1923 (2022) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Wait!
Wait, just wait.
Hell is where you'll go
if you do this, ma'am.
All right, take me to
the nearest sheriff
and let him hang me.
That way you'll get your justice
without closing the gates of Heaven.
What do you know about Heaven?
Violence has always haunted this family.
It followed us from
the Scottish Highlands
and the slums of Dublin.
It ravaged us upon the
coffin ships of Ireland.
Stranded us on the beaches
of New Jersey,
devoured us upon the battlefields
of Shiloh and Antietam.
And it followed us here
lurking beneath the pines
and in the rivers.
And where it doesn't follow,
we hunt it down.
We seek it.
Hey.
Yep.
He is the one?
He's the one we tracked.
He is the one.
My father had three children.
Only one would live to see
their own children grown.
Only one would carry
the fate of this family
through the depression
and every other hell the
20th century hurled at them.
Upon my father's death,
my mother wrote to his brother
begging that he bring his family
to this wild land and save hers.
We should move 'em.
Move 'em where?
A year later he
arrived to find my mother
frozen in a snow drift,
her two boys half starved
and barely able to speak.
He raised them as his own,
then took my father's dream
and made it into an empire.
Then the empire crumbled.
Prohibition now! Prohibition!
Don't go in there, sir.
Don't drink that devil's drink.
Prohibition now!
Prohibition for Montana.
Join us in our cause, ladies.
I pray you're here to shut down
this den of degenerates.
- Sign says "soda shop".
- Mm-hmm.
And the sign over the whore
house says "dance hall".
You don't say.
Step inside those doors and your wife
will be the wiser, Commissioner.
She will be the wiser, sir!
Hey.
Guess it ain't started
raining since I came in here.
Only thing it's raining is locusts.
Root beer for you?
I think I'll have a cola.
What if I did want a root
beer, a real root beer?
Well, uh, then I'd say go
to the drug store.
I'll have one of yours, then.
Them sheep herders are
getting pretty worked up.
Only got themselves to blame.
Can't run sheep across
another man's ground.
Lucky they didn't kill
the sheep herders, as well.
Try to find a softer way of
saying that in Town Hall, Jake.
How many deputies you got?
Not enough.
There's three hundred of them
sons of bitches in the street
watching the boxing.
And taking notes,
if you know what I mean.
Ain't worried about being boxed.
I'm worried about getting shot.
Bullies.
Bullies whining about the consequences
of the rules they broke.
Come on.
Let's get this over with.
Okay, fellas, let's go.
They killed our fucking sheep.
Littered the forest with 'em.
Left 'em to rot.
And what have you done about it?
Nothing!
We don't know who did it.
Everyone knows who did it.
It's those mick bastards right there.
Come say mick to my face,
you fucking Jock.
I will, you paddy swine.
This is going well.
Sit down!
Or spend the night in a jail cell.
Sit down.
I deserve an answer.
You know the bastards
who murdered my sheep
because you know who has the
lease to where their bodies lay.
So, you admit you were
on someone else's lease.
Sheep, they wander.
They don't know where one
lease ends and another begins.
Then why have leases at all?
Sheep eat to the root.
They ruin the grass for cattle
or anything else to eat.
One could argue you
killed his livestock too,
it just took them longer to die.
Until it rains, there will be
no grazing in the valley.
What grass there is in the
mountains is all we have.
If you got too many sheep
for your allotment, sell some.
Sell some?
Sell them to who?
The war's over. There's
nobody to buy them.
We're all in the same boat.
I suggest we work together
or that boat is headed back
to Britain with all of us.
We are all bunched together here
fighting for every blade of grass
while you have a whole
mountain range to yourself.
You have the land, you have
the lease, you have everything.
I have what my family fought for.
You want to fight me for it, too?
I didn't think so.
If you wanted more land
you should have leased more.
Thought the goal was
to calm them down, Jake.
That was your goal.
My goal is not to have a range war.
The sheepherder's waiting outside.
What do you want to do, Banner,
duke it out in the middle of the street?
