Chee desperately attempts to cheat death again while Joe and Bernie amp up their investigation.
Warning: This is an overview of Episode 203 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+.
Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Bernadette Manuelito finally arrive where we first saw them in the Season 2 premiere. Chee recovers sufficiently to lend a helping hand. Emma delivers a baby far away from the clinic, with good reason. What are we to make of this? Here are our five takeaways from “Antigonish,” Episode 203 of Dark Winds.
Takeaway No. 1
Even more suspense and excitement than usual in this episode, especially during the masterfully sustained sequence where relentless assassin Colton Wolf (Nicholas Logan) — disguised as a doctor — stalked Chee (still recovering after the last time Wolf shot him) through hallways and hiding places in the hospital. Chee barely survived, but only because a security guard passed him a pepper spray after being wounded by Wolf, who jumped out a window to escape. A nice touch: We actually got to know a little bit about the guard, and his ambition to join the FBI, during his brief conversation with Chee before the shooting started. At first, he seemed like comic relief; that he wounded up being killed while demonstrating his bravery made his death hit that much harder, for Chee and for us. By the way: Mike Deezer, the unfortunate guard, was played by Mickey Dolan, an actor who also made every second count during his brief appearance in the Netflix movie The Harder They Fall. We’ll probably be seeing more of this guy.
Takeaway No. 2
Joe and Sheriff Gordo Sena (A Martinez) launched the desert manhunt for Wolf — who, not incidentally, shot a police officer while fleeing the hospital parking lot — and Sena didn’t mince words about how dangerous their quarry might be: “This dude won’t be leaving any witnesses… Let’s bag this son of a bitch!” Later, Sena expressed his darkest fears to Joe, his longtime friend and colleague: “Last few years, life’s gotten cheap. The monsters ain’t in the shadows. They’re in broad daylight.” Joe considered this, then recalled his great uncle’s experiences during (and after) The Long Walk: “Monsters aren’t new, Gordo. And not everyone’s held to account.” The conversation brought out the best in both actors — and gave us new insight into Joe’s history and legacy.
Takeaway No. 3
Meanwhile, Bernie and Chee helped out in ways unrelated — or at least seemingly unrelated — to the manhunt. Chee drove young Benny Charley (Jet James Grant) to be with his mother following the murder of the boy’s father, and had time for an amusing/revealing conversation about their respective pasts. (Benny advised Chee to start listing his clan on his P.I. business cards.) As for Bernie, she deduced that the charred papers she and Joe found at the remote location where Joe also found his son’s rodeo-champ belt buckle were from a drilling survey of the Drumco Oil site. A survey that had been delivered by Dillon Charley (the late co-founder of the People of Darkness cult) while he was working as a courier for Drumco. A survey that calls into question why B. J. Vines (John Diehl) wanted to buy the site after the explosion that killed Joe’s son.
Takeaway No. 4
Director Michael Nankin and scripter Stephen P. Judd offered quite a few subtle touches and Easter eggs throughout this episode. When Joe arrived home to show his wife Emma (Deanna Allison) their son’s rodeo-champ belt buckle, he did so in a virtually silent scene that eloquently conveyed the loving bond between the couple. (The two of them were viewed at one point through a door frame where they had marked stages of Joe Jr.’s growth. But we weren’t crying while watching this. Well, OK, not much.) When Joe departed to check on the hospital shootout, Emma made a point to hand him his handcuffs — as if to say, “I know you want to kill this bastard, but please take him alive, for your own sake.” Later, when Wolf found temporary refuge in the secluded home of an elderly Native woman, there was a portentous shot of an axe in his yard. Yes, we expected him to use it on his benefactor. But the more time he spent with her, the more he seemed to think of his long-lost mother. (That might tie in with his employing private eyes to track down his mom.) So maybe he didn’t kill the nice Native lady after all?
Takeaway No. 5
And, once again, we’re left with questions. Like, will Emma change her mind abut cooperating with the L.A. Times reporter looking into forced sterilizations of Native women after she delivers a baby in the reservation home of patient rather than at the clinic? Have Joe and Bernie returned to the exact same place where we first saw them at the start of this year’s premiere episode? Can the selection of appropriate music on the soundtrack — everything from Beethoven’s “Für Elise” to The Five Satins’ “In the Still of the Night” — just keep getting better and better? And for the love of all that is holy, can someone please get Lt. Joe Leaphorn an ice-cold bottle of R.C. Cola?
Photos: Michael Moriatis/AMC
