons and horses head out except the Duttons. They’re the only group to remain behind, and Elsa suggests they leave the wagon and try to catch up with James on horseback. Margaret believes their only chance of survival right now is to follow Cookie and the group. Two women and a child won’t last long by themselves.
Elsa thinks it’s a mistake.
Margaret instructs Elsa to change into a dress. She can’t show up at the Army fort in pants or Comanche attire. Elsa stomps away, refusing to change. However, she gives in when her mother yells, “Grant me one less thing to worry about!”
Colton and Wade ride up and learn the group’s hightailing it to the fort. Wade believes they should join them and leave the cattle behind. “I’ve fought Indians – I ain’t never trying to do it again,” says Wade, certain they’d be safer with the group.
Elsa puts on her dress and immediately the first scene from episode one springs to mind. Is this leading up to the attack from the series’ opening minutes?
James, Shea, and Thomas follow tracks and spot horses under trees. Unfortunately, the bandits know they’ve been seen and three men head toward them riding Indian ponies. James wants to charge them while shooting, but the men arrive before James, Shea and Thomas make a move. These strangers have badges on their jackets and claim to be deputies with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association.
These men confirm they appointed themselves and James points out those aren’t their horses. The leader warns they shoot rustlers and suggests James, Shea, and Thomas get on their way. He admits they murdered the women and children, adding that he’s hoping to also kill their men.
“Them Indians is prairie maggots and nothing else. You’ve got to kill them where you find them…” says the scumbag “deputy.” He can’t finish his sentence because Thomas, Shea, and James have heard enough. They shoot these men and prepare for the five remaining thieves to attack.
James leads the attack, riding right at the men. James, Shea, and Thomas easily dispatch the killers.
The Lakota men return to their campsite and discover the dead women and children. They ride off, following the tracks.
The Duttons’ wagon catches up with the group. Wade notices Cookie’s wagon is way out in front and appears to be heading the wrong way. Elsa races to catch up with him as smoke drifts up from over a small rise.
Cookie’s trying to keep ahead of Lakota warriors with his wagon now on fire. He’s killed before he can get away.
The warriors spot Elsa and head her direction. She turns around and rides back toward the group with the Lakota close behind.
Wade and Colton yell for the wagons to circle up, and the immigrants attempt to do so as quickly as possible. Wade directs the men with rifles where to take up positions as the horses are gathered in the middle of the circle.
Wade and Colton tell everyone to get down and take cover. Margaret grabs her rifle and prepares for a fight just as Elsa makes a split-second decision to ride away from the group. Half of the Lakota follow her and Margaret takes a shot at one of their horses. She misses.
The remaining half of the group engage the wagons. The gunfight is brutal and fierce, but Margaret’s concentrating on shooting at the men who are chasing her daughter instead of the ones just feet away.
Elsa continues to ride toward three wagons who broke off on their own and didn’t follow orders to circle up. Margaret manages to shoot the man closest to her daughter before they are too far away to hit.
Meanwhile, James, Thomas, and Shea have returned to camp and are upset to discover the wagons are gone. They follow the tracks and Thomas is the first to figure out what happened.
The scene switches back to Elsa, but now she’s laying on the ground. This is the moment captured in 1883’s opening scene.
The wagons are on fire and horses race away as Elsa opens her eyes. She looks around and begins sobbing. She makes it to her feet and watches the Lakota slaughter and scalp the immigrants who broke off from the main group.
She tries to run but the dress is keeping her from moving fast.
Season one episode one’s opening moments continue to play out, and once again we see Elsa attempting to fight off a Lakota warrior by grabbing a gun off a dead man.
She shoots the warrior but takes an arrow through her abdomen. She runs out of bullets and throws whatever she finds at the approaching warriors. One prepares to shoot her but stops as she closes her eyes and speaks to the heavens in Comanche.
The warrior demands to know how she learned Comanche and she says her husband taught her. Elsa stands her ground and explains her husband is Comanche. She throws a rock at the man who was about to shoot her and he pulls out his ax. She doesn’t flinch and instead closes her eyes, her face turned toward the sky.
He doesn’t kill her and instead touches her forehead with the handle. Elsa explains they found his family dead, and her father’s with men hunting the killers right now. “And if he’s hunting them, he’ll find them,” she adds between clenched teeth.
The warrior laughs when she says her name in Comanche. He tells her it’s a good name and then signals for his fellow Lakota to leave.
Elsa cries but remains on her feet. She explains she isn’t feeling any pain, chalking it up to the fever of the fight. She leaves the arrow where it is and walks slowly toward Lightning.
The fight’s over at the main camp when Wade, Colton, and Margaret ride out to find Elsa. Wade insists they need to remove the arrow right away or, as he puts it, “she’ll fuse to it.”
