Did ‘1923’ Unlock the Secrets of John Dutton’s Family Tree in ‘Yellowstone’?

Yellowstone may have wrapped up its main series, with Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III meeting a divisive and controversial end, but the Dutton legacy is still a work in progress. With 1923 continuing to fill in the gaps of the family’s past, the prequel’s second season premiere episode may have finally answered one of the franchise’s biggest mysteries: who exactly are John Dutton III’s grandparents?

Since 1923 debuted, fans have been piecing together the complex Dutton family tree. While we know that John Dutton III (Costner) was the son of John Dutton II (who briefly appeared in a Yellowstone flashback), the question of who his parents were has remained unanswered. Keeping up? Cool.

The two main candidates have always been Jack Dutton (Darren Mann) and Elizabeth Strafford (Michelle Randolph)—who suffered a devastating pregnancy loss in 1923 Season 1—or Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) and Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer), the adventurous couple who have spent much of the series struggling to return to Montana. But now, a huge revelation iin the Season 2 premiere may have just tipped the scales.

In 1923 Season 2, Episode 1, Alexandra confirms that she is pregnant. But crucially, we discover that Spencer doesn’t even know yet, so that shocker immediately raises the stakes for the couple’s desperate journey home, but it also reshapes the entire Dutton family timeline as we know it. If Alexandra and Spencer’s child is a boy, it becomes increasingly likely that he is John Dutton II, making the couple the direct ancestors of Costner’s character, but that does still leave room for a twist, of course — Jack and Elizabeth could still have a child of their own — but it feels like this is the direction in which we’re all heading.

Where Do We Find ‘1923’ in Season 2

The second season of 1923 has taken us back to the rugged landscape of Montana, where the Dutton family continues to confront escalating challenges during a brutal winter. Jacob (Harrison Ford) and Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) are enduring a severe winter at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch where they have been forced to sell most of their cattle and are barely managing to sustain themselves, and there’s even the extra bonus threat of a mountain lion bothering the Duttons while they’re just trying to live their best miserable lives. Some people get all the luck, don’t they?

1923 is currently streaming on Paramount+. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on Yellowstone.