Dark Winds Season 3 Episode 7 Continued One Of The Season’s Best Running Jokes
There’s generally not a lot of humor in Dark Winds, but Gordo says something in the most recent episode that confirms a subtle, long-running joke that’s been going on all season. A Martinez’s Gordo was a newcomer in season 2, but he’s been one of the best characters in Dark Winds season 3’s cast. Throughout Joe’s (Zahn McClarnon) extended dark night of the soul, Gordo has shown himself to be a true ride-or-die friend who keeps Joe’s secrets and has his back.
As they’ve worked together for the past two seasons, Joe and Gordo have grown to respect each other as colleagues and, in Dark Winds season 3, as friends. They make a good team; Gordo’s dependability and pragmatic nature are a good support for Joe’s more intuitive and instinctive brand of police work. That contrast in style has quietly been threaded throughout the season in a subtly humorous way, which Dark Winds season 3, episode 7 more directly addresses.
Gordo Tells Joe He “Wins” In Dark Winds Season 3, Episode 7
He Couldn’t Even Get Shot In A Normal Way
Early in the Dark Winds episode, Joe wakes up in the hospital, and Gordo comes to visit him. As the county sheriff steps into the hospital room, he greets Joe with, “Well, this finally settles it. You win. You couldn’t even get shot at with something normal, could you? Had to get hit with a damn ketamine dart.” He holds up the bag, showing Joe that he was hit with a horse tranquilizer, which is why Joe had such vivid hallucinations out in the desert. It’s a quick line that explains those hallucinations and why Joe was so out of it, but it also cleverly references and puts to bed a quiet competition that’s been going on all season.
Joe Has Accidentally Shown Gordo Up All Through Dark Winds Season 3
It’s Been A Dryly Funny Throughline
All throughout Dark Winds season 3, Joe has been accidentally showing Gordo up as an investigator. There have been multiple moments in Dark Winds season 3 where Gordo misses a piece of evidence at a crime scene that Joe spots, or when Gordo’s theories are immediately killed by a bit of information or logic Joe imparts. While Joe hasn’t noticed it, Gordo has commented on Joe’s discoveries every time, annoyed that he didn’t catch them himself.
It’s not been an intentional competition; Joe isn’t purposely trying to get one up on Joe or prove he’s better than the county sheriff when they work a crime scene together. A few times, Gordo has given Joe an annoyed look, but he also doesn’t take it personally. It seems like he knows he’s slipping as he ages, which is one of the reasons he plans to retire.
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And Gordo seems to know that, for as dependable and solid as he’s been as the Scarborough County sheriff, Joe is and has always been the better cop. He sees things Gordo doesn’t and his gut instinct is one that Gordo has learned to trust. Of the two of them, he knows Joe has an innate ability to get to the heart of a case in a way he doesn’t. He even says as much after he mentions that Joe’s adversary dosed him with horse tranquilizer. “Guess he didn’t know what kind of thoroughbred he was trying to put down,” he dryly remarks. It’s one of the many reasons the two have so much respect for each other in Dark Winds, and why their dynamic is one of the best parts of the show.
