Netflix’s American Primeval may be a Western tale, but not of the kind where a gunslinging Clint Eastwood comes out of nowhere to take care of the bad guys. Instead, this one has a lot of intriguing complexities and racial and political troubles in the background that are dealt with in a much more realistic, grounded manner—in line with how the genre has worked in the recent past (The English and The Power of the Dog are profound examples of that). That, of course, makes it a fascinating watch where everything, from the acting to the writing to the direction to the cinematography, is pretty much perfect. Armed with a scintillating soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky, American Primeval is most definitely the first great show of 2025. There’s no shortage of violence in it, but you’d be disappointed if you were looking for any conventional hero moments. In this article, we’re going to discuss American Primeval and its ending, which I thought was pretty definite, although some might find a hint of ambiguity regarding our lead, Sara Holloway’s future. That doesn’t warrant another season, though, in my humble opinion.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Show?
If you must know, the Mountain Meadows Massacre in the state of Utah of the United States back in the year 1857 is real history. American Primeval centers its story on that. There are two separate arcs—one where fugitive Sara Holloway (who goes by the name Sara Rowell for the most part) tries her best to get her son Devin to Crooks Springs, and the other where Mormon settler Jacob Pratt desperately looks for his kidnapped wife Abish. These arcs are obviously intertwined, and the screenplay here is so strong that both get equal importance. There’s also the beef between Mormon governor Brigham Young and Bridger’s Fort frontman Jim Bridger, which adds a lot of value to the already great story.
So it begins with Sara and Devin in the middle of nowhere, waiting for a man named John Frye, who would take them to Bridger’s Fort. Another man, Jim Beckwarth, is supposed to guide the mother and son to Crooks Springs, where Sara’s husband apparently lives. But the problem is, Frye comes so late that by the time they reach Bridger’s Fort, Beckwourth has left already. Not only does the man ruin Sara’s plan, but he is so useless that he picks a random argument with a French man at Bridger’s Fort and gets shot. Bridger takes care of the Frenchman in front of a horrified Sara, who was expecting the place to be a peaceful establishment. Anyway, there’s no time to introspect on that, as Sara urges Bridger to find her a guide. He takes her to one Isaac Reed, a white man who was raised by the Shoshone and has an expertise over the area. But Isaac flatly refuses to help out Sara, despite her offering him a handsome amount of money. She returns to Bridger’s Fort and soon finds another solution—attaching Devin and herself to Mormon settler Jacob Pratt and his wife Abish, who are traveling West with a group of settlers. Jacob is skeptical about taking Sara and her son first, as he is going to join Alexander Fancher’s party of settlers, and he has already given the man a headcount. However, Abish insists her husband take the mother and son along, and in the end, he gives in. Meanwhile, at Bridger’s Fort, a mute Shoshone girl, Two Moons, murders her abusive father (that’s what it seems like; the show never confirms) and hides in Sara and Devin’s cart to escape from the scene. On their way to Fancher’s camp, Devin notices Two Moons but chooses not to out her to anyone. He, in fact, secretly feeds Two Moons after reaching the camp.
Right after Sara, Devin, Jacob, Abish, and the rest reach Fancher’s camp, the Nauvoo Legion—who are basically the Mormon militia, not recognized by the US government, obviously—pays a visit. They’re not happy with Fancher setting up his party on their land without taking permission from Governor Young, and order them to leave before nightfall. Fancher promises he is going to leave by the next morning, but also reminds Nauvoo chief Wolsey that Young’s permission is immaterial as they’re all standing on the soil of the United States of America. Wolsey leaves with his people for the time being, but this irks him so much that he returns with a vengeance and massacres the settlers’ party. He brings along some Paiute Indians, and some of his men deliberately wear masks, pretending to be Shoshones. Fancher and most of the rest fall prey to the attack—Jacob even gets a portion of his head scalped off with a knife—while Sara and Devin manage to escape. Wolsey promptly sends some of his men after them, but they’re interrupted by Isaac, who has finally made up his mind about helping Sara. By now, it has also been revealed that Sara is wanted for robbing and killing a man, and there’s a huge bounty on her. We see a bounty hunter arriving at Fort Bridger’s and inquiring about her, but Jim lies and says he never had anything to do with the woman. The bounty hunter is killed by another group of bounty hunters—led by Virgil, along with Tilly and Lucas—who have been looking for Sara for quite some time.