Sheep are stock, too, don't you forget.
I'm a member just like the cattlemen
Membership does not
mean ignore the rules.
You grazed down all your
grass then pushed your flock
on another man's grass.
The locust ate my grass.
The locust ate everyone's grass.
We're all suffering.
Take your flock higher.
Then it's bears killing 'em
instead of cowboys.
What can I say, Banner?
That's ranching for you.
Come on.
Four can't beat twelve, Jacob.
I'm not worried about the other eleven.
Just you.
Hey! God damn it.
I will not have this in my town!
That man is an agent of the state.
Threaten him again and you
sleep on concrete for a month.
Understand?
Stealing a man's grass
is like stealing his steers.
You graze another man's lease again
and I'll have your whole flock.
And I am a man of my word.
Stealing grass.
Man doesn't own the grass.
The mountains own the grass.
God owns the grass.
And you're no god, Jacob Dutton.
You're no god!
I'd like to see what would happen
if cattle grazed his land.
He'd shoot 'em where he find 'em.
And bill the rancher for the bullet.
The McCloud moved most
its horses into the Crazies.
Ain't a blade of grass
from here to Miles City.
Can't sell 'em with these prices.
I don't see how a war ending
can cause such hell on the market.
Hell, all those soldiers came home.
They don't eat here, only overseas?
They're eating their own beef.
They don't need to buy ours.
Why don't we graze the homesteader land?
Hell, bank owns all of that now.
I doubt they'd care.
I doubt they'd even know.
The bank always knows.
I've got the ground. It's high.
Bears and wolves will be plaguing us.
We'll have to sit with 'em all summer.
I say let's push the herds
together, take 'em up there,
sit with them till the fall.
You know how many cowboys
it's gonna take
to babysit a herd that size all summer?
I am aware.
I'm short of cowboys as it is.
You're gonna be short cattle
if you don't get 'em to grass.
How we gonna feed 'em in the winter?
Let's get 'em through the summer, first.
I won't charge a lease,
but y'all band together
and, uh, contract some hay.
I hear Oregon is free
of the locust for now.
I don't know, Jake. Half of mine
are too weak to make the trip.
We'll push 'em slow.
Graze them along the river.
Push 'em up by the park.
Yeah. Well, if it weren't
for the easy years
I wouldn't waste my time
with the tough ones.
I been here since 1894, Clive.
I do not remember an easy year.
Do you?
No.
Yeah, all right! Whoa!
- Stay with him!
- Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
Come on, this ain't no
rodeo, collect him up.
Keep him moving left.
Don't get him killed
a week before his wedding.
I told him not to pick this one.
That's probably why he picked it.
It's late.
This won't be our first ride
in the dark, ma'am.
Yes, but I worry.
We can ride out and meet 'em.
Thank you, Zane.
When he's done with this colt.
We ain't exactly in a stopping place.
Come on!
Why danger gives men such
pleasure I'll never understand.
- Let's go.
- Come on, Jack!
That'll do for the day, Jack.
Grab a user.
We gonna go find your father.
- He lost?
- Doubt it.
Then why are we going to find him?
Because I asked. I also
asked you to be careful.
A plaster cast on your wedding
day will please no one,
least of all your bride.
God ain't made one that
can get me off, auntie.
- Mm-hmm.
- Don't you worry, Aunt Cara.
In a week you could pick apples
off this horse in the orchard.
I'll stick to my buggy,
thank you very much.
- All right.
- Good job today, Jack.
Name the ingredients of soap.
Name them.
Oil, lye, and water.
What kind of oil?
Any kind.
I prefer your answers
without the flippance.
Now, what kind of oil?
You can use vegetable oil, or tallow.
How do you get tallow?
- You render animal fat.
- How do you render it?
You boil it.
What is lye?
It's
It's from ashes.
What is from ashes?
The Alkaline?
Alkali.
How do you get alkali?
How?
I don't know.
Why don't you know?
It was in yesterday's lecture.
- I can't rememb
- Yes, you do.
I don't. I don't!
Ow.
