One line Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) said to his wife, Alex (Julia Schlaepfer), in 1923 season 2’s finale broke me because their outcome could have been different.

Spencer and Alex took separate, but equally harrowing, routes to Montana in 1923 season 2. Kept apart until 1923‘s finale, Spencer faced hostility and violence on his long route back home to the Yellowstone Ranch, while the pregnant Alex survived a series of horrible events in her quest to reunite with her husband.

Spencer and Alex’s operatic reunion in 1923 season 2’s finale came with Dutton seeing his wife from his train to Bozeman. Alex was freezing to death after the brutal winter of 1924 killed her traveling companions, and she set their car on fire as a last-ditch, desperate SOS.

Although Spencer rescued Alex, she was too far gone from hypothermia.

Alex’s hands and feet were necrotic and required amputation so that she could live. Instead, Alex gave the last of herself to deliver her baby, John Dutton, and Alex died next to Spencer after one last night together.

Spencer Telling Alex He Would Have Come For Her In 1923’s Finale Broke Me

It Didn’t Have To Be This Way

After Spencer rescued Alex, and they boarded his train in 1923‘s finale, a physician began tending to Alex’s hypothermia. After the doctor told Alex that the female body could be miraculous, she responded with her typical wit, reminding her husband, “My body is a miracle.”

What Spencer told Alex next filled me with sadness, because it meant their fates could have gone in another direction: “You didn’t have to go through all this. I was coming for you.”

Alex retorted with perhaps the best line in 1923‘s finale: “Couldn’t take the chance. If you found someone else, how could I kill her from England?”

Still, Spencer’s admission means that if Alex had exhibited patience, she would not have had to endure the atrocities that befell her in the United States.

After helping his Uncle Jacob (Harrison Ford) and Aunt Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) win their war with Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton), Spencer had every intention of going to England to find Alex.

What Would Have Happened If Alex Stayed In England In 1923 Season 2

Spencer & Alex Might Have Had Another Chance

If Alexandra of Sussex had remained in England and waited for Spencer, she would have been desperately unhappy, but she would have lived. Tragically, Alex had no way of knowing that Spencer planned to save her next after he rescued his family and the Yellowstone Ranch.

It would have been months before Spencer would have called or written to Alex, and even longer for the former lion hunter to make his way across the pond to arrive at Alex’s door.

It was clear in 1923 season 2’s premiere that the pregnant Alex was desperate to reunite with Spencer, and in her dreams, she would have reunited with her husband and lived with him on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.

Had Spencer made his way to Sussex, England, he would have faced opposition from Alex’s family, and the American cowboy likely would not have been welcomed.

In that case, Alex and their baby would have run away with Spencer, and 1923 season 2 would have been very different. Spencer, Alex, and baby John have doubtlessly faced all-new ordeals, but they would have been together.