You'd think life would allow Joe Leaphorn to take a breather at some point. But that wouldn't make the new season of AMC's Dark Winds very tense. Since Leaphorn is practically the sentinel of the Navajo reservation, he's once again tasked with protecting his people from a nefarious threat. After witches, humans, and a few more witches, there's now some sort of monster terrorizing the reservation.
You know Leaphorn. Even when it seems like the worst has happened and he's on his last legs, he'll not only get right back up, but he'll take on the big bad responsible for that situation. But this time, even Leaphorn seems pretty out of it as he pulls an arrow out of his neck and picks himself up off the ground.
Creator: Graham Roland
Stars: Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten
His call to Natalie and subsequent request for as many backups as possible don't sound too great either. And when we see what he's up against (that scary, skull-faced beast that appears when you hear the creepy hissing sounds), we know why someone as heroic as Leaphorn fears for his life. To get to the root of this peculiar circumstance it will be necessary to go back seven days. All was not well. Leaphorn was certainly not doing well with the morbid fate of BJ Vines hanging over his mind.
Leaphorn's initiation into this season's mystery happened in the most expected way. But when he and Gordo Sena went to check out a location connected to the case of a local boy's disappearance, I don't think Leaphorn could have imagined the labyrinth he was getting into; not that he had the option to avoid it. The missing boy, Ernesto Cata, had spent the previous night with his friend, George Bowlegs. Judging by his interaction with Jim Chee, it seems that George Bowlegs' father, Shorty, has a very bad reputation on the reservation. And since George was found safe and sound at school that morning, suspicion was bound to fall on him.
The location Leaphorn and company checked out didn't have anything very hopeful to say about the missing boy. They had found a bicycle that had blood stains and marks that looked like something hard had hit it. Since when has that been a hopeful sign of anything? What's worse, George flew the nest before Leaphorn and Chee could question him. All that talk about how the Mexican legend of La Llorona might have been behind Ernesto's disappearance gives the case that very inevitable push into the world of the supernatural. That's not a shocking experience in Dark Winds. But it's still a shock to hear Leaphorn mention the Navajo equivalent of La Llorona, someone they know as Ye'iitsoh. From the little I've read about the Navajo mythological creature Ye'iitsoh, I don't really see the immediate resemblance between him and La Llorona, the creature from Mexican folklore who drowns children. For now, I think it's because there's a missing child involved.
I bet Bernadette Manuelito had a rough idea of what she was getting into when she signed up for the border patrol job. A Navajo woman who has something to say while working for a middle-aged white man? That’s the kind of thing dreams are made of. And it’s not a dream Bernadette lives in. In the cold, brutal reality, Bern has to chase down a mother and her daughter and physically overpower them because they’re immigrants – and that too with a gun.
Bern is too fast for this terrified Mexican woman who’s just trying to protect herself and her young son. And even though Bern feels terrible doing it, she has no choice but to stop them. But things are much more sinister than Bern’s boss wants his agents to believe. There was a creepy white van that Bern saw.
In fact, that’s the reason she stopped in the first place. The simple fact that someone stole her gun and drove off in that van when she reached for her belt is enough to know that something serious is going on. Bern gets the idea that the immigrant mother and daughter were running away from someone and that they were actually trying to cross into Mexico. And considering that there was someone who had stolen the gun and left, I think Bern is absolutely right. As much as Bern's boss wants to deport them and wash his hands of the case, there must be a lot to investigate here.
The language barrier prevents Bern from deducing anything from what they are saying. But there is a strong possibility that Bern is right about them being caught in a human trafficking ring. Bern would not have been able to let it go, even with his fearsome superior vehemently opposed to him going ahead with the case. That is not the kind of person Bern is. Turning a blind eye to people's pain is something Bern will never be able to do. So it is obvious that he would not follow direct orders.
You know what makes Leaphorn so good at his job? He approaches every case and every person he meets with empathy and the kind of depth that is unusual for people in his line of work. Shorty and Chee’s childhood feud prevented anything fruitful from coming out of Leaphorn’s meeting with Shorty. But Leaphorn knew that Shorty was not the path that would lead him to George. Unlike the convenient conclusion most people have come to about George, he may not be anything like his father.
Leaphorn can see that Shorty is an impulsive. And you know what happens when you have an impulsive for a father? You confide in your brother. That’s the path Leaphorn takes when he talks to Cecil, Shorty’s youngest son. Now, Leaphorn doesn’t have to pretend to care about him when he talks to him. He’s a truly caring man who can make a child feel safe opening up to him. And when Cecil gets comfortable with Leaphorn, he feels confident telling him about his brother and Ernesto’s usual haunt. They’ve been working and hanging out at the local dig site lately. That information may not seem like a big deal right now. But it’s better than having nowhere to look.
The thing about Dark Winds is that it’s absolutely proud of its supernatural and spiritual side. So if you’re looking for subtle hints, this isn’t a show that likes to keep quiet. So bold claims of troubling omens are what’s for dinner at the Leaphorn house. Emma quickly becomes anxious about the fact that Leaphorn has seen a coyote heading north. As far as bad omens go, that one ranks high in Navajo culture. Even Leaphorn is reasonably upset when his plate of food splits in half almost spontaneously. And then come the ants, countless waves of them. I can't help but wonder if the ants are a thematic arrow pointing directly at the ground Leaphorn finds himself on. Maybe what he's looking for has its roots beneath the soil of the vast and grand reserve.
He feels a little better about giving his son's old ant colony to Cecil, who is clearly a huge ant enthusiast. And let's face it, the kid needs all the kindness he can get growing up in that house with an abusive father. The man who had been a bully to Chee came from a father who had abused Chee's mother. George and Cecil must be the first generation of children in that family who haven't continued that tradition of abuse. As far as bad omens go, I don't think there's anything worse than seeing a glimpse of the big bad himself. An unexplained gust of wind and his frenzied animals alert Leaphorn to the presence of something sinister. Is the monster he sees Ye'iitsoh himself? I guess we'll have to wait a little longer to find out.
No matter how bad life gets for Leaphorn, it never seems like it can’t get even worse. And our paranoia is basically justified when FBI Special Agent Sylvia Washington comes to town. Leaphorn must have known that the white supremacist system wouldn’t sit idly by if a white millionaire went missing. Sylvia has made herself comfortable at the station. And with a very brazen energy that’s all too obvious, she’s also let Leaphorn know that she knows something bad has happened to BJ Vines. It’s only a matter of time before she investigates Leaphorn and her fear becomes a reality. But that’s not something Leaphorn can worry about now. She doesn’t find George or Ernesto at the archaeological dig site, but something that might be pertinent to the case comes up in her chat with Teddi, an archaeologist working there. Apparently, they're looking for a link between the Navajo and the Folsom, a people from a Paleo-Indian culture that might have been influenced by Navajo culture.
A quick trip to information land tells me that there might not be any real connection between the Folsom and the much more modern Navajo. So I guess that part is fictionalized for this season's mystery. Teddi and her boss, Dr. Reynolds, may not have found the link yet, but in the finale of the first episode of Dark Winds season 3, there's a link that's too obvious to miss. The mailman's usual route puts him in the path of the red pickup truck that was reportedly seen at the bike's location. When Gordo and Leaphorn look through the area, the stray footprints lead to some blood on the ground, the most obvious sign that something bad has happened around here. A quick look around shows them the opening of a very creepy metal tunnel. Once inside, they encounter a nightmare: the bloody corpse of a child hanging in front of them.
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