Diksha Sundriyal
The second season of AMC+’s ‘Dark Winds’ gets darker and more personal for Joe Leaphorn after he comes across information that sheds new light on the circumstances behind the death of his son. This season starts with a car explosion, which, at first glance, looks like an accident but turns out to be a murder. When another member of the same family is killed, things get more complicated. Jim Chee comes into the picture with a case of his own, which involves a robbery at the house of a local man with a shady past. By the end of this episode, titled ‘Antigonish‘ more pieces surrounding the mystery of the drill site are unearthed, and a picture starts to form. Here’s what the events of this episode bode for the characters in the coming episodes. SPOILERS AHEAD
Dark Winds Season 2 Episode 3 Recap
‘Dark Winds’ Season 2 starts with a black-and-white scene where Joe and Bern track down a dangerous man. A gunfight ensues, and the show rewinds a few days before this incident to show us how Joe and Bern landed in this trouble. The third episode catches up with that scene, bringing us to the morning of the day the showdown is bound to happen.
It starts with Colton Wolf in his trailer, where he makes breakfast for himself and then meets his lawyer, with whom he discusses the prospect of finding his mother. He has to go through the motions with him again because he killed the last guy he’d hired for the job. While the new guy picks up his mother’s trail again, Colton goes to the hospital to finish what he started with Jim Chee. He wears a wig and dresses like a doctor to blend in, but it isn’t enough for Chee to not recognize him.
Luckily, Chee sees him before he can make a move. He talks to Bern on the phone and alerts her about this new development. Unlikely, Colton finds out about it and puts his plan into motion. Chee succeeds in evading him for a while, but Colton eventually finds him. In between this, a police officer is killed, and Bern arrives before Colton can shoot Chee. Colton is forced to flee, but not before he shoots a couple more people.
Dark Winds Season 2 Episode 3 Ending
When Colton attacks him, Chee uses pepper spray to buy himself some time. This holds Colton back, and when he realizes that the cops are there, he decides to flee. For this, he jumps out of a window and into a car. This leads to some cuts and bruises and some blood. Colton is forced to abandon his vehicle because he knows the cops will look for it. He ends up outside an old lady’s house who is kind to him. She helps him clean up and gives him some food and water. This scene reveals something deeper inside Colton as he appears more human than a monster. The strange woman and her food remind him of his mother and his hunger for love and affection surfaces.
Meanwhile, the cops try to track down Colton but fail. They find his car and briefly believe they have the guy. But Colton ditched it long ago, and the guy driving the car is someone else. While they are looking for Colton, Joe asks Bern to look into the half-burnt document they’d found at the site Tomas Charley pointed out for Chee. It turns out that the document details the survey of the site. It shows that the drill site had a negligent amount of Uranium.
What’s interesting is that the person who delivered this document to the authorities was Dillon Charley. Another thing that bothers Joe is why someone like B.J. Vines would buy the drill site if it was of no use. Vines bought the place after the explosion led to the shutting down of the site. With nothing of value left there, the price of the place plummeted, and Vines took this opportunity to get the place for himself. Still, it would be a waste of money if the site had nothing of value. Does this mean that Vines was duped into buying the place? Or did Vines play some long game?
The document sets another link between Vines and Charley, apart from their association with the People of Darkness. How does the cult fit into all of this? It’s clear that the explosion at the drill site was no accident. Tomas Charley’s son confirmed that the blond man, i.e., Colton was behind it. This means that someone deliberately blew up the place. Considering everything that happened after it, B.J. Vines was the only person who profited from the explosion. It was after the explosion that he got to buy the place for a meager price. Does this mean he hired Colton to blow up the place? But again, if the land has no value, why would Vines go to such lengths to get it?
A lot of questions can be answered if Colton is arrested. Joe gets back on the task of finding him. A previous case reported by a local man is brought to his attention. He realizes that they never followed up on a complaint from a certain Gerald Nez. He said that someone was illegally dumping RV waste on his land. Joe realizes that Colton must have been hiding out somewhere all this while. It’s weird that he never came to anyone’s attention, even though it looks like he has been around for a while.
Joe and Bern check out Gerald Nez’s place, which gives them a clear trail of tire tracks to follow. Sure enough, it leads them to the middle of nowhere, which makes it a perfect place for someone who doesn’t want to be found. In the final scene, they show up outside Colton’s place, catching up with the first scene of the season, where Colton goes on offense by shooting at them with everything he’s got.
