SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “Dark Winds.”
Season 3 of AMC’s mystery series “Dark Winds” uncovered even more layers of mystery and generational trauma — this time with a horror-infused interpretation of Navajo myths. In the midst of tracking down a Native teenager who is missing after his friend is murdered, Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) must try to evade a ruthless killer who takes the form of a monster — while facing a very difficult discussion with his wife Emma (Deanna Allison). Meanwhile, Bernadette’s (Jessica Matten) assignment with the border patrol goes violently astray, snaring her in the web of a drug-running and human-trafficking ranch owner who has an untold number of her colleagues on the payroll.
In the dramatic, emotional final episode, “Iron Horse,” Leaphorn and fellow officer Gordo Sena (A Martinez) finally locate young George Bowlegs and triangulate the teenager and the murderer at the train station. In a scene straight out of a classic Western, Leaphorn, Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Sena corner Dr. Reynolds, the lethal archeologist, on the train, pushing passengers aside and racing down the train cars as they confront him on an open flatbed. Wracked with regret, Leaphorn he tells Gordo he may never get a chance to reunite with his wife Emma, who has left him after Leaphorn confesses his role in the death of BJ Vines last season.
After a nail-biting moment where she’s about to be buried by a truckload of dirt, Bernadette is saved by her Border Patrol partner and love interest Ivan (Alex Meraz). Though she manages to convince him to do the right thing and turn in his crooked co-conspirators, she eventually realizes their romance is not meant to be, and heads back to Navajo country — and to Chee.
On her way out of town, inquisitive FBI agent Sylvia Washington (Jenna Elfman) gives Leaphorn the revealing cassette tape with Emma’s moving testimony about Vines’ death. “I hope this helps,” she tells Leaphorn. “With what?” he asks. “Finding your way back,” she replies.
Listening to the tape, he’s stunned to hear that Emma was willing to lie for him — and just as struck to hear that maybe he still has a chance with her. For as she says on the recording, “I hope that one day I can forgive him.” The season ends with Neil Young’s mournful tune “Glimmer” playing as Leaphorn holds out hope by playing Emma’s haunting message over and over again on the tape deck.
Here, McClarnon helps unpack Leaphorn’s painful journey along with the finale episode’s director and executive producer Chris Eyre and “Dark Winds” showrunner John Wirth.
This season had more of a horror feeling. How did you decide on that?
John Wirth: In the second season, we kind of leaned into the vibe of a noir story. In Season 3, we really got on to this idea of of the Ye’iitsoh, which means big monster in Navajo. So we wanted to tell kind of a monster story.
We were trying to figure out a way to effectively tell a monster story, given the kinds of things that they do on this network — “The Walking Dead” universe and so forth, which I appreciate so much, because those shows keep the lights on for us and allow us to make our show. We spent quite a bit of money building this monster, and my first instinct was we wouldn’t see it very much, If at all, or just vague glimpses of it. And then I realized, wow, why did I go to all the trouble to and expense to build the monster if we’re not going to see it? So we decided to see it a little bit more than we initially thought we would.
How has Leaphorn been dealing with his guilt over letting BJ Vines die, and his sorrow over his marriage? He says it came at a cost.
Zahn McClarnon: The cost is possibly his relationship with Emma, and his relationship with Chee and Bern, and possibly the loss of his freedom. The stakes were pretty high this season, with Agent Washington coming in and and finding out exactly what he did to BJ Vines in Season 2. The whole season has been basically an exploration of the tragedy that befell the Leaphorn family, and all the ramifications of their son’s death, and the consequences and how it’s affected all his relationships, his mental state, but mainly his his marriage with Emma, and possibly losing Emma. So he’s lived with quite a bit of anxiety this season.
That’s also revealed to him in the sequence (in Episode 6) when he’s handcuffed and Emma comes into his ketamine dream — how he treats her and puts the job ahead of their marriage constantly, and how his job has consumed him. And we kind of touch on this in Season 4, which obviously I can’t reveal.
What was it like shooting the train scene?
Chris Eyre: (Executive producer) George R.R. Martin actually owns the train. It leaves his theater, the Jean Cocteau, which is in the rail yard. And then there’s 18 miles of track down to Lamy, New Mexico, and that intersects with the east and west Amtrak. It was a blast. I’d never shot on a train before. There were drone shots, and there was a chase on the train, there were some gun fights on the train, and that’s where the boy got taken back by Leaphorn. And the resolution of the story really comes together. So it’s one of those set pieces that’s larger than others.
What did you want to show about Bernadette’s arc?
Eyre: I think that was the most interesting thing at the end of Season 3, which is Bernadette makes Ivan turn in the money. She almost does what Emma does, which is she doesn’t turn in Ivan. So there’s this incredible kind of matriarchal power that these characters have because they’re actually the center of the family and the community.
The last scene is so emotional, what went into making that?
