‘Dark Winds’ Recap: ‘The Male Rain Approaches’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Two of ‘Dark Winds’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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Often times, psychological thrillers that also feature quite the mystery, tend to wait until the end of the season to tip their hand and reveal their secrets and understandably so. After all, this is about building up the suspense to a big reveal, so tipping one’s hand early, would be foolish in nature and could potentially drive the viewer away since they now know what they need to know. But now and again, you run into a story in this vein that opts to put a bevy of its cards on the table early in a bold and brazen manner, for fascinating and logical reasons to say the least, and it just so happens, that a brand-new juicy thriller that set the stage for a grand mystery in its opening chapter last week, offered up some early epic reveals during Sunday night’s episode.
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For Dark Winds surprised us with a lot of answers regarding Joe’s backstory and what would become of the fact that Jim Chee is an FBI Agent that is working undercover with the Navajo Police and what made these reveals so worth our while… is that they didn’t appear to be headed our way in the slightest, early on. In fact, all of the flashbacks regarding Joe and what appeared to be quite the fateful day on the reservation that opened up ‘The Male Rain Approaches’, seemed to be designed to further deepen the mystery. Since they made it clear that Joe has some skeletons in his closet, the kind that ache and run deep and well… that’s precisely where this show took the time to surprise us, since it wasted little time in explaining his past and why he has such bad blood with some people on the reservation.

As it turns out, a long time ago… Joe had a son. A bright young man that was eager to live life to the fullest and enjoy the moment, and it was obvious that Joe was proud of his boy and eager to see where life was going to take him. But during a spiritual ceremony involving Guy, it was revealed that something ugly was going to happen at the very oil field where Joe Jr. and Guy worked, and that was never expressed to anyone beyond those that went into the tent that night. Which in turn… led to the death of Joe Jr. and a grand fight that left the Lieutenant on the outs with people he saw as family and that was quite the powerful surprise to take part in. Since it explains a lot about Joe and really helps us to understand why he’s so keen to drive peace and unity amongst the people that live here, so they don’t let harm come to one another. 

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As for the Jim Chee plot, well… his true identity was revealed in no time in this tale. Because Joe knew something was up and quickly managed to get Jim to admit his true loyalties and job title with minimal fuss and well, rather than be up in arms about it… he used it to his advantage. By using Jim’s connections with the Bureau to get the autopsy report regarding the dead, and to have the Feds analyze the gross water Joe came across at the end of last week’s tale and well… by giving Jim a little trust and freedom to complete his job with no fear of reprisal, some interesting developments took place. In that Joe was able to learn that Anna’s death involved cardiac arrest, as though she was scared to death… and also that hydraulic fluid was in that water. A fact that Jim kept quiet… so he could use that revelation to be the hero himself and steal this investigation away from his shady boss… which was quite the smooth and ambitious move. 
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But there was mention of legitimate reason for going this route super early in the story and well… that autopsy report is part of that. Because this particular tale also amped up the spiritual mystery set up in the previous episode. Since there are strange happenings taking place around the reservation and there was even implication that a Skinwalker might be involved in this madness. Not to mention, this episode also revealed some of the players involved in the bank robbery and how dangerous and bold they are, making it clear that this story wants to remove some mysteries from the equation now, so it can shift its focus to the robbery in question and the motivations behind it, and of course… to dive deeper into that spiritual stuff. 

Because there is a lot to unpack with that, and an opportunity to really dive deep into the legends and mysticisms that Indigenous Americans believe in, and hopefully the show does indeed go that route and really takes the time to educate all of us on such matters. Since there are but a handful of mainstream stories that take the time to do so. But while we wait to dive into those new mysteries, in the meantime, we can bask in the wonder of an amazing tale. One that really did offer up some fine answers and moved the plot along at breakneck pace… all while taking the time to creep us out just enough. Because that late night scene on that ranch, was the stuff of nightmares and well… this is an episode that definitely engages and leaves the viewer eager for more. In order to see what other twists and turns and big moments await us as this mystery unfolds. Until next time.

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