Dark Winds 3

Season 3 of the tense and gritty, 1970s set drama series has just been released as a 2-disc Blu-ray set and fans of Navajo Police Officer Joe Leaphorn will be in for a real treat, as Leaphorn finds himself not only confronted with a harrowing new murder case but has to battle demons of the past…

Season 2 of the acclaimed Neo-Western Nour thriller series, which blends murder and mayhem with Navajo culture and occasional with supernatural elements, ended with a mighty cliffhanger: when Police Officer Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) finally learned the identity of the man responsible for the death of his son Benny, namely wealthy and corrupt businessman B.J. Vine (John Diehl), he took justice in his own hands and punished Vine the ‘Navajo’ way…that is to say, he drove him to the desert and left him there to perish, knowing full well that he won’t survive. Also, Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) left the Navajo Tribal Police as she felt disillusioned by the lack of justice in her role and decided to join the U.S. Border Patrol instead for a career movie and by doing so, leaving behind her rocky relationship with Leaphorn’s sidekick, Police Detective Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon).

Season 3 kicks off to the tune of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ and an injured Leaphorn is lying in the desert - it’s not clear what happened but as he looks over the edge of a rock, he finds himself confronted with a demon rising from the ground… Blimey! Back at the station, we are treated to a one-minute or so cameo by the late Robert Redford, who was executive producer of the series and it marked his very last screen appearance before his death.

Leaphorn doesn’t have much time to ponder over his mysterious encounter in the big wide open, as he and Chee are tasked with investigating the disappearance of two boys, with only a bicycle found leaning against a tree somewhere near a canyon. One of the missing boys is the son of Shorty Bowlegs (Derek Hinkey) - a dodgy character working, well, sort of, for wealthy and powerful New Mexico oil tycoon Tom Spenser (Bruce Greenwood). Meanwhile, Bernadette tries to save a native mother and her young daughter from entering a perilous journey across the Mexican border into the US, with consequences. Although her new post is certainly a career boost, it comes with much bigger dangers in tow, as she soon has to find out the hard way… However, it’s not all tough and bad as a potential new romantic interest in Border Patrol Agent Ivan Munos (Alex Meraz) lurks on the horizon.

Bernadette’s path inevitably crosses Tom Spenser, whose family dynasty has operated for generations. But with oil wells gradually running dry, Spenser has decided to boost his income by illegal means. Not only is he involved in human drug trafficking but his many oil trucks which leave New Mexico to be driven across the border into other States may not contain oil but cocaine… a suspicion which Bernadette has and thus decides to investigate further. By doing so, she opens more than a can of worms and soon finds herself in danger.

Leaphorn gets drawn into the investigations but soon finds himself under investigation, namely when two native kids, out playing in the desert, find the remains of B.J. Vine… Enter FBI Special Agent Sylvia Washington (Jenna Elfman), who is dispatched to look a little deeper into the baffling mystery surrounding Vine’s demise, such as in, how did he end up in the desert in the first place? It goes without saying that her probing makes Leaphorn increasingly nervous, not least because until now, he never confessed his ‘act of justice’ to his devoted wife Emma (Deanna Allison) but when she hears on the radio that Vine’s remains have been found, Leaphorn decides to come clean, and she is anything but pleased. Things take a tumble for the worse when Special Agent Washington brings in an eyewitness who remembers having seen a vehicle driving towards the desert several years ago, on the very day Vine had disappeared. Too dark to make out drive or potential passenger, but said eyewitness remembers the vehicle was a vintage GMC Suburban, as driven by Leaphorn. His is the only GMC Suburban registered in the area, as Washington soon find out… Oh dear! This only adds to Leaphorn’s increasingly fragile state of mind who seems to see entire armies of ants crawling everywhere. They’re not really there but are part of his hallucinations, stemming from his guilt of having left Vines to die in the desert.

When the body of one of the missing boys is found, the question is: what happened to the other one? Chee has now joined the investigation full throttle and he and Leaphorn encounter a remote ranch, lead by one Michael Halsey (Phil Burke) and his ‘disciples’…hippies and dropouts. Leaphorn wonders whether the missing boys may have come across the farm. Halsey reassures him that his farm is merely a chilli farm but why do some of the other ‘farmers’ look so high? In particular Halsey’s squeeze Suzanne (Casimere Jolette). Leaphorn suspects something is wrong but can’t prove it.
Jim Chee decides to drive over 400 miles for a surprise visit, not able to forget about Bernadette. It’s a surprise visit alright, because in a diner where he and Bernadette are having dinner, Ivan turns up out of the blue and Chee senses straight away that something’s going on between the two. Later that night, after Bernadette invited Chee to crash out on her settee, so he doesn’t have to drive back over six hours to his place, she makes her emotions clear by explaining that before she decides to move away to join the Border Patrol, there were many chances to makes their relationship work and it didn’t work, leaving Chee crushed.

Meanwhile, in the dark of night, Leaphorn secretly meets with Suzanna who spills the beans on Halsey and admits that the ranch peddles in cocaine smuggling and that he’s in cahoots with Tom Spenser. After an action-laden arrest, Halsey ends up in a prison cell when the light begins to flicker. This, too, is a reccurring theme in Season 3, just like the strange stone spear heads which seem to come out of the mouths of some people. Of course, it looks like supernatural forces are at work. When the lights go dark in Leaphorn’s office and he temporarily leaves the room to get the fuse fixed, Halsey’s screams can suddenly be heard from inside his locked cell. When Leaphorn hurries back, he finds himself confronted with Halsey, who had been savagely attacked with his throat ripped open! The stage is set for a nail-biting case which pushes both Leaphorn but also Bernadette on the brink of insanity…

This is as good as it gets and Zahn McClarnon and his fine supporting cast are in top form. Can’t wait for Season 4!