{"id":554961,"date":"2026-03-23T08:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554961\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:46:09","slug":"dark-winds-recap-season-4-episode-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554961\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Winds recap: season 4, episode 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSh\u00edk\u00e1 Nidanit\u00e1h\u0105\u0301\u0105\u0301 (Those Who Were Searching For Me),\u201d tonight\u2019s episode of Dark Winds, almost feels like it should be watched in a double feature with last week<\/a>\u2018s outing. Not only does it pick up immediately after that episode\u2019s action, continuing the search for Leroy Gorman and Billie Tsosie, but it has many of the same rhythms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week we say goodbye to Chaske Spencer\u2019s solid supporting work as Sonny Bear Heart, someone who tried too late to do the right thing but ended up the murder victim that his criminal enterprise probably would have led to soon anyway. As the season pushes to its endgame, Joe Leaphorn and Irene Vaggan draw closer to what feels like a deadly showdown. Now that Irene has threatened Emma, there\u2019s no way Joe is going to let that slide.<\/p>\n

All in all, this is a remarkably effective episode, one that reminds viewers that Dark Winds can do tense action as much as it does procedural. Some of the beats in the climax stretch credulity (would FBI agents really just stand that obviously on a rooftop?), but the show sets the board for the endgame nicely by raising the stakes. Dark Winds isn\u2019t the kind of show to kill Emma Leaphorn in a Los Angeles parking garage. But the tension still rises when Irene Vaggan approaches her, in part because we know what she\u2019s capable of doing but also because we know she\u2019s obsessed with Emma\u2019s husband.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or course, things open right where they left off: with Jim at gunpoint. While he\u2019s trying to talk his way out of being killed by a suspicious Sonny, who overheard him leave a message at the motel, Joe and Bern get back to their room to find that Irene has been there. Not only did she mosey around the space, she left a bug. She wants to know what they know. It\u2019s time to get out of there. Across town, Jim admits that he\u2019s there looking for Leroy and plays on Sonny\u2019s emotions with the truth: Whoever killed Albert Gorman won\u2019t hesitate to kill Sonny Bear Heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bern and Joe get to the scene of Sonny\u2019s pistol-whipping of Jim Chee and get the jump on him, turning the tables. What follows is one of Zahn McClarnon\u2019s top moments of the year, revealing that his character is on the wrong side of this. He\u2019s protecting a woman who \u201ctreats our elders like dolls,\u201d referring to when Irene tried to perform a Navajo ceremony after murdering one of their most respected citizens. Sonny realizes he\u2019s disposable and calls \u201cMcGinty,\u201d setting in motion a set of dominoes that will lead to his death.<\/p>\n

The best scene of the episode doesn\u2019t actually involve the pending Irene\/Joe showdown. It\u2019s between Emma and Bern in the hall at IHS, where the nurse has been working to patch up Jim and lower the fever that might be attributable to \u201cghost sickness.\u201d Bern is worried, and Emma knows a thing or two about feeling that way about a partner who\u2019s a cop. But she also wants Bern to stand up for herself, saying, \u201cDon\u2019t let other people decide what you deserve.\u201d Hell yeah. Both performers are great, but it\u2019s the writing that sings. Bern asks, \u201cWhat about his dreams?\u201d Emma\u2019s response is wonderfully true: \u201cIf he wants you, he\u2019ll want your dreams just as much as his.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Irene finally answers Sonny\u2019s call, and the bait appears to have worked, although the FBI rushes into the ensuing scene like they\u2019re practicing for Heat 2. Guns drawn, climbing a fire escape in broad daylight, hanging out on the roof like they want to be seen: They\u2019re not very good at this. Of course, Irene is on another rooftop and she sees the cops, knowing it\u2019s a setup. Instead of targeting Joe, she takes out doomed Sonny. Joe rushes to the rooftop from which she fired, and she\u2019s gone. That went about as poorly as possible, although she did leave her van.<\/p>\n

As Joe and the G-men are investigating the van to figure out Irene\u2019s next move, she\u2019s already made it. After Emma helps Jim through his latest bout of ghost sickness, one in which he actually sees the dying face of his mother in the road, finally pulling back the blanket, she\u2019s in the parking garage when she\u2019s approached by our German psychopath. \u201cWhat does he see in you?\u201d she asks. Emma answers by slashing Irene\u2019s face with her keys. That\u2019s at least part of what Joe sees: toughness. Irene\u2019s response is chilling: \u201cYou abandoned him. You deserve to die.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Irene doesn\u2019t take Emma Leaphorn, almost leaving her as a warning of what could happen if Joe keeps coming after her. Emma and Joe hug as she cries. Could this be what pushes her back to Arizona?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stray observations<\/p>\n

\u2022 Irene takes Udo Kier\u2019s Gunthar to an elderly home, where the slimy agent says that an ocean view room will be $550 a month. If you\u2019re curious what that amount in 1972 translates to today, it\u2019s roughly $4,300. Wowza. No wonder Irene is a mercenary for hire.
\n\u2022 Speaking of the late, great Kier, one hopes he gets more to do in the final episodes, even if his character\u2019s excellent bit about cats being killers feels almost improvised by the eccentric performer.
\n\u2022 On the note of guest stars, remember when Linda Hamilton appeared as Gordo\u2019s wife in the season premiere<\/a>? That can\u2019t be it for her, right? Maybe they\u2019re setting her up for season five. I hope we get more Gordo next year too.
\n\u2022 The relatively Gordo-less season has me wondering again if the show has lost some of its identity by leaving the Four Corners for Los Angeles? The road trip has been fun, but let\u2019s get home next week.
\n\u201cDoctor My Eyes\u201d by Jackson Browne plays while Sonny is beating the truth out of Jim Chee, and, once again, it\u2019s more than just a period-accurate needle drop. The Sonny\/Joe\/Jim exchanges this episode are about revealing the truth to Sonny, and that\u2019s what the song is about with lines like \u201cDoctor, my eyes \/ Tell me what you see \/ I hear their cries \/ Just say if it\u2019s too late for me.\u201d It was too late for Sonny. Hopefully it won\u2019t be for anyone else this season.<\/p>\n

Brian Tallerico is a contributor to The A.V. Club.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSh\u00edk\u00e1 Nidanit\u00e1h\u0105\u0301\u0105\u0301 (Those Who Were Searching For Me),\u201d tonight\u2019s episode of Dark Winds, almost feels like it should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-554961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}