Includes SPOILERS for 1923 season 2, episode 3!
1923’s season 2, episode 3 ending saw a horrifying cliffhanger related to Alex, as a man seems to have cornered her in a bathroom and could potentially take her money. Still, that’s not even the worst thing that happened to her in the episode, as the process of immigration through Ellis Island in the 1920s is regarded in history as an entirely dehumanizing process.
Alex is examined by multiple men, physically and intellectually, as they don’t believe her marriage to Spencer to be legitimate without the proper documentation.
Alexandra’s Statue Of Liberty Quote In 1923 Season 2, Episode 3 Explained
Alex Reads An Emma Lazarus Sonnet
In one of her examination scenes, Alexandra quotes a famous sonnet titled “The New Colossus,” which is on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty. The sonnet was written by Emma Lazarus, but Alex notes the irony of its words, reflecting on how terrible her first hours in America have been. She suggests that, despite America’s boastful advertisements about freedom, everything she’s experienced there has made her feel less free than ever before. The parts of the sonnet Alex reads are as follows:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
What Alexandra’s Walt Whitman Quote In 1923 Season 2, Episode 3 Really Means
Alex Quotes Walt Whitman To Prove She Can Read
When Alex is prompted with the question of whether she possesses any trade skills, she’s asked whether she can read. To prove it, she’s given a book of Walt Whitman poems. Rather than just read from the beginning, she decides to make a moment out of it, in the Taylor Sheridan fashion, looking for a specific passage that relates to her situation. The words she reads can be read below:
“O, to be a ruler of life– not a slave. And nothing exterior shall ever take command of me. Re-examine all you’ve been told and dismiss that.”
The first two lines are from a poem called “A Song of Joys,” and the third line is a general Walt Whitman quote. It seems like Taylor Sheridan merged and altered some phrases he liked to fit the scene, with Alex taking the opportunity to say that no matter what, she’s still in control of her own life. This has been her primary growth throughout 1923.
