‘1923’ stars Brandon Sklenar, Julia Schlaepfer are ‘still processing’ season 2 finale (exclusive)

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the 1923 season 2 finale, “A Dream and a Memory.”

1923 stars Brandon Sklenar and Julia Schlaepfer are still coming to terms with what happened to Spencer and Alex in the dramatic, heartbreaking season 2 finale. 

“I was anticipating something epic and brutally tragic, and it did not disappoint,” Sklenar tells Entertainment Weekly of the Yellowstone prequel’s two-hour-long sendoff, which is streaming now on Paramount+. “That guy [creator Taylor Sheridan]. That guy is a pretty good writer, and the first time it just brought tears in my eyes, reading that episode. I mean, I could read it right now and it would break me down.”

Both Alex and Spencer spent the entirety of 1923’s second season trying to get to Montana, with Spencer heading home to help defend the Dutton homestead from the evil Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) and Alex crossing the Atlantic in order to reunite with her husband after they were forcibly separated at the end of season 1. They experienced relentless hardships along the way, the latest of which saw Alex stranded after a blizzard and forced to set a car on fire in the hopes of catching the attention of a passing train.

The tactic certainly caught the attention of one of the railcar’s occupants: Spencer, who spots his wife screaming for help next to the tracks and leaps from its caboose to rescue her without a second thought. The pair then finally get to have their long-awaited big, romantic moment as they tearfully sprint into each other’s arms.

Schlaepfer explains that the scene not only served as an emotional reunion for Spencer and Alex, but also for her and Sklenar. “That was the first scene that Brandon and I shot together in season 2. It was our reunion as actors as well,” she points out. “After such a grueling season, at least for me personally, I think everyone was super just teary-eyed that day. Our crew worked so hard and they had to watch us go through all this brutality as well. And so to see, finally, Spencer and Alex get that win and to reconnect, I think it was just a special energy on set in general.”

Sklenar agrees, noting that he could feel the full weight of the couple’s journey when shooting the moment. “I remember standing, looking at [Schlaepfer], and waiting to do the thing where they run and just hold onto each other,” he adds. “Just that sort of standing there in silence, looking at each other, and just seeing the last two-and-a-half years fly past your face. It was a trip.” 

Everything seems to be getting back on track afterward, with Alex telling Spencer she is pregnant and the train reversing to pick them up. However, their joyful moment is dashed when it’s revealed that she is suffering from severe hypothermia as a result of surviving the snowstorm and her arms and legs have gone necrotic.

She is later transported to a hospital in Boseman, where doctors inform Alex that her pregnancy must be aborted and her limbs amputated. Instead, she chooses to deliver their son, John Dutton II, and ultimately refuses to go under the knife in favor of spending her final hours with her new family. When it came to filming Alex’s final scene, Schlaepfer, who “had an inkling” that her character wasn’t going to make it, says that she simply let her feelings guide her. 

“I was laying in a hospital bed all bandaged up, Spencer’s at my bedside, Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford are there [in the waiting room], and I have this fake baby in my arms, and you feel everything that you have ever felt in the span of these two-and-a-half years with these characters at once,” she recalls. “And you just have to let it take you away. It’s so heartbreaking and so surreal, and I think I’m certainly still processing everything that I went through.”

Sklenar is also still reconciling with his own farewell to Spencer, who it is later revealed died at Alex’s gravesite after living a full life presiding over the Dutton ranch. “It’s a lot to process. I still very much feel it. I mean, his memories are my memories because of how we shot season 1 and everything,” he confesses. “I’ll be processing it for a long time, and I’m always going to be Spencer Dutton for the rest of my life.” (Schlaepfer echoes her costar’s sentiment, adding, “It’s just like Alex is a part of me.”)

Sklenar notes that their time on the hit historical drama completely “changed our lives, as people and as actors,” too. “It’s such a special thing to be a part of something that’s culturally significant like that. It’s such a unique experience, and I’m forever grateful to Taylor and everybody, and Jules, and to be able to have done it,” he says. “And, yeah, it’s super f—ing sad to not be able to do it again.” 

Still, he couldn’t imagine a “more beautiful and poignant and equal parts tragic” way to end Alex and Spencer’s whirlwind romance than getting a little glimpse at the pair’s reunion in the afterlife. “[It’s] also just kind of perfect,” he says, “the way that the tragedy morphs into this beautiful moment when they find each other again in heaven.”

Schlaepfer is equally thankful for their time spent as Alex and Spencer. “It’s so emotional, but also I’m so grateful to have been given the gift of such a epic story,” she says. “They’re a love story for the ages, and it was just such an honor to get to tell it.”

1923 is streaming now on Paramount+.