[This story contains major spoilers from the season two finale of 1923, “A Dream and a Memory.”]
No one deserved justice more than 1923’s Teonna Rainwater. And in the end, justice was on her side when, after surviving her harrowing two-season saga on the Taylor Sheridan Yellowstone prequel series, viewers are left watching the Native teenager literally ride off into the sunset in the season two finale.
It’s not easy to recap everything that Teonna has been through. After escaping the abusive clutches of an Indian assimilation boarding school in season one, Teonna, who is of Crow descent, was hunted by the headmaster, Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché), for the majority of season two. The deadly penultimate episode of this season saw Renaud and his partner (Jamie McShane) murdering both the love of Teonna’s life, Pete Plenty Clouds (Jeremy Gauna), and her father, Runs His Horse (Michael Spears), adding to the lengthy list of people Teonna has lost while fighting for her freedom.
When the North Dakota fugitive finally crosses paths with Mamie Fossett (Jennifer Carpenter) in the finale, titled “A Dream and a Memory,” the trailblazing Oklahoma marshal spares Teonna’s life out in the plains and brings her in to face the law. The judge, however, swiftly dismisses Teonna’s case over lack of evidence, and Nieves says she actually had to sit for a minute to digest that ruling.
“[Everything she has been through] built up to something that was dismissed so easily,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. But that doesn’t dampen the legacy that Teonna will go on to create. While the Dutton family tree has been expanding, so has that of the Rainwaters, of the fictional Broken Rock Tribe that continues on through present day in the Yellowstone flagship series.
The next prequel series in the Yellowstone-verse is 1944, which will be set two decades after 1923’s current story. Paramount has not confirmed whether this second season is the final one for 1923, but as the audience begins to speculate about what comes next, so does Nieves. In fact, she hopes she’s already with child when she rides off into that sunset.
Below, in a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Nieves unpacks the meaningful job of playing Teonna Rainwater, the scenes that were hardest for her to film and what she imagines Nieves looks like as she enters what she calls her matriarchal moment: “I would love for Teonna to have a full life. I’ve dreamt of that for her,” she says.
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You are free in the end. We’ve been talking about you smiling for so long.
I know! She has a little smile in episode one, and then not so much until the end.
I was looking back on our season one conversation. As your first major role, you spoke then about how heavy it was to be playing Teonna. Now we know that in the end, after everything she’s been through, she is finally free, but it comes with immense cost. What was your reaction when you first read this finale script and saw where she was headed?
Honestly, I’m not going to lie to you, I think I was sitting in silence for a little bit. I sat back and I was like, “Huh.” Just because it seemed so easy. All of that — all of that! — built up to something that was dismissed [in court] so easily.
But, she did get free and I think Teonna as a young woman entering her womanhood and entering her matriarchal moment, she wanted to be free for herself and for everyone around her. I think that was the testament. Even though she lost so much, this will inform what else she would do in her lifetime. Because she proved to herself and she proved to everyone around her, even though they may be back in sky or land, that she did what she said she was going to do. So she did it not only for herself but for them.
I am really curious to see [what happens next]. It’s open-ended! I’m sitting here and I want to know what else she has left within her, because she has so much. Even though she’s grieving and moving through something of that magnitude, Teonna is Teonna. She still has that fire in her and it’s rippling every second. So I’m curious now. I was curious when I read it. I think that’s why I was just like, “What now?!”
Her story is not over, I don’t think.
It can’t be!
Paramount has not confirmed if this is the final season of 1923, and the next chapter in the Yellowstone prequel world will be the spinoff series 1944. Have you had any conversations about playing Teonna again?
No, I know nothing.
“I think the deaths will leave Teonna with strength, courage, awareness and gratitude for everything she’s lost and has gone through,” Jeremy Gauna told THR after the deaths of Pete Plenty Clouds and Runs His Horse about Teonna (pictured here in the season two finale). “In the future, we have hope for her, because that’s something she deserves.” Lauren Smith/ Paramount+
Ok, so then we can speculate. Teonna and you were put through so much on this show. How did seeing where she ends up help you play her all along?
It helped so much. We also shot most of episode seven [the finale] in the beginning. I remember being like, “Damn. I’m doing the end first!” In my actor mind, I was like, “Ok, let’s make sure we do everything strategic now moving forward.”
Right before you ride off to whatever comes next, Teonna is told that she was right to fight back. She responds by saying that it cost her everything. We then see only the back fo you as you ride away. What was your inner monologue in that moment?
I was actually bawling my eyes out. You can’t see it, but if they had the audio, it would just be me [making crying sounds]. I was bawling my eyes out for myself, but also for Teonna. In those days, and even now, our parents and even me were told never to cry, that crying was a sign of weakness. In season one and in season two, I really wanted to demystify that, because we’re breaking that shit here. Crying is such a deep form of purification and healing; however, I still think there are moments in which Teonna doesn’t want to give all of herself to people she doesn’t necessarily trust, right? So when she said that line, she was trying to hold it all together, especially saying it to who she said it to [Officer Two Spears, played by Dougie Hall], because he knows. He’s not ignorant to the fact of what what has happened to her and what most likely will happen to her along the way on her new journey.
