Season 4 of AMC’s Dark Winds draws inspiration from the novel by Tony Hillerman. The story opens with Lt. Joe Leaphorn standing at a crossroads. Each of the main characters has experienced significant changes, but perhaps the most notable shift is the show’s location, as a Navajo officer heads to Los Angeles in search of a missing teenager.
Dark Winds Season 4: Stream or Skip?
Opening scene: Headlights illuminate a dark road as a van drives along. Soon, it halts and someone inside grabs a gun and ammunition before it resumes its journey.
Key moments: Inside a diner, a young man gets agitated, insisting he needs to find someone. A white van rolls up, and a heavily armed woman (Franka Potente) steps out, searching for a young man. Tensions rise, leading to a shooting that claims the lives of the diner’s owner and waitress, while the young man and girl manage to escape.
“Fifteen hours ago,” Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) had been in the wilderness, enjoying nature and reflecting in a sweat lodge. While hunting deer, he encountered a buck that left a lasting impression, prompting him to remove the scope from his rifle before taking a shot.
Since his wife Emma (Deanna Allison) moved to Los Angeles, Leaphorn has struggled to come to terms with their separation, returning to an empty home filled with confusion. Meanwhile, Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten), who left her job with the Border Patrol, is involved with Navajo Sgt. Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), who tries to persuade her to return to the police force without much success.
Later, Leaphorn visits Bernadette with some of his hunting catch, also sharing his desire to retire and to hand over the team to her. Despite her absence from the force, he believes her investigative skills excel beyond Chee’s.
Leaphorn and Chee receive a call about a runaway teenager named Billy Tsosie (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) from St. Catharines, a Catholic boarding school. After checking in at the school and talking to the local store owner, he learns from the girl’s father that she might be with her cousin, a criminal named Albert Gorman (Avery Hale), heading towards California.
Following a discussion with Chee, Bernadette makes the decision to return to the Navajo Police Department, volunteering to go back to St. Catharines to gather more information from Billy’s classmates.
Which show do you recall? Much like in the earlier seasons, Dark Winds evokes memories of Longmire, with McClarnon and A. Martinez, who played Sheriff Gordo Sena, having prior collaborations in that series.
Our perspective: It feels like this season is poised for transformation. Dark Winds will showcase Leaphorn navigating cooperation with Chee while secretly managing his promotion to lieutenant. Throughout the season, he’ll grapple with whether to leave his old life behind and his chances of rekindling a relationship with Emma. Meanwhile, Bernadette aims to move past her Border Patrol experiences, while Chee faces a change in dynamics within the team. Even characters like Gordo encounter shifts, which Leaphorn witnesses during an encounter with him and his wife, Senna (Linda Hamilton), who is struggling with cognitive decline.
The three main characters will be navigating these life changes while pursuing Billy in Los Angeles. This new direction could be risky for the show’s creator, John Worth, and the writing team, but it’s intriguing to see how they’ll tackle the harsh realities of the 1970s LA underworld. They’re not inexperienced, but their challenges have less to do with Navajo mysticism and more with straightforward crime. How everything interconnects with the overarching themes of the season remains to be seen.
Standout performance: Zahn McClarnon is the show’s emotional core as Joe Leaphorn. Even amid his uncertainty about the future, McClarnon brings a tranquility to Leaphorn that resonates deeply.
Sexual content: None.
Final scene: Leaphorn and Bernadette receive updates about the diner shootout.
Noteworthy character: Irene Vagan, portrayed by Franke Potente, remains enigmatic in the initial episode. Is she a bounty hunter? A hired killer? The mystery lingers.
Most memorable line: The eerie music accompanying Leaphorn and Manuelito’s exploration of the diner will likely stick with you.
Our recommendation: Let’s opt to stream. Season four of Dark Winds presents Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito facing significant changes, creating a compelling backdrop that elevates it beyond a typical police thriller.
