Details You Might Have Missed, Including an '1883' Callback

Jacob's plight with finding suitable land for his cattle mirrors John's own struggles in the episode of "Yellowstone" that preceded the spinoff's premiere.

In both the premiere of "1923" and season five, episode seven of "Yellowstone" which also aired on Sunday evening, we see the Duttons struggle to protect their livestock from disease and find suitable land for them to graze on.

The first time we see Jacob, he is surveying a field full of dead sheep who are covered in flies. It's not clear what's killed them, although, during a meeting, a Scottish sheepman Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) accuses Irish farmers of doing it. 

Jacob seems to think it's because there's not enough grass for them all to graze on and suggests that, to combat the problem, the other farmers could sell some of their cattle.

Meanwhile, he plans on pushing his herds higher up the mountain where there is more for them to graze on, but there is also the additional threat of wild predators.

Meanwhile, on "Yellowstone," John is facing a similar problem when he discovers that his cattle have been infected with a deadly disease thanks to some trespassing bison. He has two choices: euthanize the entire herd or relocate his livestock to greener pastures. 

Having these two Dutton men face the same problem with their livestock almost 100 years apart gives us the sense of how history, inevitably, repeats itself and that while the world at large has changed significantly over the past century, ranching really hasn't.

Whether that's a good thing or not seems to be the eternal question that "Yellowstone" poses.

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