Joe Leaphorn leads a stakeout to capture Dr. Reynolds before he can claim another victim while Bernadette “Bern” Manuelito struggles to escape a death trap.
Warning: This is an overview of the Season 3 finale 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+.
Leaphorn and Chee scramble to find George Bowlegs before Dr. Reynolds does. Manuelito and Budge square off for the last time. Tom Spenser reveals why he got into the drug trade. What are we to make of this? Here are our six takeaways from “Béésh Łį́į́ (Iron Horse),” the Season 3 finale of Dark Winds.
Takeaway 1
Poor Teddi. She didn’t know, or perhaps just didn’t want to know, that Dr. Reynolds was faking “discoveries” at their dig site. But once she was told about his duplicity by Leaphorn and Chee, she should have asked one of them, or some other cop, to accompany her to her motel so she could pack and get out of town. But no: She was all alone when Dr. Reynolds showed up at her door with some phony-baloney invitation to join him at some other dig site. Worse, she blurted out to her former associate that she knew all about his chicanery. Maybe he didn’t intend to kill Teddi when he tussled with her while she tried to phone the cops — but, well, he did. Obviously, he planned to go after George Bowlegs next, to rid himself of the only remaining person who could incriminate him. Just as obviously, Leaphorn and Chee would be on his trail — especially after they deduced that Dr. Reynolds had deduced the boy would be leaving on a Reno-bound train.
Takeaway 2
If there’s one thing we can safely say about Bern so far in this series, it’s that people repeatedly make huge mistakes whenever they underestimate her. True, she did make mistakes of her own when she trusted fellow Border Patrol agents Ivan Muños — enough to spend time between the sheets with him — and Eleanda Garza, who revealed her true colors while she accompanied Bern on a drug raid at Tom Spenser’s ranch. But when Budge Baca planted her in her own car, handcuffed her to the steering wheel, and proceeded to bury her and the vehicle the same way he took care of that unfortunate fellow earlier this season, Bern — after a few moments of understandable panic — freed herself with a crowbar she had conveniently stashed under her seat. And then she killed the big bad Budge by plunging into his neck the metal feather Leaphorn had given her as a going-away gift last season. Nice touch: Budge wasn’t angry so much as incredulous during his final moments alive. “This shouldn’t be happening,” he wailed. But it was.
Takeaway 3
Chief Ed Henry also seriously miscalculated in regard to estimating Bern’s capacity for badassery when he confidently told Tom Spenser that Budge would be handling “the Manuelito situation.” On the other hand, he did suggest that maybe, just maybe, Spenser should shut down his drug operation for a while, just to be on the safe side. But Spenser, egotistical SOB that he was, rebuffed Henry’s (good) advice like it was an impertinent annoyance, if not a thinly-disguised insult. For one thing, he needed to keep the operation going after his brush with bankruptcy. And, perhaps more important, he needed cash to care for his ailing wife. Besides, Bern was out of the picture, and couldn’t expose his operation. Right?
Takeaway 4
Then again, maybe not. After Bern took care of Budge, Ivan showed up to apologize for his involvement with Spenser’s drug smuggling — an involvement that he claimed consisted mostly of looking the other way while the drugs were smuggled. Bern hesitated before blowing his head off — which, all things considered, would have been a perfectly reasonable response — and actually accepted him as an ally while she interrupted the latest drug transport. The good news: While laying down the law, Bern got to punch Garza’s lights out. The better news: Bern finally acknowledged to herself that, while Ivan was a fun fling, Chee was the guy she was meant for.
Takeaway 5
And speaking of Chee: He joined Leaphorn, Sheriff Gordo and a small army of other cops at the train station during one of the most suspenseful sequences in this series to date. After a cat-and-mouse pursuit aboard the train, Leaphorn managed to stop Reynolds as he held George — “This petulant little truant!”— at gunpoint. But it was up to Chee to deliver the coup de grâce, shooting and killing Reynolds before he could murder the boy. Truth to tell, Leaphorn looked more than a little relieved that he didn’t have to send yet another soul to heaven or hell on his account.
Takeaway 6
We were hoping for well-deserved happy endings all around, but they weren’t in the offing. True, Bern and Chee were reunited, suggesting their romance will continue apace in Season 4. And George Bowlegs was safely returned to his father. But it’s hard to say Spenser and his wife really deserved their escape to a foreign land. And as for Leaphorn…
Well, Emma is still away, and doesn’t appear to be coming home anytime soon. But Leaphorn did get a smidgen of encouragement in this Season 3 finale’s final minutes from, of all people, Special Agent Sylvia Washington. She said she’s leaving town, even though she knows Leaphorn killed BJ Vines, and Leaphorn knows that she knows — but couldn’t prove it. Maybe she felt sorry for Leaphorn. Or maybe she felt one last tip of the hat, from one professional to another, was in order. Whatever her reason, she left Leaphorn with the tape she made while interrogating Emma.
You could tell his heart was breaking in a zillion pieces when he heard his beloved wife say: “I hope one day I can forgive him. But until that day, I walk alone.” Even so — hope abides. And so does Dark Winds.
