What really boggles my mind about the characters in Dark Winds is how casual they are about walking into terrifying, and even life-threatening situations. I don’t mean to say that they downplay the danger. When it comes to the world of Dark Winds, this is actually a super impressive quality in a person. Whatever danger is lurking in the shadows will eventually come out of the dark and consume everything good in its path. So not only is denial very cowardly in a place like this, not doing anything about the emergence of something bad even jeopardizes your personal safety. So, our heroes have gotten rather good at using fear as an emotion that keeps them quick on their feet and not a shackle holding them down.
Spoiler Alert
We’ve found BJ Vines
Given the blood-soaked legacy BJ Vines has left behind, you probably wouldn’t imagine that anyone could owe their life to him. But the universe has got a cheeky sense of humor. So even though BJ Vines has probably never saved anyone in his lifetime, he’s just saved a kid from a very painful tumble in his death. That’s what this week’s episode of Dark Winds starts off with. Two Navajo kids with a very dumb and quite risky bicycle stunt to try out are saved from a nasty fall when one of them is distracted by a piece of Vines’ clothing. But they’re not totally lucky. It’s got to scar them for life when they see the skeleton that previously belonged to a horrible person named BJ Vines. And you know Agent Sylvia Washington will be all over this major evidence. If there’s one thing she’s understood about the rez, it’s the fact that Leaphorn is the sentinel of justice around there. Now, I’m not saying that Sylvia is on BJ Vines’ side here. In fact, she’s often talking about what a horrid man he was. But that’s the thing about White man’s law. It isn’t so much about moral righteousness as it is about technical breaches of the rules law-abiding citizens are supposed to live by. So Sylvia’s personal feelings about the case are all but immaterial in her decision making process. She’s here to solve a crime. And I don’t think she’s inclined to do much more than that as of now.
That chili farm sure looks very cult-ish
It’s got to be excruciating for Leaphorn to know a helpless kid is out there all by himself and he can’t do anything about it. His mind’s got to draw the parallel to his son. But that feeling isn’t strong enough to overcome his instinct to persevere and be there for people who need him. So as he follows the trail of that red pickup with Chee, he has a certain amount of confidence that he’ll solve this puzzle. And what do you know? The ants, possibly imaginary and symbolic this time around, are right there to reassure him that he’s on the right track. It leads him to this patch of land on the edge of the rez. Finding a red pickup in a garage is a sure sign that the people around here have got to know something about Ernesto and George’s recent predicaments. And when they do see a guy, he bolts before they catch on and grab him, and he alerts his group with a word that seems very significant in the 3rd season of Dark Winds, “pigs.”
Now, this word is code for cops, and it’s been synonyms with the police for ages. Yeah, even back in the timeline Dark Winds is set in. But here, it might have a more nuanced connection to the specifics of the story. That Mexican kid the border patrol detained only uttered one word of English when Bern questioned her, and that word was “pigs.” And since that kid also sketched the logo of the Spenser Ranch, the people that Leaphorn and Chee have found might be connected to Tom Spenser. While the whole group comes off as pretty odd and strangely meek, it’s their obvious leader, Halsey, who has this major cult-leader energy. That vibe is only compounded by this terrified woman he has by his side, Suzanne. They claim that they’re honest people running a chili farm. But Halsey isn’t exactly a very convincing liar. So the fact that he’s obviously intimidating Suzanne into corroborating his lie about where the truck was a couple nights ago is enough for Leaphorn to grow suspicious.
Bern is flying a little too close to the sun
Bern might be smart in a lot of ways, but she’s totally hopeless when it comes to picking a guy. But it’s border patrol. The options are scarce. So I get why Bern’s trying to get over Chee with Ivan. Even if he turns out to be harmless, that’s about all Ivan will amount to. It isn’t just that he doesn’t push her to do better, he kind of holds her back from forming conclusions about very inevitable deductions.
But that’s part of the reason why I’m more inclined to see him as a bad guy anyway. When Bern randomly finds her stolen gun in her car, the obvious train of thought is to wonder how Tom Spenser is involved in this. It can’t be a coincidence that right after she finds the white van on the Spenser Ranch and then meets Budge, her stolen gun suddenly turns up. And it can’t be very well intentioned of Ivan to discourage Bern from pursuing that lead. However, there really is a small chance that Ivan knows what Spenser is capable of, and that he’s only trying to keep Bern out of trouble. But Bern’s never been very good at that. And even now, instead of saving her own neck, she’s planning to go right inside the maw of the monster. She plays Ed Henry like a fiddle and convinces him to set up a meeting with Spenser. She obviously isn’t apologetic about stopping one of his vans for a quick check. But that might be the only lie that can buy her some face-to-face time with Tom Spenser. Tom sees right through her when she shows up at his house, supposedly to apologize. He’s so far been the kind of guy who tries to hide a truth by laying it out in plain sight. So when he says that Bern doesn’t need to apologize to Budge because he doesn’t have feelings, I don’t think he’s kidding at all. And when Budge shows up on Bern’s doorstep the same night with that creepy smile on his face, it looks like fear is on the list of emotions that he doesn’t feel.
