The following contains spoilers for 1883 episode 7.
The wagon train is off from Doan’s Crossing, the final main trading post for at least a few months of travel, and into the wild west—bandits, war tribes, the works. At the heart of this voyage, however, is Elsa Dutton’s story, the coming-of-age tale tucked into a frontier epic. While episode 6 focused on Elsa’s grief since losing Ennis, episode 7 looks forward to new horizons and new men who could potentially be John Dutton’s great great uncle. Who’s she gonna pick?
Repetitive romantic sub-plots aside, episode 7 does what 1883 has been doing best for weeks now: reminding viewers just how perilous the late nineteenth century journey west really was—and how death came not just through bullets and dysentery, but also stupid things, like rivers, falling off wagons, and not waking up early enough to beat a storm.
At the start of episode 7, the group is down to just a handful of wagons, the migrants forced to dump most of their belongings before the first river. They had picked up a chef since, however, and they still had the cattle. And because things could get worse, they inevitably did get worse, leading Shea to seriously consider turning around. Or just dumping everyone in Colorado. We know the road ends for the Duttons in Montana, but we can’t yet be sure if the rest make it to the coast.
Here’s what peril came for the wagon train this week.
Okay, Now We’re in the Frontier
Paramount
Every week seems to be the start of the actual journey, but this week really is the beginning of the long road ahead. The trading post is behind them, grasslands are before them, and it’s time to actually shoot a cow. (Shea had originally tried to delay this event until closer to winter.)
The episode opens on Elsa, narrating from another diary entry (we think), this time about the grass. The plains are uninhabitable, and Elsa notes how they have ridden over a week without seeing food. What food they do see is dead. “The filth of our touch is an apocalypse,” Elsa narrates, implying the havoc settlers will soon wreak on the land and its animals.
Deeper into the plains, the group meets two Comanche riders who they pay to ensure safe passage. (“It’s their land.”) The riders join the settlers for a meal, and Elsa meets one of the riders, Sam, who she quickly befriends. She tells Sam her horse is named Lightening because of its speed, and Sam challenges Elsa to a race to find out. Elsa beats Sam. The two then ride off where Sam tells Elsa that he chose his name after a man named Sam killed his wife; he wanted to take the man’s name after taking the man’s life. (Sam killed Sam.) Sam gives Elsa a nickname, “Lightning Yellow Hair.”
“They’ll Have to Get Tough or Die”
Paramount
Back at camp that night, Sam tells Shea to watch out for storms, which thieves will often use as cover. Sam and the other Comanche ride out early to beat the storm. Shea tells Thomas that they can’t baby the migrants anymore; they’ll have to get tough now or die.
The migrants are crossing the plains when the tornado hits. James and Margaret take cover with John. Elsa and the other cowboys let the heard run before following Sam, who reappears to help them (not for the last time). They, too, take cover after releasing the horses. Elsa says goodbye to Lightning, fearing he may die.
The storm rips through the wagon train destroying every wagon except for two.
When it passes over Elsa, she and Sam, holding each other, kiss.
When the storm lets up, they look for horses, finding Lightening and then later three farther down the plains. Elsa and Sam then say goodbye. Sam says she is always welcome on the Comanche’s land. (Elsa’s crossing between both worlds—the settlers’ and the indigenous tribes’—calls to mind Kayce’s later split from the Dutton family after marrying Monica and moving to the reservation; an indigenous girl who guides Kayce during a season 4 dream may yet appear in 1883.)
The Cattle!
Paramount
Back by the wagons, the settlers regroup. Shea does the math: 26 adults and 22 children all left now with only two wagons and some horses. He considers turning back, but there are more pressing issues.
The cattle are spotted two miles away, having been taken by several bandits. Shea, Thomas, James, and Elsa ride out to confront the bandits, as the cowboys stay back to protect the settlers. Margaret will have none of this when she finds out the plan, and decides to ride out for Elsa.
When the group reaches the cattle, they realize there are over a dozen bandits and immediately retreat. James tells Elsa to keep riding as he, Shea, and Thomas dismount with rifles and begin picking off the hand-gun-wielding bandits.
Three chase Elsa and are about to close in when Sam shows up and kills them. Sam and another Comanche then circle back to the others and finish off the rest of the bandits. All three—Shea, Thomas, and James—have been hit, but all are okay. (Then Sam leaves for good—we think.)
Meanwhile, Margaret arrives late and farther down the plains where she meets the last bandit. She kills him. Later that night we learn it was Margaret’s first kill (or at least a kill she counts as a sin) and that she cried that night, thinking only John can now reach heaven.
In a closing monologue, Elsa says she thinks her mother is wrong. Heaven and hell exist on earth, she says. And the land is God. (Well, don’t that sound just like John Dutton?)
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