K’e – As the third episode of Dark Winds begins, Devoted Dan (Rainn Wilson) finishes having sex with a woman before getting out of his van. He sells a man a truck before we see that he has the cactus painting in his office. We see drugs and money changing hands as Dan goes to Flagstaff Savings & Loan to deal with the money. It looks like Dan’s friend buys land. Pete Samuels (Rob Tepper) walks into Lester’s store to buy the cactus painting only to learn it is already gone. The tourists are stopped and the painting is stolen. Eventually, Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) opens the trunk of the car belonging to the tourist and finds a piece of paper that interests her. The paper shows her what items were purchased at the trading post.

After the intro, Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) go to a market to look for Raymond Begay. When they try to confront Raymond, he runs away and Jim goes after him. Joe says he is too old for that so he sits around and watches Jim. Eventually, Raymond and Jim fall to the ground to rest. Joe walks over to see if they’re done screwing around. When Joe asks why he is running, Ray admits he doesn’t know since he didn’t do anything. Joe questions if he did any diving before he was booted out of the Navy. Then, Joe offers to help him make an honest buck today. At the clinic, Emma (Denna Allison) learns that her niece got her period today. Emma is going to send her home with some napkins although her niece doesn’t want to go home.

She reminds her niece that her father will need to make arrangements for her Kinaalda. Her niece was wondering about that. Raymond goes diving while following Joe’s directions. Joe says they’ve had nothing as much as a stabbing over a case of beer in 16 months. Now, they’re dealing with a double homicide and a bank heist in a span of three weeks. There is nothing to connect them although something doesn’t feel right. Joe mentions the tire tracks at the Growing Thunder house matching the ones found near the Mormon family’s vehicle. When Jim says the tourists probably had car trouble, Joe tells him that the car ran perfectly once he hot-wired it. Ryan finds nothing so Joe tells him to keep looking.

Joe says they’ve got a witness who might shed some light on things too. When Jim asks about that, Joe admits it is Sally Growing Thunder (Elva Guerra) and she is his house guest. She hasn’t given up any information yet although he has his wife working on it. Emma takes her niece Nanobah home and introduces her to Sally. She’ll be staying with them for the next four days so Sally agrees it’d be okay for them to share rooms. Sally doesn’t know what a Kinaalda is. Emma says they’ll teach her. Raymond finds nothing and doesn’t want to swim another lap. Bernadette yells that Provo PD ran the plates and the plates came back to 40-year-old Wilson Smith. He is married to 36-year-old Karen and they have two children named Lucy and Cassandra. They’ve all been reported missing.

Bern shows them the receipt from McGinnis’ trading post for the painting that she found in the trunk of the car. There was no painting in the car. Joe says it could be a kidnapping or worse so they need to sort it out with the Feds. He asks Jim and Bern to follow on this without killing one another. Raymond asks about the money. Bernadette drives since she doesn’t think Jim will know the way. They stop when they see Roderick riding a horse by the road. As they drive away, Bern explains that he works her horses for her. When he asks how many horses she has, Bern asks him to give it a rest because she isn’t good with small talk. She owns four and boards two including Emma’s mustang. She has a trailer on two acres and everything she needs.

Although he’d like to see it, Bern says nobody comes out there unless she is boarding their horse. She says all that is out here is a bunch of boys who can’t keep a job and mooch off their mamas. They visit Lester (Jonathan Adams) who is busy trying to fix his cash register. He looks at the receipt and confirms he sold it to a group of Mormons. He gave one of the kids a toy horse. Lester also reveals that a guy came in not long after they left asking about it. He was just some white guy with a mustache like Catfish Hunter. Once they leave, the Reverend Benjamin walks over to buy a bag of rice from Lester’s shop. When Joe returns home, he is surprised to see Nanobah with Sally and soon learns that she got her period. Joe suggests Emma’s brother could do it, but Emma thinks they could use a little celebration around here. Joe reveals he has to go to Flagstaff tomorrow so she asks him to pick up a sash belt for Nano.

She also mentioned getting more firewood before admitting Sally hasn’t told her anything just yet. Emma tells him to leave his shirt so he can get the stain out. Later, Sally watches as Nanobah goes through the ritual. When Joe passes someone on the road, he decides to pull that person over. Joe tells him he has a nice truck so Yazzie (Wambli Eagleman) insists it is bought and paid for. The registration shows that Yazzie bought the truck from Devoted Dan. Bern and Jim go back to the market where the locals laugh at them. They talk to Wanda who thinks Bern is Jim’s boyfriend. She tells Jim that Runaway Bernie isn’t a prize. She is buying overstock on the side and doesn’t care what Lester thinks. They tell her that he isn’t a big fan of her art either.

They ask her about the white guy who came in to buy the painting after the Mormon couple. Wanda claims she doesn’t know anything and she doesn’t like white guys or cops. As they walk away, Jim and Bernadette agree that she is lying. Joe meets with Whitover (Noah Emmerich) who says he is golfing soon. Joe thinks that is a waste of land, but Whitover says it is better than nothing. They begin discussing the family of four that just disappeared. Whitover says it is Joe’s case because there are no bodies. If anything changes, it is still his. Joe wants updates on the Atcitty/Tso case only to be told the case is closed. The family can retrieve the bodies at the funeral home. If the families don’t get them or Joe doesn’t deal with the bodies, they’ll be handed over to the state.