McClarnon: It was kind of a surreal moment for me as an actor playing Leaphorn, and realizing at that moment how in love my character was with his wife. Those lines get kind of blurred in those moments. There were a lot of takes that were a lot more emotional. There were moments where I was sobbing, and we kind of pulled it back a little bit. And I think it worked a lot better than Joe sobbing about his wife leaving him.
Wirth: This story for Leaphorn ends with him sitting at his kitchen table after his wife has left him, and he’s listening to this tape that Sylvia Washington gave him, which is his wife’s interview with her, where she stood up for him, but she also said a lot of things that, in my opinion, she wouldn’t have been comfortable saying to Leaphorn directly. And that was kind of the power of the scene. I was just watching him kind of work his way through that and absorb the pain of that, and I thought that might be something that a guy like this, in this situation, would want to hear again and kind of torture himself by hearing it. And so I suggested that when he gets to that line on the tape, that he run it back and listen to it again, and then run it back and listen to it again, and run it back and listen to it again. It’s really a gut punch.
Was that always going to be the way the episode ends?
McClarnon: We had a version of Joe going to Phoenix, knocking at the door, and Emma opening the door, and they’re just staring at each other, and she invites him in to eat. John and I talked about it quite a bit, and he thought ending it with Joe just listening to her and pressing that button over and over was a better ending to kind of leave Season 4 open to to being able to explore different storylines as far as Emma and Joe.
Eyre: I directed that scene, and I was just floored by the way that it was working between Emma and Leaphorn, because they have no dialogue. It’s a really beautiful scene. But what I really understood in the end was it provided too much of a resolution too quickly.
What’s the prospect for Joe and Emma getting back together?
Eyre: It really is the core of “Dark Winds,” Emma and Joe. If Joe weren’t to get back together with her, he would not be Joe anymore. He wouldn’t have the anchor of himself that he’s able to use in order to fight crime and do his job. So I really hope that they do get back together so Joe can keep working.
What do you think was the biggest twist or the biggest surprise for viewers in the finale?
Eyre: The biggest twist is probably that the monster is a man. It’s such an amazing metaphor, which is apropos of Navajo culture and all traditional culture. We speak in these metaphors that there’s a monster out there, and, lo and behold, Leaphorn sees it’s a man — it’s a bad guy. And so the the biggest twist is just how the metaphor becomes the reality.
Wirth: I was hoping people wouldn’t entirely jump to the conclusion at the beginning of the season that Dr. Reynolds was the killer. We tried to set up a couple of other people, Sonny Bowlegs, the father of the boy, Eddie Isaacs, the assistant archeologist out there, Dr. Reynolds. At some point along the way, people may have thought it could have been any one of these people.
How have you approached whether or not to show some of the Navajo traditions?
Wirth: If you want to talk about Navajo culture, Navajo tradition, Navajo religion, Navajo ceremonies for the Navajo people, these things are highly sensitive and private, and when Tony Hillerman was writing his novels in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, the prevailing attitudes about these things were different than they are today. We have the two Navajo consultants we work very closely with, and so we kind of take our cue from them, if we tend to run everything by them, and if they’re not bothered by something, we’re not bothered by it, and we’ll we feel free to depict it on the show, but if they are sensitive about it, we will probably try to figure out another way to do it.
Eyre: Jennifer and Manny Wheeler, who are our language and cultural advisors, are both Navajo and experts in each of those categories. It’s exciting to try to figure these things out together. I think we’re kind of breaking new ground with that.
Zahn, what does it mean to you to be able to work with a Native crew and cast?
MacClarnon: Many of the people behind the series are Indigenous, so we want to make sure we’re showcasing all the tribal culture with respect and honor and authenticity. People won’t truly know what Navajo culture is unless they really spend time on the Navajo Nation, within the culture. But if “Dark Winds” gets people to maybe visit the Navajo Nation, spend time with Navajo people, and learn more about the culture, then that’s a positive thing.
It’s something that I kind of hang my hat on, is being a part of something that employs Native people, like “Reservation Dogs.” It’s a very Indigenous-heavy show. And we haven’t had that in the past. This has only happened in the last decade.
I’m excited to see the first episode of Season 4, which Zahn is directing. How did it go?
MacClarnon: We wrapped it up two weeks ago, and I’ve already done my director’s cut for the episode. It was a lot of fun. I’ve got some great first ADs and DP that helped me through it, and I just had a lot of support. You know, it was my first time directing. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to learn even more.
Eyre: I was there the whole time. I was there as an ally and a peer and a support, we have a real family unit.
What are you looking forward to for next season, which will be based on Tony Hillerman’s novel “The Ghostway”?
Eyre: I just want to point out I’m as excited as the audience is to find out what happens after Season 3. We’re working on it right now, and I’m directing Episode 403, and I still don’t know what happens at the end of the Season 4.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
