Isabel May captured audience hearts as Elsa Dutton on 1883. But when the actress reflects on her breakout role in the Yellowstone prequel series, she's humble.
Who is the girl shot with an arrow at the beginning of 1883?
Elsa Dutton (Isabel May) is the daughter of Margaret (Faith Hill) and James Dutton (Tim McGraw) — the founders of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. While it was sudden and shocking, the build towards Elsa's death begins when she is shot with a poisoned arrow during an attack on the caravan.
In a flashforward, Elsa Dutton watches in late 1883 as a group of pioneers are slaughtered by a band of Lakota on the Great Plains. She kills one, before being surrounded. Months earlier, former Union Army captain Shea Brennan cremates his wife and daughter after they die of smallpox.
Elsa was born on April 9, 1866 to James and Margaret Dutton, one year after the ending of the American Civil War. She is a farmer's daughter with a younger brother named John. When their parents decided to leave their Tennessee home and set off on a journey northward she and her brother went with them.
Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) is John and Elsa's brother in 1923, and the character who is currently hunting lions abroad. Spencer was apparently born sometime after James and Margaret settled in Montana and was not featured as a baby back in 1883.
Meanwhile, fan-favorite Shea Brennan (Sam Elliott) made good on his promise to see the Pacific Ocean so his late wife could “use [his] eyes to see the world” — then promptly shot himself.
S3 | 07/06/22. Tim McGraw reveals that when he and Faith Hill met co-star Isabel May, who plays their daughter in the "Yellowstone" prequel "1883," they felt she could actually be one of their daughters!
He called her two weeks later and offered her the lead role in the Yellowstone prequel series 1883, playing Elsa Dutton, the 18-year-old daughter who embarks with her parents, James Dutton (Tim McGraw) and Margaret Dutton (Faith Hill), on a treacherous trek across the Great Plains to Montana.
Does Elsa get pregnant in 1883? The Yellowstone prequel never clarified whether Elsa (Isabel May) and Ennis (Eric Nelsen) consummating their relationship in 1883 season 1, episode 5 “The Fangs of Freedom" resulted in Elsa getting pregnant.
She grew fond of him and their romance bloomed until there was a shootout with some bandits, resulting in Ennis' death. She later met a Comanche warrior in Kansas named Sam who she connected with, giving her a second chance at love. She later agreed to accept Sam's hand in marriage, but there was no ceremony.
The Dutton family cemetery makes more sense after 1883 revealed that Elsa was the first person to be buried on the land. However, Yellowstone and its prequels have shown clips of headstones with names that fans have yet to meet, like Patience, Chance, and Ned Dutton.
However, Elsa dies from an arrow shot during an attack on the family's wagon train, and the couple never reunite. She chooses her burial spot to be in Paradise Valley, which eventually becomes the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.
At the start of 1883: A Yellowstone Origin Story, she and her daughter succumbed to smallpox and their cadavers were set torched with the rest of their home.
As James cradled her, the two shed tears while sharing their precious memories and taking her final breath, Elsa said: “I know what it is. I'm not scared. I'm not scared, daddy.”
Elsa is Sam's girlfriend. A wealthy resident of Miami whom Sam often reluctantly uses for a safe house or a getaway vehicle. She is protrayed by actress Jennifer Taylor.
Although her death carries a deep sense of tragedy, it was a necessary step to propel the narrative of the Dutton family in a meaningful direction. As a main character in the Yellowstone prequel series, Elsa's fate was set in motion when she was struck by a poisoned arrow during a vicious attack on the caravan.
1883, which concluded its first season in February 2022, featured Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the central Duttons, who claim the infamous patch of Montana wild known as the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch after the tragic death of their daughter, Elsa.
Margaret Dutton was the first matriarch of the Dutton family and mother to Elsa, John, and Spencer. She died of hypothermia during a bitter Montana winter, shortly after James died after being shot by horse thieves.
Elsa's death signaled the end of the first chapter in the story of the Duttons of Yellowstone. Elsa wasn't just the narrator — she was the very heart and soul of 1883. In short, it was simply time for Elsa to die, which heralded the beginning of an entirely new chapter for the Duttons.
By the time he arrived, Jacob found Margaret Dutton had frozen to death in a snow drift, and the boys - John and Spencer - were nearly starved to death. In the decades following Margaret and James' passing, Jacob and Cara would turn the ranch into a thriving cattle empire.
