The Son

A truck rushes into the ranch carrying a bloodied and unresponsive Hank. Jeannie cannot wake him. Hank’s dog joins her effort. She demands that the dog be taken away. Hank dies.

Jeannie holds onto the dog as a companion until it dies eight years later.

The oil business booms, though many of the town’s competing families have yet to strike proven oil deposits. Peter falls deeper in love with María and becomes recklessly open about their relationship. One day, Peter nearly fights a drunk American man who makes a lewd comment about María, though María stops him.

Peter and María leave the city and lie out in the pasture, imagining what it must have been like in the time of the buffalo. Peter affirms his desire to be with her. He has a hard time imagining that Eli might have ever had similar experiences.

The American Civil War puts an end to Eli’s days as a Texas Ranger. Texas joins the war on the side of the Confederacy, which Eli supports since white and Indigenous people alike practice enslavement. He enlists and is sent to conquer New Mexico, though this battle ends in a Confederate retreat.

On leave, Eli stays at Judge Black’s house.