Three stars of the Yellowstone prequel 1923 appearing at Deadline Contenders Television on Saturday stayed mum on the details of the two-hour finale that airs Sunday and could well mark the end of the hit series. But actor Brandon Sklenar, who plays Spencer Dutton, promised that viewers will finish Season 2 in tears, saying, “It’s funny how much you’re gonna cry.”

“That finale hits very, very hard,” Sklenar said at a panel discussion with co-stars Julia Schlaepfer and Aminah Nieves. 

In creator Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel on Paramount+, husband and wife Jacob and Cara Dutton (Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren) fight to protect their sprawling Montana ranch from cattle thieves, a predatory land baron (Timothy Dalton) and an untamed, unpredictable wilderness. In a modernizing world of horseback, rail and Model Ts, 1923 takes on multiple, far-flung storylines including the harrowing flight to freedom of Nieves’ character, Teonna Rainwater. and the romantic torments of Spencer — Jacob’s nephew — and his wife, Schlaepfer’s Alexandra Dutton.

Will Spencer and Alex, impulsively married but separated by events, be reunited, especially with Alex on the brink of freezing to death in a snowstorm — a scene shot on a soundstage on a 100-degree day in Austin, Texas, Schlaepfer noted. 

Will Teonna, who escaped a sadistic Catholic boarding school for Native American children, survive alone in the wilderness after the deaths of her father and boyfriend? 

Asked about the finale, Nieves offered one word: “Giddyup.” 

Schlaepfer likened it to a feature film: “It’s a movie, and you get everything and more out of the two-hour finale.” 

Sunday’s Episode 7 follows a bloodbath of an Episode 6 last Sunday that saw seven characters killed off. Among them was Teonna’s maniacal pursuer, the priest Father Renaud (Sebastian Roche), who was dispatched with fury by Teonna herself after he killed her father, Runs His Horse (Michael Spears). 

All three cast members said they saw far less of the show’s famously demanding and hands-on creator, Sheridan, during the Season 2 shoot than during Season 1. “I didn’t really interact with him this season at all,” Nieves said. 

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“It was amazing, scary, but empowering as an actor,” Schlaepfer said, “because for Season 2 he really just said, ‘Go. You guys have got this. You know the characters, and there’s the writing, and go.’” 

Towards the end of Season 2 filming, Schlaepfer said Sheridan called her. “He’s like, ‘I’m just starting to watch it. It’s great,’” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘I’m glad you think so because we’re almost done!’”

Check back on Monday for the panel video.