Warning: SPOILERS for 1923 Season 2’s Finale – “A Dream and a Memory”

Spencer Dutton in 1923 and Elsa Dutton in 1883

Taylor Sheridan used Elsa Dutton’s (Isabel May) narration in 1883 to tell Yellowstone aficionados how 1923 season 2 would end.

In the series finale of Paramount+’s Prohibition-era Dutton saga, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) finally made it home to Montana, but the outing was filled with highs and lows for the youngest son of James (Tim McGraw) and Margaret Dutton (Faith Hill).

Spencer serendipitously reunited with Alexandra of Sussex (Julia Schlaepfer) in 1923 season 2’s finale, rescuing his wife when he saw Paul (August Prew) and Hillary’s (Janet Montgomery) blazing car.

Saving his wife was just one of the heroic things Spencer Dutton did in 1923. After ensuring Alex was headed for the Bozeman hospital, Spencer went home to relieve Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) and Zane Davis (Brian Geraghty) in saving the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.

Upon his arrival, Spencer took out the rest of Banner Creighton’s (Jerome Flynn) army with an elephant gun. Then, after the death of his wife, Dutton finished the war by killing Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) in his dining room. Alex’s fate added a shocking death within the Dutton family, but Taylor Sheridan had already told us 1923’s ending.

Taylor Sheridan Revealed Someone Would Die In 1923 Season 2, Episode 7’s Title

1923 Season 2’s Finale Is Titled “A Dream And A Memory”

Taylor Sheridan Used Elsa Dutton To Tell Us Exactly How 1923 Season 2 Was Going To End

Taylor Sheridan revealed that someone would die in 1923 season 2’s finale with its title, “A Dream and a Memory.” The moniker has established significance in the Yellowstone franchise, with Elsa Dutton using the terms to contextualize her ending in 1883’s finale.

In the earliest-set Yellowstone prequel, which follows Elsa and her family along the Oregon Trail, Elsa narrates the saga. The story ends with the family establishing the Yellowstone Ranch in Montana after Elsa’s 1883 death causes a diversion from their trip to Oregon, and the series ends with her version of eternity.

When the phrase “A Dream and a Memory” emerged as the moniker for 1923 season 2’s finale, keen Yellowstone fans could have foreseen that we would lose a key 1923 character.

After her death, Elsa established the afterlife for the Yellowstone franchise. She says this about Taylor Sheridan’s depiction of Heaven: “There is a moment where your dreams and your memories merge together and form a perfect world. That is Heaven. And each Heaven is unique. It is the world of you.

The land is filled with all you hold dear, and the sky is your imagination.” That said, when the phrase “A Dream and a Memory” emerged as the moniker for 1923 season 2’s finale, keen Yellowstone fans could have foreseen that we would lose a key 1923 character.

Alex & Spencer Dutton Both Die In 1923 Season 2’s Finale

Taylor Sheridan Foreshadowed Two 1923 Endings

Taylor Sheridan hinted at not one but two major 1923 character deaths in the series finale. First, Alex Dutton dies of frostbite complications after delivering John Dutton prematurely, refusing the procedure that would save her life.

Then, we witness her husband’s death 45 years later in Spencer Dutton’s time jump at the end of 1923 season 2, which shows him collapsing at Alex’s grave in 1969. In the end, Elsa Dutton says this about her brother’s fate: “When old age robbed him of his memories, he simply closed his eyes and dreamed up new ones.”