In the Dark Winds season 4 finale, Joe Leaphorn finally figured out Dominic McNair’s grand plan, and the reason why he had hired a German assassin, Irene Vaggan. A few months ago, the FBI had picked up some dirt on McNair, who was allegedly involved in some illegal activities. And during the course of the investigation, Special Agent Ken Upchurch came across one of McNair’s employees, Leroy Gorman, who agreed to testify against McNair in court. However, McNair got wind of the FBI’s investigation and brought in Vaggan to tie up the loose ends. Vaggan killed Leroy Gorman and replaced him with a McNair patsy, Beno, to tank the case. She even staged Upchurch’s suicide, because he was the only person who could recognize the real Leroy. However, the moment Joe Leaphorn connected the dots and decided to warn the authorities, Vaggan kidnapped Joe and brought him to her bunker. McNair had ordered her to get rid of Joe, but Vaggan was too obsessed with him to hurt him in any way. This was the whole reason she had kept Billie Tsosie alive, because she knew Billie was Joe’s weakness, and therefore she wanted to use her to make Joe bend to her wishes. So, how exactly did Joe and Billie escape Vaggan’s captivity, and will McNair go to prison for the crimes he has committed? Well, with a spoiler warning, allow me to break down the season 4 finale for you.
Joe Tricked Vaggan
At first, Joe tried to fight back against Vaggan and escape the bunker, which I think is a common response to such situations. However, when Vaggan started hurting Billie to get back at Joe, he understood that he would need to take a smarter approach to deal with her. And what did that involve? Giving Vaggan what she wanted. In simple words, he used her own weakness against her, the same way she was using his. The reason why Vaggan went against McNair’s orders and kept Joe and Billie alive was that she wanted to fulfill her childhood fantasies by starting a family with them. Vaggan was still in school when she lost her parents in the Second World War, and all that she was left with was her books and her imagination. That was when she came across Karl May’s Winnetou novels (which is a real book series, by the way). These novels follow the adventures of the titular Native American, narrated by a fictional German character, Old Shatterhand, represented by Karl May himself. So basically, the stories of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand had become Vaggan’s escape from her harsh reality, and as a kid, she became obsessed with the culture of the Native Americans and even dreamt of visiting their lands one day. As she grew up, she realized that neither Winnetou nor Old Shatterhand was real, but she kept her childhood dreams alive and still desired to weave her own story with a real Navajo chief. Well, this was where Joe Leaphorn came in. He wasn’t exactly a Navajo chief, but Joe’s devotion towards his culture reminded Vaggan of her childhood hero, Winnetou. She wanted to start a new life with Joe and learn more about his way of life, which was why she killed her grandfather, Gunthar, so she could bring in Joe and spend the rest of her life with him. But the thing is, Joe’s not some toy that you can bring home, and love’s not a commodity one can simply buy. I am not saying Vaggan is in love with Joe, but I think she is in love with the idea of the “noble savage” Native American she grew up reading about in her books. It’s what had happened when Vaggan saw Joe on the mountains (without a shirt). She had been sexually attracted to Joe’s masculinity from the very beginning, as he looked like the man from one of her childhood fantasies. Vaggan had been trying really hard to find similarities between her family’s beliefs and the Native American culture. But to be very clear, there are none. It’s likely that losing her parents at an early age took a toll on Vaggan’s mental health, and she started believing everything she read in those fictional books and created a narrative in her mind which was never true. However, you can’t argue this much with a ruthless killer, because if you do, she will either hurt you or your loved ones to get what she wants. This was why Joe decided to dance to her tune.
Vaggan had prepared a nice breakfast for Joe and Billie, and Joe didn’t want to infuriate her further by disrespecting the meal. He told her about how much he missed sitting together as a family and eating together. Well, Joe wasn’t really lying here, because after his son’s death, Joe and Emma hadn’t been themselves. Joe busied himself with police work, trying to forget the pain of losing his only son. Emma, on the other hand, had been trying to tell Joe that she was going through the same pain and wanted him to be there for her, but she couldn’t find the right words. Hence, the couple remained distant until Emma found out that Joe killed BJ Vines to avenge their son’s death, as a result of which she left. Anyway, in this scene, Joe wasn’t exactly talking about Vaggan or starting a family with her, but his emotional breakdown made her believe that Joe might be considering a future with her. He told her that he’d always wanted to make an offering before the sunrise and enjoy one last breakfast with his family together. This was the idea he planted in her head, and as the show has demonstrated multiple times, Vaggan would do anything to see Joe happy. Moreover, she wanted to see how this “offering” was made, and therefore told Joe that the three of them could make an offering of their own, together as a family. At this point, Billie was quite stunned, trying to understand what Joe was up to, but the thing was, this was actually part of his master plan to escape the bunker.
