Antigonish – As this episode of Dark Winds begins, Colton Wolf (Nicholas Logan) cooks something in his trailer earlier that day. He meets with a private investigator who tells him that the last guy took him for a ride because the Linda Maddox he found in Anaheim is too young. The good news is that she had a boyfriend named Buddy Shaw. The PI tracked him to Vegas and got an address. If she is out there, DeLoyd will find her. Colton reveals that Linda Maddox is his mother. Colton creates a fake ID so he can move through the hospital.

Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) goes home and shows Emma (Deanna Allison) their son’s buckle. Colton has messed with the hospital’s electrical wires. Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) speaks to Mike Deezer (Mickey Dolan) about the FBI and how it attracts the best and the worst. Jim uses a payphone to call Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) who tells him that the trading post lost power so everyone came over there to watch the moon landing. Before long, Jim tells her that the blond man is there. By the time Colton reaches the phone, Jim is already gone. He hears Emma telling someone to call the sheriff’s office and get them to the hospital right now.

Colton pulls the alarm. Joe and Emma talk about the blond man and the recent murders. Joe receives a call about the man at the hospital. He assures Emma that he is going to be okay. Jim runs through the hospital in hopes of getting away from the blond man. Once he collapses in a patient’s room, the blond man finds him. Before he can get to Jim, nurses rush in because they need to move the patient. Jim finds another place to hide as the blond man continues looking for him. The blond man suspects Jim has hidden in the ceiling. He begins shooting towards the ceiling in hopes of hitting Jim.

The blond man is approached by the guard so he shoots him. Jim uses the distraction to try to jump Colton before a scuffle ensues. Jim manages to spray him in the eyes before crawling out of the room. Bern begins yelling his name from nearby. The blond man jumps out of a window and lands on a car outside. Bern catches up with Jim who says he is fine. Although he is bloody, the blond man walks away from the hospital. Bern goes after him. When Mike asks if they got him, Jim says he did. The blond man kills a cop before fleeing the scene. Joe and Bern go after his vehicle.

Once they find the abandoned vehicle, they discover the man’s wig on the seat. Joe explains that one direction goes to Highway 89 and the other is empty desert. The next day at the Kayenta Police Station, Joe listens as the team goes over the search radius. Gordo (A Martinez) and the others suspect the environment may finish him off. If he has a basic understanding of the area, he’d know following the river would lead him to Highway 89. Gordo warns them that this guy isn’t going to leave any witnesses. Joe wants every hitchhiker run down and every driver questioned.

Bern checks on Joe who tells her to run down the paperwork from the Malpais. He is confident it means something because the blond man wasn’t burning the paper to stay warm. Jim joins them moments later to ask Bern if the kid out there is hers. Joe tells him that it is Tomas Charley’s kid. Jim offers to take the boy to his mom’s place in Shiprock since Joe has a manhunt to worry about. Mary Landon (Jacqueline Byers) from the LA Times tries to get information from the locals. She is reminded women are there trying to take care of their health and she is interfering.

Mary tells the woman that there has been a 350% spike in women being involuntarily sterilized since Congress passed the Family Planning Services Act. Mary questions how it’ll stop if they don’t stop it. The woman walks away without saying anything. Emma arrives to help a woman who is pregnant. Bernadette begins going through the paperwork. She finds a copy of one of the papers and notices a signature at the bottom of it. It mentions Carl Lebeck who was the senior physical chemist at the time. Jim says they’re early before offering Benny a snow cone. Gordo shows Joe a man who blew the checkpoint, but Joe confirms it isn’t the man they’re looking for.

Colton reaches someone’s property and finds water. An old woman approaches him and complains about him stealing her water. She begins cleaning the blood from his face before taking him inside for food. The woman says her grandmother told her she saw a monster for the first time when she was a little girl. It turned out to be an Irish farmer. The blond man looks through a book and says he bought his mom a scarf just like the one he sees. He notices a saddle sitting nearby. Jim tells the boy about being a PI. Benny suggests putting his clans on there so people will know who he is. Jim tells him to keep his card and call him whenever he needs something.

The boy leaves whenever his mom arrives. At the police station, some of the officers suspect Joe is mad. One says he is mad at life. Gordo and Joe step outside to talk. Gordo believes the country has the devil in it. Joe tells him a story about his great-uncle who survived the cold and starvation only for the last meal to kill him. Joe says monsters aren’t new although not everyone is held to account. Bern tells Joe that the papers they found were from a survey of the same drilling site his son was killed at. The person who delivered the report from the drill site to the geological bureau was Dillon Charley who was working as a courier for Drumco.

There is nothing unusual about the mineral content. The oil was tapped out. Traces of uranium were found, but the state claimed it was not recoverable. At the very least, there was not enough to justify the cost of extracting it. Drumco sold the property to BJ Vines Mining Company. Joe wonders why Vines would be building a mine on the land then. Gordo says the guy found nothing at the last settlement on the map. Joe asks if Felix ever followed up on Gerald Nez’s complaint about illegal dumping on his property. He did but was unable to find him. Joe wants to find him now.

Emma leaves after helping the woman give birth and cries in her truck. Joe and Bern speak to Gerald about his complaint. He shows them where the waste was dumped on his property. They check it out before leaving. Colton takes the woman’s horse and rides it away. He makes it back and listens to the radio. A police vehicle seems to pull up outside.

 

Dark Winds Review

This episode of Dark Winds pretty much fell in line with the previous episode. While there was more action in the first half, the episode still felt dull throughout. It is hard to say why there is a lack of interest in this season, but it could be the real lack of character development for the blond man and his victims.

This season is also adding a handful of side stories that may not be interlinked with the core story. Even if they are, it has been difficult to genuinely get interested in them. In that regard, there seems to be a lack of focus. The hospital scenes were just okay since it was a little hard to watch with the constant blinking of red lights and the fact that Jim was never in any real danger.

Honestly, I have been bored with this season. Although it has had moments, it just hasn’t reached the level of intensity that the first season had yet. Hopefully, everything will come together and the last half of the season will make the whole thing worthwhile.

This episode scores a 5.5 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.