So I think she was holding everything in when she said those words. And as she rode away, it wasn’t even my brain thinking. It was Teonna’s brain just replaying everything she has lost: her grandmother, her mother, her cousin, her dad, Pete, Hank [Michael Greyeyes]. It’s all ruminating in her mind as she’s now aimlessly going wherever she’s going. I mean, she’s 16, and she’s been in a school for five to six years. She doesn’t know where she’s going. She can guess, but she’s still remembering these very ancient teachings from her people and from her dad. There are so many things to think about!
She needs a friend, a companion on that road. Have you thought about if she could be pregnant in that moment?
Absolutely.
Do you think she is?
I hope she is. She has to be, right?
Pete has to be the father of her legacy.
He has to be the father!
Did you give us any hints in that final moment. Did you touch your belly?
(Laughs) No. But she has to be pregnant. I definitely have thought about that, and I hope that it is Pete’s if she’s pregnant.
Aminah Nieves as Teonna Rainwater (right) with Jeremy Gauna as Pete Plenty Clouds in the beginning of season two. Ryan Green/Paramount+
We hear that she is now headed West. We know that she becomes very important in the legacy of this franchise; she goes on to create the Rainwater legacy that we see in Yellowstone with Chief Rainwater (played by Gil Birmingham). Have you filled in some of what her story looks like between 1923 and Yellowstone?
I have imagined what her life looks like. Me and Tim Muir, who designs the hair for basically all of Taylor’s shows, have kind of dreamt up a Teonna story about how long she lives and what her hair looks like, what she’s lived through. I’ve definitely thought about all of that. I really hope that she does have a full life, because I’m so over having Native historical stories end so early and seeing these people not having full lives, because there are so many Natives still out there. People of all BIPOC communities, even through adversity and struggle, they still have full lives. So I would love for Teonna to have a full life. I’ve dreamt of that for her.
So you think she’s alive in the year 1944.
Absolutely.
In your final scene with Michael Spears, with Teonna and her father, she’s told it’s important for her to survive to tell the stories of her people. When you are riding away, the finale cuts to the joint funeral of Jack Dutton (Darren Mann) and Alexandra Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer), as Elsa Dutton (voiced by 1883 star Isabel May) talks in narration comparing unmarked graves to graves with marble. What did you take away from those parting words from writer Taylor Sheridan? It made me think of Pete, who doesn’t get a grave.
I remember reading that. There are so many unmarked graves; so, so many that even if we tried to get people to look for them, we can’t. We still deal with that today. It’s not something that was left in the past. It’s still a very real thing in 2025. And, how disappointing? How disappointing that we’re still dealing with these things today? Thank god for Elsa, coming back into the future as a spirit and saying that, and giving her two cents.
I think it does bridge the Dutton legacy with the Rainwater legacy, especially in Yellowstone. Because in the Yellowstone finale of season 5B, I remember Mo [played by Mo Brings Plenty] stopped the [Native] kids from tearing down the Dutton gravestones when the Broken Rock Tribe took back the Yellowstone and Dutton land. That’s a very human moment, a very compassionate and an honorable moment, because he’s right. They have been a part of this land too, and they have been protecting it in a sense. So I think Elsa saying those words, there is a lot of duality between that.
You have spoken about feeling the spirit of your ancestors in 1923 scenes. I spoke with Jeremy Gauna about how Pete’s death scene was so emotional because you all felt and saw Cole Brings Plenty while filming. [Note: Cole died between seasons one and two and was recast with Gauna.] I also spoke with Sebastian Roché about how he wore padding and told you to go at it when you were stabbing his character to death. Can you talk about filming those scenes?
When I was stabbing Sebastian, it was really hard for me to do. As an actor, when you’re doing something that is inflicting so much pain on another being, especially killing someone, it really does something to your mind in that moment. I remember we were rehearsing that scene for a while. We don’t usually rehearse things for a while. We get three minutes, and I remember on that day, everyone is around me and I couldn’t do it. It was really hard for me to even rehearse where I was going to stab him. It took us 10 or 15 minutes, rather than our three, because it was so difficult. It was difficult to really give it to him, and it hurt. I was like [of Roché], “This is this is one of my best friends. This is my uncle.” So that specific part was hard.
Once that was over, literally once I dropped the knife, I switched again back into spirit. But there are some things as an actor you have to really control and not let someone else take over because it can be a little too much. That was one of them.
When Teonna was riding up to Pete, that was difficult. That was a very spiritual Coco [nickname for Cole] moment. And then when Teonna saw her dad [dead]. That also wasn’t just me there. That wasn’t just Michael [Spears] there, and we talked about that. We talked about what we were all feeling. It was painful to move through that because spirit was definitely moving through all of us in that moment, and you could hear it. Whether you are in tune or not, that studio was reverberating that day when we did the scene with Sebastian and Michael, and especially in the scene with Jeremy. Coco was there, one hundred percent and we were messes, just complete messes.
We can end, then, by saying Pete and Teonna’s legacy will hopefully live on?
Yes. exactly. Let’s speak it into existence.
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1923 is now streaming seasons one and two on Paramount+. Follow along with THR’s season two coverage and interviews, including Brandon Sklenar and Julia Schlaepfer on Spencer and Alex’s season two ending, and Michelle Randolph on Elizabeth’s ambiguous ending.
