Dark Winds Season 3 Episode 6: Dream Journey Reveals Hidden Truths
The sixth episode of Dark Winds Season 3 sees Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn undertake a spiritual journey as he wrestles with inner demons and a physical threat. After getting drugged, he enters into a dreamlike state that unlocks buried traumatic memories from his childhood involving an abusive priest and his cousin Will.
In the real world, he wrestles the monster Yé’iitsoh, only to realize it’s a man in a suit. It also links Navajo mythology, personal trauma, and a murder investigation in a way that flips the season around. It develops Joe’s character and drops crucial hints for the rest of the season.
Joe’s Spiritual Battle Begins
At the beginning of this episode, Joe Leaphorn is in real danger. In the desert, while looking for George Bowlegs, he sees the boy and the strange Yé’iitsoh. Somebody hits him in the back with a dart before he can offer assistance, sending Joe into a near-dream state in which his mind unfolds solutions to problems both old and new.
“The dart knocks him out and sends him down a path he’s not traditionally used to walking,” according to one reviewer. (This dream-state side effect is not merely an arbitrary plot device; it morphs into a journey that Joe must undergo to find peace.)
In this dream state, Joe follows a blood trail to the body of a dead priest. He also recognizes two boys, eventually revealed to be his younger self and his cousin Will. These clues lead to a mystery in Joe’s past that he must unravel.
Joe sits at a dinner table with his family in his childhood home. Things are wrong — broken plates and ants prove this is not normal. Those little details suggest that Joe’s brain is working its way through past trauma.
The Untold Story of the Priest
Joe doesn’t want to live this dream journey forever, and as he moves through it, he gets further insight into the priest he met. In real life, this priest had sexually abused Joe’s cousin Will and other boys. Young Joe had attempted to tell adults about it, but no one would listen or do anything.
“When Joe told his father what was happening to Will and the other kids, he tried to contact all kinds of police and federal agencies to have the priest arrested. But no one cares about his concerns,” reads one part of Joe’s memory.
The priest in Joe’s dream is continually urging Joe to solve his murder. Initially, Joe suspects he may have murdered the priest himself as a child. But the priest tells him that a twelve-year-old boy couldn’t have killed an adult man and gotten away with it.
Joe finally learns the truth when he finds his father digging a grave. No, it was his father, Henry Leaphorn, who murdered the priest after realizing that no one in power would stop the abuse. This cathartic revelation teaches Joe that sometimes justice has to come from outside the system when the system fails.
The Dance With an Agent Washington
In one surreal action sequence throughout Joe’s dream, FBI Agent Sylvia Washington requests a dance with him. This strange little moment tells us deeply about their relationship and their views on justice.
The dance symbolizes how Washington and Joe have been orbiting each other all season. She’s investigating the death of BJ Vines as Joe works to conceal his involvement. But at a deeper level, it reflects their different visions of what justice intended.
Washington believes in playing by the book to the letter. She is a perfect dancer; she follows every step. Joe is a klutz who does not belong at the formal dance. This demonstrates how Washington completely trusts the system, while Joe knows that the system sometimes fails the Navajo people.
“If the dance is a rendition of justice, then Washington thinks that honoring the choreography and dressing the part suffices for the dance to be real, while Joe understands that nothing is ever that simple,” according to one interpretation.
This moment gives context to the conflict these characters have carried throughout the season. Their views of justice aren’t just competitive professions but radically different worldviews.
Emma’s Groceries and Shattered Marriage
In another key dream sequence, Joe is handcuffed to a table when his wife, Emma, comes to visit him. She brings vegetables devastated by rabbits because Joe never put up a fence to fend them off. When Joe requests the key to his handcuffs, Emma swallows it.
However, this unusual setting metaphorically represents the conflicts in their marriage. The ruined vegetables suggest how Joe has neglected his home life in pursuing his police work. Emma’s devouring the key means it’s not OK that Joe can fix the damage he has wrought on their relationship.
“Emma and Joe are starting to go their separate ways, partly due to Joe’s choice to kill BJ Vines and what he did to leave Emma in the dark about it,” one reviewer writes. His dream confirms that Joe has always placed justice above his marriage.
This scene also shows the audience what’s at stake and the reason Emma feels betrayed. Joe didn’t discuss this with her before making the huge decision to kill BJ Vines, even though it affected both their lives. His priorities have widened the gap between them—one that may be unbridgeable.
Navajo Mythology And The Hero Twins
Throughout the episode, a play about the Navajo tale of the Hero Twins who battled the monster Yé’iitsoh unfolds. This story mirrors Joe’s journey in a few important respects.
In the most famous version of the legend, the twins Monster Slayer and Born for Water journey away from home to battle Yé’iitsoh, who has been terrorizing their people. Their father, the Sun, arms them, but they still cannot defeat the monster. Then, they turn the monster’s own weapon against it and win.
