If you thought Alex’s trials were over after her harsh experience at Ellis Island, Sunday’s 1923 quickly disabused you of that notion.
The shifty-looking man who followed Spencer’s wife into the ladies’ room at New York’s Grand Central Terminal beat and robbed her, taking her cash and everything of value — including the watch that Jennifer had given her to sell in case of emergency. She lost consciousness but came to just in time to run for her train to Montana, which she boarded with the realization that she had nothing to her name except her ticket. (Read a full recap of the episode.)
The attack catches Alex unaware, portrayer Julia Schlaepfer says, because by that point, she kinda thinks that her journey can only improve.
𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆 & 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆: 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬.𝙞𝒏𝙛𝒐
“After Elis Island, she feels a little like, ‘OK, I can do this. I did that on my own. I didn’t have anyone protecting me. Spencer wasn’t here. I survived the unimaginable. This is the worst thing that possibly could have happened,” she tells me during a Zoom chat. “Alex goes into Season 2 naive to what the world is like. She doesn’t fully understand it. And then, in Grand Central she gets these bits of kindness from the newsstand man and the Grand Central worker. I think it’s this moment of like, ‘OK, people are good. People are OK, and not all bad.”
Then, after experiencing the exact opposite, “I think she thinks she is through the worst of it,” Schlaepfer says, chuckling as she hints that new lows await the plucky Brit in the near future. “She is continuously, this season, digging deeper to find her will to keep going.”
𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆 & 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆: 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬.𝙞𝒏𝙛𝒐
When I point out that the vigilance with which Alex needs to move through the train station is similar to the vigilance today’s woman need to employ in the same situation, she nods vigorously. “There’s something that feels so modern about it,” she says. “Obviously, it was so much worse back then. But today, as a woman traveling alone? I lived in New York City for 10 years. You’re on edge. There’s a bit of fear. There’s anxiety in your body.” Shooting the scene, she recalls, “resonated with me and all of the female crew members on that set.”
And then, that full-out sprint for the train, which just feels like insult to injury.
“I know!” Schlaepfer says, laughing, adding that Alex’s ditching of her shoes wasn’t in the script. “We rehearsed it once and my director [Ben Richardson] was like, ‘You’re not running fast enough.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s the shoes! I can’t be in these shoes. She needs to rip them off.’ And so yes, he let me rip those suckers off.”
𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 “𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆 & 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆: 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑤𝑠.𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜” 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧-𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐬
