When you’re into a show by the time its fourth season rolls around, chances are you’ll sense it unraveling: storylines that are worn thin, characters repeating themselves, and a general vibe that the show has peaked. Dark Winds isn’t suffering from any of this. In fact, it feels sharper as it progresses through each season, with four consecutive seasons earning a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating intentionality rather than simply good luck in the ratings.
AMC has released a sneak peek from Episode 408, “Ni’ Hodisxǫs (The Glittering World),” which premieres Sunday, April 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. The finale sets up what’s shaping into a brutal endgame — Lt. Joe Leaphorn going head-to-head with Irene Vaggan in what’s being framed as less of a confrontation and more of a battle of wills, the kind that tends to leave at least one person broken on the other side.
‘Dark Winds’ is a Neo-Western Thriller That Refuses to Play by the Rules
Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn and Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee on ‘Dark Winds’ Season 3.Image via AMC
Dark Winds takes place in the sun-drenched, desolate landscape of the Southwest in the 1970s and centers on Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), a lieutenant with the Navajo Tribal Police, and his deputies, Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten). On paper, this procedural drama has been done before, as its episodes consist of crime investigations, a close-knit group of friends, and undefined boundaries between right and wrong. However, this series takes a different approach to crime dramas than other programs of its kind, including its predecessors.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone 🛢️Landman 👑Tulsa King ⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01 Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02 Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03 Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04 Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05 How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06 What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07 How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08 Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09 What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10 When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Dark Winds’ style is darker and more surreal than other similar series, with each case presented as a slow-building riddle that combines cultural practices (in this instance, Navajo spirituality) with generational trauma and a sorrow that lacks a neat resolution by the end of an episode. One moment you observe a man trailing a suspect through the desert and the next you are immersed in something resembling an other-worldly event; visions, folklore, memories that refuse to be forgotten.
Why That 100% Rotten Tomatoes Streak Actually Matters
Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) stands in the desert on ‘Dark Winds’Image via AMC
Look, plenty of shows have hit 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. For a season, maybe two, if they’re lucky, but holding that line across four consecutive seasons is rare. The kind of consistency most shows lose the second they get comfortable. The thing that distinguishes Dark Winds from other series is that it continues to improve after its first three seasons. Each season enhances the writing, rather than diluting it. The character growth is natural rather than forced. And when there’s a major change in tone (like Season 4’s move to Los Angeles in the late 1970s), the show doesn’t lose its identity.
Representatively, this series presents the culture, language, and characters of the Navajo Nation in a deliberately crafted way (though there is still room for improvement). You can see the effort here, especially in the changes made to build a stronger foundation for the series as it gained more popularity. This authenticity, combined with outstanding storytelling, is one reason why critics are regularly mentioned in their reviews.
Around McClarnon, the cast fills in the cracks. Gordon’s Chee feels caught between worlds—modern law enforcement and deep cultural roots he’s still trying to understand. Matten’s Manuelito brings this grounded determination, but you can see the strain as the job starts bleeding into her personal life. Their dynamic shifts season to season, never static, never easy. And then there are the guest players—people like Titus Welliver and Franka Potente— who drop in and immediately raise the temperature of whatever storyline they touch.
Season 4 of ‘Dark Winds’ Pushes Everything Further
Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn and A Martinez as Sheriff Lawrence “Gordo” Sena in ‘Dark Winds.’Image via AMC
Dark Windsmoved on to its fourth season with a focus on increasing risk. The connecting mystery of a missing Navajo teenager that was connected to a violent crime spree has expanded into a much larger, more complex, and ultimately more dangerous case than initially believed. The narrative unfolds across multiple locations, including outside the reservation and into parts of Los Angeles, creating an atmosphere of alienation and confusion for the characters as they adapt to their new environments.
It works.
Meanwhile, Chee and Manuelito are dealing with their own mess — injuries, relationships, unresolved pasts that refuse to stay quiet. The show leans harder into psychological horror, threading in unsettling imagery and dreamlike sequences that blur the line between reality and the unknown.
The series has already been renewed for a fifth season, set to arrive in 2027, which says a lot about AMC’s confidence in it—and, frankly, about how steady its audience has become. As for the newest episode, you can catch it on April 5.
Dark Winds doesn’t demand that you’ve been there since day one. You can jump in and catch up—Seasons 1 through 3 are already streaming on Netflix—and once it hooks you, it really hooks you. But more than that, it’s the kind of show that reminds you why television still works when it’s done right.