At the beginning of the episode, when Vaggan brought Joe to the bunker site, he’d spotted a gas pump which Vaggan had been using to fill her tranquillizer tank. The show didn’t reveal what gas it was exactly, but Joe knew it was highly inflammable, and therefore devised a plan around it. As soon as Vaggan brought Joe and Billie out of the bunker to make the offering, Joe told Billie (in Navajo) to run as soon as he gave her the signal. Joe burned up some dry branches and threw them towards the gas pump, creating an explosion that burned half of Vaggan’s face, yet she was still standing. Nevertheless, Joe disarmed her and tried to kill her, but he couldn’t. The reason being, he didn’t want to repeat what he had done with BJ Vines. So sparing Vaggan’s life was kind of a redemption for Joe. However, Vaggan did ask Joe to kill her, and when he couldn’t, it made her believe that Joe secretly loved/liked her, since she thought he couldn’t live without her. Well, as I mentioned earlier, Joe had a different reason for not killing her, but this delusion might convince Vaggan to plan her escape from prison so she could reunite with Joe in the near future.
McNair Will Walk Free
So even though Joe and the FBI had strong evidence against Vaggan for all the murders she had committed (throughout season 4), they couldn’t tie any of it to McNair. It’s likely that Vaggan refused to talk to the authorities or snitch on her master, which means Vaggan would be spending the rest of her life behind bars, and McNair would walk free. As I mentioned earlier, Leroy Gorman was the only prime witness the FBI had against McNair, and with him dead (the real one), there’s no point taking this case to court, because they won’t be able to win it. This was why Joe told McNair that the Feds may have already moved on from the case, but he hadn’t. The Navajo Tribal Police still held him responsible for the death of four Native men: Sonny, Albert, Leroy, Mr. Begay, not to mention the countless others who lost their lives trying to make a White man rich. And Joe wouldn’t simply ignore his crimes. McNair owed a debt to each of them, and Joe would make sure that he paid for it, sooner or later. Basically, McNair’s arc is no different from BJ Vines’, who staged an accident in the mines to get rich, with no regard for the lives of Joe’s son, or the few other individuals working inside the mine on the day of the tragedy. Now, McNair had been doing the same thing by exploiting Native Americans to fill his pockets and throwing them under the bus after his motives were fulfilled. But Joe isn’t going to kill McNair the way he killed BJ Vines. I am not sure if McNair is going to show up next season or not, but if he returns, then Joe will likely dig up the necessary evidence against him so he can send him to prison, where he actually belongs, and by bringing McNair to justice, maybe Joe will be able to rectify the mistakes he has made in the past.
Chee Performs the Ceremony
In my opinion, Chee’s ceremony was the most powerful and moving scene in the entirety of season 4. Up until now, Chee had never considered the Navajo people his family, and this was the main reason why he didn’t fulfill his mother’s dying wish and bring her to the rez, because he was always of the opinion that they didn’t have family there. So what Chee failed to understand is that a family isn’t always blood. Her mother wanted to return to the rez so she could die peacefully among her people, and somewhere in the back of his mind, Chee always knew that he had disappointed his mother by not being able to understand the true meaning of her dying words. This memory kept haunting him, and it took a toll on his physical and mental health, but instead of sharing this burden with the people close to him, Chee chose to ignore it. However, in the previous episode, Bern and Emma finally convinced him to participate in the ceremony so he could not only get rid of the ghost sickness, but also come closer to the land and his ancestors.
In the finale, when no one attended Chee’s ceremony, Chee told Bern that the people on the rez didn’t consider him family, but he was wrong. And I am glad he was wrong. Slowly, all the folks who knew Chee, or the lives he had touched, arrived there to attend his ceremony and to be there for him. This was what his mother wanted, and I guess when all these people showed up, Chee finally understood why she wanted to die on the rez rather than in a city where no one actually “knew” her. I think what modern cities do is alienate you from your people, your values, and your culture. They turn you into a cynical loner who starts to believe that the world doesn’t care about you unless they have a motive. And this can be true because everyone in the city is so busy with their individual lives that they tend to forget that the people around them may be struggling the same as them. What I am trying to say is that sometimes city life makes you less compassionate towards other people. But people in small towns do things differently. Here, folks have the time to talk to a stranger or ask them about their problems. To become a part of their lives without expecting anything in return. I think people in towns and villages have still kept this sense of community alive, and whenever we experience this on screen, be it a Taylor Sheridan show or a show like Dark Winds, we cannot stop thinking about the things we so dearly miss. Well, if the scene didn’t get you emotional, then I am not sure what can.
