Dark Winds Season 3 Already Has A Giant Bernadette Challenge To Overcome

With Bernadette’s big decision at the end of Dark Winds season 2, season 3’s story involving her will be a challenge to pull off. Season 2 of Dark Winds was just as well-received as season 2, both sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The second season was intense, leading to Dark Winds season 2’s thrilling ending, and the events of the season led to all three main characters of Dark Winds‘ cast – Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten), and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) – experiencing profound turmoil and personal growth.

Of course, intense periods of growth often come with big, life-changing decisions, and that was certainly the case for Dark Winds. For Leaphorn, it was that he finally began to make peace with the darkness in his heart and his son’s death. For Chee, he finally reconciled his thorny relationship with his Native American roots and ultimately decided to rejoin the tribal police. For Bernadette, the season’s end found her making the biggest change, leading to big questions about Dark Winds season 3’s plot.

Bernadette Will Be On Her Own In Dark Winds Season 3

She Left To Join The U.S. Border Patrol

Bernadette had a big decision to make inDark Winds season 2. It was clear throughout the season that she was outgrowing her role with the Navajo tribal police and yearned to expand her horizons. A rocky potential romance and her own uncertainty about where she belongs and what she should be doing with her life threads throughout her story in the second season. Thus, it was disappointing, but not entirely surprising, when she informed Joe Leaphorn that she’d be leaving the police force and taking a job with the U.S. Border Patrol.

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It’s a great step for her character, personally, but storywise, it will put her hundreds of miles away. In fact, her announcement was enough for audiences to wonder if it meant Dark Winds season 3 wasn’t happening and that was her character’s ending, and, for others, to wonder if Matten is leaving the show. Now that we know a third season is on the way, it raises new questions about how she’ll fit into the narrative for the upcoming installment.

Why Bernadette’s Border Patrol Story Is A Risk For Dark Winds Season 3

The Show Is Stronger When All Three Main Characters Are Together

Unless Jessica Matten is leaving the show completely, which doesn’t appear to be the case, then Bernadette will have to factor into Dark Winds season 3 in some way. What way that will be, however, is a big mystery. Right now, with Bernadette far away and beginning her job with the Border Patrol, it’s hard to see how she can realistically factor into the story. If she’s not in the third season as much, it would be to the detriment of the show. The show is at its strongest when Leaphorn, Chee, and Bernadette are all working together. More, this was already a criticism (albeit mild) of season 2, with Chee working on his own as a private investigator before his case converged with Leaphorn’s.

Right now, it seems there are two ways that Bernadette can realistically factor into the story: either she quits the Border Patrol and returns to the Navajo reservation, or she finds herself working on a case that finds her crossing paths with Leaphorn and Chee again. If Dark Winds season 3 goes the latter route, it will have to be handled smartly lest it feel like a retread of last season’s convenient case convergence that enabled the main trio to reunite. If the Dark Winds writers have shown anything through the first two seasons, though, they’re more than capable of pulling it off.

Dark Winds is a 2022 television series based on Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee novels. Set in 1970s Navajo Nation, it follows Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Officer Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) as they investigate a double murder case. The show delves into both mysticism and the stark realities of life on a Native American reservation, balancing crime-solving with rich cultural narratives and character development.

Release Date

June 12, 2022

Creator(s)

Graham Roland

Seasons

3

Characters By

Tony Hillerman

Cinematographer

Paul Elliot

Creator

Graham Roland

Distributor

AMC, AMC Networks

Filming Locations

New Mexico

Main Characters

Emma Leaphorn, Hoski, Bernadette Manuelito, Sally Growing Thunder, Jim Chee, Whitover, Devoted Dan, Joe Leaphorn, Frank Nakai

Production Company

Wildwood Enterprises, Rolling Cactus Inc., Fevre River Packet Co., Tina Elmo Productions, Eleventh Northwest, AMC Studios, Startling Television

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