‘Dark Winds’ Just Dropped a Huge Twist About What the Monster Really Is
Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Dark Winds Season 3 Episode 6.Throughout Season 3 of the AMC+ hit show Dark Winds, showrunner Graham Roland has been teasing the true nature of the monster plaguing Sheriff Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McLarnon). The ancient Navajo legend of the Ye’iitsoh monster symbolized different things as the season progressed, but it turns out that the mythical monster was a metaphor for something far more sinister and gutwrenching than any of us believed. The audience had been led to believe that the entity haunting Leaphorn was a version of the ancient Navajo monster known as Ye’iitsoh that had tormented the Diné people of the region for centuries. There were also theories abounding that it was Joe’s underlying guilt over what he did to BJ Vines (John Diehl) at the end of Season 2 that was giving him nightmarish visions threatening to ruin his long marriage to Emma (Deanna Taushi Allison) and drive him insane. As the episodes piled up through Season 3, and the tension building within Joe just kept ratcheting up, it should have been clear that what had been tormenting the troubled sheriff was something far more serious with lasting repercussions.
What Was the Monster in Season 3 of ‘Dark Winds’?
It wasn’t a man-eating legend or Joe’s guilt over what he did to BJ Vines at the end of Season 2. Instead, it was the anger and sorrow he had been harboring for decades over the trauma of witnessing the local priest abusing his cousin and other Navajo children back when he was just a boy at boarding school. Director Erica Tremblay delivers a stunning, David Lynchian, dreamlike episode to tell the story. It’s a tragic twist that no one saw coming. The hooded creature that the viewer sees in the first scene of the season proves to be nothing more than a hooded man who, after a scuffle with a drugged and dazed Leaphorn, is wounded by the sheriff’s shot to his right shoulder. His true identity has yet to be revealed as he escapes into the desert, Leaphorn too dazed and exhausted to give chase.
The third season of Dark Winds has required so much more of McLarnon as a performer. He has been playing Leaphorn with far more subtext than ever before because of this inner turmoil that is wreaking havoc on all of his relationships. It has been a pleasure watching the actor dig deep within himself and show some vulnerability to a character that is typically firmly in control of his emotions and the situation as a sheriff. Seeing him skirt the line between the man in charge and the man who may be arrested at any moment has brought out the very best in McLarnon.
Related
The series stars Zahn McClarnon.
This Is Why Leaphorn Has Been Struggling So Much This Season
Leaphorn’s conversation with his father, as he is addled by the drugged dart to his neck, makes everything clear about why Joe has been struggling so mightily this season. It was the weight of something that he had repressed because the pain and guilt were overwhelming. He has unconsciously been carrying the enormous burden of the repressed memory of his cousin and all the other Navajo children being abused and feeling like he should have done something about it. Of course, he was just a boy himself, and his father tried to make him understand as much. Still, Leaphorn, being the man that he is, has struggled with his failure to right the wrong over the years.
But even though Leaphorn may have gotten to the bottom of one problem, he still has to reckon with FBI agent Sylvia Washington (Jenna Elfman), who is relentlessly investigating the disappearance and murder of Vines. She is tightening the noose around Joe’s neck as she continues to chisel away at him. She is all but convinced that Joe is responsible, having gotten a search warrant for his house and continually questioning him about it. The final two episodes will be engrossing to see if Agent Washington arrests the Navajo Nation sheriff and what that will mean for Dark Winds moving forward.
