‘The Madison’ Episode 2 Recap: All Butts Are Off

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OK, so Taylor Sheridan killed off Kurt Russell in the first episode of The Madison. But with that bold move, the newest series in the Sheridan-O-Verse has also established a tenet of its format, where extended flashbacks play like transcripts of Preston and Stacy Clyburn’s conversations throughout their years of marriage. And Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer are so great together in these scenes, whether they’re on the phone 2,000 miles apart or hanging in their swank New York City townhouse, we don’t even miss Preston in the present. Seeing Pfeiffer and Russell together in The Madison has also reminded us to rewatch them as hot young things, in the kinda trashy 1988 crime drama Tequila Sunrise.

And here’s some pure, uncut Sheridan writing for The Madison Epsiode 2 (“Let the Land Hold Me”), which Russell totally sells. One of these flashbacks has led to Preston’s thoughts on the singular goal of men throughout the ages, an urge “imprinted on my DNA that compels me to seek an outlet that challenges my very reason for existing.” His challenge as it relates to life Out West? Fly fishing for the wily Yellowstone cutthroat trout, which calls to his soul. To this, Stacy adds a playful jibe. “What a bunch of bullshit. Just say you want to go fishing with your brother.” 

While Preston calls to Stacy’s soul as she sits overlooking a meadow, in the exact spot from which he once sent her a screenshot, nobody else is settling into the Madison Valley cabins. Take the outhouse situation, which despite warnings of residing hornets, both Paige and Russell approach in their pajamas. They are both stung to shit, Paige as she was trying to go – “They got all the way in there, Mom!” – and Russell in his eye, which promptly swells shut. It’s fair to ask what’s wrong with these people. Has their cushy life crushed all common sense? They’ve never heard of a baking soda paste? Later, Stacy takes care of the outhouse hornets sensibly, so that her daughter and son-in-law don’t have to poop in the barn. And she can’t help but laugh at Paige’s hornet-stung bottom. 

We also meet Cade Harris (Kevin Zegers) in this episode, who arrives from the ranch next door in his vintage flatbed F-150 with homemade meals for the out-of-towners. Lasagna, casseroles, and Indian fry bread, a local favorite. The kids call that name racist. And they recoil at eating “a strange person’s food,” even though they’re basically helpless otherwise, which enrages Stacy. People they don’t know went out of their way for them, and they have the nerve to judge? “What spoiled little bitches we’ve raised,” she says, and the argument continues outside with Abby. Have her daughters and granddaughters forgotten why they’re even out here? If they’re so fucking miserable, they should just leave. The raw emotions over Preston’s death keep boiling up around this family. His passing is one thing. Clearly, there are underlying issues here to resolve. 

But everybody’s also gonna have to get on board with what has changed. “I have no intention of moving on, ever,” Stacy declares. “I will never love again. I won’t even try. Holding on to him is the closest I will get. He loved this place; he stays here.” And so will she. Stacy drives the rental into the little town of Ennis, a little over an hour from the Wyoming border and Yellowstone National Park. She sees a mortician there, who explains how to legally inter a loved one on private land. She’ll need a site survey, and must classify part of it as a cemetery – she knows which portion, it’s where she sat. But the mortician also warns her that any future owners could refuse her visits, or even exhume Preston and move his grave.

None of that will ever happen, though, because as we know, Stacy’s determined to never leave, and now she’s armed with a solid plan. Gathering the family in the hillside meadow overlooking the river, she explains that since they were blind for decades to Preston’s deepest hope, that one day this land would be for all of them, she will make it an official tribute to his legacy. She will sell their home in New York. Establish a trust with the cash. Dedicate it to preserving this place. And if anyone has a problem with that – Paige and Abby certainly seem to – she’s happy to cut them off from their lifetime financial cushion. “This is my home now. I die here, too.”

“Cuddle me, but don’t touch my ass.” As Paige and Russell lick their hornet wounds, we also get a window into their relationship’s dynamic, which boils down to this: what she says, goes. The thing about the cabins is that Preston always meant them for his wife and family. We know this from his journal entries in voiceover (“I wonder if we could dig a well, have a place to gather”) and the little girls’ discovery of stacks of toys and board games he trucked into the site. It’s funny when Cade mentions Bozeman, because like Ennis’s proximity to Yellowstone, it puts another geotag on the Sheridan-O-Verse. The southern Montana city features heavily in 1923, meaning Dutton fam lore is only another two hours by I-90 from Stacy and her family. It’s sad Kurt Russell’s character was killed early, but Preston existing in memory and recollection clears the way for Michelle Pfeiffer to really take over The Madison. With every move Stacy makes, we like her more, and Pfeiffer powerfully modulates this woman’s grief and recollections with her own Out West seasoning in the present.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.  

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