The March – As this episode of Dark Winds begins, Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) calls the station to tell them to inform Sheriff Sena that they tracked the suspect to a trailer. Natalie responds although the radio breaks up making it impossible to hear what she says. Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) believes they’re two or three hours away. Since Joe is tired of chasing this guy, they decide to move in without backup. When Colton Wolf (Nicholas Logan) looks outside, he turns off the light.

As Joe and Bernadette storm the trailer, Colton escapes through a hole near the back. He grabs a rifle and jumps into Joe’s vehicle to turn on the lights. Then, Colton returns to open fire on the trailer. Joe and Bern at not hit. Joe goes out the door and Bern uses the escape hatch. As they exit the trailer, they begin shooting at Colton who speeds away in Joe’s vehicle. It sounds like the vehicle crashes a short distance away from the trailer. Once they check the vehicle, Joe and Bern find that the suspect is already gone. He’ll have range on them since he had a map in the trailer.

Joe is adamant that they’ll get the suspect by any means necessary. After the intro, they continue pursuing the suspect. Joe thinks he has eight shots and he’ll make them count. Seconds later, the suspect begins shooting at them. Colton ends up throwing the rifle down and fleeing. In a coral with horses, Joe is attacked briefly before the suspect moves on. When Bernadette catches up with Joe, he is holding Colton at gunpoint. Once they approach him, Colton jumps off the ledge and disappears. Bern doesn’t think they should go down there, but Joe wants to get the man who murdered his son.

When it is daylight, Joe wakes up on the ground in the middle of the desert. Other officers arrive at the trailer and receive an update from Bernadette. Joe creates a makeshift brace for his injured arm. He has one bullet left. Bern tries to convince Gordo Sena (A Martinez) to let her go with him. Sheriff Sena tells Bern not to make him regret this. Emma (Denna Allison) takes the baby for a checkup while Sally (Elva Guerra) remains in the waiting room. Mary Landon approaches Sally to speak to her. She tries to get information from Sally until Emma returns to ask what she is doing.

Colton drinks his last bit of water and notices footprints nearby. He is kicked in the face. When he wakes up, he finds a rope around his neck and Joe holding onto the other end of the rope. Joe makes him get up because he is going to jail. Colton doesn’t think they’ll make it. Mrs. Vines visits Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and tries to give him money for his troubles. Jim says he doesn’t want her blood money. He asks for the truth. Mrs. Vines says she stuck her nose into something that wasn’t her business. She wants this all to end now. When she reaches her vehicle, she begins crying. BJ Vines holds Jim at gunpoint because he believes there is something going on between Jim and his wife.

Jim quickly takes the gun and tells him that he is working for his wife. BJ suggests he can hire Jim because he is convinced Rosemary is having an affair. He offers to pay Jim enough so he doesn’t have to work for the rest of the year, but he is going to need proof. Colton complains about his ankle hurting. Joe makes him take off his boat before forcing him to continue moving. Bern and Sena argue about the path they should take. She is convinced that Joe won’t stop until the blond man is in jail. Joe tells Colton that he’ll shoot him last if he is going to die out there. Colton offers Joe the $25,000 in the bag.

He soon realizes that this is personal for Joe. Seconds later, Joe tells him that he’ll be there when they put him to death. He points his gun at Colton and forces him to sit near the tree. Colton kicks him a few times, but Joe quickly uses the rope to regain control. Joe chokes him for a while before letting him go. At home, Sally tells Emma she knows things would’ve been different if they hadn’t taken her in. She reminds Emma that she told her they took about women’s choice to have babies. Emma says she made sure that didn’t happen to Sally, but Sally claims it did because she has no say about anything.

Emma says she never asked to have a baby like that with that man. She always felt trapped and doesn’t think her baby loves her. Emma goes on to admit that her baby doesn’t deserve this. Sheriff Sena tells Bern that he managed to get ahold of someone. She speeds off on her horse. Joe tells Colton how he managed to outlast him. He explains the difference between them is what they stand for. Colton runs away causing Joe to fall and scream in pain. He works to free himself while Joe begins looking for him. When Joe finds the rope on the ground, Colton attacks him. They briefly struggle until Joe knees him and regains the upper hand.

Colton says they’re no different, but Joe says otherwise. Bern catches up with them. BJ tries to convince Rosemary to sit with him for a change. He asks her about hiring a private eye to recover his stolen property. Rosemary explains she was trying to help because it is her house too. They argue about that. BJ reminds her he told her to never interfere in his business because she isn’t built for it. He gives Rosemary a necklace that has been engraved. Joe and Colton make it back to the station. Joe stares at Colton as the episode ends.

 

Dark Winds Review

While this season of Dark Winds has been a major decline compared to the first, none of the episodes were that bad until this one was released. It may be hard to come back from this frustratingly bad episode. Where does one start? The first ten minutes of this episode were shot in almost complete darkness making it nearly impossible to see exactly what was going on. Just because it is called Dark Winds doesn’t mean it needs to be shot in total darkness.

We still don’t know what Colton has done or who he is so it is hard to genuinely care about his arrest. The writers made Joe look like an imbecile in this episode by having him jump into the canyon only to injure himself and wake up in the morning. On the other hand, they made Colton look like the biggest pushover even though he is supposed to be this season’s villain.

Colton was more menacing before he opened his mouth and the little whiny, mouse-like voice came out. This episode spent a lot of time doing very little like Joe staring at Colton for a good three minutes at the end of the episode. Who knows and who cares what is going on with Emma and Sally at this point? Unfortunately, there is little else to say except this episode was a major blemish on an otherwise watchable season.

The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Dark Winds can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.