As much as I admire Bern’s scrappy nature, she takes too big a risk by getting in his car and letting him drive her to Mexico. But then again, it’s a calculated risk considering Budge wouldn’t have picked her up from her house if his intention was to hurt her. This was actually his way of getting it through to Bern that he and his employer are untouchable. This was how he wanted to tell Bern that they can do anything they want, and that she should steer clear. But I doubt that Bern will back down now. Now that she has confirmation that Budge is in charge of more than security, she’ll follow this trail until she cracks the case.
Who killed Suzanne?
Jim Chee might be getting a little sidelined in the 3rd season of Dark Winds. But the good thing is, whenever we do see some of him, he seems to be achieving a lot in terms of his personal growth. In light of George’s disappearance, he’s really worked hard to pull himself out of the traumatic memories that made him hate Shorty. Speaking of Shorty, I guess he got really lucky that Leaphorn showed up when he did and scared Ye’iitsoh away. Shorty got away with a minor concussion. Helpless as he might be, it’s a big comfort to him knowing that he’s given his son quite a few lessons on survival. And the thing that I really admire in Chee is that, despite being abused by Shorty and his father, he’s capable of acknowledging that Shorty’s been a good dad. Plus, he isn’t making empty promises when he reassures Shorty that they’re doing their best to find George. Even though he’s going through a major personal crisis, Leaphorn is keeping his eyes peeled for any new clue regarding George and the chili farm. With Sylvia breathing down his neck, the case he is working on might be more within his control than his own life.
The FBI has figured out that BJ Vines is dead. And who other than Leaphorn can be of assistance to Sylvia? Leaphorn knows that Sylvia is smart. So the worst thing he can do is try to feed her a lie that she’ll see right through. But while he plays it smart and actually helps her with the investigation, I think Sylvia already knows that Leaphorn is behind it. In terms of the investigation, it makes sense that the families of the people who died in the explosion will make it onto the suspect list. But Sylvia might be pretending that Leaphorn is not on that list because she doesn’t want him to clean up his tracks. At this point, Leaphorn can’t keep the truth from Emma anymore. Her spiritual concerns might stand in the way of her forgiving Leaphorn for the time being. But I think she’ll come around and realize that Leaphorn had to do it. Leaphorn’s sanity is already fraying around the edges. He’s having visions. Terrifying ones at that. And while that might have something to do with Ye’iitsoh’s scratch, I think the man needs a reassuring hug more than anything else. He’s been dealing with a lot of things all by himself.
It’s good to see that Leaphorn hasn’t lost his sharpness to his current crisis. He basically predicted that Suzanne knew more than she could say in front of Halsey, and that she’d come around. It still catches him off guard when Suzanne calls the station and sets up a meeting with Leaphorn, all the while pretending that she’s talking about a chili order to keep Halsey in the dark. And get this. Not only did they know George and Ernesto, the kids hung out with them on a regular basis. One of them even had a crush on Suzanne, which the man I believe is her partner must not have liked one bit. But there must be something more to what happened after.
If Leaphorn is to believe Suzanne, something happened that got George and Ernesto banned from hanging out with them. And then one day, presumably the day the kids went missing, Halsey had taken the red pickup and gone somewhere. It’s actually pretty crazy to think how something can pop up at some point soon that can connect the cases Leaphorn and Bern are investigating, with a lot of distance between them that too. I guess that’s what Dark Winds was foreshadowing in the first episode of season 3 when they showed us how far from the rez Bern was now. While pointing out that Bern was now more unsafe so far away from her roots, the scene also might’ve been saying that the crimes are connected. Because let’s face it, the word “pigs” being connected to both the cases can’t be a coincidence. Bern might be a little closer to figuring that out. She’s already asked a very scared worker at the ranch if the word meant anything to him. He didn’t say anything, but the terror on his face at the mere mention of it is proof enough that it means something in their job. Suzanne can’t help Leaphorn out any more than she has already.
What happens to Suzanne in the ending of this week’s episode of Dark Winds is a jarring reminder of the potential dangers associated with downplaying abuse. Suzanne didn’t want to believe that Halsey was a monster. She didn’t think he’d ever do to her what he did to other people. She had to face the truth about Halsey in the harshest possible manner when he stuck a needle in her arm. By the time Leaphorn showed up to raid the place with Chee, most of the people had disappeared, and Suzanne had been left behind to slowly drift away. And since life enjoys taking its most cruel form sometimes, Suzanne dies in Leaphorn’s arms. But now we gotta turn our eyes elsewhere. Looking around the place, Chee finds a board with pictures of cops. And what’s even more ominous is that Bern is on that boat. Pigs. Cops. Are we talking about a group that targets cops? But since Spenser is involved, we can’t rule out the possibility that they’re not killing cops. Because they may also be putting them on their payroll.
