“Shíká Nidanitáhą́ą́ (Those Who Were Searching For Me),” tonight’s episode of Dark Winds, almost feels like it should be watched in a double feature with last week‘s outing. Not only does it pick up immediately after that episode’s action, continuing the search for Leroy Gorman and Billie Tsosie, but it has many of the same rhythms.
This week we say goodbye to Chaske Spencer’s solid supporting work as Sonny Bear Heart, someone who tried too late to do the right thing but ended up the murder victim that his criminal enterprise probably would have led to soon anyway. As the season pushes to its endgame, Joe Leaphorn and Irene Vaggan draw closer to what feels like a deadly showdown. Now that Irene has threatened Emma, there’s no way Joe is going to let that slide.
All in all, this is a remarkably effective episode, one that reminds viewers that Dark Winds can do tense action as much as it does procedural. Some of the beats in the climax stretch credulity (would FBI agents really just stand that obviously on a rooftop?), but the show sets the board for the endgame nicely by raising the stakes. Dark Winds isn’t the kind of show to kill Emma Leaphorn in a Los Angeles parking garage. But the tension still rises when Irene Vaggan approaches her, in part because we know what she’s capable of doing but also because we know she’s obsessed with Emma’s husband.
Or course, things open right where they left off: with Jim at gunpoint. While he’s trying to talk his way out of being killed by a suspicious Sonny, who overheard him leave a message at the motel, Joe and Bern get back to their room to find that Irene has been there. Not only did she mosey around the space, she left a bug. She wants to know what they know. It’s time to get out of there. Across town, Jim admits that he’s there looking for Leroy and plays on Sonny’s emotions with the truth: Whoever killed Albert Gorman won’t hesitate to kill Sonny Bear Heart.
Bern and Joe get to the scene of Sonny’s pistol-whipping of Jim Chee and get the jump on him, turning the tables. What follows is one of Zahn McClarnon’s top moments of the year, revealing that his character is on the wrong side of this. He’s protecting a woman who “treats our elders like dolls,” referring to when Irene tried to perform a Navajo ceremony after murdering one of their most respected citizens. Sonny realizes he’s disposable and calls “McGinty,” setting in motion a set of dominoes that will lead to his death.
The best scene of the episode doesn’t actually involve the pending Irene/Joe showdown. It’s between Emma and Bern in the hall at IHS, where the nurse has been working to patch up Jim and lower the fever that might be attributable to “ghost sickness.” Bern is worried, and Emma knows a thing or two about feeling that way about a partner who’s a cop. But she also wants Bern to stand up for herself, saying, “Don’t let other people decide what you deserve.” Hell yeah. Both performers are great, but it’s the writing that sings. Bern asks, “What about his dreams?” Emma’s response is wonderfully true: “If he wants you, he’ll want your dreams just as much as his.”
Irene finally answers Sonny’s call, and the bait appears to have worked, although the FBI rushes into the ensuing scene like they’re practicing for Heat 2. Guns drawn, climbing a fire escape in broad daylight, hanging out on the roof like they want to be seen: They’re not very good at this. Of course, Irene is on another rooftop and she sees the cops, knowing it’s a setup. Instead of targeting Joe, she takes out doomed Sonny. Joe rushes to the rooftop from which she fired, and she’s gone. That went about as poorly as possible, although she did leave her van.
As Joe and the G-men are investigating the van to figure out Irene’s next move, she’s already made it. After Emma helps Jim through his latest bout of ghost sickness, one in which he actually sees the dying face of his mother in the road, finally pulling back the blanket, she’s in the parking garage when she’s approached by our German psychopath. “What does he see in you?” she asks. Emma answers by slashing Irene’s face with her keys. That’s at least part of what Joe sees: toughness. Irene’s response is chilling: “You abandoned him. You deserve to die.”
Interestingly, Irene doesn’t take Emma Leaphorn, almost leaving her as a warning of what could happen if Joe keeps coming after her. Emma and Joe hug as she cries. Could this be what pushes her back to Arizona?
Stray observations
- • Irene takes Udo Kier’s Gunthar to an elderly home, where the slimy agent says that an ocean view room will be $550 a month. If you’re curious what that amount in 1972 translates to today, it’s roughly $4,300. Wowza. No wonder Irene is a mercenary for hire.
- • Speaking of the late, great Kier, one hopes he gets more to do in the final episodes, even if his character’s excellent bit about cats being killers feels almost improvised by the eccentric performer.
- • On the note of guest stars, remember when Linda Hamilton appeared as Gordo’s wife in the season premiere? That can’t be it for her, right? Maybe they’re setting her up for season five. I hope we get more Gordo next year too.
- • The relatively Gordo-less season has me wondering again if the show has lost some of its identity by leaving the Four Corners for Los Angeles? The road trip has been fun, but let’s get home next week.
- “Doctor My Eyes” by Jackson Browne plays while Sonny is beating the truth out of Jim Chee, and, once again, it’s more than just a period-accurate needle drop. The Sonny/Joe/Jim exchanges this episode are about revealing the truth to Sonny, and that’s what the song is about with lines like “Doctor, my eyes / Tell me what you see / I hear their cries / Just say if it’s too late for me.” It was too late for Sonny. Hopefully it won’t be for anyone else this season.
Brian Tallerico is a contributor to The A.V. Club.
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