Taylor Sheridan is continuing to tell the story of the Montana ranch owners, this time filling in the gaps between their origins of 1883 and the modern day of Yellowstone.
The latest story, 1923, debuted on Paramount+ on December 18 and wasted no time in revealing what happened to the lead characters in 1883, James and Margaret Dutton. The episode also opened with a surprise reappearance of another Dutton family member who died in 1883.
Newsweek has detailed everything we know about the Dutton family tree so far, but to catch you up, here’s what happened to the Dutton family members we met in 1883.
James Dutton
A recent episode of Yellowstone showed James Dutton’s gravestone, which still sits on the Yellowstone ranch. It revealed he died ten years after the events of 1883, in 1893. The likely cause of his death is seen in a flashback in an episode of Yellowstone where John arrives home with gunshot wounds and collapses, though it’s not known what his fate is at that point.
In the opening minutes of 1923, the familiar narrator, Elsa reveals that her father died, which prompted Margaret to write to his brother “begging” for help in this wild land.
We saw James in flashback scenes throughout Season 4 of Yellowstone, with glimpses of him getting used to life in Montana, but it seems his time there was cut short.
Margaret Dutton
Margaret Dutton’s gravestone also featured in Season 5 Episode 6 of Yellowstone, though it wasn’t clear when she passed away. Elsa reveals that a year after she’d written the letter to Jacob, he arrived to find her frozen in a snow drift, with the two boys, John and Spencer, “half-starved and barely able to speak.”
The narrator once again informs the audience that she passed away, not long after James died. It’s suggested that “the cold” got to her and caused her death.
She and James left behind their two sons, whom we see alive and well in the new show 1923.
Elsa Dutton
A surprise addition to 1923 is the voice of Elsa Dutton, with actress Isabel May reprising her role.
Her character stole the show in 1883, before her untimely death in the finale marked the reason that the Dutton family chose to settle at the Yellowstone ranch in Montana.
Elsa narrated everything in 1883, and despite it now being 40 years since her death, she also narrates the opening episode of 1923.
John Dutton Sr.
Just a boy when we last saw him in 1883, John Dutton Sr. is well into his forties when we meet him again in 1923.
James Badge Dale takes over the role, replacing young actor Audie Rick. Decades later, he now works hard on the Yellowstone ranch as the right-hand man of Harrison Ford’s character Jacob Dutton. Jacob raised John and Spencer as his own, and according to Elsa in Episode 1, “took their father’s dream and turned it into an empire.”
He is now married to Emma Dutton, played by Marley Shelton. Together they have one son, James Dutton, though it’s expected that down the line they will give birth to John Dutton II, the father of Yellowstone’s John Dutton III.
