The first season of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone spinoff series 1883 came to an end last night and damn… it was incredible. This western series took audiences on one hell of a brutal journey across the plains of America.
The series follows “the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. It is a stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in America’s promised land — Montana.”
If you haven’t watched the series yet, you might want to skip this because we get into some major spoiler territory. I will say that the end of the finale was devastating, though, and in a recent interview with Variety, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill discussed that ending and what it was like for them shooting it.
While the series does follow the Dutton’s journey, there’s one character in particular that the story focuses on. That character is Elsa Dutton (Isabel May), the daughter of James Dutton (McGraw) and Margaret Dutton (Faith Hill), and after a harrowing journey, Elsa dies in her dad’s arms after an emotional goodbye to both him and her mother.
You really get to know and love these characters over the course of the series, so when something like that happens, it’s just such a punch to the gut and incredibly sad. But, that’s the story that the filmmakers wanted to tell and it was told beautifully.
McGraw had this to say about the end of the story and how it affected them: “When we got the final two, we literally couldn’t read them to each other because we were crying so much — I mean, ugly, boohoo crying. I was a blubbering idiot. It was just so well-written, so devastating and heartbreaking, but at the same time, so on point and poignant for what ‘Yellowstone’ turned out to be. It just gives you all the reasons in the world why they fight so hard for that land and and why their family fights so hard for to keep what they have. It just made perfect sense.”
Hill added: “When I finally finished reading Episode 10 to him, we both just sat there and said, ‘My God, this is one of the most incredible stories we’ve ever read.’ I knew the weight and responsibility of playing Margaret and telling the story and bringing her to life — I felt an enormous responsibility. I did not want to fail.”
When talking about what the fan reaction might be, McGraw said: “I know fans are gonna hate it and love it at the same time. That’s what good TV, good music, good movies, good art, good books, all those things, do. They bring out those emotions in you. It’s going to be a good thing that they hate that ending, because it has to be that way and they know it. It’s gonna be devastating. Why would you watch stuff if it doesn’t purge your emotions?”
McGraw went on to talk about actually shooting the final scene with Isabel, saying: “The hardest part for us, I think, was to not be emotional too early. Both of our characters are really strong people and wanted to be strong for our family. So that was the hardest thing for us, because we do have daughters and because Isabella, when we first walked on set and saw her, we said, ‘My gosh, she looks she could be one of our daughters.’ It was great casting. But you do become emotionally invested and you do bring your real-life situation into the way you act. You find that piece of your life or a piece of who you are and you can sort of put it under a magnifying glass. It does expose all those emotions, and it’s hard as a parent, playing that role — you don’t want to go to any dark places in your mind about your kid. So you have to keep trying to block that out and still be in the moment with the character that you’re playing and the characters you’re playing opposite of, but the lines do get blurry.”
Hill expanded on that, saying: “As a mom, I can’t even allow myself to go there. I cannot. It’s really hard, even now, to talk about, because once the tears start coming, I can’t stop them. I would tell the directors, if we start going, it’s going to be hard for me to stop. It’s painful. The first thing that started to split Margaret into a different person from myself was the loss of her sister, Claire. I became very close to Dawn Olivieri, the actor who played her. I can’t even talk about that without crying. That was so, so devastating to me. And even though I knew it was coming, it still played out in a way that was just tragic, but real at the same time.”
So how will the death of Elsa affect the Duttons moving forward? Hill explains: “I honestly don’t know. I think I’m still reeling and that’s the truth! I mean, I’m angry. Imagine knowing that your child is going to die and you cannot be by their side? I can’t even imagine it ever. I have not recovered. I really don’t know.”
McGraw shared his thoughts, saying: “I have no idea. You know, Taylor Sheridan is such a brilliant writer that I can only imagine what he’s going to come up with, and whatever I imagine is probably not even going to be close. So I don’t have any idea. I’m as anxious as anyone to see what happens.”
There’s no word on what the plan is for 1883 as the series moves forward, but I hope that we at least get a few more seasons! I just love these characters and I want to see their journey continue.