Colton rides on to check to see if anyone else has survived. He spots one woman running away with an arrow in her back and one in her stomach. She’s also been scalped yet is somehow still alive.
She can’t speak but she can scream, and Colton says a prayer for her. “You deserve peace and this ain’t it,” he says as he puts her out of her misery. Colton then uses a metal dish and attempts to dig a grave.
Margaret, Wade, and Elsa return to the main group, and Margaret kneels in front of her seated daughter. Wade explains Margaret will need to press on the wound tightly as soon as he pulls the arrow through.
Elsa screams as the arrow’s removed. Wade uses an iron Noemi heated up to cauterize the wound on Elsa’s back. Elsa shrieks as her skin burns and then finally passes out as Wade cauterizes the wound on her abdomen.
Margaret wraps her daughter’s wounds before they place the unconscious Elsa in a wagon.
Shea, Thomas, and James are still riding toward the group when they spot a large group of Lakota warriors. There are too many for them to handle, but James can’t turn and flee. He needs to find out what happened to his family.
He rides toward the Lakota while Shea and Thomas hang back.
Shea believes James is committing suicide and isn’t willing to do so, too. He reaffirms his commitment to take the survivors all the way to Oregon.
The Lakota warrior who spoke with Elsa speaks first and James confirms his daughter is “Yellow Hair.” “You act like Comanche, too,” says the man, and James explains he’s from Tennessee. The warrior doesn’t know Tennessee.
The warrior says Elsa said her father was hunting the killers, and James confirms he found them and left them in the sagebrush to be scalped. James adds, “Your horses are grazing by the river, and we didn’t touch your dead because I don’t know your god and I don’t know his rules.”
James asks if he still has a family and then specifically asks if he still has a daughter. The warrior doesn’t know about his family and James pulls out his gun. The warrior claims the fighting is over for today and reveals his wife, children, and mother were among the dead. He followed the tracks and made war on James’ people. He explains Elsa stopped the war by being the best warrior of all.
The Lakota warrior suggests James take Elsa to the surgeons at the fort. He’ll pray for her, too.
They ride off, leaving James unharmed to continue toward his family. Shea and Thomas are also untouched as they ride past the Lakota to catch up with James.
Night falls and Elsa comes to with her dad watching over her. She says her head hurts from falling off her horse. She also reveals she told her mom to save the arrow so she can show it to Sam.
They have a heart-to-heart and he explains they need to keep an eye on any sign of infection and fever. He promises he’s praying for her, and she reminds him he doesn’t pray. He says he prays a lot – it just hasn’t worked.
Colton’s still trying to carve a grave into the hardpacked earth but hasn’t made much process when Shea joins him. He’s only managed to go down about a foot and Shea promises to find him a shovel. Shea assures him he did the right thing by not letting her suffer and die. Colton knows that but it doesn’t feel right. He’s an emotional wreck and Shea insists he did what he thought was decent.
Shea tells Colton to stand by the decision he made – right or wrong. Colton agrees, and he’ll stand by his choice.
James has a quiet conversation with Margaret and both acknowledge not many people with liver shots survive. At least they didn’t during the war when Margaret was a nurse. Margaret shows James the arrow and insists they got it out fast. James notices it’s filthy, but Margaret believes since Elsa’s young and strong she can pull through.
James calls Elsa the light of his life and his soul while accepting the fact she’s going to die. Margaret slaps him hard and swears she won’t lose a child. (Outstanding writing and acting in this incredibly heartbreaking scene.)
“She’s going to die and it’s going to cut us in two,” says James. If they don’t accept it right now, then she’ll die in the fort at the hands of some doctor who’ll dope her up.
They need to let her see all the sunrises and sunsets she can. They also need to lie to her and tell her she’s fine until she passes away.
Margaret doesn’t want to bury her somewhere they’ll never be back to visit. James assures his wife that where they bury Elsa is where they’ll stay. Margaret refuses to let Elsa’s final resting spot be in this desolate place.
“No, not in this place,” says James. “By God, I will find a place.”
Margaret needs a minute alone with her thoughts.
The following morning those who survived the Lakota attack continue their journey. Elsa has a fever and admits to her mom the wound hurts worse today. Margaret suggests she ride on the buckboard but Elsa asks if she can ride Lightning instead. Margaret agrees and doesn’t argue when Elsa changes into pants, saying she can wear whatever she wants.
James is outside the wagon with Lightning and hands his beautiful daughter the reins. She manages to mount her horse but groans in pain. She confesses she didn’t expect the pain to be worse today.
Elsa’s voice-over indicates she believes her father is already in mourning, as if she’s already dead. She feels as though her soul’s been dislodged, and even colors look different.
Elsa studies her father’s eyes and knows she’s going to die.
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