Diksha Sundriyal
AMC’s ‘Dark Winds’ returns for a fourth season with a new mystery that leads Joe Leaphorn and his team down a dangerous path while they deal with their personal problems. The end of the third season saw Emma leave Leaphorn after being frustrated by his lies and secrets, especially in the context of what happened to BJ Vines. This season opens with an Emma-sized hole in his life, and it will be much more than a case to get his mind off of it. Meanwhile, Bernadette is back in town, having quit her job at the Border Patrol after being almost buried alive while trying to do her job, and is now enjoying the beginning of a new relationship with Jim Chee. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Case of a Missing Girl Shakes Things Up
The fourth season opens with a shootout in a diner. We see a girl, later identified as Billie, and a man, named Albert, in a diner, having dinner while talking about what they are supposed to do next. All seems normal until a woman with a gun walks in and starts shooting. It ends with Billie and Albert narrowly escaping with their lives, while the rest of the people, including the owners of the diner, are killed in the process. To give us a context of what has happened, the clock dials back to the previous day. We find Leaphorn in the wilderness, tapping into his spirituality as he spends time in the sweat lodge and hunts animals. It makes sense that he prefers to spend more time like this because when he returns home, Emma’s absence is deeply felt.
Still, he has a job, which pulls him back to the real world. On the way to the station, he runs into Gordo and helps him with a flat tire, while also meeting his wife (played by Linda Hamilton), whose memory has started to fail her. Meanwhile, Chee and Bernadette are enjoying their time together. He tends to her horses and makes her breakfast, and before he leaves for work, he asks her if she is sure about not coming back. She says she is, and for a minute, it seems that perhaps she really is done working for law enforcement. Later, however, Leaphorn visits her and asks her to come back. One of the main reasons he gives her is that she is his logical successor. He reveals he has put in the paperwork for his retirement, and the coming fall is when he will finally walk out of his job, and likely the town.
Bernadette pointedly asks him if he will go to Los Angeles, because that’s where Emma is, but he doesn’t indulge her with more answers. He just points out that his job will be hers once he is gone, but for that, she will have to come back to work. At the station, things seem pretty dull. There is a minor case of theft, the complaint of a person getting kidnapped by aliens, and the news of a girl running away from a boarding school, St. Catherine’s, three days ago. Chee and Leaphorn visit the school to find out more about the girl, but they don’t get much information. The girl’s name is Billie, and her friends don’t give up any information about her. They claim they know nothing, but clearly, they don’t want to share things in front of the nuns who run the place.
Bernadette’s Return is Influenced by a Major Decision Made by Leaphorn
Leaphorn gives the girls his contact number just in case they wish to share anything important with him. The duo also visits Billie’s uncle, who is disappointed to discover that they have come asking questions three days after she went missing. He says he’ll look for her himself, but eventually tells them about Albert, the guy she had been seeing. As they follow Billie’s footsteps, Chee and Leaphorn end up at a shop. It turns out that Billie had, in fact, been there and had asked for a map. The shop’s owner also reveals that she was with a man, who didn’t seem like he was from around the place. The shopkeeper also points out that there seemed to be some tension between the couple, as the guy didn’t seem happy with the map.
Interestingly, the strange woman is also in the shop at the time and overhears the entire conversation. This is where Leaphorn and Chee meet a dead end in their investigation, as they have no idea how to figure out where Billie could have gone next. Fortunately, Bernadette decides to return. Earlier that morning, Chee had told her about the missing girl’s case. He noticed that she felt like she was missing out on the investigation, which gave him another chance to encourage her to come back. Of course, at the time, he doesn’t know about Leaphorn’s retirement and the promotion that has been promised to Bernadette. She seems reluctant to return because, for one, she doesn’t want to ruin the relationship with Chee.
If they work together, their personal connection will interfere with their work. What if they have a disagreement? He says that they can always go to Leaphorn with it, but she doesn’t reveal that Leaphorn won’t be around for long. Still, Chee assures her that they will find a way to make things work. Their conversation seems to have done its job, and she returns to the station. Everyone is happy to have her back, and while she and Chee pretend as if they are not together, no one buys their act. Once at her desk, she doesn’t waste any time before jumping on Billie’s case. When she says she wants to talk to Billie’s friends at St. Catherine’s, Chee says they have already questioned the girls, and they did not divulge any information. Bernadette, quite rightly, points out that she wasn’t there when the conversation happened, and perhaps the girls might talk to her.
The Case Turns Out to Be Much More Dangerous Than Previously Expected
The visit to St. Catherine’s is not exactly a happy experience for Bernadette. The nun gives her a backhanded compliment about becoming a cop and having done something with her life after all. But she decides not to be bothered by that. She meets Billie’s friend, and they have a casual conversation. Bernadette’s time at the school helps her connect with the girl, who reveals that Billie liked to go to a diner for milkshakes. When Bernadette calls the diner, it is confirmed that Billie is there at that moment. The next call goes to Leaphorn and Chee, who immediately jump into their vehicles and head to the diner, joined by Bernadette. This is where we catch up with the opening scene of the episode.
By the time Leaphorn, Chee, and Bernadette arrive at the diner, it is already too late. Billie and Albert are gone, and so is the mysterious woman who had been shooting at them. The trio cautiously enters the diner, which is riddled with bullets. They find the dead bodies, which is when they realise that Billie’s disappearance is not the simple case of a girl running away from the boarding school. She has somehow gotten involved in something much more dangerous. The dead bodies also prove that Billie’s life is in danger, and if she is not found in time, she may meet a deadly and tragic fate, which considerably raises the stakes of the case.
Meanwhile, the episode also focuses on Leaphorn missing his wife. It is clear that her departure is what finally prompted him to take his retirement seriously. When he tells Bernadette he is leaving, she doesn’t take it seriously at first because this isn’t the first time he has talked about retirement. Now, however, he is so sure that he has already filed the paperwork for it. In between this, he also visits his mother, who also tells him that honesty is the only way forward, and he must first be honest with himself before he tries to mend things with Emma. While he seems intent on that journey, he clearly has a long way to go before reaching that point and getting Emma back, if at all. Meanwhile, he must focus on finding Billie and bringing her back.
Read More: Dark Winds Season 3: Does Bernadette Leave Border Patrol?
