‘1923’ Star Breaks Silence as Season 2 Sets Up Elizabeth Dutton’s Yellowstone EXIT

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for 1923 Season 2 Episode 2, “The Rap|st Is Winter.”]

Elizabeth Dutton (Michelle Randolph) is not enjoying her time at the Dutton ranch. The newlywed, originally from a cushier life on the east coast, is struggling to assimilate to the rugged rancher life while husband Jack (Darren Mann), Uncle Jacob (Harrison Ford), and the rest of the Yellowstone’s cowboys are away during a brutal winter in 1923‘s second season.

Season 2 Episode 2 furthered Elizabeth’s hardships in the form of a bad wolf bite, but now she’s making it harder on herself by resisting being vaccinated against rabies, much to Aunt Cara’s (Helen Mirren) disappointment. Elizabeth was nearly attacked by a mountain lion in the Season 2 premiere, and then she was bitten by a wolf in Episode 2 — a wolf that returned, broke into the Dutton home, and killed the nurse providing Elizabeth’s medical aid.

Is Elizabeth at risk of dying at the Dutton ranch, too? Well, they all are. If animals or disease won’t kill you in this time period, lack of resources in a bitter winter could certainly do the trick. And then, of course, there’s the rivalry with Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) that already left her with a gunshot wound, killed her father-in-law, and led to her mother-in-law’s suicide. Randolph tells TV Insider that Elizabeth fears death is right around the corner if she stays much longer.

“At this point she just wants to survive and she feels like, and for good reason, staying on this ranch is signing a death warrant,” Randolph explains. “Everyone around her is dying. I mean, Zane’s [Brian Geraghty] head, a mountain lion, a wolf, the nurse gets eaten in the living room. She’s like, is no one seeing this but me? Am I the only one going crazy here? And so that is going through her mind, but that doesn’t make her love Jack any less.”

A healed gunshot wound has left Elizabeth’s ability to conceive a child up in the air (she had a miscarriage in Season 1, its cause unknown), and the wolf bite made her scared to get the rabies injections in her abdomen. She wanted to take her chances with the rabies, since they didn’t know for sure if the wolf was rabid. But she was forced to take the treatment by being held down while the doctor injected the shot. It was to save her life, but it was distressing for Elizabeth nonetheless.

“This is too much. I love him, but this isn’t living. This is surviving,” she sobbed to Cara after the shot. “Barely at that.” Mirren’s sympathetic aunt/mother figure replied, “Winter’s always hard, and this one’s been harder than most. But then spring comes and there’s nothing so splendid as the mountains in the spring. Wait. Wait ’til you see it.” Elizabeth insisted that she won’t be around to see Montana come back to life. “When the storm passes, I’m going home,” she declared.

“I don’t think she wants to” leave Jack, Randolph says, but as Elsa Dutton’s (Isabel May) narration at the end of the episode warns, “Hell is winter, and winter is here to ravage all of us.” Elizabeth might soon reach her wit’s end.

Elizabeth Dutton Leaving Is Something Monica Couldn’t Do In Yellowstone

Monica Tries To Leave The Ranch In Yellowstone But Can’t

Elizabeth’s struggle resembles Monica’s (Kelsey Asbille) conflict in the flagship Yellowstone series. Throughout Monica’s time as Kayce’s (Luke Grimes) wife after Lee Dutton’s (Dave Annable) death in Yellowstone, Monica resented the need to return to the ranch and contribute to its operations, which brought hardships to her family. While the ranch indeed served Monica at times, she ultimately never wanted to be a part of it and was glad to leave it behind in the end, despite staying behind on a piece of it. Still, East Camp was appropriately positioned between the ranch and the Broken Rock Reservation.

The difference between Monica and Elizabeth is that the latter might leave, and she would be right to do so. Ultimately, Monica knows that ranch life isn’t worth sacrificing her family for, and Elizabeth shares her gut instinct. Elizabeth doesn’t want to get rabies shots in her stomach, which is understandable considering her previous wound, which likely compromised her ability to have a family by traditional means. That said, if Elizabeth sticks around, her role in the Dutton family tree could have an equally profound conclusion as Kayce’s freedom in Yellowstone, the story of which necessitated Monica’s conflict.