[This story contains spoilers from the Dark Winds season four premiere, “Ko’Tsiitáá Álnééh” (Baptism by Fire).]
If you weren’t sure how Dark Winds could possibly top the emotionally devastating events of season three — which saw Joe Leaphorn confront past trauma and face his wife’s decision to leave him, as Bernadette was betrayed while working for the Border Patrol and killed a man in self-defense — you were not alone.
Kiowa Gordon, who plays Jim Chee, tells The Hollywood Reporter that’s right where he was: “It was really nice when I got the first couple of scripts for season four, because after season three, I was like, ‘What do we do after this? What are the writers going to cook up next?’ But it’s just been a joy to continue.”
Adds Jessica Matten, who plays Bernadette, “That’s all due to the writers room, where they come up with these brilliant emotional moments that each character has, exploring different layers of their personalities. I get excited when I see the scripts.”
THR caught up with Gordon and Matten, as well as showrunner John Wirth, star Zahn McClarnon (Leaphorn) and new cast addition Franka Potente to talk about those fascinating character revelations, as well as the high-stakes case that the Navajo Tribal Police are tasked with solving before it’s too late in season four.
The first episode, which aired Sunday night, also ends with a title card paying tribute to the late Robert Redford, who executive produced and was a driving force behind the series. Redford died in September at the age of 89. Redford’s final role was making a surprise cameo in the third season, alongside his fellow executive producer George R.R. Martin.
The new season wastes no time in introducing the newest threat to safety on the Navajo reservation. In the opening scene, a Native teen named Billie (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) sits with a young man in a diner, finishing her milkshake. They get into an argument, and meanwhile, a van drives up in the darkness. A blond woman enters the diner, carrying a loaded gun. A shootout quickly ensues, and Billie and her companion just barely make it to their car — but not before the man is shot.
The menacing blond shooter, who we know little about at this point, is played by German actress Potente (best known for the Bourne Identity franchise and the 1998 film Run Lola Run). Wirth explains that in Tony Hillerman’s novel The Ghostway, on which the season is based, “the character of Vaggan [Potente’s character] is very much like Colton Wolf, [the villain from] season two, played beautifully by Nick Logan. So my first thought was, ‘This character should be a woman.’”
For her part, Potente says that although she wasn’t previously familiar with Dark Winds, her interest was immediately piqued when Wirth approached her about playing the season’s villain. “I always pay attention when I hear that. It’s always fun; it’s so liberating. I was like, ‘I need this liberation right now.’
Frank Potente as Irene Vaggan in Dark Winds.
Michael Moriatis/AMC
“John was so awesome and sweet,” she continues. “In our first conversation, it was clear he was going to give me a lot to work with, but he was also open and collaborative and, of course, then I started watching the show and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I want to be part of this.’ It’s such a cohesive world, set [in the 1970s] in this Navajo reservation context that was kind of new to me. I just didn’t know much about it, and one of the many awesome things about our job is that we get to immerse ourselves in worlds we don’t know anything about.
“Matt Damon used to say to me, ‘It’s so funny, as actors we know a lot about everything. We always get to play this character who has this specific task, and then we learn it just enough so that we can fake it,’” Potente adds. “So, to be for a couple of months immersed in this world that was already solid and established in such a detailed, awesome way, that’s a gift, always. You don’t say no to that.”
From the shooting at the diner, the episode time-jumps backwards 15 hours, as Joe Leaphorn is going about his daily life after his wife, Emma (Deanna Allison), left him at the end of season three. Soon it’s revealed that he has decided to retire.
“He’s had a lot of issues [from the trauma he faced in previous seasons] and coming into this season, his marriage has imploded,” says Wirth. “It kind of makes sense for him to think, ‘Maybe it’s time to hang up my spurs and work on healing myself and reconnecting with the Navajo man inside me, and reconnecting with the landscape and my culture and my wife, who’s a very traditional woman. Maybe there’s hope for us if I can find my way back to myself.”
Meanwhile, Leaphorn bumps into a couple he knows well: recently retired Scarborough Police Chief Gordo Sena (A. Martinez) and his wife, played in a surprise cameo by Linda Hamilton (fresh off her run in the final season of Stranger Things).
Notes McClarnon, “I worked with Linda in the early ‘90s on a film called Silent Fall with Richard Dreyfuss. She played Richard’s wife.” He adds with a touch of awe, “She was in The Terminator, and to be around her was a big thrill. And to see her again, 30 years later, to work with her again, and she still has that amazing spirit, I was just so happy that John and AMC, we were able to get her onto the show.”
It soon becomes clear that Mrs. Sena is struggling with dementia, as she mistakes Joe for his father. Joe offers some words of encouragement to his disheartened friend Gordo, telling him not to give up on his wife when she needs him, in a sign of how much reflecting Joe has been doing lately.
Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee and Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuelito in Dark Winds season four, episode four.
Michael Moriatis/AMC
Elsewhere in the episode, Chee and Bernadette enjoy some much-deserved domestic happiness after they coupled up at the end of season three. Says Wirth, “I enjoyed working on those scenes in the premiere where they’re in the trailer having dinner, and she’s like, ‘Aren’t you worried about how it’s going to be if we’re working together?’ and he says, ‘Tell me what to be worried about and I’ll worry about it.’ It’s so real.”
Matten admits that things aren’t quite perfect for the new couple, as Bernadette struggles with the decision of whether to return to the police force. “Bernadette literally just cold-blooded murdered someone,” she notes. “We were talking a lot about, how do you transition from that to a loving relationship and being present for that?
“In my personal life, I used to work at a lot of high-risk Indigenous group homes, and I worked with people who are incarcerated and who have experienced murder, and you’re not in a lovey-dovey place,” she adds. “You’re trying to deal with your trauma. We were trying to find a way within the show to incorporate that, and I think the writers did a brilliant job of showing how someone wants to be present and yet at the same time you’re dealing with so much inner turmoil. And like in any relationship dynamic, how a partner’s trying to be there for you to the best of their ability, without understanding what’s emotionally going through your head. So, you see that dynamic play out at the top, and you get to see Bernadette in a vulnerable position for once.”
As Chee and Bernadette are adjusting to their new relationship dynamic, Leaphorn stops by and tells Bernadette that not only is he retiring, but he wants her to take his place as the leader in the department. Despite her ambitions, Bernadette feels like this is a lot of responsibility, and it puts her in a difficult situation because Chee is also qualified to take the top job.
“This being in the ‘70s, there’s still not a lot of female leadership that’s out there in society,” Matten notes, “so [there are different] dynamics of her winning a position of leadership over a man, and how that could potentially interfere with or disrupt their relationship dynamic.”
Ultimately, she decides to come back to work at the Navajo Tribal Police and quickly starts helping Leaphorn and Chee on the case of the runaway girl, Billie. After visiting Billie’s boarding school — which Bernadette also attended — she gets a lead, which brings the episode full-circle to the diner, where they confirm Billie is currently eating with her cousin, Albert Gorman.
Unfortunately, the heroes arrive too late to prevent the murder of the cook and waitress who worked there. They search the abandoned diner as distorted music emanates from a shot-up jukebox, but there’s no sign of Billie.
Will they find her? We’ll have to wait for the answer to that question.
Dark Winds airs on AMC and streams on AMC+, with new episodes airing weekly on Sundays. Check back with THR for more insights from the show’s team as the season progresses.