The episode explicitly links this myth to Joe’s story. As the twins do, Joe has to face a monster (both literal and figurative) to save his people. George helping Joe parallels the twins joining forces. Joe giving his gun to George resonates with the twins’ father also giving them weapons.
“Just like the Hero Twins battled Yé’iitsoh, Leaphorn goes up against the beast, and he is maimed badly while doing so,” one reviewer notes. The parallel implies that Joe is on the way to being a hero who embodies Navajo traditions.
The story ends with the twins going home altered by their experience — so altered that their mother doesn’t recognize them. This suggests that Joe’s journey will change him in ways that could alter his relationships, particularly with Emma.
The Monster Revealed
Following his spiritual experience, Joe awakens and confronts the Yé’iitsoh in reality. Injured, he shoots at the figure, who skedaddles. Chasing it, Joe discovers something unexpected—a bloody human handprint on a rock.
(source) This is a huge breakthrough. The Yé’iitsoh is not a supernatural monster but a man in disguise. “The bloody handprint he leaves behind is irrefutable evidence that he’s a human being, not a supernatural being,” one recap explains.
For Joe, this is a moment of relief. He’s been tormented by visions of this monster all season, wondering if it was punishment for killing BJ Vines. Realizing that it’s just a person and moving on puts the threat back in familiar territory — something Joe knows how to deal with as a police lieutenant.
Joe radios Jim Chee about his discovery, then collapses from his injuries. That prepares the next episode for a plot in which you go from hunting a monster to identifying the person behind the costume.
What Joe’s Dreams Mean
Joe’s extended dream sequence isn’t just about backstory. It represents when he returned to what Margaret Cigarette refers to as “the Pollen Path,” a state of spiritual equilibrium he lost after killing BJ Vines.
The dreams compel Joe to reexamine buried memories and reassess his views on justice. He discovers that his father once confronted the same impossible choice he faced with BJ Vines—whether to obey the law or pursue justice outside the system when the law fails.
This knowledge allows Joe to deal with his guilt over killing Vines. If his father—someone whom Joe respects—made the same difficult call, then maybe Joe can forgive himself. The dreams also show Joe how far-reaching his decisions are regarding repairing his marriage with Emma.
“Leaphorn’s always had that detective instinct,” reads one analysis. “But he knows that his father is a good man. And if a man such as his father could kill a man in cold blood to save the Dine, then surely Leaphorn can forgive himself for doing it to BJ Vines.”
Joe appears at the end of the episode to reconcile with his actions while still being conscious of their effects. This spiritual healing could aid him in confronting both the investigation into Vines’ death and his fractured relationship with Emma.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Is the Yé’iitsoh in Dark Winds Season 3?
The Yé’iitsoh seems like someone dressed up as a mythical Navajo monster. Joe Leaphorn learns this after he shoots at the figure and discovers a bloody human handprint. At the end of Episode 6, the true identity of the person hiding behind the disguise is unknown.
What did happen to the priest in Joe Leaphorn’s past?
The priest was a pedophile who preyed on Joe’s cousin Will and other boys. When Joe’s father learned about the abuse, Henry Leaphorn sought help from authorities. When no one came to help, Henry avenged himself by killing the priest and burying him secretly.
Will Joe Leaphorn die from his wounds?
Although Joe is gravely injured following his encounter with the Yé’iitsoh, he can contact Jim Chee for assistance before losing consciousness. Since Joe is the protagonist and there are still two episodes remaining in this season, it seems probable that he’ll survive with some assistance from Chee.
What is symbolic about the Agent Washington dance scene?
The dance scene represents Joe and Washington’s conflicting perspectives on justice. Washington plays by the book and trusts the system, while Joe stumbles through the dance because he knows the system doesn’t always deliver justice, especially not when it comes to the Navajo.
What does the story of the Hero Twins have to do with Joe?
Joe’s journey parallels that of the Hero Twins legend in several respects. Like the twins who battled Yé’iitsoh to safeguard their people, Joe must face literal and metaphorical monsters. The narrative insinuates that Joe is on the arrow-straight path of the traditional Navajo hero — but also teases that the experience will likely transform him in ways that will surface in his relationships.
Final Words
Dark Winds Season 3 Episode 6 is a turning point for Joe Leaphorn. In a spiritual dream, he faces awful bits of truth about his life, such as this bit of cosmology: It was his father who murdered an abusive priest, and Joe gains the perspective that that may have shaped Joe’s mindset regarding BJ Vines — as a bloodline crime.
The episode weaves Navajo mythology and modern crime drama, using the legend of the Hero Twins to contextualize Joe’s struggles.
As the season concludes, Joe becomes clearer on the monster he is chasing but still has significant challenges, including a complicated relationship with Emma and Agent Washington’s continuing investigation. That new information gives Joe a more helpful frame for dealing with these issues in the future in the final episodes.
Table of Contents