Zahn McClarnon returns as Lt. Joe Leaphorn in the AMC series based on novels by Tony Hillerman.
Warning: This is an overview of the Season 2 premiere episode of Dark Winds, so there will be scads of spoilers here. We strongly recommend that you not read this if you have not yet watched the episode on AMC or AMC+.
Joe Leaphorn investigates the death of a man involved in a mysterious cult, while Jim Chee, employed as a private investigator, works a case of his own. Meanwhile, Sgt. Bernadette Manuelito deals with a “hemp head” who claims to have been attacked by extraterrestrials. What are we to make of this? Here are our five takeaways from “Na’ni?kaadii,” Episode 201 Episode 101 of Dark Winds.
Takeaway No. 1
Season 2 starts out with a bang — several bangs, actually — as Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Bernadette Manuelito arrive at an isolated trailer home, intending to arrest a suspect, only to become the target of their target. From a vantage point outside, the suspect — Colton Wolf (Nicholas Logan), making a genuinely scary entrance — sprays the trailer with his assault weapon, pinning down the Navajo Police officers until we cut to a title card: “Six Days Ago.” The scene isn’t quite as spectacular as the armored-car robbery that kicked off the first episode of Season One, but it’s terrifically effective with its neo-noir visuals, setting us up for another drama set in the 1971 Navajo Nation that involves evil forces both earthly and (possibly) supernatural.
Takeaway No. 2
And we have an even bigger bang once the drama begins in earnest, as an aged cancer patient is killed just outside of a hospital when his truck explodes. Sheriff Gordo Sena — hello there, A Martinez! — assumes it was an accident, caused by a gas leak. But it doesn’t take Leaphorn very long to deduct that a bomb was wired to go off once the victim turned the ignition key. Right away, naturally, we have to wonder: Did that Colton Wolf guy have anything to do with this? In any event, Leaphorn’s interest in the crime is intensified by collateral damage: His nurse wife Emma (Deanna Allsion), who was standing inside the hospital while checking on a patient, was slightly injured by the blast. Nothing too serious, mind you, but Emma insists that she and Leaphorn conduct some sort of ceremony at their home to ward off bad mojo. “It’s not normal for us to be around so much death and violence,” she tells her husband. Hey, did she already forget what happened in Season 1?
Takeaway No. 3
Meanwhile, Manuelito deals with ne’er-do-well Steve Begaye (Jarrett Hogner), a mild-and-hazy “hemp head” who claims he was attacked by an extraterrestrial mutant in the form of a large sheep with twisted horns. Much to her surprise, Manuelito finds that, hey, there really is such a beast roaming around the countryside. But she doesn’t see any signs of it being an otherworldly creature. At least, not yet. Just to be on the safe side, though, she locks the animal in a police station cell.
Takeaway No. 4
Jim Chee is back in town, and he’s still a spiffy dresser. (Check out the size of his ‘70s-fashion shirt collar.) No longer an FBI agent or a Navajo Police officer, he’s now a private investigator, hired by Rosemary Vines (Jeri Ryan) — obviously the wife of B.J. Vines (John Diehl), introduced last season as the investor who bought the drill site where Leaphorn’s son was killed in another explosion. Mrs. Vines, a slinky femme fatale type who relies on a portable oxygen tank to ease her breathing, claims a box was pilfered from the safe in their well-appointed home by a burglar she identifies as Thomas Charlie (Robert I. Mesa) — who just happens to be the son of the fellow killed in the truck explosion. According to her, members of the Charlie family were involved with People of Darkness, a religious cult that her husband used to fund, until he stopped. Maybe the box was stolen in revenge? That’s Mrs. Vines’ story, and she’s sticking with it. She won’t tell Chee anything about the contents of the box. But she does offer him a hefty wad of dough to retrieve it, no questions asked.
Takeaway No. 5
Of course, Chee and Leaphorn find their two cases — the truck bombing and the pilfered box — are connected, and they follow a trail that leads them to a remote area where the box and its contents apparently were dumped into a ceremonial fire. Leaphorn digs through the ashes, and is shocked to discover a rodeo champ belt buckle that his son was wearing on the day he was killed in the drill site explosion. But before he and Chee can discuss in detail the ramifications of this discovery, they’re shot at by — yes, you guessed it! — Colton Wolf, not long after Wolf fatally shot a private investigator who was perhaps too good at his job. Chee is wounded, Wolf drives off — but not before blowing up the police car Leaphorn and Chee drove to the scene — and we’re left to wonder how Leaphorn will be able to transport Chee to where he can get medical attention.
Photography: Michael Moriatis/AMC
