Bernie and Chee reconnect — professionally, at least — while connecting the dots between their separate investigations.
Warning: This is an overview of Episode 4 for Season 3 for 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+.
Joe fears FBI Special Agent Washington knows too much. Emma remains unforgiving. And Bernie wonders who she can trust. What are we to make of this? Here are our seven takeaways from “Chahałheeł (Darkness Falls),” Episode 4 of Season 3 for Dark Winds.
Takeaway No. 1
Bless his heart: Chee put the pedal to the metal and made the eight-hour drive from the Navajo Nation to Hachita in just six hours to warn Bern that her Border Patrol ID photo was found on a bulletin board after the raid on Halsey’s “chili farm.” They confabbed about their respective cases, and deduced that oil man Tom Spencer, the target of her off-the-books investigation, has been colluding with Halsey in a drug-smuggling operation. (See, Spencer has all these oil tanker trucks, some of which cross the border regularly, and…) But who could have provided the bad guys with her ID photo? Chief Ed Henry, Bernie’s boss? Or her sister Border Patrol agent, Eleanda Garza?
Takeaway No. 2
Of course, Chee didn’t make the drive only for professional reasons. And he’s kinda-sorta miffed when Bernie introduces him to fellow agent Ivan Muños (Alex Meraz) simply a former co-worker. Later in the evening, Chee confesses that he’s seriously sweet on Bernie, and would like her to return to the Navajo Nation. But in the immortal words of Carole King: “It’s too late baby, now it’s too late.” Bernie more or less told him he had his chance, and he blew it. She didn’t spend much time mourning the missed connection: After Chee departed — and, in all probably, drove a lot slower than he did while motoring to Hachita — she went over to Muños’splace for a close encounter.
Takeaway No. 3
We’re midway through Season 3, and we still don’t know for certain whether that old black magic has Joe Leaphorn in its spell. The Navajo Police lieutenant certainly has been seriously spooked lately — coughing up blood, having florescent lights mysterious flicker in his presence, getting attacked and wounded by what appeared to be the Ye’iitsoh bogeyman — but are there explanations for all of this that, well, aren’t supernatural? Like, maybe Joe so is so consumed with guilt over JB Vines’ death that his mind is playing tricks on him? And as for that Ye’iitsoh — maybe it’s someone dressed up in a bogeyman suit, just like in an old Scooby Doo episode?
Takeaway No. 4
However he’s being haunted — by guilt or ghosts — Joe remains a great cop. Halsey (Phil Burke) may have been able to escape the police raid on his “chili farm,” and even took the precaution of torching his red truck before switching over to a car he had stashed away, but he didn’t count on Joe’s exceptional tracking skills. And yes, we actually cheered when Joe rammed into Halsey’s vehicle with his own while attempting to escape from the motel where he’d been holed up. (Credit Suzanne, Halsey’s girlfriend, who didn’t die in Episode 3 after all, with providing Joe with info about his possible whereabouts.)
Takeaway No. 5
One problem, though: Halsey took time during his flight to phone the preternaturally creepy Budge to explain that, hey, the cops may have seized the farm, but he escaped and covered his tracks, so there won’t be any way for Joe or anybody else to link the place to Spencer. Honest. Budge wished him good luck. Flash forward a few scenes, however, and while Joe was outside the police station to change a fuse — flickering fluorescent light again! — Halsey’s luck ran out: Someone or something damn near ripped his head off while he was held in a cell. There was so much blood spilled, Joe slipped and fell when he returned inside. Was this the work of Ye’iitsoh? Or maybe, just maybe, Budge playing pretend?
Takeaway No. 6
And on top of all that, Joe is becoming increasingly anxious about FBI special agent Sylvia Washington’s investigation into JB’s disappearance — and her obvious determination to prove that he had something to do with it. She asked Joe to act as translator while she interrogated a Navajo sheepherder who said that, while he didn’t see the license plate or who was driving, he did see some in a GMC truck near the spot where JB’s body was found, on the very night that JB disappeared. And guess what? Joe drives a GMC truck. But he claimed to have an alibi: On the night in question, he was home with his wife Emma.
Takeaway No. 7
Trouble is, Joe and Emma are going through a rough stretch right now, particularly after Joe confirmed her worst suspicions by confessing, yes, he really did leave JB, the man he holds responsible for the death of their son, out in the desert to die. Emma called out her husband for his BS: “The land didn’t kill him. You did.” And now both of them will have to deal with the aftermath. As she said in Episode 3, even before she knew for certain precisely what role Joe played in JB’s demise, “You invited that man’s spirit into our home and you covered [our son’s] memory in blood.” Which raises the inevitable question: Will she or won’t she confirm her husband’s alibi?
