The end of Reservation Dogs season two was a poignant emotional payoff: Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora (Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), and Cheese (Lane Factor) were finally reunited with Daniel’s spirit, standing in the ocean that he long to see in life. The season finale was a highlight of one of the best shows on TV: a deeply relatable group of young friends, struggling to make their way in a large and uncertain world.
Season three picks up with the Reservation Dogs returning home to Oklahoma after getting carjacked and stranded in Los Angeles. Their trip has some twists and turns, and while Elora, Willie Jack, and Cheese all make it onto the bus that will take them back to Okern, Bear is left to navigate his own way home in a surreal picaresque.
With a dead phone, no money, and a wasted bus ticket, Bear sets off on foot. In the first stop on his journey, he encounters a lonely conspiracy theorist named Maximus (Graham Greene), living off the grid and tending a garden that he plans to share with the star people he thinks are watching over him. True to Reservation Dogs form, the episode ricochets between hilarious mishaps and moments of profound meaning, as Maximus and Bear contemplate the vastness of the universe and the nature of love.
We also get a glimpse into the heartbreaking backstory of Deer Lady (Kaniehtiio Horn), the vengeful spirit we first met in season 1. As the episode explores Deer Lady’s past, we get a gut-wrenching look at the depravity of residential schools, in which thousands of Native children were kidnapped, abused, and killed by colonizers. As always, the storytelling in Reservation Dogs is stylish, elegant, and unflinching as it lays bare the truth of America’s disgraceful history.
As in previous seasons, Reservation Dogs season 3 is a beautiful mix of mysticism and mundanity. William Knifeman (Dallas Goldtooth) returns in season 3, cheerfully catching us up on the events of season 2 and then bugging Bear as the hapless teen tries to find his way home. Deer Lady’s already intriguing and multi-layered character deepens even more. The show’s mystical elements create a landscape that shimmers with life, history, and spirit, and that makes it a thrilling world to visit in each episode.
The season gets heavy at times—how could it not, considering the horrors that colonization has inflicted on Indigenous nations?—but it still stays true to the comedy that makes it so great. Like the best sitcoms, Reservation Dogs finds humor in situations as quotidian as riding in a bumpy Uber or picking up glasses from the optometrist. A bus station, a dune buggy, a health clinic, and other settings are all deep wells of comedy as the characters navigate quietly absurd situations.
But what makes the show truly unforgettable are its characters. Every character is on a journey, whether it’s finding a vocation or grappling with an absent father. The kids, and the adults who at once look out for them and make their lives miserable, are a delight to follow as they butt heads and help each other through their misadventures.
Season 3 is the final chapter of Reservation Dogs, which gives each episode a bittersweet undertone. I want every good thing in the world for these kids, but in the meantime, I’m so glad I get to go with them on their final adventures.
(featured image: FX)
