1883

 After all the sci-fi of the past weeks, it is time for some good old historically footed amusement in this Yellowstone spin-off prequel.

And I found that with the series 1883, which follows the Dutton family in their journey across the Great Plains towards Montana.

Starring the always delightfully grom Sam Elliot (so this is what Bufford was up to after Gettysburg!) as Shea Brennan, a Pinkerton agent leading the expedition.  He had lost wife and daughter to the smallpox, and just when he was about to commit suicide his partner Thomas arrives, convincing him to take a job at the Pinkerton agency in Fort Worth for an escorting job across the Great Plains.

Together with the Dutton family, whose father is a Confederate civil war veteran, and a group of Slavic and German immigrants, the wagon train sets out.  The tensions between the immigrants and the american members of the train strain though, and leading to the death of Dutton's niece Mary Abel.  The inexperienced travellers find themselves victim to nature's harsh reality like dysentry of rattlesnake bites, as well as thievery amongst the group.  Shea forces the cullprits out, while Dutton's daughter Elsa takes on the cowgirl style of life, becomming smitten with one of the cowboys in the caravan, Ennis.

With food running short as one of the food wagons gets lost in the crossing of a river, as a group of bandits wants to raid the wagon train.  In the ensuing fight, Ennis is killed, and Shea tries to comfort Elsa.  They enter the Comache lands, paying the tax to be allowed to cross.  And Elsa befriends a Comanche who just goes by the name Sam.  A storm arrives, scattering the cattle and destroying wagons, but as Elsa is confronted by rustlers as she tries to gather the cattle, Sam and his partner save her.

Shea wants to cut the journey short now that their supplies and wagons are destroyed, but Dutton challenges the decision and wants to push on to Oregon.  Elsa has fallen in love with Sam, and taking their ways marries him.  She will accompany the train to Oregon, then return to Comanche territory to be with him.  But in Lakota territory, the dwindling group suffers more casualties, and when they find a massacred group of Lakota women and children, Shea and Thomas realize they will get the blame.  As Shea, Thomas and Dutton find the murderers, the rest of the settler's have retreated towards a nearby US army fort, but a Lakota attack kills a number of them before Elsa defuses the situation, but getting seriously wounded.

The Wagon Train moves on into Wyoming territory to find help, but find no surgeon to help Elsa.  Threatened by the Crow tribe, she realizes she will die, and at their advice travels with her father to a valley called Paradise to find her burial spot and a place for her family to settle.  Here, she dies in her father's arms under a tree.  A year later, Shea arrives at the Pacific Ocean, and his promise to his late wife fullfilled, shoots himself on the beach to be back with her as the other's start to build homes for their new life...

So, this was an intense series for certain, and worth the watch.  And of course, Sam Elliot always adds to a series, he just is one of those enthralling, gruff actors.  And the finale was so "bold" it dare to do what a lot of other shows don't.