Dark Winds gets to the work of investigating in a slightly padded outing
You can find wisdom in the strangest places in L.A.
Photo: Michael Moriatis/AMC
As truly fun as it is to watch Joe Leaphorn do actual detective work, tonight’s episode of Dark Winds, “Atída’ahiilyaágíí (Those Who Harmed One Another),” is the first one that made me wonder if this season is too long. The first two batches of the show were six episodes each, and the production expanded to eight installments for seasons three and four. While it’s hard to have “too much” Joe Leaphorn, Bernadette Manuelito, and Jim Chee, this chapter shows signs of repetition. Part of that could be due to the fact that a show that gains so much of its identity from its unique setting is spending a lot of time away from its Navajo home this year. This season should play like a tense cat and mouse, and the extra 90 minutes threaten to water down the suspense. Luckily, they haven’t yet.
The most interesting stuff this week centers on assassin Irene Vaggan’s obsession with Joe, who seems almost invigorated by getting his ass kicked in the prologue by a couple of useless FBI agents. They warn Joe to go back to Arizona, which is itself a bit of a theme this season in that Irene also told him to walk away. Joe Leaphorn is the kind of guy who doesn’t leave before a job is done, and he’ll only dig in more if you try to push him away.
There’s another tender scene between McClarnon and Deanna Allison when his character ends up at IHS after the rib-kicking given to him by an agent named Frank Welles (Micah McNeil, doing a lot with a great mustache). Emma moved 600 miles from home, but she’s still patching up her husband, who’s too stubborn to get an X-ray. When she points that out, he relents to the radiation, perhaps a sign that he’s softening enough for her to come home.
When Jim Chee connects the dots from the antacid-popping G-man to someone he worked with when he was in the FBI, our three heroes go to the government to figure out what they know. At first, Welles & co. seem to be blowing off Leaphorn, but it becomes clear that they both have information that can save lives. Welles reveals what I guessed last week: A crime lord named McNair, who is awaiting trial, has hired Irene to take out potential witnesses, and Albert Gorman was one of them. While the FBI confirms stuff I kinda already knew, Joe tells them about Irene, a killer in a green van who Welles thinks may have knocked off one of his colleagues the other night (that was the murder that opened the last episode with the Manson-esque spray paint on the wall). It’s so fun to watch the trio doing legit investigative work like asking to see photos and determining known associates, although it’s a bit manufactured that the FBI would be so protective. It’s clear that the Navajo PD is closer to solving the case than they are.
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