Dark Winds: Who Was the Priest? Who Killed Him?

The third season of AMC’s ‘Dark Winds’ presents the mystery of a young boy’s murder and the disappearance of his friend. Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee look into the case, but their search leads them to some very unexpected places. For Leaphorn, especially, the season explores the themes of grief and guilt and the true meaning of getting justice. In the sixth episode, titled ‘Ábidoo’niidę́ę́ (What We Had Been Told), the cop is poisoned by a dart, and as he falls unconscious, his body wakes up in another realm that opens the memories of his past. The first thing that he sees in this world is a trail of blood, which leads him to the dead body of a priest. Joe doesn’t recognize the man, but it later turns out that he has a rather strong connection to the man. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Priest was the Monster Who Haunted Joe Leaphorn’s Childhood

When Joe was twelve, his cousin, Will, came to live with them. Due to his father’s insistence, Joe would reluctantly go to the church, which is where he saw the priest for the first time. At first, the man seems to be harmless, but then Joe discovers that he is a pedophile and abuses the children of his community. One of his victims is Will, and it is the discovery of his innocent cousin suffering at the hands of the one who calls him a man of god who lights a fire inside him. He doesn’t skip a beat before telling people about it. He tells his father and other elders in the community, hoping that they will do something about it and get justice for the kids. Most importantly, he believes that they will get him away from Will and the other children. However, despite his complaints, no one does anything.

As the priest continues to show up at the church, Joe feels a mixture of anger and dejection. He thought that by following the usual path, he would find justice, but the lack of accountability for the priest makes young Joe disillusioned with the system. There comes a point when he decides to take matters into his own hands. He finds his father’s gun and plans to shoot and kill the priest. He doesn’t care about the consequences as long as he knows that kids like Will would be safe. Years later, when an older Joe’s subconscious peeks into his memories, he starts to wonder if he really did go through with the act. He knows that the priest did end up dead, and no one knew what happened to him. But the bigger question is whether Joe did it, and if so, why doesn’t he remember it, and what does it say about him?

The Priest’s Murder Mirrors BJ Vines’ Death

Even before Joe Leaphorn looks into the depths of his mind to find the Priest’s killer, his subconscious starts making connections with the death of BJ Vines and his responsibility in the matter. He sees Emma, who chides him for not building a fence that has led the rabbits to destroy her vegetable patch. He sees Agent Washington, who tells him to do things the way they are meant to by the law and not follow his own sense of justice, particularly because he is a man of the law himself and must adhere to the system. Eventually, Joe Leaphorn is led to the realization that it wasn’t he who killed the pedophile but his father, Henry. When Joe told him about what the man had been doing to Will and the other kids as a cop, he tried his best to report the priest and have charges filed against him.

Despite all his best efforts, Henry Leaphorn was still a Native American man, which meant that no one cared about him or the fact that Native children were being abused. This indifference from the system wasn’t new, and Henry wasn’t shocked by it. But his heart broke for his nephew and other children, and he couldn’t let the priest be out and about as if nothing had happened. So, several days later, he found the priest, killed him, and buried him in a place where no one could find him.

When the priest went missing, the law came into the picture, and an investigation took place, but they couldn’t find out what happened to the guy. In the end, he was declared missing and presumed dead, and the mystery of his death was buried in his case files. Henry never told a soul about what he had done, but Joe always had a hunch that his father had something to do with the priest’s disappearance. Still, they never talked about it, and it isn’t until Joe dives into the depths of his subconscious that he revisits the mystery and accepts that the truth had been in front of him all along.