Dark Winds (Season 2), Episode 3 “Antigonish”: Recap & Ending Explained – What does Bernie learn about the blonde man’s relation to the Drumco explosion? 

The second season of ‘Dark Winds’ is bringing some phenomenal work to the TV landscape. It makes you genuinely excited to tune in every single week. The previous episode showed Joe Leaphorn saving Jim Chee from the brutal shooting by a white criminal. Although the shooter is at large, Joe deduces his connection to the explosion at the hospital. Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon but the Native Americans remain ignored from any real sense of development. We also got a look at how White people keep benefitting by the means of exploitation. Amidst exploring these overarching themes, the episode hinted at the White shooter’s possible connection to the Drumco explosion, which took Joe’s son’s life. Now, Episode 3 of Dark Winds Season 2 shows Chee facing off with this shooter, who manages to escape without any trace. Joe and Bernie team up with the sheriff’s department to locate the dangerous man. 

*Spoilers ahead*

Dark Winds (Season 2), Episode 3 “Antigonish” Recap:

The third episode begins with a black-and-white scene from the shooter’s (Nicholas Logan) trailer. He cooks a meal for himself with unseemly precision, as if his life depends on it. After having this elaborate meal, he meets a man he hired to know the whereabouts of Linda Maddox. He opens a fortune cookie note to read ‘Easier to fight for one’s principles than live by them.’ The man reveals a detail about the woman’s boyfriend and believes this could help him locate her. The shooter then reveals that Linda is his mother. During this montage, we only see a few things in colour – his elaborate meal, the window panes, and his fortune cookie note. Finally, we see the shooter entering the hospital disguised as a doctor, to kill Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon).

Joe & Emma’s Grief

Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) drives his car back home and stays outside for a bit. He returns, right after realising the shooter’s possible connection to the death of his son. So, his hesitation is understandable. Finally, he walks inside and meets Emma (Deanna Allison). Without sharing a single word, he communicates the pain he feels over finding their son’s belt buckle. Meanwhile, the shooter messes up the electrical route inside the hospital. Around the same time, Chee gets out of his room in a wheelchair and calls Bernadette (Jessica Matten) to know the updates on the case. She talks about how everyone came to the station to see the moon landing. The very next moment, Jim notices the shooter behind him and warns Bernie about his presence. 

Joe suspects that the shooter is connected to the Drumco explosion. Ge and Emma share their feelings about how they have tried to process their son’s untimely death and move on. In the middle of that tender moment, Joe receives a call. He learns about the shooter’s presence in the hospital and is certain that the blonde man is there to kill Chee. While he leaves home to solve this urgent matter, chaos ensues in the hospital. The shooter starts the fire alarm and tries to find Chee. Chee hides himself inside a room to save himself from his menacing killer. 

Chee’s Fight for Life

The blonde man soon enters a room and senses Chee’s presence in the air vent. He shoots in Chee’s direction and then shoots a guard. Chee gets down and starts fighting with the White man. The guard passes a spray and Chee saves himself. The blonde man jumps from the window and falls over a car roof. Bernie reaches the hospital just in time and realises that the killer has run away. Meanwhile, the dangerous man shoots a police officer at point blank range. Joe reaches there and follows the killer’s car with Bernie. They find it but the killer is gone. Since it is late at night, they cannot locate him right away. 

In the Kayenta station, Sheriff Gordo Sena (A Martinez) guides his officers to look for the blonde man. Joe orders them to check every passing vehicle and any other trace that can help them find this man. Meanwhile, he asks Bernie to find more details about the burned-out paper they found the day before. Chee walks in and offers to help. Joe asks him to take Tomas Charley’s son back to his mother’s place. On the other hand, the LA Times journalist, Mary Landon (Jacqueline Byers) keeps trying to find details about the impact of the family planning services act on Native American women. She is concerned about how it is leading to several women being sterilised against their will. Mary tries to convince a local woman to share details, but she refuses to share any. Meanwhile, Emma helps a local woman with her difficult childbirth. It pains her to see the suffering of these poor women.

Meanwhile, the sheriff finds a man, who he believes is the shooter. Joe is certain that this is not their suspect. The actual culprit, meanwhile, walks through the desert and reaches the house of a Native American woman. She offers him a dish made with a Sheep Eyeball. He does not realise that since he cannot understand her tongue. She recounts a story about how her grandmother saw a ‘monster’ coming to their house through the desert. That monster happened to be an Irish farmer. While listening to her story, the blonde man looks around the house, possibly for things he can use for escape. 

Dark Winds (Season 2) Episode 3 “Antigonish” Ending Explained:

What does Bernie learn about the blonde man’s relation to the Drumco explosion?

Bernie’s Research

Bernie discovers the old document related to the Drumco site to find it signed by that physical chemist, Carl Dubeck. Meanwhile, Chee drives Benny (Jet James Grant) to his mother. Since they reach early, he tries to have small talk with the kid. He buys some food to eat by the time Benny’s mother arrives there. When Chee shares his card, Benny suggests he should also add his clan name. Through their dialogue, we get a sense of how they perhaps hide this aspect of their identity from their daily lives. Meanwhile, Gordo and Joe’s meandering dialogue suggests the omnipresent threat of monsters, while trying to survive as Native Americans. 

Back in the station, Bernie brings the evidence from the geological archive that reveals the papers were from the Drumco drilling site. The person who delivered that report was Dylan Charley, who was working as a carrier for them. Since the site was of no substantial use to the owners due to the lack of uranium, it was sold to B. J. Vines. Joe wonders why Vines bought it despite knowing this. After that, Joe and Bernie head to a local farm to question its caretaker about someone dumping their RV waste on his land. The officers find the track of trailer wheels that can possibly lead them to the shooter. Meanwhile, the blonde man rides his horse and returns to his RV. In the end, we see him sense a car arrive right outside. This is most likely the scene that we saw at the beginning of this season.

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Dark Winds (Season 2), Episode 3 Links: Rotten Tomatoes
Dark Winds (Season 2), Episode 3 Cast: Zahn McClarnon, Jessica Matten, Kiowa Gordon, Deanna Allison

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