1923 Season 2 Episode 4 Explains The Origin Of Yellowstone’s Train Station

This article contains spoilers for “1923” season 2, episode 4.

“Yellowstone” failed to address several unanswered questions before the show’s fifth and (presumably) final season wrapped up. The good news, though, is that Taylor Sheridan’s Western franchise keeps producing spin-offs that fill in some of the blanks regarding those mysteries, with “1923” season 2, episode 4, “Journey the Rivers of Iron,” finally explaining the origins of the Dutton family’s beloved “train station” dumping ground.

For those who are unfamiliar with “Yellowstone” lore, the train station is a canyon located in an unpopulated county between Montana and Wyoming. With no people around, it’s the perfect place to dispose of the bodies of the countless folks who’ve paid for crossing the Dutton family and getting in the way of its interests. “Yellowstone” establishes that the Duttons have used the spot for generations — but they weren’t the first individuals to discover it.

“1923” reveals that the villainous Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) stumbled across the land on a map. He thereafter sends his stooge, Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn), there to dump the body of a dead sex worker he finds in his bedroom — hopefully marking the end of the show’s most unnecessary storyline — to make sure it’s fit for purpose. That said, Whitfield discovering a convenient place for hiding dark secrets has probably led to him signing his own death warrant.

“Yellowstone” reveals that the Duttons’ ranch has been in the family for generations, so it seems like only a matter of time until Jacob (Harrison Ford) and his kin put a stop to Donald Whitfield and the other capitalist crooks who want to take their land from them. Right now, though, he has the family in his debt after paying off their property taxes, meaning that he could ruin them legally at some point.

Of course, Whitfield isn’t foolish enough to think legalities will put a stop to the Duttons, allow him to claim their land, and build a tourist resort on it. The Duttons are killers, which is why he intends to have them dumped in the aforementioned canyon. The Duttons don’t want the cunning businessman to live either, so a bloodbath is inevitable.

There’s a war coming in the second season of “1923,” and it’s probably going to end with Whitfield and his associates getting buried in the train station, as we know this land stays with the Duttons until the final season of “Yellowstone.” It remains to be seen if the train station will be Whitfield’s final resting place, but it seems that the Duttons will learn about the secret location through their imminent showdown with the villain. Regardless of what the future holds, we can finally add the “Yellowstone” saga’s train station mystery to the solved column.

New episodes of “1923” premiere Sundays on Paramount+.