Parmount Network
Editor’s Note:(This article contains spoilers for season 2, episode 3 of “1923.”)
There’s a moment in the third episode of “1923’s” second season that feels ripped straight from “The Godfather Part II.” Alexandra Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer), who once floated through life on the gilded wings of aristocracy, now finds herself battered by the unforgiving machinery of American immigration. It’s a slow-motion descent from luxury to desperation, a transformation that begins with a hopeful glance toward the New York City skyline and ends in the cold, clinical grasp of Ellis Island bureaucracy.
Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) has his own journey home, but this episode belongs to Alexandra. Half of “Wrap Thee in Terror” is devoted to her arrival on American shores, and it’s a masterpiece of tension, humiliation, and resilience. When the lookout cries, “Land, ho,” Alex is first to grab her bag, ready to step into a new world. But there’s a problem — she has no visa. Her journey takes a detour to Ellis Island, a place known for less than stellar accommodations.
Sheridan’s writing has a particular fondness for containment, for boxing characters into spaces that make them fight their way out. And here, Alexandra is trapped in a machine that grinds people down, categorizes them, and determines their worth. Her golden curls and crisp clothing make her a glaring anomaly in steerage, and when she’s led through a series of medical inspections that strip her bare — both literally and figuratively — it’s hard not to feel the full weight of her predicament.
She’s told pregnant women are turned away. She’s told that women traveling alone can buy their way into America, either with money or something more sinister. But Alexandra, ever the fighter, finds another way: literacy. When an immigration officer, hoping to trip her up, asks her to read from a Whitman primer, she delivers a defiant passage: “Dismiss whatever insults your own soul.” In that moment, it’s clear that America isn’t just a place she wants to be — it’s a place she’s willing to fight for.
Meanwhile, Spencer’s storyline is laced with danger of its own. He’s found himself entangled with the Italian mob, tasked with transporting liquor through Texas, Fort Worth, nonetheless. It’s a job that comes with a gun and a guarantee of trouble. His friend Luca, whose ambitions outpace his survival instincts, doesn’t make it out alive. It’s a moment of violence that marks a turning point for Spencer — his road home is no less treacherous than Alexandra’s, just paved with a different brand of menace.
Back in Montana, the Duttons face their own trials. Helen Mirren’s Cara narrowly escapes a wolf attack, Harrison Ford’s Jacob is lost in a snowstorm, and Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) teeters on the edge of abandoning the ranch life altogether. There’s a moment of symmetry in the episode, where both Alexandra and Elizabeth are gut-punched — one by a cold medical examiner, the other by the sharp sting of a rabies vaccine administered by her Aunt Cara. It’s a reminder that survival in “1923” comes in many forms, but none of them are easy.
Sheridan’s vision of New York is a city that plays by its own brutal rules. When Alexandra finally steps out of Ellis Island’s grip, she’s met by a seasoned Black newsie who gives her the rundown on how to navigate the urban jungle. Hide your money. Stay alert. Keep moving. It’s a survival guide wrapped in street wisdom, and it might be the most heartfelt moment of the episode. Because for all of “1923’s” grumbling about city life, there’s an undeniable romance to it — the way the streets hum with possibility, the way people, no matter how hardened, still find time to look out for one another.
But Alexandra’s journey isn’t over. As she arrives at Grand Central Station to buy a train ticket to Bozeman, she’s once again confronted by the predatory underbelly of the city. The episode closes with her being followed into a restroom, a chilling reminder that danger doesn’t just lurk in the wilds of Montana or the underworld of the mafia — it’s everywhere.
What “1923” does best is weave together these disparate journeys — each character trapped in their own version of survival, their own test of resilience. Alexandra’s battle through immigration, Spencer’s brush with organized crime, Elizabeth’s disillusionment with ranch life — it’s all part of the larger, brutal picture of what it means to carve out a place in this world.
And yet, there’s something undeniably romantic about it all. Because at its heart, “1923” isn’t just about hardship — it’s about the people who push through it. Who fight. Who refuse to be boxed in. And who, against all odds, still believe in something bigger than themselves.
