Taylor Sheridan’s expanding Yellowstone universe continues to captivate audiences, with its intricate family sagas and deep dives into American history. Following the intense narrative of 1923—which culminated in its Season 2 finale, “A Dream and a Memory”—anticipation builds for the next announced prequel, 1944, which promises to pick up amidst the tumultuous events of World War II. While fans eagerly await updates on the fates of key Dutton family members, including the potential return of Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) and perhaps even a ghostly presence of Alex Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer), a paramount question lingers from 1923: the unresolved destiny and connection of Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves). The upcoming 1944 prequel faces the critical task of finally answering this biggest outstanding question surrounding her character.

Teonna Rainwater’s journey throughout 1923 was a harrowing, yet ultimately triumphant, narrative of resilience against unimaginable cruelty. Introduced as a young woman trapped within an assimilation school—an institution jointly run by the U.S. government and the Catholic Church, designed to strip Indigenous children of their culture and identity—Teonna endured horrific physical and psychological abuse. Her experiences, tragically rooted in real-life historical atrocities, form one of the most powerful and gut-wrenching storylines of the series. The systemic brutality she suffered at the hands of figures like Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) and Sister Alice (Kerry O’Malley) highlighted a dark chapter in American history, serving as a stark reminder of the genocidal policies aimed at Native American communities.

In a climactic act of self-preservation and desperate defiance, Teonna killed her abusers before making a perilous escape. Her flight across the treacherous Montana landscape, pursued by authorities, became a symbol of her indomitable spirit. While her eventual freedom, achieved through the aid of figures like Hank (Michael Greyeyes) and later Pete Plenty Clouds (Jeremy Gauna) and Two Spears (Dougie Hall), allowed her to shed the immense burdens of her past, it was a bittersweet victory. As she confided to Two Spears in 1923 season 2’s finale, her newfound liberty came at the cost of everything she knew. She walked away from her former life, her identity irrevocably shaped by trauma and survival, heading towards an uncertain future. This independent storyline, largely separate from the Duttons’ struggles for much of 1923, proved to be an invaluable asset to the series, offering a broader and more complete, albeit tragic, picture of life in the American West during the Prohibition Era.

Despite the compelling nature of Teonna’s individual narrative, an unresolved question looms large for the overarching Yellowstone saga: her definitive link to the Dutton family. While 1923 deliberately kept her story largely parallel, the Dutton family remains the undeniable soul of the entire franchise, spanning from the origins depicted in 1883 to the contemporary drama starring Kevin Costner as John Dutton III. The very first adversary John Dutton III faced in the flagship Yellowstone series was the tribal chairman, Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham). The shared surname is far too significant to be coincidental, strongly suggesting that Thomas Rainwater is a direct descendant of Teonna. This connection is not merely a fan theory; it is a narrative imperative for the sprawling universe Taylor Sheridan is constructing.

The lack of a concrete connection between Teonna and the Duttons by the end of 1923 left many viewers feeling a narrative gap. While her story was inspirational and subversive in its portrayal of Indigenous resistance, some Yellowstone fans began to lose interest in her tale, precisely because they struggled to understand its larger role within the complete Yellowstone timeline. The power of the franchise lies in its interwoven family history and the multi-generational struggle for the land, and Teonna’s narrative feels incomplete without its place within that grand tapestry.

1944 presents the next, and arguably most crucial, opportunity to firmly establish Teonna Rainwater’s link to the Dutton family. The creators must leverage this opportunity to re-engage fans and provide a deeper context for her journey. At the conclusion of 1923 season 2, Teonna was encouraged by Two Spears to head West, specifically to California, where he noted there were “more Mexicans and Indians than whites” and a promise of “fruit on the trees and game on the hills.” This detail is key to a prevailing theory. In Yellowstone season 1, it’s revealed that Thomas Rainwater believed he was Mexican until the age of 18, when his adoption records were unsealed, exposing his Native American heritage. Teonna’s migration to a region where her descendants could plausibly identify as Mexican for generations would profoundly bolster her potential ancestral connection to Thomas.

The 1944 series, set approximately 20 years after the events of 1923, offers a perfect temporal leap to develop Teonna’s post-escape life. If Teonna is indeed included in the cast of 1944, the narrative could explore where she ultimately settled, how she was faring in her new environment, and crucially, whether she had begun a family. The possibility of her having become pregnant with Pete Plenty Clouds’ child, for instance, could lead to 1944 revealing a 20-year-old child, clearly continuing her lineage. Showing Rainwater settling in California would give Yellowstone fans concrete evidence, allowing them to conclude with greater confidence that Teonna is indeed Thomas Rainwater’s grandmother or even great-grandmother, thereby confirming the most popular and narratively satisfying theory.

While 1944 might be too premature to fully unveil Thomas Rainwater himself, given he was born decades later, it can lay the essential groundwork. Sheridan, renowned for his meticulous storytelling and long-game narrative arcs, is almost certainly bound to reveal this connection eventually. He might choose to save the direct reveal of Thomas’s lineage for a potential future prequel set in the 1960s or 70s, which would align more closely with Thomas’s birth and early life. However, 1944 can provide the critical middle chapter, bridging the gap between Teonna’s 1923 escape and Thomas’s eventual emergence as a powerful leader.

Connecting Teonna’s harrowing past to Thomas Rainwater’s present in Yellowstone would not only satisfy fan curiosity but also enrich the entire mythology of the franchise. It would imbue the ongoing conflict over the Dutton ranch with deeper ancestral meaning, intertwining the struggles of the Indigenous people with the land-grabbing legacy of the settlers. Thomas Rainwater’s fight to reclaim the land and preserve his people’s culture would resonate with the profound trauma and resilience embodied by Teonna. Her story, which bravely depicted the systematic attempts to erase Indigenous identity, would gain immense weight by being directly linked to the man who, generations later, stands as a formidable protector of that very heritage. This connection would transform Teonna’s narrative from a powerful, independent sidebar into an indispensable pillar of the Yellowstone universe, affirming the multi-faceted, often painful, history of the American West that Taylor Sheridan so masterfully explores. The success of 1944 in this regard will undoubtedly determine the long-term engagement of audiences with Teonna’s incredible, enduring legacy.