Season four of Dark Winds hits a crescendo as our setting moves from the vast Albuquerque landscape, to the concrete jungle of Los Angeles as Joe, Jim and Bernadette search of Billie. But each are met with formidable threats they did not anticipate.
Our episode opens with our assassin, who we learn is named Irene. She’s seen surveilling a home in the Hollywood hills before breaking and entering to retrieve a file as the homeowner arrives. After subduing the male victim, she orchestrates his death to appear as a suicide; just before he dies, he swears he will see someone named McNair in hell.
Our next scene finds our three Navajo officers treading on foreign land. With no real clues to begin their search, they head to the Indian Center. However, the Angeleno Native Indian community is no help in finding the young girl. Their investigation hits another road block as Jim, soured by Bernadette and Joe’s secrets, goes rogue.
While Jim may be hurt by what he views as a betrayal, he’s also still struggling with the ghost-sickness. He suffers flashbacks as a youth when he and his mother first arrived in LA. To bury these feelings, the young deputy assumes a fake identity, befriends an alleged associate of Leroy’s and gets invited to a party to meet up with the elusive figure.
Meanwhile, Joe has contacted Emma. The two agree to lunch at 1 p.m. While both are happy to see each other, the date is cut short as Emma is called back to the hospital.
We return to Irene, learning a lot more about the German hit woman. Following her home, we see she is the caregiver of her ailing grandfather suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia. This bit of information almost humanizes the lethal killer. We also meet the man she works for — the previously mentioned McNair, played by Titus Welliver. He chastises her for Albert’s death — a mistake in the pursuit of Leroy — and tells her Billie must be dealt with before his pending trial.
That night, our three officers rendezvous at the party. Joe is on lookout, while Bern gives Jim an hour to infiltrate. The party is clearly a front for sex trafficking, with young women mingling with potential clients. Chee meets his connect, Sonny Bearheart, who remains coy about Leroy’s location. Instead, he offers Jim party favors, which send the officer spiraling. Rushing to the bathroom to vomit, Jim hallucinates his body retching blood. He comes to with Bernadette aiding him out of the venue. Meanwhile, Billie has arrived at the party, questioning if anyone has seen Leroy. A young woman warns Billie that she shouldn’t be there and to keep her distance from the woman in the green van.
Joe viewing from an adjacent rooftop is interrupted when he sees a camera in another building recording the scene. Going to investigate, he’s ambushed by two men.
This episode was solid, with our standout moments coming from Kiowa Gordon’s performance as Chee. We’ve never seen the young officer this vulnerable before. Other than his feelings for Bernadette and his pursuit for justice, he has remained a stoic figure. Revealing his complicated feelings with his past is intriguing. Learning more about Irene was also interesting. The assassin-for-hire has a past as well — one that unfortunately haunts her with her grandfather’s state of mind. Tremendous kudos for the show banking the late Udo Kier for such an unexpected cameo. While it remains unclear how all these factors — Welliver, Irene, the club and Leroy — intersect, the journey has been quite fun.
Rating: 7.5/10