- Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the season one finale of Paramount+ drama, "1923."
- Darren Mann spoke to Insider about his character's subtle transformation throughout season one.
The first season of "Yellowstone" prequel "1923" came to a close this weekend and didn't disappoint viewers, leaving them with plenty to ponder over until season two.
One character whose actions in the finale audiences will no doubt be playing in fans' minds for some time is the youngest Dutton, Jack (Darren Mann), who in the show's eleventh hour displayed a huge amount of growth that Mann told Insider he thinks could hint at what's to come in future seasons.
At the beginning of the episode, Jack accompanied his great-uncle Jacob (Harrison Ford) and the ranch's foreman, Zane (Brian Geraghty), to the courthouse to see Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) arraigned. Much to the surprise of everyone, including himself, the murderous Scot was released without bail thanks to his smarmy lawyer Chadwick Benton (Currie Graham).
As he makes his way out, however, Banner cannot help but mouth off. First, he took aim at Jacob, before riling Jack up with a comment about the near-fatal gunshot wound his men inflicted on his bride Elizabeth (more on that later) during the bloody ambush that also claimed the life of his father, John (James Badge Dale), and, as a result, drove his mother Emma (Marley Shelton) to suicide.
"Sitting back is driving him nuts a little bit, he's itching to get back at Banner," Mann told Insider while discussing the season finale. "Especially when he makes a remark like that about Elizabeth and what we've been through."
"Jack is just waiting to get his sweet revenge. He's been wanting to go back after him for a long time, but he's not in charge at this time, right? So he's gotta listen to Jacob, but I think the whole time Jack has been vying to go back and get revenge."
Asked what he thinks that might look like, Mann said: "Well, I'm gonna give you the version in my head: I would love to see Jack take over, I'd love to see Jack be the man, and I'd like to see things turn out good for the Yellowstone."
"In my mind, that's the way it would go," he added with a laugh. "I'm not sure when it will come, but it's going to be sweet when it does."
"But I have no idea what's gonna happen. I haven't been told anything. I haven't talked to Taylor for quite a while either," Mann added. "I haven't seen him since the premiere of the first episode in December, so I truly have no clue what's going to happen. I'm just excited as you are to read the first episode of next season."
Later in the episode, Mann delivers a showstopper of a speech when Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) tells him she feels like a failure after she has miscarried their baby. It's not explicitly stated but it's suggested that the abdominal gunshot from earlier on in the season has affected her ability to carry children.
Faced with his wife's anxieties that she has no purpose without motherhood, Jack reminds her that Cara (Helen Mirren) never had children either and that Elizabeth's destiny may be something altogether different.
It's a tender moment and presents viewers with a more sensitive and mature side to Jack that's not really been shown until now.
However, Mann says that if you've been watching closely enough, Jack's astuteness in this scene shouldn't come as a surprise.
"I don't know if this side of him was necessarily held back, but it really shows all that he's gone through," he said. "I think the cool thing about Jack is that we really get to go through him becoming who he is in season one."
While most of the characters were introduced in the premiere with some emotional baggage in one form or another, this wasn't the case for Jack, whose biggest concern before the range war was whether he could move his wedding day to fit in with his cowboying schedule.
"A lot of these other characters, they've gone through the craziest things in their life already that have set them down the path that they're on and made them become the person they are," Mann said.
"But we get to live with Jack through the biggest moments of his life: his mom passing, his dad passing, and now losing a child," the actor said. "All of the stuff that's going on around him, that's influencing him and who he's becoming, and I think that all leads up and builds into who he is in the finale."
Mann suggested that "maybe Jack and Elizabeth are going to become like the new Jacob and Cara," following the latest devastating development for the young couple.
"He and Elizabeth, they love the Yellowstone more than anybody," he said. "He loves being a cowboy, he loves taking care of his family and you know, he doesn't want to let that go and he'll do anything he can to protect that," he said.
"1923" is now streaming on Paramount+.