In a single scene towards the top of Dark Winds season 3, episode 2, Jim Chee instantly pivots and asks Shorty Bowlegs to allow them to assist him discover his son, seemingly burying the hatchet. Nevertheless, in the meanwhile, it isn’t completely clear what the reason being for the sudden change after Chee spent the primary two episodes brazenly hating new Dark Winds season 3 character Shorty Bowlegs, satisfied he was Ernesto’s killer. Shorty’s involvement within the case has stirred up a variety of previous resentments for Chee, and Dark Winds season 3’s story will probably be a litmus check of his development.
Chee arrived in Dark Winds season 1 as a younger man who had a variety of rising as much as do. He was cocky, dismissive of his Navajo tradition due to his difficult relationship with it, and emotionally obtuse. The primary two seasons confirmed Chee working via his resentment towards his Navajo neighborhood, thanks partially to Bernadette’s affect. He made his peace, even becoming a member of the Navajo tribal police at Joe Leaphorn’s aspect. However Chee’s difficult relationship along with his Navajo tradition is not the one a part of his childhood from which he is nonetheless carrying baggage, and his evolving relationship with Shorty is illustrative of that.
Bernadette Calls Chee Out Throughout Their Cellphone Name In Darkish Winds Season 3, Episode 2
She Level-Clean Tells Him He is Holding A Grudge
The primary seed planted in Chee to vary his thoughts was the sudden cellphone name he had with Bernadette, now a Border Patrol agent. After he tells her he obtained right into a struggle with Shorty as a result of Shorty touched his badge, Bernie instantly calls him out on his nonsense and drives at the true problem: “I am positive it has nothing to do with the, uh, grudge you are still holding in opposition to him?” At that second, Chee’s face closes off, and he ends the dialog, going from flirty to businesslike as he tells her the place she will be able to get ahold of Joe. Nonetheless, he has tears in his eyes as he hangs up.
It is clear Bernie struck a nerve with him, and it is seemingly a mixture of feelings he is feeling. Few folks, not to mention a person who’s attempting to impress the particular person he nonetheless clearly carries a torch for, need that particular person to flip the script and suggest that they are being infantile. There’s additionally a bit little bit of loss there, too: Bernadette was all the time in a position to learn Chee nicely, and one of many causes that their romance hasn’t blossomed is how he stored issues from her. Even now, lots of of miles aside, her perception nonetheless has the ability to maneuver him and make him wish to be a greater man.
Shorty Bowlegs Reminds Chee He Should not Maintain Their Unhealthy Blood Towards His Son
Chee Realizes He is Being Petty & He Does not Like It
If Bernie’s pointed query wasn’t sufficient to get Chee to appreciate he wanted to bury the hatchet, then his subsequent dialog with Shorty Bowlegs undoubtedly is. When Chee reveals up at Shorty’s home, he is initially nonetheless antagonistic towards his childhood bully. At first, it seems his dialog with Bernadette has knocked him off his emotional moorings, and he is about to do one thing silly, unable to let go of his grudge. It was just a few hours in the past that he had been satisfied Shorty was the one who had killed Ernesto, consumed by his hatred of the person, in spite of everything.
Chee’s clean expression earlier than wanting away is the look of a person who has simply heard a profound fact about himself, and he would not very similar to it.
Like Bernadette, nevertheless, Shorty hits Chee with an emotional actuality examine that stops Chee’s antagonism. “I instructed you my son did not don’t have anything to do with this…” he says, earlier than dropping a line of fact that clearly impacts the Navajo police lieutenant: “You assume I am silly. You have hated me for years. I am not gonna allow you to take it out on my son,” he says. Chee’s clean expression earlier than wanting away is the look of a person who has simply heard a profound fact about himself, and he would not very similar to it. Chee has accomplished a very good job of convincing himself that the problem between him and Shorty Bowlegs is all Shorty’s fault, however first Bernadette, and now Shorty, have instructed Chee that the one one nonetheless holding onto the previous is him, and it hits him arduous.
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Dark Winds Season 3’s Billy Mills Mention Adds A Very Cool Detail To Chee’s Backstory
Jim Chee talked about that he had a connection to Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills in Darkish Winds season 3, and it is an ideal addition to his backstory.
The scene performs out as if Chee asks himself at that second what sort of man he desires to be. Is he permitting his petty grudge in opposition to Shorty Bowlegs to paint his view of Shorty’s son, who’s in hassle? The reply he involves is, apparently, “perhaps,” and it would not sit proper with him. When Chee’s gaze snaps again to Shorty, it is with the provide to let him and Joe assist shield George, echoing Shorty’s sentiments: “[Y]our child should not should undergo due to the dangerous blood between us.” Chee might need a variety of emotional baggage, however he isn’t about to let a child come to hurt due to his hang-ups.
Jim Chee Is Poised To Go Via Big Development In Darkish Winds Season 3
There’s A Good Man Inside The Younger Navajo Police Detective
Their interplay wasn’t lengthy, but it surely’s one which speaks to Jim Chee’s emotional development and how he is poised to undergo an enormous character arc in season 3. He is definitely proven himself able to development earlier than, resembling his aforementioned reconnection to his Navajo/Diné culture in Dark Winds season 2. When he asks Shorty, “What sort of Navajo man are you, whistling at evening like that?” it reveals that he now carries his Navajo beliefs with him. He not sees them as a crutch or one thing to be ashamed of, however a proud a part of his heritage.
The Navajo, like many Native American tribes, consider whistling at evening attracts the eye of harmful and malevolent entities and spirits. As such, it is thought-about taboo.
Nonetheless, Chee has demons he has but to exorcise, and it is holding him again from reaching his full potential, each as a detective and as a person. As he reveals in Darkish Winds season 3, his childhood wasn’t a contented one, and there is nonetheless scar tissue there. His stepfather, Shorty’s dad, abused him, as did Shorty. However by being pressured to confront his previous via the case they’re engaged on, Chee’s emotional work for this season is to grasp and let go of the previous. There is a actually good man buried someplace in Chee, but it surely’s as much as the younger detective to do the work this season to get there.