You will not speak that
godless filth in my
I wonder what precipitated
her attack on you, Sister Mary.
I'm sure I've no idea, Father.
A wild animal, this one.
Show me your hands, child.
You must beat this like
a mule to get a simple answer
the remainder of the class
has already answered.
What was the question
you couldn't answer?
She-she w-w-was asking m-me
about s-s-soap.
And-and I s-s-aid
alkaline instead of alkali.
Sister Mary, step forward, please.
Would you place your hands
on the desk, please?
Would you recite 1 Corinthians
Chapter 13, verse one, please.
"If I speak in the tongues of men"
Continue.
"And Angels"
"But have not love"
Speak the verse, sister.
"I am a noisy gong or a cymbal"
"Clanging cymbal
and if I have prophetic powers,
and understand all knowledge"
Faster, sister.
"And if I have all faith"
Faster!
- "So as to remove mountains"
- Faster!
- "But have not love"
- Faster!
"But have not love"
Stop, stop, stop!
Please, Father. Please.
Look at that, Sister Mary.
You beat the child,
and yet she begs
for mercy on your behalf.
Perhaps she should be the teacher.
Eh?
I understand your desire
to lash out at a sister
who lacks compassion, but
You lash out,
all will lash out.
I have compassion for you, my child.
I do.
Place your hands on the shelves, please.
I have compassion, but
I have no mercy.
Remove your towels, fold them,
and place them beside your bath.
Enter the bath.
Grab the soap and rub
the soap into your washcloth.
Begin with your neck.
Rub under each arm.
Down your bellies.
Then your privates
And last your feet.
Scrub until I say finish.
Finish
Place your washcloth
on the side of the wash bin.
Retrieve your towel.
Stand and wrap the towel under your arms
and around your bellies.
Step from the tub.
Dry your shoulders and back,
then your legs.
Prepare yourselves for inspection.
Thank you.
Open your towel.
Turn 'round.
Remove your towel.
Cover yourself.
Turn 'round.
We understand each
other now, I think. Yes?
Yes, sister.
Best for both of us stay
clear of his office, then.
Yes, sister.
Once you're dressed, mop this up.
My country tis of thee ♪
Sweet land of liberty ♪
Of thee I sing ♪
Land where ♪
Hey, Jacob.
When you want to push the herd up?
Uh, Zane, gather them up tomorrow.
We'll push up on Wednesday.
That's three days up, hold 'em
for a few days, two days back?
Something like that.
That does not get him
to the church on time.
I thought the wedding was on Saturday.
Wednesday, sir.
Who the hell gets
married on a Wednesday?
Don't know, sir. I guess just me.
Why the hell'd you pick it?
They left me out of the picking, sir.
Oh, Jesus. These cattle
can't wait a week.
- I know it.
- I'll take a crew and drive them.
If there's a drive I'm on it.
It's my job and we're
short-handed enough
We can postpone the wedding
or we can postpone the drive
and we can't postpone the drive.
So you gotta tell your bride
her wedding's got to wait a week
so you can sleep on the
ground and drive cattle.
She's marrying a rancher.
Don't know why the wedding
should be any different
than the marriage, 'cause
that's the way it's gonna be.
You tell her just like that, son.
I want to see how that goes over.
Hell, it's true, though. How
many birthdays did you miss?
It may be true, but you
need to find a better way
to tell her, or there ain't
gonna be any wedding at all.
You let me break it to the boss first,
and then we'll see what happens.
Jeez.
Oh, man.
Sorry.
You're late.
Town took time.
How was it?
A lot of people, not much work.
Expect a letter from
the Temperance Society.
They are persistent.
Yeah.
I gotta run our herd up the mountain.
The neighbors' herds, too.
If we don't, they're all gonna die.
When?
Start gathering tomorrow.
The wedding's in a week, Jake.
Does that mean you won't be there?
Nobody's gonna be there.
The whole valley's pushing cattle.
Oh
Well, I'll talk to
the girl's mother tomorrow.
I don't see what harm
two weeks would do.
