Picking up right where episode one left off, Spencer and his friends continue to do battle with wild leopards. This costs the life of one of the men, Kasigo. A shirtless Spencer then parades back to camp and downs some whiskey before demanding a cigarette and a light. The safari director delightedly points out it was a leopardess who attacked the group. Spencer, bleeding from wounds on his chest, remains unamused. He points his rifle at Holland after the director doesn’t even apologize for Kasigo’s death. Spencer points out he never would’ve split up his group to hunt had he known there was more than one leopard, which Holland had to have known.
Jacob and his cowboys herd their cattle up the mountains but the cows refuse to go much further. In the premiere, young Jack is sent up to find out why and we discover the bullet fired at him hit his horse instead. Jacob makes it up the mountain to find Jack pinned under his horse, and Banner and his men with their flock of sheep. The cowboys have an old-fashioned pistol shootout on the hills, and Jacob pistol-whips Banner for endangering Jack’s life… and stealing his cattle grazing land. Banner seems thrilled to learn he and his fellow sheep farmers will hang for their offences.
Jacob decides to round the sheep up and herd them towards the reservation, a gift for their Native American friends who are in need of wool and food. He leaves Banner and four of his friends under a tree, seated on their horses, hands tied and nooses around their necks. If they can figure out how to get down without their horses moving away and the noose tightening, they can live. Best of luck, guys!
Back at the boarding school, the nuns continue to terrorize Teonna and her classmates by teaching them the right and wrong ways to clean a house. When one of the girls inevitably sweeps wrong, she is slapped by Sister Mary. Teonna wordlessly challenges Sister Mary herself, but the nun lets it go… this time. After the girls finish their chores for the day and bless their evening meal, Teonna notices things crawling in her food and ends up in a physical fight with Sister Mary yet again. As punishment this time, she is led to a “hot box” and left there with no food or water and a threat of being buried alive by Father Renaud.
“Someday, you’re gonna run this place,” Jacob tells Jack, “and for your son to someday run it too, you gotta understand what this ranch’s greatest enemy is. It’s not wolves or drought or blizzards or Texas Fever. It’s other men.” That rings true today, with the present day Dutton family still struggling to keep the Yellowstone ranch from the hands of others. Banner succeeds in escaping his noose and lives to tell the (illegal) tale of what Jacob did to him and his friends.
Cara and Emma discuss Elizabeth’s excitement for her upcoming wedding as they wait for the men to come home. Again, we need more Helen Mirren scenes in this show than Cara simply waiting for men to do things. Cara has already proven she’s more than capable, and it seems a waste to have her just sitting on the porch.
Meanwhile, Teonna’s grandmother tries to have her returned home. As Teonna’s mother died of the Spanish flu and her father is off working the reservation herds, her grandmother wants to legally adopt Teonna. A local lawyer tells her she must go before a judge and request it, which means Teonna must remain in the hands of the nuns for now. Back at the school, she is dragged from the hot box at dawn. Sister Mary warns Teonna she is not her adversary, though it sure seems like she is.
Spencer now finds himself in Nairobi at a bar as a group of British people become fascinated by the appearance of a lone American. Alexandra is a young blonde woman bored with her fiancée and looking for adventure, and she seems to find that in Spencer. Her cheeky smile and quick wit could be just what he needs. One of Alexandra’s friends informs Spencer of her impending marriage and drags Alexandra away, but the next morning she runs off from her wedding party and decides Spencer will be taking her with him, wherever he’s headed next. This turns out to be hunting a spotted hyena in Tanganyika that’s hunting railroad workers. Alexandra is in for more than she bargained for with Spencer’s PTSD and constant search for purpose, but maybe it’ll all work out. Just maybe.
