Kiowa Gordon Talks ‘Dark Winds’ Season 2 and New Dynamics at Play [Interview]

Disclaimer: This interview was conducted on Wednesday, July 12th, before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. We fully support SAG-AFTRA and the WGA, as without their labor, Dark Winds would not exist. 

Dark Winds, AMC’s western thriller hit series based on the Tony Hillerman novels of the same name, returns for Season 2 on July 30th, and the tone is getting more mysterious than ever.

I had the chance to speak with Kiowa Gordon, who plays Jim Chee, about Season 2, the adventures in store for his character, and the ways he hopes the series continues to grow.

In the aftermath of the Season 1 finale, Chee is now working as a private investigator, but he’s become disillusioned with the outside world and is trying to figure out what matters most to him again.

Season 2 will see Chee take on more minor cases here and there within the community before reuniting with Joe Leaphorn, portrayed by Zahn McClarnon, as he takes on a case that immerses him in something darker than expected.

“Rosemary Vines hails him to her home and has a juicy new case for him: the people of darkness, and there’s a box he’s gotta go find. There’s something off about this lady, and he can smell it. He’s skeptical, but he’s very curious. He’s like a cat, and curiosity gets the cat every time,” Gordon said. 

“This case intertwines with what also Joe Leaphorn is working on. In this season, there’s a truck bombing and everything. I think a lot of it is we’re coming to terms with our own moral compasses, mortality, and our integrity. I think it’s a nice journey for all of us in there.”

Per the Season 2 trailer, fans can expect some slight action from Gordon after Chee gets reshot. A moment that will haunt him throughout the season, causing him to do some heavy inner reflecting.

“It’s hard for him to wrestle with because how could he have been so stupid, just, ‘oh, here I’m that guy that gets shot out of nowhere,'” Gordon said. “But who could ever have anticipated that? It’s almost haunting him for a good whole episode, where he’s just kind of reeling from it, and he’s thinking about the people in his life that he wants to have there.”

“He thinks of Joe, Emma, and Bernadette, and it’s a lot that he has to wrestle with between his relationships and his new job as a private investigator. It’s a nice, fun turn, but dangerous with an assassin on the loose,” he continued.

With the new job, his relationship with Leaphorn sees a new dynamic at play. Gordon said Chee has a newfound confidence about him after working on the reservation and being intermixed in the landscape and community more.

“It’s great because our dichotomy is just really good this season, and we’re just a great match to partner up with and go solve cases together. We first get in a car to find a clue, and we’re just ribbing each other, joking around, and it’s a lot lighter because I [Chee] don’t need to be so stuffy and buttoned up. I think that lends a lot to our dynamic and the story going forward between the both of us,” Gordon said.

After Chee’s shooting incident, he’s forced to be confined at the hospital for at least a whole episode in order to heal, but as the saying goes: there’s no rest for the wicked.

“These are fresh wounds, but I still have a job to do. I have a case to solve still. There’s the mystery with the box and Rosemary hiring me. So, I can’t just let that go. I think it’s going to be cool to watch all the physicality that we get to incorporate in this season with me fighting the would-be assassin.”

“We did a whole night of stunts, fighting in the hospital, and running around,” he explained. “So, I think it’s just fun to show that and for people to see that I’m excited for. Also, a little more action with Joe, Bernadette, Rosemary, and BJ Vine.”

“There’s a nice scene near the end. There’s a laughing ceremony for Sallie Growingthunder’s baby, and that’s a nice fun moment where the community comes together, and they’re all eating and having a good time laughing it up. I think it’s nice to show the layers that we all have,” Gordon continued.

Following Chee’s actions towards the end of Season 1, the relationship between him and Bernadette is strained and will require work to repair. But for those fans hoping to see their relationship blossom into something more than friendship, Gordon says all hope isn’t lost.

“It’s a very, very slow burn for them because, no pun intended, but I kind of burned Bernadette last season. She took great offense to me not telling her that I was FBI.”

“So, that drove a wedge between us. And we’re trying to get back into a speaking relationship first before we can dive into any emotional things that can come up and surface between us, and any physicality that we may want to pursue for each other. But I think fans that want to see it, they will be happy near the end, but also maybe a little sad the way things are left between us,” Gordon continued.

Gordon said the entire team took the solid foundation they built from Season 1 and improved upon it in this season, adding layer after layer to highlight their growth.

“There’s inner turmoil, strife between people, mystery between the cases, and what we’re trying to get down to. He’s trying to figure it out still. And I think I got to remember not to be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I have it all figured out now,’ even though I read a lot of these books, and I know where he’s at and all the stuff, but we’re showing the TV show, and there’s room for all that growth,” Gordon said. 

In the current TV landscape, more series are being canceled due to outside factors unrelated to streaming numbers or viewership, but Gordon is hopeful Dark Winds will prevail.

He says it’s okay for the series to have a slow build-up regarding character development and that he hopes to continue portraying Chee as long as fans keep watching and the series keeps getting renewed.

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Dark Winds Season 2 premieres on July 30th at 10/9c on AMC+.

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