Joe's hallucinations in Dark Winds Season 3 have a callback to an earlier scene, which fans might not have noticed

The third season of Dark Winds on AMC is arguably the one with the highest stakes yet in the history of the show. The recently released sixth episode of season 3 of Dark Winds took the audience on a surreal trip through Joe Leaphorn's persistent dreams and hallucinations.

Among the bizarre images that surfaced while Joe hallucinated on the latest episode of Dark Winds, one particular hallucinatory image harkened back to a moment from the first episode of the third season, involving a broken plate and the figurative hint that Leaphorn's private life is falling apart.

Here's everything that we know.

Joe Leaphorn's hallucinations on Dark Winds season 3 explored in detail

Throughout the ongoing third season of Dark Winds, Leaphorn is torn apart in several directions, chief among them being his involvement in the k*lling of BJ Vines, the federal investigation led by Agent Washington to uncover the truth of Vines' fate, and Leaphorn's own investigation to save George Bowlegs.

The latest episode of the show had Leaphorn hallucinating a scene wherein he is back at his childhood home along with this father Henry and his mother. While his mother serves him stew, he finds out that his plate is broken. However, his mother seems unfazed and serves the stew on the broken plate itself, making a mess.

This reference to the broken plate calls back to an earlier moment from the first episode where Joe was seen handing his wife Emma a broken plate. Thereafter, this imagery of a broken plate serves to illustrate several fractures in Leaphorn's personal life, mainly, his deteriorating relationship with Emma. As the burden of Vines' death hangs heavily on Leaphorn, he has deliberately denied Emma any place to share her woes so they can mourn together, and this has finally caught up with him.

Zahn McClarnon speaks about the latest episode

Actor Zahn McClarnon, who plays Joe Leaphorn, recently spilled several revealing details from the latest episode of the show in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter. When asked about the incorporation of the mythical story of the Hero Twins, McClarnon remarked:

"It’s based on a creation story, the Diné, or Navajo creation story of the Hero Twins, the Monster Slayer and Born for Water. These twins are embarking on a battle of the Ye’iitsoh. The direct translation of “Ye’iitsoh” is essentially something big that creates fear. Today it’s kind of a general term that means something with negative energy."

He further added:

"Then there’s the battle. Joe’s battling his own monsters throughout this episode, and we include narration woven throughout the amateur production of the kids (portraying the Hero Twins) in this episode. It’s Joe’s journey."

He then shed some light on the dream sequence:

"During the — I call it a ketamine dream — he gets shot in the neck with an animal tranquilizer dart, which usually is ketamine, they use ketamine to tranquilize animals. In this ketamine dream, Joe is exposed to a lot of his inner turmoil and trauma. There are different characters that come through the ketamine, and one is definitely Emma. There’s a lot going on there."

He also gives us a little insight into one of the themes of this season, saying,

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"For this whole season we’re exploring those areas of Joe and Emma’s relationship."

Dark Winds airs new episodes exclusively on AMC and AMC+.

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