The Dogs of Okern Move On
Show Review: Season 3 of Reservation Dogs
Reservation Dogs is a comedy series that premiered on Hulu in 2021. It was created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi and is a coming-of-age story set in the fictional town/reservation of Okern, Oklahoma. The show follows four Indigenous teenagers, Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs), Bear Smallhill (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), and Cheese (Lane Factor) who form a gang called the Reservation Dogs.
The “Rez Dogs” commit small crimes to raise money to get to the faraway land of California with the hopes of honoring their deceased friend Daniel. By the final season, the Dogs start to acknowledge that their paths might be heading differently.
Willie Jack starts to spend time with an elder on the reservation named Fixico, who is considered a healer by the community. Fixico’s role has grown in the three seasons and he is often considered the voice of reason, reminding the youths on the reservation to preserve their culture and embrace their community.
Bear and his mom have a huge decision to make in Season 3, Cheese bonds with his adopted grandma but it’s Elora Danan who makes the biggest change in the series. Elora’s journey has always been different from the rest of the Dogs as her life has consisted of loss from the beginning. Elora’s mom Cookie dies when she is still a baby, she has no relationship with her father and her grandmother’s passing leaves Elora with a house but an uncertain future.
In Season 3 the Dogs eventually return to life on their reservation after making their way to Los Angeles in Season 2 and promptly get in trouble with their elders. In this final season, the episodes expand more to the other members of the Okern Reservation community like Bev who starts an affair with reservation police officer Big, or Aunt Teenie who often takes a break from her life to help out on the reservation. The elders see how the teens don’t have much guidance so they band together to help guide them despite the hardships of living on a reservation.
In one of the best episodes of the series, we finally get a glimpse of Elora Danan’s father played by the always-excellent Ethan Hawke. This episode is titled “Elora’s Dad” and it’s a thing of beauty. Elora tracks down her Dad to get him to fill out some financial forms for college and he eventually coaxes her to spend time with him with a bit of parental manipulation. Devery Jacobs who plays Elora wrote the episode and it’s wonderful to watch her and Hawke tip-toe around the past and each other as they struggle to express what each other’s absence has meant in their lives.
At the end of “Elora’s Dad” Elora experiences a sort of community that is different than her family within the reservation boundaries but one that has potential just the same. The way the final scenes are acted, it’s clear that Elora gets some kind of understanding about her past that gives her the okay to move on and embrace a future that is very different than what viewers expected at the beginning of the show.
The tragic history of residential schools is explored in the “Deer Lady” episode, in which we see how Deer Lady came to be. While shown only briefly in Seasons 1 and 2, Deer Lady (a spiritual protector of sorts) helps get Bear home to Okern but not before taking the opportunity to exact revenge on the “human wolf” who took the life of her young friend. The implied violence against the children is never overtly shown but it doesn’t need to be. The terror on the faces of the actors as they are dragged from their beds is quite enough.
Another brilliant aspect of this episode is that the majority of the scenes are shot from the perspective of the children. They have no idea what the nuns and priests want from them and their words are garbled, almost sounding like gibberish whereas the children’s native tongue is clear and passionate. The episode is sure to stay a long time with viewers because I know I can’t get this subplot of Reservation Dogs out of my head.
Famous faces are sprinkled throughout this season but it’s the episodes that focus on close relationships that hit the hardest. I sobbed during the “Wahoo!” episode where Cookie’s spirit encourages Bear’s mom Rita to check in with Elora. Rita does and quickly falls right into the role Cookie knows that Elora needs- mothering. Cookie also gently reminds Rita that while she has to drift aimlessly, Rita and more importantly Elora don’t have to while opportunities are still available.
Season 3 of Reservations Dogs is ultimately about the community itself and how the Dogs navigate life on a reservation despite losing their best friend to suicide. While often hilarious, Reservation Dogs also touches on serious issues like poverty, mental health struggles, and the trauma of colonialism with sensitivity. Despite these heavy themes, the show always maintained a hopeful tone, as the friends support and comfort each other throughout the hardships of life.
I don’t know if we will ever see the gang back together on the small screen but I’m so grateful for the three years spent with these characters and all of the knowledge and culture that Reservation Dogs bestowed on its viewers.
Trigger warnings: suicide and strong language. The Reservation Dogs' final season is currently streaming on Hulu.
