The investigation took some wickedly smooth turns in this week’s episode of Dark Winds. So much so that it might even look like they’re defying a bunch of odds. But while it’s understandable that a Native American reservation didn’t have a whole lot of resources to fight crime and criminals, especially back in the 70s, it’s also true that criminals had fewer ways to make a run for it. Running away from your deeds wasn’t very easy in the ruthless terrain of the rez.
Spoiler Alert
Does Leaphorn catch Halsey?
Halsey thought he’d tied up all the loose ends before abandoning the farmstead and fleeing. He’d done the best he could’ve. He’d jammed a needle into Suzanne’s arm and gotten everyone else out. And when it was time for him to run, he took the red pickup truck with him. Now, the thing you gotta remember when it comes to Leaphorn’s investigation is that, when someone is driving in the rez, they only have one, or at best two roads to take. So the stops a criminal would make when they’d flee from the farmstead are obvious to Leaphorn. And that’s why they miss him by a hair when they show up at the gas station he stopped at. He had a lot to do in the little time he had. And the first thing on that list was calling Budge.
Dark Winds has been dropping a lot of obvious hints that suggested that the cases Leaphorn and Bern are investigating might not be two separate ones. In the fourth episode of the second season, the connection materializes pretty organically. Chee’d found cocaine at the farmstead. And while looking through the farmstead’s papers, Leaphorn had found out that a certain AGS Industries had been leasing it to Halsey and his group. So when Halsey calls AGS and the extension he gives turns out to be Budge’s number, it’s obvious that Halsey works for Tom Spenser. Halsey’s biggest fear isn’t even Leaphorn. If he has been peddling cocaine for Spenser, he must’ve gotten pretty familiar with Budge’s psychotic tendencies. So he’s got to reassure them that he’s cleaned up after himself, and that his trail won’t lead the police to Spenser. But he’s got one thing wrong, as did most of us. Turns out, luck wasn’t as cruel to Leaphorn as we’d thought. He’s pulled Suzanne out of the jaws of death. And when she’s questioned, she mentions this motel that Halsey frequents. Since there can’t be too many motels in the area that match her description, Leaphorn already knows exactly which one she’s talking about. He’s also got another clue in his pockets. Before Halsey drove to the motel, he’d stopped to burn the red truck and switch to a sedan he’d stashed for times like these. He might’ve destroyed one piece of evidence, but he doesn’t know what kind of a cop he’s dealing with. Leaphorn took a soil sample from the sedan’s track. And when that sample matches the soil he finds on a blue sedan parked by the motel, Leaphorn knows he’s in the right place. Locking up Halsey proves to be rather easy. But I suppose getting him to talk won’t be as smooth a job.
Who’s working for Tom Spenser at the Border Patrol?
Dark Winds has a tendency to make the answers completely unpredictable. And it does so by making a conclusion too obvious or by convincing us of the existence of something non-existent. So you’d be wise to keep your mind wide open when you weigh the options. Things may not be as they seem. So there’s a 50-50 chance that Ivan only has good intentions when he picks Bern up from the border and, as he’d like to see it, saves her life. And I think Bern’s starting to trust him too. One thing’s for sure. Bern’s gotten comfortable, or maybe even excited by the idea of being with Ivan. That’s why she says yes to the date. But now might not be the best time for Bern to strike up a new romance, especially with one of her coworkers. Chee knew nothing about Bern’s investigation of the Spenser Ranch. But since Bern’s official Border Patrol ID picture was found at the farmstead, it’s obvious that whatever Halsey and co were getting up to over there has something to do with what Bern’s been looking into. Now, the first thing that Bern needs to address in these circumstances is the fact that there’s someone at her workplace who’s working for Tom Spenser. How else would Halsey get his hands on Bern’s ID picture? Think about it. This is a pre-internet timeline we’re in. So someone from Border Patrol must’ve either copied or stolen that picture for Spenser. If we’re talking suspects, I think it’s either Ivan or Bern’s roommate and coworker Garza. Bern trusts Garza. And if I know Dark Winds at all, it’s certainly the kind of a show that would totally nudge us to suspect Ivan only to reveal that it was Garza all along. But trouble is, it’s also the kind of show that would make Ivan the bad guy just because we think he’s too obvious a suspect. So as of now, I would prefer to wait before jumping to any conclusions about either of them. Bern thinks that Ed Henry might be working for Spenser. But just the fact that Garza seems all too eager to fuel that suspicion makes me wonder if she’s the mole after all.
But like I said, with Dark Winds, we won’t know until we know. That doesn’t mean we don’t get to mourn the loss, or at least a big delay, of a romance that the universe seems to be conspiring against. In terms of the investigation, the 6 hour long drive that Chee makes to visit Bern turns out to be fruitful. Bern’s now starting to wonder if Spenser traffics drugs and not women. Although if you ask me, I don’t really see what’s stopping him from doing both those things. But one thing is for certain. Since AGS owns a company in Juarez, that must be where Tom Spenser’s people get a hold of what or who they’re trafficking. As for the romance part, I think Bern might feel too much for Chee to try and take a leap of faith. So even though he’s literally shown up with this big romantic gesture and asked her to go home with him, Bern might be too scared to take a shot at love. But there has to come a time when she realizes that she’s been hiding out and pretending that she’s moved on. I mean, come on. Ivan doesn’t hold a candle to Chee.
