Following a grisly murder, Leaphorn and Chee strike out on their own when the FBI take over their case.
Warning: This is an overview of Episode 5 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 deals with personal and professional challenges in the wake of another death. Chee goes on a bender after having his worst fears confirmed. And Budge demonstrates just how demanding an employer he can be. What are we to make of this? Here are our seven takeaways from “Tsékǫ̨' Hasą́ní (Coal Mine Canyon),” Episode 5 of Season 3 for Dark Winds.
Takeaway No. 1
In the wake of Halsey’s violent murder in his jail cell, Special Agent Washington called in a passel of extra federal agents to look into the case — and informed Joe Leaphorn that he and Chee were to stay out of the matter. (Yeah, right — like that will happen.) Naturally, this didn’t mean she’d be distracted from her main goal: Pinning the murder of BJ Vines on Joe. In the course of building her case, she called in Vines’ very merry widow, Rosemary (Jeri Ryan), in for questioning. Rosemary (after another brief flirtation with Chee, whom she once hired as a private eye back before he returned to the Tribal Police) made no secret of the fact that she hated her husband, and had good reason to do so. But she insisted she was nowhere around when BJ left their home on the night he died. On the other hand: She claimed a nosy neighbor saw BJ being driven away in a police car on the night in question. The thing is, we know, and Washington knows, that the shepherd interviewed in Episode 4 claimed he saw Vines delivered to the murder site in an GMC truck. So who’s lying?
Takeaway No. 2
Meanwhile, after literally washing Halsey’s blood off his hands (and his uniform, and his badge, and the rest of his body), the seriously spooked Joe summoned blind sage Margaret Cigaret (Betty Ann Tsosie) to the police station to cleanse the place of bad mojo. Later, however, Margert told Joe in a private tête-à-tête that she couldn’t say for sure if he’s really seeing the dreaded Yé’iitsoh after what he describes as “crossing the line” between monsters and men by killing Vines. When you start seeing monsters, she said cryptically, there is something out of balance in your life because you have lost your way. Well, yeah.
Takeaway No. 3
Worse, Joe may have lost Emma. She was already angry at Joe for taking the law into his own hands even before Washington showed up at their home, with a warrant in hand and agents at her command, to search the premises for incriminating evidence. Emma remained silent when Washington asked her point blank if she had anything to say about her husband’s possible involvement in the case. Afterwards, however, she told Joe to leave. Maybe for a while. Maybe forever.
Takeaway No. 4
After spending the night between the sheets, Bern convinced a conspicuously reluctant Ivan to accompany her to an oil refinery Tom Spencer operates in Juarez. She wanted to see if maybe the rancher is using the place as a headquarters from which to smuggle cocaine in tanker trucks. They barely escaped when Budge Baca (memorably described by another character in this episode as looking “like a Mexican Norman Bates, only meaner”) and his minions spotted them atop a nearby hill and gave chase. One of those minions — the head of security for the refinery — actually spotted the pair hiding beneath a small ridge, but was shot by Budge before he could say anything. Why? Because Budge was sorely peeved that anyone had gotten that close to his operation in the first place. (“You had one job to do — and you couldn’t do that!”) Damn. And we thought Darth Vader was a demanding boss.
Takeaway No. 5
Chee thought he was being helpful, and maybe easing back into Bern’s good graces, when he called Bern to warn her that one of his contacts at the FBI — Chee used to be a Fed, remember? — identified Budge as a former CIA assassin who did “wet work in Guatemala” before going rogue. But Chee cut the call short when he overheard Ivan in her motel room, and proceeded to get staggering drunk to salve his heartbreak. He might not have made it home had it not been for help from his frenemy Shorty Bowlegs — whose son George remains very seriously missing.
Takeaway No. 6
Joe might be living out of his car these days, but that didn’t stop him from looking over his files and deducing that George may be on his way to Reno, to reunite with his mother, after pawning stuff from Shorty’s toolbox. Just as he arrived at the secluded spot in the desert where George had pitched camp, however, the night seemed to grow even darker, the wind started to howl and — oh-oh! Was that Yé’iitsoh staring down from a nearby hilltop? Guess we won’t find out until the next exciting episode.
Takeaway No. 7
Maybe we’ll also find out why Bern had such a worried look on her face as she gazed at Ivan’s badge on a night table while they were checking out of their motel. Can this poor woman trust anyone these days?