Right after the massacre, a fringe Shoshone tribe, the Wolf Gang, visits the site, and their leader, Red Feather, takes a still-alive Abish hostage with them. Her friends are not spared by the Shoshone leader, though, who doesn’t hesitate to slit their throats. The only way I can explain Red Feather not choosing to do the same to Abish is her not begging for mercy. Maybe that earned her some respect and became the reason for her survival. A while after the Wolf Gang leaves with Abish, Jacob wakes up. That man is not dead after all. He returns to Fort Bridger’s and tells everyone what happened. Jacob then takes the matter to Wolsey and his army, seeking their help. The Mormons are obviously in a fix now, as they’re going to be in trouble if Jacob realizes it was them who attacked Fancher’s party in the first place.
What are the main conflicts?
As American Primeval progresses, it becomes abundantly clear that the Mormons—they do refer to themselves as Latter Day Saints or LDS at times—are the clear villains here. The governor keeps preaching peace, and he is not aware of Wolsey’s involvement in the massacre. When he does find out, he is understandably mad, but also doesn’t want the news to get out. Instead, he orders his right-hand man, Wild Bill (this guy was quite the character), to handle it. Governor Young is also not fond of the US army constantly undermining his authority, and he plans to establish himself as the supremo of the state of Utah and run an autonomous government by himself. But the stepping stone to achieving that is getting hold of Fort Bridger’s, and Jim Bridger is a tough nut to crack. Throughout American Primeval, the Governor keeps trying to persuade Bridger to sell the fort, and the latter keeps refusing and also subtly taking digs at the Mormons’ way of life. When the Mormons buy a bunch of pigs from a man who stays at Bridger’s establishment, Jim and Wild Bill have a heated argument that escalates to the point the fort owner chops off a part of the leg of the Mormon man. Needless to say, this further intensifies the conflict. However, ultimately Bridger ends up taking the deal, although there’s every suggestion that he despised Young till the very end.
Wolsey and his Nauvoo Legion, meanwhile, try their best to shift the blame of the massacre onto Red Feather and his gang. It does come easy, as the US military seems to be already at war with the Indians. The Indians are also quite fed up with the oppression of white men. There’s conflict within the Shoshone tribe as well. Red Feather’s gang are actually renegades, as they’re on the warpath, in stark contrast to the ideology of Shoshone chief Winter Bird, who’s also Red Feather’s mother. Winter Bird is also the one who raised Isaac. She now lives with the Shoshone people, who are not interested in participating in the mindless violence and choose to stay away from it.
Let us now look into Abish, who has one of the best character arcs. Despite coming off as a helpless woman whose only role is being a meek spectator initially, Abish ultimately turns out to be quite the expert in handling all the politics around her. She does attempt to flee a few times, though, but failing both times, she realizes it might be better for her to blend in with the Shoshone and look at things from their perspective. That earns her more respect from Red Feather. With the Mormons crying wolf about the Shoshones to the US army, tensions rise between the military and the Indians. But Abish takes Red Feather along with the Wolf gang to army captain Edmund and lets him know that it was white men who were behind the massacre, and not the Natives.
Do Jacob and Abish reunite?
While Abish does everything in her power to make the best out of her situation, her husband keeps searching for her. He is obviously under the impression that the Shoshones are responsible for everything—well, they do have Abish, but it wouldn’t have gotten to the point had Wolsey not let his ego get the best of him. Wolsey and brother, Cook—who’s pretty high up in the Nauvoo army, I believe—keep contemplating whether to kill Jacob or not, as he might realize what they did. But they ultimately don’t do it and play along with Jacob and pretend to help him. When Virgil comes to them inquiring about Sara, he mentions another woman who was sighted with the fugitive. This is obviously Two Moons, but Jacob and the Mormons come to the conclusion that the other woman might be Abish. So upon Wolsey’s orders, Cook and Jacob join the bounty hunters with the hope that if Sara is caught, Abish will also be found. During the journey, though, Jacob realizes that it was Cook who was involved in the massacre when Crook’s pocket watch jolts his memory. Already agonizing over Red Feather doing terrible things to his wife and Tilly continually taunting him about it, an unhinged Jacob violently murders Cook by bashing his skull in with a rock. Virgil is unbothered with the outcome, but he also chooses to part ways with Jacob, considering the Mormon’s mental state might cause his group a problem.
