44 minSeason 1 • Episode 10
LatestWhen a lightning strike spooks the herd, an injured Theodore Roosevelt acts quickly to stop a stampede during the fall roundup. Back in town, the annual roundup dance brings the community together, friend and foe alike. What should be a joyful celebration turns ugly when Paddock decides it’s time to settle old scores with the Elkhorn crew. The dance is also Wilmot’s best chance to propose marriage to Rosie, but her heart is torn between a simple life as Wilmot’s wife and a more alluring future as Medora’s protégée. With the Elkhorn ranch secured for the winter under the watchful eye of Merrifield, Roosevelt returns to New York to be reunited with his daughter.
Theodore Roosevelt is bound for greatness—he's a Harvard graduate from a prominent family, a rising politician, and his wife, Alice, is pregnant. Then his promising future turns tragic. His mother succumbs to typhoid, and Alice dies in childbirth on the same day. Devastated, Teddy leaves his urban world of high rises and high society for the desolate Dakota Territory, where, by facing the harsh reality of surviving life on America’s frontier, he intends to remake himself into something greater.
Acting
Mason Beals captures Teddy's laugh that hides the abyss.
Cinematography
The Badlands shot like they're actively trying to kill him.
Costume
Watch his suits slowly surrender to frontier practicality.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Roosevelt's cattle ranch failed spectacularly; he lost most of his investment and never fully shook the 'four-eyed dude rancher' mockery.
This joins a weirdly specific subgenre: 'presidents before they were presidents suffering attractively in period costume'—see also: Lincoln, Young Washington, and whatever they're doing with Reagan.
US
