Zahn McClarnon Is a Revelation in Dark Winds Season 3

Dark Winds, AMC’s psychological thriller that’s tinged with a touch of the supernatural, expands beyond the Navajo Nation’s territory for its third season, to not only explore issues at the Southern border but also to test the limits of a man’s moral compass. 

Based on the Leaphorn & Chee novel series by Tony Hillerman, creator Graham Roland and showrunner John Wirth have created a distinct 1970s period series that shines a spotlight on the Navajo (Diné) people and culture while delivering emotionally taut mysteries. This season is its finest yet, and AMC is smart to have already greenlit a fourth ahead of its premiere.

It’s been more than 18 months since Dark Winds aired its second season finale, but in TV time, the new season picks up just six months after Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) meted out “Indian justice” to BJ Vines, wealthy businessman and leader of the People of Darkness cult. After discovering evidence of Vines’ involvement in an explosion that killed Joe Jr. and others, Leaphorn kidnapped Vines and left him in the desert, forcing him to face the fate of many Diné who were deported from their homes to undertake the brutal Long Walk of 1864.

This act of retribution haunts Leaphorn and serves as the crux of the show’s expanded season (eight episodes instead of six).

The first episode, “Ye’iitsoh” (“Big Monster”), opens to the strains of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” with a camera sweeping the nighttime desert floor only to stop at a wounded Leaphorn on his back. (Dark Winds music picks and scores are always on point.) He’s struggling to remain conscious enough to keep a possible monster at bay. Over the course of the six episodes available for review, Dark Winds rewinds to the six days prior, revealing how Leaphorn got into this predicament. 

On the reservation, Leaphorn and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) investigate the disappearance of two 14-year-old boys, starting with only a broken bicycle and a bloody patch of dirt left in the desert. As in prior seasons, the duo encounter various groups on the “rez” who know more than they’re saying, including a pair of archeologists who worked with the boys, and a random band of chile farmers delivering more than spices. Also complicating matters is the arrival of an FBI special agent (Jenna Elfman) who introduces herself as “Sylvia Washington from Washington.” 

Despite the cheesy intro, make no mistake: Sylvia is as cunning as a desert predator. She tells Leaphorn that she’s there to close a few old cases—including the disappearance of BJ Vines. Elfman, who made her mark in the sitcom Dharma & Greg, and more recently in Fear the Walking Dead, makes it clear that Sylvia is all business. We swore we even saw a slight eye roll when Sylvia was asked to leave the police station so a Navajo elder could do a spiritual cleansing after a gruesome death.

Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) has put 500 miles between herself, the reservation and a budding romance with Chee to forge her own career with the Border Patrol. During one of her shifts, she stumbles across a broken down white van and chases down a mother and daughter trying to escape back to Mexico. There’s a language barrier as they are Mixtec, the indigenous people of Mexico, and Bernadette barely speaks passable Spanish, let alone their dialect. Their capture leads Bernadette into a conspiracy involving human trafficking and drug smuggling. Matten’s performance smooths some of Bernadette’s rough edges and hotheadedness from the first two seasons, showing her character’s growth away from home. But Bernadette’s unbridled curiosity, tenacity, and sense of right and wrong (which she learned from her surrogate father Leaphorn) leads the rookie agent into danger.   

It’s not surprising that her case crosses paths with Leaphorn and Chee’s—the latter especially wanting and needing an excuse to see her—but Bernadette’s trying to move on from her old life with fellow agent Ivan Muños (Alex Meraz).

Although the first episode starts with a bang with Leaphorn’s predicament, it slows in pace to show how the past can come back to haunt the present in spades. It also gives viewers the time to catch up with the story and characters—and a chance to buckle their seatbelts. Leaphorn’s life, marriage and job are all in jeopardy, with every episode hurtling toward episode 6, “Ábidoo’niidę́ę́” (“What We Had Been Told”), which proves to be McClarnon’s tour de force.

This fever dream of an episode reveals much about Leaphorn’s upbringing, family, and his sense of justice, spurred by a tragic childhood incident. We and Joe also learn from his father that there is a difference between the white man’s version of justice and the Indian’s. Intertwined within this episode of flashbacks and trippy dreams is the story of the Diné’s mythical Hero Twins who were born to slay the monsters that were killing their people. The correlation to Leaphorn’s life might be a little too on the nose, but McClarnon’s performance is devastating as a reluctant penitent and as a man on the cusp of losing it all. His Leaphorn never folds under pressure when being pushed by the bad guys or the feds, but we can see his anguish in the subtle movement of his eyes or a ripple just below the surface of his skin. We watch in fascination as he battles monsters, apparitions and swarms of (CGI) ants as his guilt pushes him to the brink. 

It’s a shame that Leaphorn’s wife Emma (Deanna Allison) doesn’t have much of a storyline this season, but the scenes in which she does appear are powerful. She is Joe’s foil and North Star. While never raising her voice, her fury when she learns what happened to Vines comes through loud and clear: “You invited that man’s spirit into our home… and covered JJ’s memory in blood.” Allison and McClarnon play against each other beautifully; you can’t help but root for their marriage to survive this test. 

As in previous seasons, Dark Winds intertwines the Diné culture and language seamlessly, exposing viewers to a history that’s not often covered in mainstream film and TV. But that’s not the only reason why this is a great show. The acting, led by the incomparable McClarnon, is unparalleled, the action is thrilling, its cinematography captures both the beauty and the bleakness of the Southwest, and time and time again it proves that the monsters that haunt us the most are often unseen.

We do have one nitpick: There are cameos by two of the show’s more famous executive producers in episode one that are as distracting as Ed Sheeran’s turn in Game of Thrones. You’ll know it when you see it.

Dark Winds Season 3 premieres on Sunday, March 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+.

Christine N. Ziemba is a Los Angeles-based freelance pop culture writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow her on Instagram and Threads at @christineziemba.

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