Dark Winds Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: Chahalheel (Darkness Falls)

Reaching its midseason mark, the third season of AMC’s ‘Dark Winds’ closes the noose around the guilty parties. The previous episode ended with Leaphorn discovering the connection between the chili farm and Ernesto Cata from an unexpected source. The episode ended with a gunfight and chase, which led to some startling revelations. In this episode, these breadcrumbs start to form a proper trail that can be followed to get to the truth. However, the discovery of truth isn’t always a good thing, and no one knows it better than Joe Leaphorn. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Joe Leaphorn Makes Major Strides in Ernesto Cata’s Murder Investigation

In the previous episode, Joe Leaphorn discovered from Suzanne that Halsey was riding her red pickup truck the night Ernesto was murdered. While she isn’t able to divulge more, it is enough for Leaphorn to raid the farm, but he is shocked to find it empty. Halsey goes on the run and calls AGS Industries, who are leasing the property, to tell them that he has cleared out the whole place, that everyone from the farm is gone, and there is nothing to worry about. This conversation happens with Budge, which confirms that Tom Spenser is connected to the farm. However, instead of offering a helping hand to Halsey, Budge bid him good luck and cut the call.

Realizing that he will not be protected by his employers, Halsey burns the red truck and drives away in another. He hides out, hoping to slip away from the cops and be somewhere far away from all the trouble. Leaphorn has a chat with Suzanne, who has survived the overdose and is now recovering in the hospital. She tells Leaphorn about how she almost crossed the threshold of death and something nefarious and sinister waiting for her on the other side. The conversation disturbs Leaphorn, especially with the continuous flickering of the lights, but it soon shifts to Halsey, and eventually, she gives the cop a hint of where he may have run off.

Meanwhile, it is revealed that the powder found in the compound is cocaine, which proves that the chili farm was just a front. It also presents motive. Perhaps Ernesto and George found out what was happening at the farm, and Ernesto was killed because he needed to be silenced. This still doesn’t answer the question of why Bernadette’s picture was on the board on the farm, and for this, Jim Chee decides to investigate on his own. Back at the rez, Leaphorn catches up with Halsey, who is thrown into prison.

When it is made clear to him that Spenser or anyone else above him on the ladder is not going to help him, he decides to tell them everything about Spenser’s operation. But first, he needs assurance in the form of complete immunity on the drug thing. He also claims to have nothing to do with Ernesto’s death. While Gordo gets the paperwork done, Halsey has to remain behind bars. The same night, when Leaphorn takes over the night duty, the lights go off at the station, and by the time they come back on, someone slits Halsey’s throat, and he bleeds and chokes to death in front of the cop.

Agent Washington Inches Closer to the Truth About BJ Vines’ Death

While Leaphorn tries to get the truth from Halsey, Agent Sylvia Washington is on a quest of her own. She is determined to find out what happened to BJ Vines, so she follows up on every single lead, which brings her to a man who claims to have seen something the night Vines went missing. Because he does not speak English, Washington tells Leaphorn to translate, and there is no scope for a bad translation because the statement is being recorded. Luckily for Leaphorn, the witness did not see his face that night, but he did see his car, and he relates its make and model to Washington.

Washington follows up on the car and discovers that thousands of people have the same model in the entire state, but the more she narrows down the factors, the more she realizes that the culprit might be right in front of her. It turns out that out of the thousands, only a few hundred have the same car in the rez, only a handful have the same car in the police station, and only one of them is a person whose family member died because of BJ Vines. So, she point-blank asks Leaphorn about his whereabouts on the night of Vines’ disappearance. He names Emma as his alibi, though Washington is not convinced of it.

The same night, Emma finally has Leaphorn sit down in front of her and tell her exactly what happened that night. Since the discovery of his actions, she has been struggling to come to terms with it, but when her husband finally does speak out about it, she feels even repulsed by his act. While he tries to justify it by saying that he didn’t kill Vines with his own hands, she does not buy it. She is even more infuriated when he tells her that he named her as his alibi to stave off Washington’s suspicion, though neither of them knows what Emma will say if the FBI agent comes around asking questions.

Chee and Bernadette’s Reunion Leads to an Unexpected Romance

When Jim Chee finds Bernadette Manuelito’s picture on a board at Halsey’s chili farm, he immediately rings her up to tell her about it. He mentions that the picture is her official portrait for the Border Patrol, and only someone on the inside could have this photo. This means that there is someone she cannot trust. Later, Chee uses it as an excuse to drive all the way to Bernadette’s place of employment, which leads to their long-awaited reunion. Immediately, certain pieces start to fall into place. Chee reveals that the photo was found in a farm leased by AGS Industries, which also owns the companies under Spenser’s name.

When Bernadette reveals that she has been looking into them, the reason behind her photo being there is made clear. Halsey and the others were to be on the lookout for them as she was marked as an enemy. It also confirms her suspicions that something else is being done under the cover of oil tanks. Chee spends that evening catching up with Bernadette, and they run into Ivan at the bar. The vibe between the three of them gets awkward. Later, as Chee camps out on Bernadette’s couch, she tries to clarify things about Ivan. Before leaving, he asks her to come back home, but she makes it clear that she has made a decision to leave and is standing by it. When Chee tells her he doesn’t believe it, she drives to Ivan’s place, and they spend the night together.

While this makes it seem that things are finally progressing between her and Ivan, and the chances of her and Chee ending up together are dying down, there is still a very important factor to consider. Someone from her department gave away her picture, and the identity of that person is yet to be revealed. Bernadette doubts her chief, but there is a good chance that he is nothing more than an incompetent person who turns a blind eye to Spenser’s operations. It could be that she is not looking at the most obvious culprits because they are too close to her now.