Jack said he'd handle it.
Okay, Jacob.
It's his wedding.
The wedding's for the woman, Jake.
If it were for men,
we would've spat on our hands
and shook on it, and then
you would've bent me
over the first thing you could
find that would hold our weight.
That's not far from
how it happened, honey.
It's the one day in a woman's life
that is dedicated solely to her.
And you're going to
let that boy tell her
that "moving cattle is more important".
She's the daughter of a rancher, honey.
I doubt it'd come as much of a surprise.
Well, how long?
A week or two.
Or two?
Your daddy's a rancher, honey.
You know the deal.
These cattle got their work clothes on
and they need some help.
Why do I have to wait a week?
Why can't the cattle wait a week?
Because the cattle will
be dead in a week.
Look, I can't wait
to get married either,
and I'd never ask
if this wasn't important.
Important?
Yes, Jack, tell me
how important the cattle are.
And you know what,
while they're so important
here's an idea: why don't you marry one?
And when you get to the top of the hill,
you have yourself a honeymoon.
Looks like I'm too late.
How poorly did she take it?
Well, she told me to, uh
to marry a cow and to take
it up the mountain
and and
Well, that's quite an image.
Go on, go back to the ranch,
I'll sort this out for you.
I think I'd better stay
in case she wants to see me.
She will. She will want to see you,
and then you will just say
something stupid
and then she won't want
to see you anymore.
I'm pretty worried, Auntie.
I ain't gonna be much use on the ranch.
You should be worried.
Go on, go back to the ranch.
Go on, quick, off you go.
Go on.
I don't ever want
Mrs. Dutton.
Good afternoon
Well, certainly not a dull one.
Are your parents home?
Daddy's tending to the cattle,
and mother's in Bozeman making
preparations for the
I know, I know.
Can we speak, Elizabeth?
Yes.
You know, I admire you.
And the opportunities you've had.
I regret not sending
Jack back east for school.
I feel sometimes that we've robbed him
of countless experiences,
all of which you've had.
But what you haven't had, however,
is an education about this way of life.
You will miss more than
weddings for cattle, my dear.
If you give birth during calving season
it will be a month before
he sees his first child.
If you give birth in the fall
it will be even longer.
You will stand knee deep
in mud to help a sick foal.
You will drive wagons through blizzards
with hay for cattle and
hear them screaming
their gratitude when you approach.
And you will be free
in a way that most people
can barely conceive.
Now, if this is not the life you want,
you must tell the boy now.
Because you have to want
more than the boy,
you have to want the life, too.
Because in this life,
there's no debating
which is more important:
the wedding or the cattle.
It's always the cattle.
He makes me dizzy when I'm with him
and I can't breathe without him.
I don't know the life.
But I will learn it.
It's settled then.
We'll have the wedding
two weeks from Saturday.
Okay.
He left.
Oh, that he did.
Well, he's very impulsive.
Will you take me to him? Please?
We'll leave your father a note.
I see him.
Well, what do you know?
Will you stop, please?
We'll see him up at the house,
after he's cleaned up a bit.
I can smell him from here.
I never want to fight with you again.
Don't you ever do that to me.
- I'm sorry.
- I'm sorry.
That my daughter?
Well, if it ain't, my nephew's
got some explaining to do.
He's got some explaining to do anyway.
They ain't married yet.
They're as good as married, Bob.
What's that supposed to mean?
In my experience, Bob:
when the first baby comes,
you don't want to be too picky
with your math and a calendar.
Lord.
What's a fence doing way up here?
I don't know. Shouldn't be here.
Well, it's here.
That fucking Dutton.
Fencing the world out of
grass he can't even reach.
I'm not watching my sheep die
while there's grass a foot
tall no cattle could ever graze.
Cut it.
Bring them through.
There's thousands of them.
We gotta fall back, all right?
- I can't run. My leg's broken.
- You gotta run!
Ah!
We have reached Nairobi, sir.
The journey is over, sir.
This is your destination.
I have no destination.
You have a ticket for Nairobi?
I do.
