“Dark Winds” Season 4 Returns With a Harrowing New Case & Major Cameo
If there is one thing “Dark Winds” knows how to do, it’s rip your heart out right before spiking your adrenaline levels. The AMC neo-noir western returned this week with its Season 4 premiere, “Ko’Tsiitáá Álnééh (Baptism by Fire),” and let’s just say, the writers didn’t waste a single second reminding us why this is one of the best crime dramas on television. Between a shocking cameo from a sci-fi legend, a terrifying new villain, and Joe Leaphorn’s existential crisis, the stakes have never felt higher on the reservation.
A Violent Diner Shootout Kicks Off a New Case on “Dark Winds”
The first episode of season 4 opens with a sequence that feels straight out of a horror movie. We’re introduced to a new face on the reservation, a menacing blonde woman played by none other than “Run Lola Run” star Franka Potente. She marches into a diner with a silencer and zero hesitation, turning a quiet meal into a bloodbath. She’s hunting a girl named Billie and her cousin Albert, sparking s new case that will likely dominate the season.
Potente plays Irene Vaggan, and if you thought last season’s Colton Wolf was creepy, Vaggan is on another level. She’s a sociopath with a weird obsession with Native American culture – specifically “warriors” – which makes her inevitable collision course with our heroes feel all the more disturbing. The way the scene is shot, with the jukebox distorting as bodies are discovered, sets a grim, stylish tone for what’s to come. It’s brutal and dark – it’s efficient, and it tells us exactly what kind of monster the Navajo Tribal Police are up against this time.
Joe Leaphorn Wants Out
While the violence is escalating on “Dark Winds,” Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (the always incredible Zahn McClarnon) is looking for the exit door. Season 3 took a massive toll on him – his wife Emma left for Los Angeles, and the guilt over past decisions is eating him alive. When we catch up with him, he’s planting corn and listening to Bad Company, looking like a man who is done with the badge.
He’s serious about retiring. He wants to head to L.A. to win Emma back, believing that stepping away from the violence of his job is the only way to heal his marriage and his spirit. McClarnon plays Leaphorn with such quiet, simmering pain that you almost want him to just go. You want him to be happy. But this is “Dark Winds,” and nobody gets off that easy.
That Linda Hamilton Cameo Was Everything
In one of the premiere’s most emotional subplots, Joe runs into his old friend and former police chief Gordo Sena (played by A Martinez). But the real shocker? Gordo’s wife is played by Linda Hamilton. Yes, “Terminator” franchise hero Sarah Connor is in the Navajo Nation, and her performance is heartbreaking.
Hamilton plays Barbara Sena, who is suffering from severe dementia. In a gut-wrenching scene, she mistakes Joe for his father. It’s a small role, but it packs a punch, highlighting the themes of memory and loss that permeate this show. Seeing her and Martinez together is tragic, serving as a dark mirror to Joe’s own fears about losing his wife. It’s a brilliant bit of casting that adds serious weight to Joe’s internal struggle.
Hamilton told People that her own mother, also named Barbara, lived with dementia for 25 years. It was both a challenge and an honor to play the character. Hamilton said she was drawn to play Barbara since it was different from the tough characters she’s been known to portray. She stated:
“I feel like I really maxed out the tough guy, and I just don’t want to play tough the rest of my career,”
Love and Professional War for Chee and Bernadette
Finally, we have to talk about the elephant on the res. Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) are officially a couple! Finally! They are domestic, they are cute, and they are absolutely doomed to have drama. Bernadette is still reeling from killing a man in self-defense last season, trying to balance her trauma with this new relationship.
But here is the kicker: Joe wants to retire, and he wants Bernadette to take his job. He hasn’t told Chee, who also qualifies for the position. This sets up a delicious yet messy dynamic where professional ambition is about to crash headfirst into their romance. Bernadette is hesitant – it’s the 1970s, and female leadership is rare – but the tension is tangible.
The “Dark Winds” episode ends with a touching title card dedicated to Robert Redford, the show’s executive producer who passed away recently. It was a classy nod to a legend who helped bring this world to life. With a terrifying new case underway and the team fracturing from the inside, “Dark Winds” Season 4 is shaping up to be a wild, emotional ride.
