Dark Winds season 3 episode 2 opens with Budge Baca (Raoul Max Trujillo) driving in a truck with a man who has Bernadette’s gun. He tells Baca he stole the gun while chasing the girls by the river. They drive up to a site overlooking a small ravine where there is heavy equipment. Baca turns on the man, smothering him with a plastic bag.
When the man passes out, Baca pushes the truck into the ravine. He starts up an excavator and starts to dump massive loads of dirt to fill in the ravine and bury the truck and the man.
An ominous start. Read on for a recap of the rest of Dark Winds season 3 episode 2.
Sacred objects
Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) sits at his dining table going over Ernesto Cata’s file. He’s deeply troubled. Emma (Deanna Allison) tells him he doesn’t have to be the one to solve everything, but he brushes her off. Joe leaves to go to the coroner’s office to get Cata’s autopsy results.
When he pulls back the sheet on Cata’s body, just for a moment he sees the frozen face of B.J. Vines (John Diehl) and gets spooked, but Gordo Sena (A Martinez) arrives and Joe is all business again.
Sena tells him the murder weapon was likely a small claw hammer or knife. He thinks the boys must have fought and George Bowlegs (Bodhi Okuma Linton) killed his friend. But Joe is more concerned by the arrowhead that was found in Cata’s mouth. Joe tells Sena the arrowhead is a sacred object, and no Navajo would have placed it in the mouth of a dead body. Joe is concerned whoever killed Ernesto is also after George.
Shorty’s alibi is busted
While Joe is at the coroner’s office, Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) goes to find Winford (Phil Burke), Shorty Bowleg’s (Derek Hinkey) cousin who was supposedly with him the night Cata was murdered. Winford says he wasn’t with Shorty, but that Shorty asked him to lie.
Joe goes back to the dig site where Teddi (Carly Roland) and Dr. Reynolds (Christopher Heyerdahl) are working. Dr. Reynolds helps Joe examine the arrowhead, telling him it’s a mass produced tourist trinket.
Joe drives back to the police station and finds Emma sitting outside with Agent Washington (Jenna Elfman). Emma brought Joe lunch, so they sit on the truck and eat together. Emma tells Joe she invited Sylvia to dinner, which Joe isn’t thrilled about
Bernadette seeks answers
In New Mexico, Bernadette (Jessica Matten) is continuing to track down leads. She figures out the image the little girl drew is the emblem of the Spencer Ranch. Tom Spencer (Bruce Greenwood) is a rich and powerful landowner whose oil production operation on his family’s ranch makes him one of the area’s most influential men.
She hides in the scrub overlooking the ranch taking photos, catching a white van driving in. Things go sideways when she’s surprised by a goat charging at her. A shot rings out, killing it. Spencer was hunting the goat. He introduces himself. to Bernadette and offers to escort her to look around the ranch.
On the property she questions him about the purpose of several sheds and barns, where she suspects women could be held. In a garage she sees a white van. The plates are new, but she knows it’s the van she saw because of the marks on it. Spencer is very wary of her, so she thanks him and leaves.
Back at the Border Patrol office, Bernadette’s partner Garza (Tonantzin Carmelo) cautions her about stirring up trouble with Spencer, explaining Spencer provides a third of the actionable intelligence that the Border Patrol gets.
Get Shorty
Back at the reservation, Sena, Joe and Chee go to search Shorty Bowleg’s property. In the barn they find a small hoof knife with blood on it, so they arrest Shorty.
Chee questions Shorty about his long history of arrests, but Shorty doesn’t admit to any crimes. He does get emotional when they show him Cata’s autopsy photos though. Sena interrupts to tell them the blood on the knife was from a horse. Shorty’s not the killer.
While Chee finishes up with Shorty, Agent Washington pulls Joe into her office with some questions about B.J. Vines. It doesn’t make sense to her that a man like Vines would go off by himself without any of his money. Joe tells her when she finds him she can ask him.
That night, Bernadette calls the police station hoping to talk to Joe about her case. Chee answers, and they talk briefly. When Bernadette leaves the Border Patrol office to find she’s got a flat tire. One of the other agents, Ivan Munos (Alex Meraz) helps her change it. They go to the local dive bar and play pool, drink and flirt.
The monster is real
After his shift, Chee goes back to Bowlegs’ property. He finds Shorty saddling a horse. Chee is sure he’s taking food to George. Chee manages to convince Shorty to take him to where George is hiding, in their family cabin. Chee calls Joe, who brings more horses.
In New Mexico, Bernadette is on duty at a weigh station. One of Spencer’s oil trucks comes through and she’s suspicious they are using the oil trucks to traffick women. There are two men in the cab, and one is Budge Baca. She searches the truck warily but finds nothing.
Chee, Joe and Shorty ride toward the cabin. When they get to the cabin Shorty goes in first. The horses are spooked, as sounds of a scuffle come from inside. Joe draws his gun and goes in. He finds Shorty on the ground, knocked out. Joe hears a sound and turns to find the skeletal figure he’s been seeing rush at him and knock him down. He fires his gun. Chee rushes in and finds Joe bleeding on the ground. The monster is real, and now it’s drawn blood.
New episodes of Dark Winds season 3 premiere Sundays on AMC and streaming on AMC Plus.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
