The New World
Episode 4 of Dark Winds season 4 begins with the assassin, Irene, breaking in to an LA office and stealing some files. Before she goes, she spray-paints “The truth dies with me” up on the wall. She also kills the owner of the house too, tying him up in his car and choking him with his car’s exhaust fumes.
Meanwhile, Jim Chee is still in a rough way from his injuries but he avoids heading to the hospital for now. He patches himself up and heads outside, where we see that, despite the sunny locale, things are still frosty between him and Bern.
Joe, now in LA, phones Emma to let her know he’s in town. He didn’t want to surprise and blindside her with this but reinforces that he’s currently on a case right now. Emma offers a way in though, suggesting they head for lunch.
For now, Joe is busy looking for Billie with Bern and Jim. The latter heads out alone, as the trio decide to head over to the Indian Center for clues. However, this brings back memories for Jim, who has actually been here before when he was a kid with his mum.
Unfortunately, Joe and Bern don’t have much luck, and they come up against plenty of bureaucratic red tape too when the cops refuse to budge or do them any favours without a warrant.
However, they do get a lead thanks to Jim Chee. Out back with a bloody nose, he runs into a fellow Native by the name of Sonny Bear Heart. Apparently he has an office just up the road and he offers Chee a job, encouraging him to come visit at Cliffside bar.
Chee notices that Sonny is wearing the same sort of ring as Albert, and although he hasn’t mentioned Leroy Gorman, it seems the perfect opportunity to bring it up casually. Chee wants to go it alone, knowing that if Joe or Bern arrive with him, it may spook the guy.
At the bar, Jim speaks to Sonny and casually mentions both Albert and Leroy. The guy definitely knows who these two are but he keeps a poker face and even offers Jim a place to crash and party.
Given Leroy will supposedly be there, on the way out Chee updates the others while casually passing their truck. As we soon see though, Chee’s gash is getting worse and so too is his mood toward Bern.
When she heads in to try and talk to him that afternoon, Chee gives her the cold shoulder, still unhappy that she’s getting the promotion over him.
Joe heads to see Emma for lunch and admits he’s going to retire after this case. He also has a bag of tomatoes for her too, picked from the vine. While there, Emma gets a call and she’s forced to cut lunch short given she’s called back in to hospital.
Meanwhile, the assassin heads back to her heavily-defended compound, where she’s reunited with her grandpa. Here we learn her actual name, as he seems to have dementia. He fires his gun at her, and Irene is forced to wrestle him to the ground and calm the guy down.
He’s paranoid and still living in the heart of the war. However, Irene isn’t exactly completely sane either, given she sticks a picture of Joe on her mirror and looks over it fondly, touching her lips and smiling.
Irene shows up to see her boss at the local prison next, explaining that the job is done and she wants her money wired as usual. However, her boss is not happy with the way she’s handled this. Between Albert’s death and Billie running around LA asking about his brother, he wants the situation cleaned up quickly.
The man’s trial is coming up very soon and he’s uneasy with the number of loose ends she’s left. Money seems to be off the table until she deals with Billie, and that causes Irene to grow desperate.
That night, the big party goes ahead and Jim Chee shows up, playing his part. He meets with Sonny, who pressures him into taking pills and drinking. However, this comes right as Billie shows up at the party too.
Joe encourages Bern to leave it to Chee but she doesn’t listen, deciding to head into the party herself, posing as another pretty face in the crowd. As she starts looking around, Billie is pulled aside and warned to leave by one of the girls there.
Sonny and the other guys here are not to be trifled with, given they’re part of a dangerous gang. Even worse, with Irene after her she needs to get out of town otherwise she’ll be killed.
The girl takes her out the party, which is bad news given Bern and Chee are both inside trying to find her. Joe is a sitting duck outside and as he looks around, he realizes the adjacent abandoned building has cameras set up on tripods. Something is definitely not right here and it seems someone else is staking the area.
Inside the party, Chee is taken away from the main hustle of people, where Sonny questions him. Chee is completely out of it, mumbling about Leroy and spiralling. He heads into the toilet and vomits quite violently.
Bern notices him head in and how long he’s been there, and she decides to follow. Chee is in a rough state and ends up hallucinating about vomiting blood everywhere. Bern shows and helps him out, but Sonny spies them leaving the party together.
As for Joe, he heads over alone to the lookout spot and he’s blindsided by a couple of men who beat him down.
The Episode Review
The search for Leroy and the truth continues, and this time we get a little more development for our characters.
We now know that the assassin’s name is Irene and she’s clearly doing this partly to help pay for her grandfather and get a better quality of life for them both. However, the person she’s working for is a dangerous man but we still don’t know how he’s connected to everything right now.
The changed locale of LA offers a nice change of pace though, but it should be clear by now that things aren’t going to fly in the same way as they did on the reservation.
Jim Chee is very lucky that he didn’t reveal more about his purpose or his job in that party, especially given the effect of those drugs. At one point I genuinely thought he was going to mumble about Bern and Joe or something regarding his job!
Instead, it’s actually Joe who seems to have stumbled upon something far bigger than Sonny’s party. What were those men doing in that building? Hopefully we’ll get some answers in the episodes ahead.
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