Nanobah’s grandma tells her to stop scratching unless she wants to be ugly and forsaken. Emma tells her she is doing well. Joe picks up the sash for Nanobah. Jim tells Bern he’d like to start over. He didn’t like the way Wanda took a shot at her because they’re partners and need to have each other’s backs. She says being awful is all Wanda has and you need thick skin around here. He shows her the place where he grew up. He didn’t want to leave this place. His mom started dating a real a-hole who roughed her up. She knocked him hallway to Shiprock with a frying pan. When he showed up to school a few weeks later, no one would talk to him. It happened because someone etched “witch” into his door and the rumor spread.

After her friends turned their backs on her, they packed their bags and left. His mom died among strangers even though she had thick skin once too. Jim used to think about coming back here to finish what his mom had started, but someone beat him to it. Bern tells him about Emma’s niece having her Kinaalda so he should stop by and help out. He asks whether she’ll be there. She is always the first in line at parties on the reservation. Joe calls Emma to tell her he got the belt and needs to spend the night because they’re releasing the bodies to him in the morning. Raymond comes out of the water once again before climbing into the boat. He pulls up a bag that has a helmet in it.

Nano runs back and says she made it. Emma tells her that the farther she runs the longer her life will be. Sally agrees to help with the corn today while Joe shops for two blankets. He uses them to wrap the bodies before taking them to Helen and Guy. Then, he tries to get in touch with Father Tso. When no one answers, Joe decides to dig a hole for the body. Guy and Helen bury their daughter’s body while Joe deals with the other one. Nanobah goes through the ceremony. Later that night, Wanda drives her truck off the road.

She hears someone calling for help and finds the Mormon family down in a hole. Father Tso calls them the house guests and insurance that was the necessary result due to her negligence. He asks about the new painting. She warns them that the police are asking about the other one and they found a receipt in the car. Wanda swears she didn’t say anything. Benjamin trusts her since she is true to the cause. He asks about her hair clip. At first, she claims she got it from the market before saying it is a family heirloom. Ben asks if he can keep it since he knows someone who’d really like it. He takes it anyway and tells her to make sure nobody sees her on the way out. Once she leaves, Ben and the other guy discuss whether she’ll rat.

Ben gives her the hair loom because he knows who to give it to in case she does. Joe goes to Lester’s to get his last cord of wood. Lester agrees to give it to him for free since it is for a ceremony, but warns him to watch for black widows. He tells Joe that he found an envelope with Benjamin’s name on it and thinks he should have it. Hosteen asked him to mail it and he asked someone else to do it. He reveals Father Tso came in here about an hour ago asking where Joe lived. Lester didn’t tell him anything although he found out that Joe buried his grandfather. Bern arrives and apologizes for being late. When she asks how she looks, Emma admits it looks like she doesn’t know what she is doing. Emma asks his name, but Bern claims she doesn’t know what she is talking about.

She quickly suspects something with Jim arrives. Jim is quickly introduced to Emma before he is told to get to work. During the ceremony, Joe asks Jim to walk with him. He shows him the letter that begs Father Benjamin to come home because his brother is up to his old ways. Since he never got the letter, they need to find out what he is doing here. Jim returns and thanks Bern for inviting her. She apologizes to him for the way she treated him early on. They’re not as different as she thought. She explains that her parents sent her to boarding school when she was young. It wasn’t bad at first because the other kids protected her, but it got worse and worse. She ran away at 11 hoping she’d be able to live on the land.

Joe picked her up and brought her back. The second time, she got a visit from one of the nuns telling her that her parents were sick. When she got home, their hogan has been shut in because it was a plague house. Joe and Emma helped set her up while Joe Jr. was like a brother to her. Jim thinks she was lucky to have found a new family. Benjamin arrives to thank Joe for burying his grandfather. Sally sees Ben through the window as he asks Joe to take one more trip to his grandfather’s ranch. He wants Joe to show him where he was buried. Emma rushes in to check on Sally. She begins screaming so they take her out to the car. Benjamin says he’ll pray for her. At the hospital, Jim tells Bern that she’ll be okay. He asks which clan she is from, but Emma and Joe interrupt before she can answer.

Emma tells Sally that she and the baby are going to be fine. Sally whispers something to her. Nanobah continues running the next day with a small group. When Joe joins Emma, she mentions the name, Frank Nakai. That is the name Sally gave her. Now that she did what he asked, she wants something from him. Emma asks him to let Sally and the baby stay with them when she is well. A woman performs a ritual over Wanda’s hair clip and buries it. Wanda drinks near the wood pile outside Lester’s store before she is bitten by a black widow. She collapses to the ground as the episode ends.

 

Dark Winds Review

On the surface, Dark Winds is a decent drama that feels like it could transcend into more at any minute. The scenery is great while Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon are perfect for their respective roles. However, it often seems like the writers would rather delve into irrelevant issues than focus on the primary story that viewers care about. Manuelito’s introduction to the series came much sooner than it did in the books. The reason for this stuck out like a sore thumb in the beginning and really started coming together in this episode.

It seems every series has to have sappy backstories and love stories so that was expected. Nevertheless, this gives the writers something else to waste time on instead of focusing on the murder mystery. Combine that with the introduction of Nanobah and you’ve got almost an entire episode compromised of filler content. The Kinaalda was mostly glanced over as if the writers expected viewers to know what was happening or they knew it wasn’t integral to the story.

A bigger gripe I have is the way they’re introducing Devoted Dan in each episode like he is the biggest enemy boss in Contra or something from a nightmare. I would suspect everyone can guess Dan’s involvement in the whole scheme at this point. The character is already a bit cartoonish so I can see that turning into a letdown. Once again, some of the actors and actresses are awkward.

Dark Winds could be great if Jim and Joe were allowed to dig in deep and investigate the double homicide. It isn’t bad in its current form though and much of its success should be credited to Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, the original material, and the stunning scenery. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Dark Winds can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work by following this link.