In the haunting world of Dark Winds, where Navajo myths blur the lines between reality and the subconscious, Detective Joe Leaphorn (played by Zahn McClarnon) finds himself spiraling into memories he thought were buried deep within. This chapter of Dark Winds takes a bold, introspective turn—unfolding like a dream, merging spiritual legends with personal trauma. And at the heart of this harrowing journey lies a single mystery: Who was the priest, and who killed him?
Dark Winds Season 3 episode 6, titled Ábidoo’niidę́ę́ (What We Had Been Told) begins with a callback to a terrifying moment—Leaphorn struck by a dart laced with something powerful enough to send him spiraling into a dreamlike state. A monstrous figure known as Ye’iitsoh, who appears straight out of a Navajo legend, is hunting him. And in this altered reality, Leaphorn walks a path guided by memories, myth, and guilt.
As the imagery of the Hero Twins from Navajo mythology appears—monster slayers destined to cleanse the world—Leaphorn’s unconscious begins drawing parallels. He becomes one of them. Alongside him is George (Jeremiah Bitsui), embodying the spirit of the other twin. But this isn’t just about Ye’iitsoh. A deeper, more disturbing presence haunts Leaphorn’s mind: the priest.
WHO WAS THE PRIEST?
The priest is not introduced in the typical sense. Instead, his image emerges from Leaphorn’s fragmented memories of childhood—a man who served the church that Leaphorn and his cousin William once attended.
When Joe was twelve years old, his cousin Will came to live with them. In these memories, Joe is pressured by his father to go to church, while William, visibly uncomfortable, remains silent. That’s where Joe first met the priest. At the time, nothing seemed unusual. The man was friendly and welcoming. But Joe soon discovered a much darker truth.
The man lying dead in Joe’s vision wasn’t just any priest. He was someone who once held a powerful position in the community—trusted by many, respected in public. But behind closed doors, this man was a predator.
The priest was abusing children.
Joe found out that his cousin Will had been one of the priest’s victims. That discovery changed everything. Joe didn’t wait or keep it to himself. He told his father. He told the elders. He expected the adults in his life to act—to protect the children, to remove the priest from his position, to bring him to justice. But no one did anything.
The silence from the adults was crushing. The priest continued to walk free, showing up at the church like nothing had happened. Joe, still a boy, realized that the people who were supposed to protect him had chosen not to see. He began to understand something terrible: justice doesn’t always come from doing the “right thing.”
And that’s when Joe decided to take matters into his own hands.
He found his father’s gun. He made a plan. He was going to kill the priest. In his young mind, it wasn’t about revenge—it was about stopping a monster. But as an adult, Joe isn’t sure what happened next. The priest disappeared. His body was never found. Joe remembers wanting to kill him—but not if he actually did.
But here’s the twist: Joe never actually killed the priest. He only thought about it. His rage, his pain, his desire for justice—all very real—did not manifest into murder. He was a boy filled with fury but incapable of pulling the trigger.
Until now, that part of his memory was lost.
In the dreamworld he enters after being poisoned, Joe begins to question himself. Did he pull the trigger? Did he bury the body? As his subconscious begins to stir with memories long buried, parallels are drawn between the priest’s fate and that of BJ Vines, another figure whose death is steeped in moral ambiguity. Joe sees visions—his wife Emma (Deanna Allison) scolding him, and Agent Washington (A Martinez) urging him to follow the law rather than his instincts. These moments reflect his internal conflict: justice vs. law, right vs. wrong.
As he digs deeper into the memory, the truth rises to the surface. Joe did not kill the priest.
WHO KILLED THE PRIEST?
His father, Henry Leaphorn, did.
Henry had been a police officer, a man of discipline and duty. When Joe told him what the priest had done to Will and other children, Henry took action. He reported it. He tried to work through the proper channels. But like Joe would later learn for himself, the system was not built to protect them. Henry was a Native American man. His voice was not taken seriously. His reports were ignored.
And so, when justice failed, Henry made a decision.
Several days after his son’s revelation, Henry found the priest. He killed him. He buried the body in a place no one would ever think to look. The priest’s disappearance was written off as a missing person case. There were rumors, but no evidence. The file was eventually closed, and the priest was presumed dead.
Henry never spoke of it again.
Henry never revealed what he did, not even to his son. But Joe had always carried the weight of that incident in his heart. It wasn’t until he faced those buried memories that he finally understood the truth that had been silently passed down between father and son.
Joe always had a feeling. He never asked, and Henry never told. But the memory lived inside him. The poison-induced vision in Ábidoo’niidę́ę́ brings it all back. Joe sees not just the act itself but the weight his father carried. Henry didn’t kill out of rage. He killed because no one else would protect the children.
It was a painful act of love—and desperation.
THE MEANING BEHIND THE MEMORY
Joe’s vision doesn’t only help him remember. It helps him understand. The murder of the priest is linked thematically to the death of BJ Vines, a case from earlier in the season. Both deaths deal with people who abused power. Both reveal the failure of systems meant to provide justice. And in both cases, Joe is left questioning what it means to serve the law when the law does not serve his people.
The visions remind Joe of his responsibilities—both as an officer and as a son. Emma’s comments about a broken garden fence become metaphors for the broken systems Joe must face. Agent Washington’s warnings about law and order ring louder as Joe realizes how blurry those lines really are.
Joe emerges from his vision with a clearer sense of his past—and of his father. He no longer has to wonder. The truth is no longer buried.
His father was the one who acted when no one else would.
Episode 6 of Dark Winds Season 3 doesn’t just reveal a mystery—it reveals a memory. A forgotten act that shaped Joe Leaphorn’s path. The dead priest represents more than a personal ghost—he symbolizes a system that fails to see Native children, a justice system that looks the other way.
In the end, Joe understands what his father did. It wasn’t lawful. But it was just. And that understanding may be the key to helping Joe move forward—not just with the current case, but with everything he’s still holding inside.
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