Then you have reached
your destination, sir.
I've reached my next stop.
That's all this is.
Apologies for the scare.
I don't wake well.
No sir, I'd say you don't.
I've spiked the tents to the ground
so tight a wood lice
can't get under them.
I've moved the cots to the
center of each quarter.
Sure it's the same leopard?
Look at the size of it.
Yeah. That's the same leopard.
Tried to get into this tent.
Guest took a shot at it.
No blood trail?
He missed.
Lucky he didn't shoot
whoever sleeps in that tent.
That's why I'm moving the
guests to the river camp
until you can rid the world
of this spotted bastard.
I'd prefer if you didn't.
You're taking away all my bait.
No, no, I brought you up some goats.
Well, goats ain't the same, are they?
Once they get a taste for man,
man is all they want to eat.
Not to worry, Holland.
We'll be the bait.
I have a tent for you over here.
Away from the rest, yeah?
Only way to get it deeper in the bush
would be to drop it from the sky.
By God, you're mad, man.
I suggest you use the goats, Dutton.
I think we'll use ourselves instead.
Yes, well, dinner is at six.
I would consider being on time
since it's likely your last.
Wouldn't miss it for the world.
Must've been quite the accident.
No, ma'am, that was no accident.
An American.
A cowboy, no doubt.
Where in America?
The mountain version of this place.
Coffee.
Coffee in the evening.
No, thank you. I'd be awake all night.
That's the plan.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.
You travel here all by yourself?
She came with her husband, sir.
Mmm.
Up all night? Why?
I'm hunting the thing
that's hunting you.
And what is hunting us?
A leopard the size of a sofa.
Just arrived today.
No one mentioned a leopard.
I'm sure they didn't.
Don't worry, you'll be at
the river camp tomorrow.
No leopards there.
Hippos and lions and crocodiles but
no leopards.
Doesn't sound any less dangerous.
This is Africa.
Everything's dangerous.
Ma'am.
My goodness.
Look what I got.
- Can't hurt.
- Nope.
It's not like a leopard to enter a tent.
They ambush from behind.
Lion enter tents.
Those are leopard tracks outside.
And it was at the railroad camp
37 times.
The lion is a brute.
But the leopard is a thinker.
He will think this is too easy.
He already thinks it's too easy.
Keep your heads down.
Stay in the tent.
These English might get crazy
and start shooting at boogeymen.
Hya, cow!
That's Brewster's crew.
Yep.
By God, we're putting
a lot of cattle on this land.
Hey, break 'em up!
- Whoop!
- Hya!
Hey!
- Hey, come on!
- Hey, cow.
You ever taken cattle this high?
Nobody takes cattle this high.
I hope you been practicing
with that rifle.
I don't need the rifle.
First grizzly I see,
I'm roping that son of a bitch.
Ya! Ya!
Can't wait to see how
that works out for ya.
Woo!
They said a week?
They said about a week.
That means closer to two.
I hate having them both out for so long.
I hate having any of them
out there at all.
But they're cowboys, Emma.
It's what they do.
I'll start working on dinner.
No need. There's no one to feed.
Let's have sandwiches.
Can't serve just sandwiches.
I'll make a soup.
Suit yourself.
You coming?
Mmm.
No.
No, I think I'll stay out here a bit.
My Dearest Spencer
Summer is here, and with it a pestilence
of locust and a plague of drought.
Your uncle and brother and young Jack
are pushing the herd
into the mountains in hopes
of finding greener grass there.
We postponed Jack's wedding
because, as you know,
the herd comes first.
When the house is
full and the ranch is busy
I can lose myself in the hurry of it,
and forget you are not here.
But the house is empty now,
and I've no chores left.
And so I think of you.
And wonder why Why
won't you come home to us?
I can't help but think
your absence is punishment,
that somehow we are
the reason you won't return.
That's selfish, I suppose.
War changes men, I know.
I can only assume you are seeking
the part of yourself you lost.
And I can only pray that you find it
and come back to us.
You were right. It was too easy for him.
Spencer, there are two!