Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) should be at peace. As a Navajo tribal police officer, he’s sworn to uphold the law. As a husband and a father, he’s gone outside the law to get revenge for the death of his son. That journey spanned the first three seasons of Dark Winds; it also took him to places that left him changed forever.
So when season four sees him out in the wild and taking time in a sweat lodge, for a moment, it seems like he might have already found a way to leave his troubles behind. Then he goes hunting, where it’s clear he’s far from his old, assured self. With his wife Emma (Deanna Allison) still out of the picture, things aren’t any more settled for him at home.
We already know his work life isn’t about to get any easier. The season kicks off with a glimpse into the immediate future, where a nearby diner becomes the scene of a bloody gun battle. Two people were shot, but both the intended target and the shooter (Franka Potente) escaped and are on the run. It’s a serious case with serious ramifications; with what we’ve seen of Leaphorn, is he in any state to take it on?
We’re all used to watching cops with troubled personal lives put their issues aside to take on a big case. What sets Leaphorn and Dark Winds apart is the way his personal and professional sides are intertwined. There’s always been more to him than just the job; he’s a father figure in the community, a man with a dry sense of humour and a real connection with his partners, former protégé turned Border Patrol agent Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) and Navajo Seargent Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon).
Leaphorn’s deeply held morality and strong belief in justice are central to his character, no matter where he is or who he’s dealing with. Which is why his quest for revenge for his son – a quest that required him to put aside white justice and follow a more personal path – all but tore him apart in previous seasons.
He’s gone through panic attacks, crippling guilt, and paid a visit to the spirit world (or possibly just had a hallucination that brought up some repressed knowledge; Dark Winds likes to keep some things vague). By the start of this season, he’s at a place where either he starts to pull it together, or he turns his back on police work entirely.
Dark Winds is built around McClarnon’s powerhouse performance as Leaphorn. He’s known for giving charismatic performances everywhere he goes (including Fargo and Westworld). He’s an actor able to stand out in supporting roles and move effortlessly from comedy to menace to… well, he was playing a robot in Westworld. Here, he’s compelling as a leader with quiet dignity who’s self-aware enough to keep the banter flowing in public while in private he struggles with a string of deeply personal doubts that he can’t seem to shake.
He hasn’t left that behind, but this season starts with him working on a way to move forward. It’s a path that looks certain to change things up on the reservation, in a way that not everyone will approve of. For Manuelito, it brings her back to the tribal police, where her connections with the locals make her a natural fit.
And for Chee — who, by the way, is now in a relationship with Manuelito, though you know things are never going to run smoothly for those two — it’s going to raise a few questions. For one, why is it that Leaphorn can persuade her to come back to the force with one conversation when all his efforts to get her to return have fallen on deaf ears?
All three of them are going to have to work together if they’re going to figure out exactly who was behind the diner shooting and why. Initially, they’re just looking for a runaway teen who’s fled a Catholic boarding school to hang out with her criminal cousin. All signs point to them heading to California; that might have been the end of the investigation if bullets hadn’t started flying at the diner.
Now the trio are taking a risk by leaving the rez and heading for Los Angeles. For Leaphorn, there’s a personal side to the journey. When she left him, Emma moved to LA, and he’s still hoping there’s a chance they can make it work. But it’s the 1970s; the City of Angels has never been rougher or dirtier, and every piece of evidence they uncover makes the situation look worse. The missing girl is in the sights of a remorseless killer with a connection to organised crime, and the clock is ticking if they want any chance of finding her alive.
Leaphorn’s been through a lot over the years. LA is about to push him to the limit.
All four seasons of Dark Winds are now streaming at SBS On Demand.
