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NEW YORK, March 9 (UPI) -- Longmire and Reservation Dogs alum Zahn McClarnon says Joe Leaphorn, the Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant he plays on Dark Winds, will face the fallout of a difficult decision in Season 3. Returning Sunday on AMC, the series is based on Tony Hillerman's best-selling novels about Joe and his partners Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) who solve crime and try to keep the peace in the 1970s American Southwest.
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Deanna Allison, Jenna Elfman and A. Martinez co-star in the show, which this season will follow the case of a two missing boys.
Season 2 ended with Joe leaving B.J. Vines (John Diehl) -- a wealthy White man -- alone in the desert after he escapes prosecution for causing the death of Joe's teen son years earlier.
"Season 3, the arc is just a continued exploration of that tragedy that happened to the Leaphorn family with their son, ramifications of their son's death and, obviously, the consequences that he did in Season 2 from what he did to the Vines character," McClarnon, 58, told UPI in a recent phone interview.
"It's how that affects his mental state this season and his marriage with Emma (Allison). Joe is struggling with guilt in the moral gray areas he's kind of found himself in -- questioning those decisions he's made. He's questioning his moral compass and what those choices may cost him. It puts him in a lot of fear and anxiety this season."
Not knowing whether Vines definitely has died outside in the elements with no food, shelter or water, or if he might somehow survive and return to confront Joe is also weighing on him, according to the actor.
"His growth this season is a little bit more self-understanding and healing," McClarnon said.
"It's kind of reconciling his traumatic past and choices that he's made and how it's affected his loved ones around him," he added. "I don't know if Joe actually thinks he did something wrong. He didn't put a gun to Vines' head, so I think Joe's exploring that moral compass and did he do something wrong? Was it Indian justice? Is that wrong? And so we explore the psychology of Joe Leaphorn in Season 3."
Bernadette tells her mentor Joe that she is leaving the Tribal Police to go to work for the Border Patrol at the end of Season 2, just as Joe is tying up loose ends with Vines.
"Those are stand-alone events," McClarnon said.
"I think that Bernadette wants to leave the Tribal Police at the end of Season 2 because she doesn't think she's going to advance in the NTP with her career," he added. "She wants to somehow get away from the [romantic] situation she is in with Jim Chee and the father-daughter relationship with Joe. She doesn't know, at that time in Season 2, what he did, so that doesn't affect her."
While Bernadette isn't aware of Joe's actions, she is distraught to think Vines may not pay for the crimes he committed because of his money and status.
"She's doing a job as a Navajo Tribal Police Officer and she's not getting justice. She's seeing these things be pushed away by judges and White man's justice and that, obviously, brings her to a point in her career where she's like, 'It's not worth it,' and she wants to change jobs and do something else, so, yes, I'm sure THAT has something to do with her leaving for the border."
Season 2 also showed Joe melting down a cherished belt buckle that once belonged to his only biological child and presenting it to Bernadette, whom he calls "daughter."
"Basically, Leaphorn had raised Bernadette and, so, there is definitely a father-daughter dynamic," McClarnon said.
"Having to make the decision to go out on her own -- just like any daughter from a father-daughter relationship when they go to college or go out and face the world all by themselves -- it definitely affects both of them," he added. "I don't have a daughter myself, but doing scenes with Jessica Matten, who plays Bernadette, she felt like my daughter. It's fun to explore those relationships."