When Captain Edmund takes Abish to the Mormons, hoping to reunite her with her husband, they get to know that Jacob is out looking for her. But more importantly, Abish recognizes Wolsey and lets the captain know about it. Now with absolute certainty that the Mormons are behind the massacre, Edmund writes a letter to his superior, asking him to send more forces to take care of the Mormon army. Unfortunately for him, his lieutenant, who is in charge of making sure the letter reaches the right place, happens to be a Mormon mole who takes it to Wolsey. The Mormons don’t waste any time in ambushing the army camp and killing everyone, including the captain. Abish has already gone away further West, though. Realizing the Mormons are not going to spare the Shoshones, she has gone to warn them. It is quite clear that Abish considers herself one of them now, which only makes sense, because she is actually seeking a purpose from the very beginning, and by the end of it, she does find it. Her donning the whole Shoshone attire—painting her face and everything—during the final battle between Shoshones and Mormons is solid proof of that. Sadly, though, that also becomes the reason for Jacob accidentally shooting her, thinking she is a Shoshone. He is obviously fighting for Team Wolsey, as he still doesn’t have the clear picture. However, when he realizes the Shoshone warrior he has just shot is none other than the wife he was searching for all along, his world turns upside down. They do make up for what little time Abish has left. But the reunion ultimately ends quite tragically, as right after Abish takes her last breath, Jacob shoots himself to death as well. Red Feather and Wolsey kill each other as well, with several other Mormons and Shoshones falling victim to a senseless war.
What happens to Sara and Isaac?
I purposefully didn’t talk about this arc before because the whole point of this article is simplifying American Primeval as much as possible. After the massacre, Sara and Devin find Mormon men at their back yet again. Thanks to Isaac joining their cause now, they survive and get away. However, Isaac gets shot and collapses. Fortunately, he is picked up by some Shoshones who take all four of them (Two Moons, who’s survived the massacre on her own has also joined the group permanently) to their camp, where Winter Bird heals Isaac. Sara is surprised to see the Shoshone hospitality, as her previous idea about the Indians was quite different. After his recovery, Isaac bonds with Sara for the first time. As they go on with their journey, their admiration for each other only grows – not that there’s anything romantic happening between them. Both Betty Gilpin and Taylor Kitsch have done terrific jobs here. Kitsch, especially, is very convincing as the worn out Western hero, who doesn’t utter many words but still manages to convey a lot of emotion.
The journey is not without danger though – as it was always supposed to be. But getting caught by a group of French outlaws while trying to help a little girl was totally uncalled for. Add to that the unimaginable horror of Sara getting raped by the leader of the group (not that they show it, but it’s quite obvious here). Her violently killing the man is completely justified after that. Two Moons deserves the credit for being the savior here – it’s a good thing she escaped from the French group and came back later. Isaac also realizes Sara would do anything to protect her son, and she finally confesses to killing the man she was with.
Battling terribly rough weather, the group continues to move forward. One of the horses gives away, and in a terribly unfortunate manner Devin falls down and hurts his leg badly, while Isaac has to put the poor animal down. With Devin in no condition to walk, they have no other option but seek shelter and wait out the storm. Not only is that a huge risk for the group, Devin’s condition worsens, to a level where Isaac floats the idea of amputating the leg. It doesn’t come to that though, as Two Moons finds a way to help Devin – cauterizing the wound with heat , which is excruciatingly painful to say the least. Just as Devin recovers, Virgil and his group arrive and take away Sara. Isaac expectedly goes after them, asking Two Moons and Devin to stay put. Unfortunately, they have to deal with wolves attacking the shelter, and Devin has to kill one of the beasts to save Two Moons.
After everything that went down, Isaac rescuing Sara was an inevitability, and it happens exactly like how you would imagine. Virgil is only doing it for money. Isaac, on the other hand, is not only a man of honor, he would go any distance to save Sara at this point. Virgil dies, so does Tilly but Lucas survives. He seemed to be the only person with something of a moral backbone in the group, until the very end (coming to that, in a while). Once Sara, Devin and Two Moons are out of danger; Isaac parts away from them. Before that, he and Sara practically express their feelings for each other. She does try to convince him to come with them and go to California. Going to Devin’s father doesn’t seem to be a logical decision anymore; and she doesn’t want to do that either. But for Isaac, letting go of the land he was born and brought up in, and also where he lost his wife and son (yes, that also gets mentioned once) is not an option. So, he leaves, but right after that, Lucas comes to avenge Virgil. Isaac promptly anticipates the danger and returns to help Sara one last time. He does manage to do that, but in the process, he gets shot, and this time, he doesn’t survive. Sara cremates him, following Shoshone rituals. Then the three of them continue their journey towards California. American Primeval leaves us there, and we can only hope for good things to happen to them.
