Ultimately, after John Dutton’s death in Yellowstone season 5, his short-sightedness caused his son, Kayce (Luke Grimes), to sell the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and the Broken Rock Tribe. John’s children weren’t prepared to pay the inheritance tax that came with inheriting their family’s land, so we never saw Kayce Dutton run the ranch without John’s influence. Still, we may witness Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) running the ranch in 1944 instead, and the 1923 character’s reign will have a striking similarity to John Dutton’s.

John And Spencer Dutton Had To Run The Yellowstone Ranch Solo

Evelyn And Alexandra Dutton Were Gone Too Soon

After 1923 season 2’s finale, we know Spencer Dutton will run the Yellowstone Ranch from spring 1924 onward. After Spencer kills Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton), he takes the helm of the Dutton Ranch, unburdening his uncle, Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford), from its operations. Sadly, Spencer will run the ranch without a partner after Alex Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer) died in 1923. Spencer loses his wife after she spends a life-threatening amount of time outside in Montana’s unforgiving cold, ultimately succumbing to complications from hypothermia.

We know from Spencer Dutton’s time jump at the end of 1923 that he never married anyone else, despite having a son with an unnamed widow. The development proves that, throughout his time running the ranch, for as many as 45 years, Spencer had to manage things by himself. The reality of Spencer’s situation looks a lot like John Dutton’s, who lost his wife, Evelyn (Gretchen Mol), in a fatal accident, shown in a Yellowstone season 1 flashback. John’s wife was also gone too soon, leaving him without his most trusted confidant.

How John And Spencer’s Circumstances Affect Running The Ranch

John Dutton Is Saddened By His Past Throughout Yellowstone

We know that John’s wife’s death affected how he ran the ranch. John Dutton’s best Yellowstone quotes prove that the character was profoundly in touch with the grieving process, having lost many family members too soon. John’s connection to loss often leaves the ranch owner swirling in his sadness, which includes the death of his son, Lee (Dave Annable), and his infant brother, Peter. This pain potentially affects John’s willingness to do things differently, avoiding his daughter’s request to make changes, since Dutton was somewhat stuck in the past.

We’ve yet to see how Alex’s loss impacts Spencer, since 1923 ends with Dutton taking control of the ranch and then flashes forward to his death in 1969. Still, we know that Spencer’s reign at the ranch will be impacted by losing his wife, since Elsa Dutton’s narration in 1923’s finale reveals that Spencer never took up another partner. Spencer’s loneliness certainly impacted his work, although perhaps not as much as John Dutton’s. We know that Spencer successfully ran the ranch through World War II and onward, since John Dutton eventually inherited the ranch in the modern era.

Spencer Dutton Will Likely Return To Yellowstone In Its 1944 Spinoff

Alex’s Spirit Could Help Spencer Run The Ranch Alone In 1944

We will probably get a keener sense of how Spencer’s loss affects him in Taylor Sheridan’s next Yellowstone prequel, 1944. Since it’s a quarter-century before his death, Spencer Dutton would presumably have run the Yellowstone Ranch amid the war, where the prequel will presumably pick up. While it’s unclear if Brandon Sklenar will return as Spencer Dutton in 1944, the actor has pitched that his co-star, Julia Schlaepfer, return to the next saga as Alex Dutton, potentially informing Spencer’s operation as some ethereal spirit, or perhaps appearing in Spencer’s dreams.

With Schlaepfer’s willingness to return to the Yellowstone franchise, it could be that Spencer doesn’t have to run the ranch completely alone, his ethereal connection to Alex Dutton established in 1923’s ending via Spencer Dutton’s afterlife. Perhaps his connection to his late wife gives Spencer the strength to “carry the fate of this family through the depression and every other hell the 20th century hurled at them,” as Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) tells us Spencer will do in 1923’s premiere.