Dark Winds Season 3 Finally Did Justice To 1 Character It’s Been Undermining All Season
After shortchanging her character all season, Dark Winds season 3 finally did justice to Emma Leaphorn (Deanna Allison) with one specific scene. The last few episodes of Dark Winds season 3 have made it clear that while Agent Washington (Jenna Elfman) doesn’t have enough to hang Joe (Zahn McClarnon) – yet – she’s getting awfully close. She knows Joe did it, and Joe knows she knows he did it, but as the audience, we know that all the evidence the FBI agent has so far is circumstantial. It’s not enough to make any charges stick.
That’s why she’s been buttering up Emma all season, coming to her with a friendly smile and faux sympathy, feigning hurt over what she has to do because she knows how it will devastate Emma. At first, it seemed as though Washington really did sympathize with Emma’s plight, but the last few episodes have shown her true colors to the audience: it’s all an act meant to get Emma to trust her, trust her enough to give her the piece of incriminating evidence she finally needs to arrest Joe for B.J. Vine’s murder. Unfortunately for Agent Washington, it turns out that Emma Leaphorn has been able to see what we see, and it opened the door for her best scene of the season in Dark Winds season 3, episode 7.
Dark Winds Season 3 Episode 7 Proved Emma Shouldn’t Be Underestimated
She Turned The Tables On Agent Washington
In Dark Winds season 3, episode 7’s most intense scene, Emma and Agent Washington square off. A moment that is initially framed as pivotal, in which it seems that a broken Emma can’t bear the guilt and will confess the truth about Joe to Agent Washington, is brilliantly flipped. She walks out after not giving Washington what she wants, having saved her estranged husband and kept her own sense of morality intact. It’s clear Emma knows how she’s viewed by the FBI agent, and perhaps the world at large, and she uses it to her advantage.
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Emma uses her vulnerability to lay a trap for Agent Washington, lulling the overambitious federal agent into a false sense of confidence before springing it on her. Emma Leaphorn may be gentle by nature, but she has teeth, and she shows them to Agent Washington when she looks directly at the agent, hardened resolve showing through her tears, and says, “Yes. He was.” to the agent’s statement that Joe wasn’t with Emma all night on the night of B.J. Vines’ disappearance. Washington’s face is a mix of frustration, ruefulness, and – perhaps – grudging respect. She’s been played, and she knows it.
Like others in Emma’s life, Washington made the mistake of confusing Emma’s gentleness for weakness, but Joe’s wife is not one easily pushed around.
Like others in Emma’s life, Washington made the mistake of confusing Emma’s gentleness for weakness, but Joe’s wife is not one easily pushed around – not by her husband, and certainly not by a nosy white woman coming down from D.C. to advance her career at the expense of their lives. Emma has a moral code, but that moral code extends to protecting her people, just like her husband. In her mind, the greater good is not allowing this FBI agent who doesn’t give a damn about their Navajo community to rip open its old wounds, even if her husband’s actions have also destroyed Emma and Joe’s marriage in Dark Winds.
Emma Proves She’s As Strong As Joe, Just In A Different Way
She Allows Herself To Feel, Unlike Joe, Who Doesn’t Let Himself Feel At All
The scene underscores something that has gotten lost in the shuffle of Joe’s haunting Ye’iitsoh storyline in Dark Winds season 3: Emma is just as resilient and strong as her husband, she just goes about it in a different way. In fact, one could argue that she’s even stronger. Emma had been just as devastated and heartbroken about losing their son, J.J., and it ripped her open all over again when B.J. Vines was revealed as his killer and again when his body was found, just like it did to Joe. But, unlike her husband, Emma chooses not to let her vengeance consume her.
It’s easy to allow the worst, most primal parts of one’s nature to have free rein, which is exactly what Joe did when he drove B.J. Vines into the desert and left him to die at the end of Dark Winds season 2. As Emma revealed to Agent Washington, she was just as furious, full of just as much rage and need for revenge as her husband. But unlike Joe, she didn’t allow it to control her, instead turning to her Navajo spiritual beliefs to work through the grief in a healthy, holistic way.
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It’s not that she isn’t still grieving, but she’s not frozen in a time capsule at the moment of J.J.’s death in the way Joe is. He’s refused to move from his grief. He’s refused to live, whereas Emma has accepted that life demands we keep on living, even when part of us has died. Allowing oneself to feel the grief while still continuing to live takes a lot more strength than refusing to feel the grief at all, which is what Joe is doing. As Emma herself says, Joe has been weak, and she blames him for not finding the same inner strength she did when she needed him most.
Dark Winds Season 3 Needed To Redeem Emma’s Arc
She’s Been Underutilized In A Season Where She Could Have Shone
The masterful scene between Emma and Agent Washington was long overdue. Dark Winds season 3 has sidelined Emma, sharply reducing her screen time in the first few episodes and then only allowing her to exist in relation to Joe’s actions; her entire storyline has revolved entirely around her husband. Unfortunately, Emma has simply been collateral damage from Joe’s decision with B.J. Vines. It’s especially disappointing seeing her great storyline in season 2, which gave her agency and an independent narrative arc of her own.
The verbal dance between her and Agent Washington finally reminded viewers that there is so much more to Emma Leaphorn than meets the eye, and it’s a real shame that Dark Winds hasn’t explored her in more depth as a character.
The verbal dance between her and Agent Washington finally reminded viewers that there is so much more to Emma Leaphorn than meets the eye, and it’s a real shame that Dark Winds hasn’t explored her in more depth as a character. In particular, her Navajo spiritual beliefs and practices could have really been effective this season had they been dug into more deeply, considering what Joe is going through. As her final scene of the episode involved her leaving Joe and driving away, it’s unlikely she’ll return in the final episode of the season. If she doesn’t return for Dark Winds season 4, AMC’s marquee show will be poorer for it.
