Leaphorn suspects all of the crimes on the reservation are related. Chee knows they are.
Warning: This is an overview of Episode 104 of Dark Winds, so there will be scads of spoilers here. We strongly recommend that you not read this if you have not yet watched the episode on AMC or AMC+.
Leaphorn invites Chee over for the dinner — but the evening doesn’t go as planned. Meanwhile, Manuelito makes an important discovery — and proves she really is a straight shooter. And The Buffalo Society enters into the mix. What are we to make of this? Here are our five takeaways from “Hooghandi,” Episode 104 of Dark Winds.
Takeaway No. 1
The biggest gut-punch of this week’s episode — arguably the biggest gut-punch of the series so far — arrived, as perfect gut-punches should, when we least expected it. After their dogged digging uncovered incontrovertible proof that Benjamin Tso (Jeremiah Bitsui) is a fraud, Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) invited Chee (Kiowa Gordon) over to his home for dinner with him and his wife Emma (Deanna Allison). Cued by photos of Joe Jr. on their wall, Chee expressed respectful sympathy for the loss of their son. But things turned downright tense when Emma announced that, despite Leaphorn’s misgivings, the very pregnant young Sally Growing Thunder (Elva Guerra) would be staying with them for a while. Leaphorn was not at all happy to hear this, and indicated his displeasure — not loudly, but emphatically. Feeling awkward, Chee excused himself and started to take his leave — triggering Leaphorn to blurt out: “Sit down, Joe!” Just in case there was any lingering doubt that Leaphorn was starting to think of Chee in a fatherly fashion after their working together and confiding in each other, those doubts stopped lingering very quickly. Unfortunately, Chee departed anyway.
Takeaway No. 2
All of which made it more impactful a few scenes later when Leaphorn felt betrayed by his surrogate son after discovering Chee had been more faithful to his FBI overlord — i.e., the scummy Special Agent Whitover (Noah Emmerich) — and withheld information about Frank Nakai (Eugene Brave Rock), a person of interest in the Big Rock Motel murders case whom Sally had identified by name in Episode 103. Nakai himself spilled the beans, sarcastically addressing Chee as “My favorite FBI agent” after an excitingly staged shootout that ended with Tso galloping off on a stolen horse — not incidentally, stolen from the corral of Manuelito (Jessica Matten) — and Manuelito saving her fellow officers by shooting and wounding Nakai. Turns out that Nakai is a person of even greater interest in the Gallup armored car heist, and his arrest on federal charges would be a career boost for Chee. The episode concluded with Leaphorn and Chee literally coming to blows — briefly, but shockingly — and Leaphorn left alone in his kitchen to ponder yet another soul-crushing loss.
Takeaway No. 3
Manuelito wasn’t too pleased about Chee’s Machiavellian moves, either. But, then again, she also seemed mightily pissed at Leaphorn about his not telling her that Chee was an undercover Fed. (Especially since she and Chee had a thing going on — or were about to start going, anyway.) But Manuelito spent most of her onscreen time this week demonstrating that, in addition to being a good shot, she is great investigator. She followed the dots that led from a helmet purchased at a reservation flea market back to the river where we last saw Raymond (Quenton Yazzie) diving to find signs of a downed helicopter. Of course, she didn’t know that Tso and Nakai had already terminated Raymond. But chances are good she’ll find out about that soon enough.
Takeaway No. 4
And speaking of Tso and Nakai: In a flashback effectively underscored by Donovan’s haunting ‘60s pop hit “Season of the Witch,” they were revealed as active participants in the Gallup armored car heist. And, yes, we finally found out how that helicopter, along with a betrayed partner in crime, wound up at the bottom of the lake. More important, though, we learned more about the motive for their crime: Tso and Nakai are members of The Buffalo Society, a radical Native American group that advocates “the decolonization and liberation of our land.” (Think American Indian Movement, but with a body count.) If a few innocent or not-so-innocent bystanders — or even fellow Navajos — get killed as they pursue their goals, hey, you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. To be fair, Nakai isn’t entirely comfortable about Tso’s ends-justify-means approach. But he had no trouble joining Tso in an attempt to intimidate wealthy businessman B.J. Vines (John Henry Dihel), who has bought the old drilling site that was closed after the explosion that killed, among other people, Joe Leaphorn Jr. An explosion that Tso and Nakai claim wasn’t an accident. Vines, it should be noted, did not bother to deny the accusation. The businessman played his cards even closer to the vest when Pete (Rob Tepper), Tso and Nakai’s treacherous cohort, dropped by later with an offer to betray the troublesome Buffalo Society members. Certainly, nothing good will come of this — right?
Takeaway No. 5
After the spider bite at the end of Episode 103, Wanda (Ryffin Phoenix) is in a comatose state, much to the anguish of her husband Lester (Jonathan Adams). She hasn’t yet risen from her hospital bed to climb walls or shoot webs, so we can only assume it wasn’t a radioactive spider. Meanwhile, we have no idea if or when Leaphorn will ever be able to grab a cold R.C. Cola from his refrigerator before guests deplete the supply there. Really, this guy needs to start doing his own grocery shopping.