Lt. Joe Leaphorn discovers that you can never outrun your past as the acclaimed neo-western crime drama returns to AMC.
Warning: This is an overview of the Season 3 premiere 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+.
Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) search for a missing child, Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito (Jessica Matten) makes a sinister discovery while working for the U.S. Border Control, and new characters are added to the mix. What are we to make of this? Here are our five takeaways from “Ye'iitsoh (Big Monster)” the Season 3 premiere episode of Dark Winds.
Takeaway No. 1
As usual, the season premiere begins with a jolting flashforward — in this case, a beaten and bloodied Joe Leaphorn finds himself somewhere in the nighttime desert, desperately radioing for help — before we cut to a title card: “Seven Days Ago.” Leaphorn and Chee are reintroduced as they are called to a crime scene by the not-yet-retired Sheriff Gordo Sena (A Martinez) to help investigate the disappearances of two local 14-year-old boys Ernesto Cato and George Bowlegs, near Kayenta. (“Just short-timing it until they bring in a new guy,” the seasoned lawman explains.) Truth to tell, Gordo is a smart and reliable guy, but he’s not the most observant of cops. He mistakenly assumes the markings on the bicycle left behind by one of the youths as being made with a knife — actually, Leaphorn points out, they were more likely made with a machete — and wrongly deduces that footprints nearby were left by someone wearing moccasins. “Must be nice to know everything,” Gordo sarcastically responds after he’s respectfully corrected by Leaphorn. But it’s clear he’s grateful for the input.
Takeaway No. 2
Over in Hachita, New Mexico, Manuelito is still settling into her new Border Patrol job when she finds an abandoned white van out in the middle of nowhere. She spots a Mexican woman and her young daughter fleeing the scene, and gives pursuit — but stops in her tracks when the woman, looking very much like she’s lately received a punch or two in the face, draws a gun. Ever the professional, Manuelito drops her gunbelt to calm the near-hysterical mother, then quickly disarms her. When the Border Patrol newbie goes to retrieve her gunbelt, however, she finds her weapon is gone. Worse, she sees someone driving off in the van.
Takeaway No. 3
Back in Kayenta, Leaphorn and Chee connect the dots that lead them to George Bowlegs at his school. But George runs off before they can question him about Ernesto Cato’s whereabouts, and they don’t get much help from Shorty Bowlegs (Derek Hinkey), George’s father, a guy described as “a head case” after his Vietnam War experiences. (It should be noted that he and Chee were far short of friendly long before Shorty was shipped off to Southeast Asia.) George’s younger brother, Cecil (Amias Kenneth Chavez), is a tad more helpful, steering Leaphorn and Chee to a nearby archaeological dig site where archaeologists are seeking spear tips that might link the Navajo tribe to the ancient Folsom people. The boys used to hang there, a researcher tells Leaphorn and Chee, but were told a while back to leave and never return because they disrupted the dig by fighting. At least, that’s her story, and she sticks with it.
Takeaway No. 4
Manuelito would sure like her gun back, but she’s more interested in further questioning the mother and child he apprehended. She strongly suspects they were being transported by human traffickers, but Chief Ed Henry (Terry Serpico), her sexist and condescending superior, dismissed her concerns, and tells her to keep looking for the white van and her missing gun. Undeterred, Manuelito sneaks into the holding cell late at night before the mom and daughter are shipped back to Mexico. Despite the language barrier, the little girl responds to Manuelito’s questions by drawing something that looks like… a pig? Or maybe a spear tip?
Takeaway No. 5
Leaphorn strains to restrain his nervousness when FBI Special Agent Sylvia Washington (series newcomer Jenna Elfman) shows up unannounced to “wrap up” some unsolved cases, one of which involves the mysterious disappearance of businessman BJ Vines. Naturally, Leaphorn knows what happened to Vines — he left the SOB responsible for his son’s death to die in the desert — and Sheriff Gordo knows that he knows. But the sheriff indicates he will keep those troublesome details to himself, and proves to be even more useful when he and Leaphorn follow tracks from a freshly bloodied location in another part of the desert near a culvert pipe — where they discover Ernesto Cato’s bloody corpse, hung upside down with a small item stuffed in his mouth. Even the normally stouthearted Leaphorn is reluctant to remove said item, so it’s up to the sheriff to grab it. And it turns out to be an arrowhead. Or a spear tip?
Bonus Takeaway
Yes, those two guys playing chess in the jail cell are exactly who you thought they were: Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and living legend Robert Redford, both among the executive producers of Dark Winds.