Casey Returns To The Rez
In the previous episode, Casey had told her daughter, Billie, that she’d always wanted to return to the rez, but she didn’t have the courage to face her or explain to her why she had been missing from her life for all these years. But after she saw Billie again, Casey wanted to make things right, especially when she knew that Billie had no family left except for her. Honestly, I didn’t expect that Casey would leave her life or job in the city behind to settle down on the rez, but I am glad that she made this sacrifice for her daughter so she wouldn’t end up like Jim Chee. I am not saying Chee’s a bad person, but he did lose his way after his mother’s death, and I think Casey and Billie’s stories draw some parallels from Chee and his mother’s arcs.
Chee May Leave the Rez
At the ceremony, Chee’s former boss from the FBI, Special Agent Tobias Shaw, told him that he still had a desk waiting for him at the LA office if he wanted to return to duty. Under different circumstances, Chee might have turned down his offer, but now that he was aware that Bern was going to become a lieutenant, he wasn’t sure if things were going to be the same between them. He was certain that Joe wasn’t going to leave his post, but what if he did? The show ended on a cliffhanger without actually revealing what decision Chee was going to make, but I think he’ll likely take Shaw’s offer and leave the rez. That said, he might return after realizing how much he missed working with Bern and Joe. Chee’s absence from the station in the closing shot further implies that he’s still thinking the offer through. Also, if you noticed, the wound on Chee’s lower chest had fully recovered, which meant that the ceremony worked for him. He was no longer down with ghost sickness and had overcome his past trauma.
Joe Won’t Retire
Okay, the last 10 minutes of the episode kept me on edge, as I was eagerly awaiting for one “sign” that would make Joe reconsider his retirement. I think Joe had already made up his mind when he told McNair that he would be waiting for him to knock on his door and say hello. However, he still wanted someone to help clear up the confusion in his head, some kind of sign from the heavens. This was when Emma arrived at the rez to attend Chee’s ceremony, and before leaving, she asked Joe about his decision to turn in his badge. She wanted to know why Joe was doing it, to which he replied, “To become a different man.” Well, his answer made Emma certain that he had no real reason to leave the job, and he was just taking retirement because he wanted to punish himself for killing BJ Vines. Maybe Joe believed it would bring Emma back into his life, but as I see it, this isn’t the right way to redeem yourself. Joe could still atone for his sins while being on the job. He just has to make sure not to repeat the same mistake. And by sparing Vaggan’s life, he has already taken a step in the right direction. After Emma left, Joe discussed his confusion with his good friend, Gordo Sena, and told him that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to retire or not. I know he said, “Emma doesn’t want him to retire.” But that’s not the case. Emma just wanted Joe to understand that his job isn’t the issue here. It wasn’t the uniform that made Joe kill a defenseless man. It was the father inhabiting that uniform who made that decision and getting rid of his badge won’t rectify his mistakes. He may have to work on himself for a very long time; maybe his entire life. Nevertheless, Gordo told Joe that even after his own retirement, he couldn’t stop being a cop. Gordo said that if he had gone back and made a different choice, then he would have kept his badge and died in his “damn boots.” Well, that’s quite tragic because, in the end, Gordo actually died as a civilian, and not a cop. And this is going to impact Joe emotionally in the next season. Also, I believe by this point, Joe had already made up his mind, and he was just waiting for that one last push.
In Dark Winds season 4’s ending, the news of Gordo Sena’s sudden death actually saved Joe from taking one of the most difficult decisions of his life. It’s evident that Joe’s not going to step down from his post, and will put his retirement plans on the backburner until he has investigated Gordo’s murder. To be honest, I haven’t read the books, so I am not sure who killed Gordo, but from the previous comments on my articles, I know some of you have read the novels, so let me know in the comments who the actual murderer here is. If I have to take a shot in the dark, then I think it’s either McNair, who hired another assassin to send a warning to Joe, or it could be Gordo’s wife, Barbara. I know the second one is a very random guess, but when Barbara last appeared on screen (in season 4, episode 1), there was something a bit off about Barbara that I couldn’t lay my finger on. I have a hunch that she may have killed Gordo and forgotten (as she’s suffering from dementia). Well, these are my thoughts, and I would love to know yours, so drop your comments below.
