Taylor Sheridan, the creator of 1883, has quite a knack for making story plots take major turns within a series. After Episode 5 where Ennis was killed, a lot of folks probably wondered how Elsa would handle losing her first love. Episode 6 took a lot of time allowing Elsa to share her grieving process. Sam Elliot’s character, Shea Brennan, stepping in and sharing his thoughts on the loss of a close loved one seemed to soften the blow for Elsa. A new character rides in to take Ennis’s place with the group. The bandits causing chaos and sadness were hunted down. Mother Nature, in the form of a tornado, destroys nearly everything they have.
Crossing Into Indian Territory
When the group crossed the first river, they crossed into an area that was unsafe for travel because of bandits running amok. The group has made another treacherous crossing of a river. Needless to say, they handled the second river-crossing much better than the first. They have now crossed into Indian territory at this point.
Elsa Finds Love Again
It only took 3 episodes after Ennis was killed for Elsa to get married to her second love. Her second love turns out to be a Native American named Sam. It was quite entertaining to watch Elsa’s mother, Mrs. Margaret Dutton played by Faith Hill, to tell her that she did not know what love actually is. Margaret is more than likely saying this because she is afraid she is going to lose Elsa very soon because she is growing into a woman and making decisions of her future without her parents’ consent.
Mother Nature
The group being led by Shea is a group of immigrants from Europe that have come ill-prepared for the frontier. They are learning as they go. James Dutton, played by Tim McGraw, and his family are traveling with the big group. Everyone in the group is having to learn new skills quickly. Riding horses, shooting guns, handling cattle and horses and battling Mother Nature fill up each episode. Mother Nature wreaks havoc as the group sees a storm approaching and watch as a tornado forms in the distance. Shea and James start preparing for the tornado by releasing/unhitching all of the animals. Everyone hunkers down in the open fields as the tornado passes. It destroys just about every wagon and all of their belongings.
Trading With The Natives
After the storm, the group has made friends with a couple of Indians, including Elsa’s new love. They helped the group collect their wandering animals from the storm. Losing just about everything but their lives, they trade much of their remaining goods for shelter (teepees), leather goods and knives. Welcoming the Indians to the group was not very welcoming at first. A group of Indians approached from a good distance and they took up arms fearing they were about to be attacked. Shea was quick to tell them all to lower their weapons until they found out what was going on with the arrival of their future traders.
A Tearful Departure
Elsa marries Sam. She decides to continue the journey with her family but promises to return to her husband. As they are going in different directions, Elsa tells Sam that she loves him in his native language and also in English. Sam, in return, declares that she is also a warrior since she is now married to a warrior. She then dries her tears and says, “Warriors don’t cry.”
I’ll be checking out Twitter to see what everyone is saying there. Hope you’re enjoying this “Western” series as much as I am. Make sure to leave us a comment here and let’s chat about it — and keep reading That Park Place for all the latest!
