1883 Recap: Back Where We Began
Dead woman riding!
This week's 1883 brings us full-circle to the violent incident we witnessed in the series premiere: In the middle of an attack by Native Americans, Elsa shoots a man off his horse at the exact same time he shoots her through the torso with an arrow. But the first half of the episode gives us the context for the interaction, and it's not exactly what we might've thought.
But hold onto yer spurs, because it gets worse! By the end of the hour, Elsa, by her own admission, has one cowboy boot in the grave... and the other might not be far behind. Read on for the highlights of "Racing Clouds."
'IF LAND CAN HAVE EMOTIONS, THIS LAND HATES. IT HATES US' | No sooner has Elsa finished a voiceover about how rough and unforgiving the trail is in these parts than a snake bites the horse on which Josef's wife, Risa, is riding. The startled animal rears up, dumping its rider hard on her head and back. When Josef runs over to help, the snake takes a taste of him, too.
As if this confluence of events weren't bad enough, at that exact moment, Brennan, Thomas and James ride up on a Lakota village to find its men out hunting, its tents burned and its women and children all dead. At least one of the women was raped before she was murdered. It's a horrific scene. They quickly ascertain that the carnage was the work of horse thieves, and then Brennan curses himself for allowing his group to get so close: Now their hoofprints are all over the village, which will make the Lakota men assume that they committed the atrocities. Realizing they've essentially become moving targets for Lakota revenge, James, Thomas and Brennan decide to find the thieves themselves and put an end to them.
Things are bad back at the wagons: Risa keeps vomiting any water that she drinks, and Colton does what he can for Josef by making a large gash near the bite in his leg and then sucking out as much of the poisoned blood as he can. James leaves Colton and Wade in charge and takes off, a decision that Margaret understands but of which she is not fond. "Just come back to me," she asks. And when he tells her he loves her, she doesn't reciprocate. Right before he rides off, James asks Elsa to stay with her mother and brother.
NO GOOD CHOICES | Cookie rolls up soon after, irate to learn that there are no experienced gunmen left with the wagon trail. The Lakota men are coming soon, he says in a panic, and he doesn't want to be around when they arrive. So he starts running for the nearest military fort, which is a four-hour ride away. His fear acts like a trigger for the rest of the group; pretty soon, the Dutton wagon is the only one not on the move.
And then Margaret decides that they're going to run for the fort, as well. Elsa balks, saying it's a mistake. "It's all a mistake," Margaret cries, hustling to get going. "The right choice is luck, that's all." She commands Elsa to put on a dress so that they won't be the subject of unwanted attention once they arrive at the fort, and the teen grudgingly complies. When she comes out of the wagon wearing the white dress with flowers on it — the same one she was wearing in that premiere slaughter scene — it's a signal that we're very close to the badness that opened the series.
Meanwhile, Thomas, James and Brennan find the horse thieves, who are unrepentant and racist. So they kill them. At the same time, the Lakota men return to their village and see the devastation.
HERE WE ARE AGAIN | With the Duttons caught up to the wagon train, Elsa rides ahead and comes across Cookie's wagon... on fire. The Lakota men have found the camp's chef and, as she watches, they shoot him with both arrows and guns, killing him. Soon enough, the Lakota become aware of Elsa and they charge after her as she rides back toward the wagons.
As Elsa and her pursuers come into view, Wade realizes what's going on and yells for the travelers to circle the wagons. One wagon of Germans freaks out and bolts, but the rest do as he says, and Margaret gets out her gun and prepares to defend the group. At the same time, Elsa realizes that if she peels off and rides away from the wagons, a bunch of Lakota may follow her. So she does, and they do. Eventually, one of the Lakota knock her from her horse and she loses consciousness.
When she wakes up, it's the scene from the series premiere all over again. As a stunned and crying Elsa gets to her feet, one of the German women who was nursing Risa runs by, screaming; she has arrows in her back, and as we watch, one of the Lakota scalps her. Elsa manages to dig Cookie's gun out of his pocket before she and one of the Native Americans have a conversation about how he'll likely sell her if he takes her captive, then she shoots him and he puts an arrow through her midsection. The exchange seems to unleash something in Elsa, who begins yelling and grabbing for whatever she can throw at the attackers. The Lakota are about to take her out for good when she yells a Comanche word that Sam taught her.
When asked, she says that her husband is Comanche. She explains what happened, adding that James is on a mission to destroy the men who destroyed the village. Then she says her own name in Comanche. The man questioning her laughs, says she has a good name, and then rides off.
POINT TAKEN | Margaret finds Elsa, stumbling alongside her horse, and helps her back to where what's left of the wagon trail is gathered. Wade tells Margaret that they've got to get the arrow out of her daughter or "she'll fuse to it" and I don't know exactly what that means but I know that I don't want to find out. Elsa maintains that she's not in pain, but that changes after the pull the projectile from her body; she screams, then screams louder as Wade cauterizes the wounds, then passes out.
That night, Elsa wakes up to find her father sitting by her side. She asks him to save the arrow that went through her, because she wants to show it to Sam. Papa Dutton is very worried, but he levels with his daughter: If her wound is infected, she'll develop a fever and things will get very bad. He advocates for bringing her to the fort, where they at least have medicine in the form of willow bark tea and opium. She promises him that it doesn't hurt much, and he asks her to rest as much as she can.
He's far less optimistic when he and Margaret put their heads together outside. She was a nurse during the war, he reminds her: How many liver wounds did she see end well? Margaret counters that Elsa is young and strong, but James is keeping it super real. He points out that the arrow was filthy when it pierced their daughter's skin, and that there's not much hope. "She's the light of my life, and she's my soul. She's gonna die," he says, earning him a slap from Margaret. James goes on to say that they should skip the fort and give Elsa all the sunrises and sunsets she has left, and that they should lie to her and tell her everything is going to be A-OK. Margaret worries that Elsa will die on the trail and she'll wind up in a grave they won't be able to find in years to come; James promises that wherever they bury Elsa will become their home.
A short distance away, Colton runs into the scalped woman, who is still alive but out of her mind with pain/fear/trauma, which I would guess is par for the course when you've had the top of your head peeled off. When all she can do is scream in response to his questions, he commends her soul to God and then shoots her to put her out of her misery. (Side note: I might have been more understanding of his decision if he had given her, oh, I don't know, more than 90 seconds to pull herself together?!)
Brennan later finds the cowboy crying as he tries to dig a grave with no tool other than a plate from his saddlebags. They have a talk about whether shooting her was the right thing, then Brennan gives the younger man a bit of a gruff pep talk and leaves to find him a proper shovel.
BACK ON THE HORSE | The next morning, Elsa is feverish and in a considerable amount of pain, but she wants to put on her pants and ride. Margaret's complete, smiling agreement with this line of thought should be Elsa's first indication that something is terribly wrong, but it's not until Elsa is astride her mount and looking at her father's face that she realizes what's going on. James looks like he's mourning, "as if I were already gone," she voiceovers. And when she looks deep into Papa Dutton's eyes, "that's when I knew I was going to die," she says.
Now it's your turn. Do you think Elsa is actually a goner? Do you have any predictions ahead of next week's season finale? Hit the comments!