Season 2 of the acclaimed AMC series based on novels by Tony Hillerman kicks off July 30.
The long wait is over: Dark Winds, the gripping drama based on Tony Hillerman’s series of Leaphorn & Chee mystery novels, will return for Season 2 this Sunday on AMC. And rest assured, C&I reader favorite Zahn McClarnon is back as Navajo Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn, along with Jessica Matten as Deputy Bernadette “Bern” Manuelito and Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee.
The six-episode sophomore season finds Chee, formerly one of Leaphorn’s deputies, gainfully employed as a private detective. He and Leaphorn reunite when their separate cases bring them together in pursuit of the same dangerous suspect: A killer who has turned his sights on them to protect a secret that rips open old wounds — and challenges Leaphorn’s moral and professional code.
With the help of Bern and Valencia County Sheriff Gordo Sena (A Martinez), Leaphorn and Chee must thwart their would-be assassin and restore balance — not only to their own lives, but also to the reservation that depends on them in their 1971 Navajo Nation community.
Before the start of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, Zahn McClarnon spoke with us — while remaining careful not to drop any spoilers — about Season 2 of Dark Winds. Here are some highlights from our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Cowboys & Indians: What do you think you know now about Joe Leaphorn that you didn’t know at the end of Season One?
Zahn McClarnon: I know that Season 2 is a different kind of journey for him. I think Joe had gotten over his child dying, and I think the thing I learned was his… well, resilience, I guess, would be a good word.
C&I: But just when he thinks he’s gotten over it, he’s got this new discovery that sort of brings him back in. Was that a difficult bridge to cross, the idea that here you are playing a guy who thought he’s had all this behind him and finds out, like William Faulkner said, the past is never dead, it’s not even past?
Zahn: Yeah, he does find some evidence about his son. And he has to face that, and come to terms with the fact that he really doesn’t know exactly what happened to his son. So I think Joe’s journey this year is quite a bit of struggle with justice — what justice means to him and what revenge means to him. I’m not saying we know what happened to Joe Jr. yet. I don’t want any spoiler alerts here. But I think his moral code gets challenged quite a bit this season, and we see what that means and how that affects his relationships around him. Where is that line drawn? Does he cross that line? You have to stay tuned to find out. I think the whole season is more about restoring balance. That’s the best way I can put it, the restoration of balance.
C&I: We’ve already seen Joe as sort of a surrogate father figure to other characters. But now this season, we get to see him as a son dealing with a father he’s always trying to please. Did that delight you, that aspect of the character, playing not only a father but a son?
Zahn: Oh, definitely. I mean, obviously I had a father. And my father’s been gone for 20 years, but I had a certain type of relationship with my father, and it was similar to Joe and Joe Sr. on the show. There’s a lot of contentiousness there, and they’re completely different generations. They deal with things differently. And I think that Joe Leaphorn's father wanted something a bit different for Joe. So there’s always that rubbing and going up against each other, and not agreeing on things. I think we all had that type of a relationship, or something like it, with our own father. So yes, I was very happy that they brought in that character. I think it adds to the show. I think it adds to Joe Leaphorn and his values and you see more of his values, and it just expands the character. It makes it broader, deeper.
And what a wonderful guy Joe Runningfox is! And look how much we look alike. We kind of look like father and son, for sure.
C&I: And also this season, you have an old compadre from your Longmire days along for the ride.
Zahn: Mr. A Martinez, folks. A’s wonderful. I love A, and I’m so glad that we brought him on this season. He’s such a professional. He’s been doing this for so long. And not just being a great actor — he’s such a wonderful human being. He brought so much to the character of [Valencia County Sheriff] Gordo Sena this year, and we couldn’t be happier as a team to have brought him on.
C&I: We’ve talked about Joe Leaphorn as a father figure, especially in terms of his relationships with Chee and Bern. But this season — well, without giving too much away, Joe has always appreciated Bern, but maybe now he’s thinking he might not have appreciated her enough?
Zahn: Yeah, I think so. I mean, in the backstory, our family pretty much our family raised Bern, and she’s been in my life all those years, and she’s become pretty much a daughter to me.
C&I: And now there is a possibility she might — repeat, might — want to strike out on her own.
Zahn: Yeah. What does that mean? I mean, Joe’s already lost a son, and he may lose an adopted daughter in Bern — and it all comes back to loss. How does that affect Joe Leaphorn? Not just affect him, but his relationships around him? I think that’s why people like this character, because he has so much going on around him. How does he deal with these things? Stay tuned, right?
C&I: Now, you're coming back after not a long stretch of time, but long enough that you and your two co-stars have been off doing other things. How do you get back into the groove of having this relationship and this shared past? I mean, do you all sit down for dinner the night before shooting, and say, “Okay, what do you think your character has been up to?”
Zahn: Yeah, we spend quite a bit of time together when we’re down in Santa Fe working. And also, I’ve known Kiowa and Jessica for over a decade now. We worked together on The Frontier. And Kiowa and I worked on The Red Road together, so I’ve known these two for quite a long time. So it’s pretty easy to fall back into it. We’re all good friends. Both of them are good people. And they’re a few years younger than I am, and sometimes I actually do feel like more of an older brother or fatherly figure around them. So I just take that and incorporate that into the scenes of the show.
C&I: You have been quite a busy fellow lately, playing everything from a surfing lawyer in No Hard Feelings to an ambitious Union soldier in Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part II. And of course you’re back as Officer Big for the final season of Reservation Dogs. Has there ever been a day on set where you’ve been in the middle of a scene and you’ve caught yourself thinking, “Oh no, wait, I’m not playing that guy, I’m playing this guy”?
Zahn: [Laughs] Not yet. I hope that never happens. I mean, I think Big from Reservation Dogs and Joe Leaphorn are quite different characters. Sometimes, once in a while, I'll catch myself and say, “Oh, that’s what Matthias would’ve done," from Longmire, because they're all three cops. But I think they're all different. I think Matthias was pretty uptight compared to Joe Leaphorn. And Joe Leaphorn’s stern, but he isn’t as uptight as Matthias was. And obviously Big from Reservation Dogs was completely on the other side of the room, more of a cartoony kind of guy. Just a little bit dumb and not as smart as the other characters.
But not very often. Not often. Quite often, though, I’ll pinch myself in the middle of a scene and think, “Wow, this is fun.” And I’m very fortunate to be doing what I’m doing today.
