In Sunday’s Season 1 finale of “1923,” Jacob (Harrison Ford) and Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) face increasing peril.
However, in the Paramount+ “Yellowstone” prequel, returning saviour nephew Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) demonstrates his killer instinct. Spencer wins a sword duel on yet another ship attempting to return home to his beleaguered Montana family in the finale.
Yes, that sword duel was arranged by snot-nosed aristocratic Arthur (Rafe Soule), Spencer’s new wife, Alexandra’s, bitterly jealous ex-fiancé (Julia Schlaepfer). The fight and its aftermath ruined the couple’s third boat trip on Spencer’s seemingly endless hero’s journey.
The stakes are also rising for “1923,” which has been renewed for Season 2. In the finale, Spencer experienced the following:
What? Spencer Dutton performs the waltz in the ‘1923’ finale.
When Jacob learned of the Dutton family’s danger through letters, he began his journey home with Alex right away. They’ve suffered significant setbacks. The first tugboat capsized, they were attacked by sharks, the couple married on the second ship, and the third, a gleaming ocean-liner passenger ship, resulted in a titanic confrontation with Alex’s ex Arthur, who happened to be travelling out of Italy.
Sklenar claims that filming the period scenes on the historic ocean liner Queen Mary, which is docked in Long Beach, California, was difficult “was incredible. We spent a week filming there. We were extremely fortunate to obtain permission. Seeing those rooms made your hair stand up on your arms.”
Spencer surprises Alex by waltzing up a storm on the posh dance floor after changing from his African bush attire to “1923” high-class party garb. Spencer claims that he learned to dance in his family’s Montana living room. The actor struggled to perform the waltz.
“I enjoy dancing, but not in that way. I’ve never done a waltz before “Sklenar, who took a crash course in Malta, agrees. “That dance scene was probably the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever done on set.”
Sklenar credits the couple’s waltz scenes to the formally trained Schlaepfer. “I’m not clumsy, but I’m a big guy,” he admits. “Julia really held that dance together.”
For the ‘1923’ duel sea-toss, Sklenar threw a stuntman overboard.
The couple’s “1923” dance floor frolic is cut short by the enraged Arthur, who demands Spencer duel and refuses to leave. It’s a watershed moment for Spencer, who has demonstrated tenacity as a gun-for-hire dispatched against dangerous game in Kenya. He enters the fight reluctantly. However, he eventually demonstrates that he can deal with human threats as well as leopards and lions.