Will Agent Washington arrest Leaphorn?
I can’t really pick a side when it comes to Emma and Joe and their very conflicting feelings regarding BJ Vines’ fate. They’re both fair in their thoughts and actions. As the lawman of a place where the law is biased and the father of a kid who lost his life to Vines’ hunger for money and power, Leaphorn did the right thing by killing Vines. The other option was to sit on his hands and watch Vines’ crimes go unpunished. How could Joe allow that to happen? Coming to Emma, she deals with her grief much differently. Since she believes that no amount of pain and injustice warrants an action as dark as murder, she now sees her husband in a different light. Seeing how this grim energy seems to be following Leaphorn wherever he goes, I can’t really say that Emma is wrong. She thinks that by killing Vines, Joe’s somehow gotten the man’s spirit attached to their family. And it’s not like Joe doesn’t have his share of denials about it. Hell, just because he didn’t pull the trigger and let nature do its thing, he doesn’t even want to take accountability for having killed Vines. But the White man’s law doesn’t really care about any of that.
And it’s getting harder and harder for Leaphorn to not have a complete breakdown at the station. It terrifies him massively now that Agent Washington has turned her eyes to the locals. She’s questioning everyone, and among them is the shepherd who claims to have seen something on the night of Vines’ death. When she gives Leaphorn the translator job as she questions the old Navajo man, Agent Washington absolutely means to crush Leaphorn under the weight of his anxiety. There’s this sense of suffocation in the room as the shepherd identifies the make of the truck that he saw. It was a GMC, the kind that Leaphorn drives. Gordo might be downplaying the stakes. Even without a confirmation on the license plate number, Agent Washington has plenty of reason to believe that Leaphorn is her man. There might be an impossible amount of GMCs on the rez, but only one of them belongs to a man who had Vines to blame for a life-altering loss. And when Agent Washington stops Leaphorn to make a direct accusation, it looks like she’s not willing to play coy anymore. Leaphorn doesn’t really have a better fake alibi to pick, so it makes sense that he claims that he spent the night with Emma. I bet he believes that no matter how awful Emma feels about his actions, she will stand by him when the law comes knocking. But it’s hard enough on Emma as it is. So I’m not sure how fortified she is against Agent Washington’s questioning. Even if she wants to protect her husband, she may not be a very good liar, especially with a heart as heavy as hers.
Who kills Halsey?
One of the things that I really like about the third season of Dark Winds is that we don’t get to know a whole lot before the police do. By making us rely on the investigation, the show’s elevated the importance of the characters who would’ve otherwise been mere props. Take the situation with Halsey for example. The only thing that we know and Leaphorn doesn’t is the fact that Halsey called Budge. But since Leaphorn doesn’t even know Budge, he really is more a part of Bern’s case, at least until they merge their investigations. And it’s not like Leaphorn and Gordo needed to know about Budge to make the connection between Halsey’s drug farm and Tom Spenser. With a mountain of evidence stacked against him, it wouldn’t be hard to prove in court that Halsey was behind Ernesto Cata’s death. But something tells me that he isn’t lying about not having done anything to Cata. When he asks for immunity from the drug charges in exchange for a lot of colorful stories about Tom Spenser, I don’t think Leaphorn really has a choice in the matter. Punishing Halsey wouldn’t stop Spenser from hiring another man for the same job. So it won’t really solve the drug problem. And Halsey’s their only shot at ever getting their hands on the kind of evidence that’d nail Spenser.
It’s understandable that Leaphorn is frustrated. He has to grant immunity to someone who might’ve hurt a kid and has definitely hurt his girlfriend. It takes a lot of strength for Leaphorn to come around and take the deal. But even then, the path to justice proves to be harrowing one. The world seems to take this eerily tense shape around Leaphorn. It’s like he’s carrying this darkness with him. Is that what has tied him to Ye’iitsoh? Or was it Vines’ murder that brought Leaphorn close to the world of death? Ye’iitsoh seems to be drawn to death. When Suzanne describes what she experienced when she was dying, she talks about someone who sounds like the grim reaper. And if Ye’iitsoh is the reaper figure in the rez, that’d explain why he always ends up going where Leaphorn is. Leaphorn is surrounded by death. There’s almost this sense that it seeks him out. He’d gone home for the night and only came back to the station because of his argument with Emma.
In the ending of this week’s episode of Dark Winds, Leaphorn takes it too lightly when the lights go out at the station. He only realizes that something’s amiss when he hears the wind make that terrifying sound, the one that suggests that Ye’iitsoh is near. But even then, it might not have been Ye’iitsoh who breaks into the station and slices Halsey’s throat open in the lockup. It might’ve been someone Spenser sent. Maybe even Budge. Halsey had to be silenced before he could help the cops dig up any dirt against Tom Spenser. But how’d Leaphorn explain this? He’s already the unofficial prime suspect in a murder he did commit. Who’s to say he won’t be mistaken for a vigilante killer now that Halsey is found dead under inexplicable circumstances? Right under Leaphorn’s nose, that too.
