Reservation Dogs (2.3) Episode Recap: No More Soft Hands

Growing up isn’t a defined process. It doesn’t happen at a certain age. It doesn’t happen when you do a certain thing. It just sort of happens. Hell, not only is it not a defined process, it isn’t even a universal one. Some people are adults with spouses and children and still haven’t grown up. And some people grow up much younger than that. Not because they choose to but because they are forced to. So, it turns out that in this episode of Reservation Dogs, it’s Bear’s turn. There are only two problems: he doesn’t know how, and he knows he is going to screw it up.

The focus of the first two episodes was primarily Elora and Jackie’s journey (with some Willie Jack, Cheese, and Bear sprinkled in here and there). This episode’s entire focus is on Bear. It deepens the feeling that in the wake of the first season’s events (and even just confronting Daniel’s death) these characters are taking separate journeys before they come back together.

The premise of this episode is straightforward enough: Bear gets a job. He decides that he wants to work construction not because he feels a calling, but because it emulates what he thinks it means to be a man. We also find out later in the episode that his dad not only worked the same job but even with some of the same crew. Bear’s path follows his father with one sharp distinction: Bear is hellbent to avoid making the same mistakes. At the end of the episode when he comes home with his first payday, he looks at his mom, smiles, and says “I got electric this month.” This sweet moment between Bear and his mom is brought crashing back down the reality as a heartbroken Elora shows up at Bear’s bedroom window to talk about her grandma’s sickness.

Most of the episode is spent on the roof though. The day starts with riffing and bullshitting between Uncle Charley and Marc Don. This is the episode at its funniest. Uncle Charley starts talking about how they used to Marc Don “Marksman” not because he was a great basketball player, but because he used to shoot the ball all the time. Marc Don replies that at least he didn’t have to drop out a tournament because he had diarrhea. To which Uncle Charley replies, “Those gas station hot dogs are no joke!” It’s also yet another scene that makes this show feel like we aren’t watching a show so much as just watching people hang out.

The latter part of the episode is much more difficult, rewarding, and cathartic for Bear. The fourth member of the crew is Daniel’s dad, Danny. Danny keeps to himself, gets the job, goes home, and then comes back the next day. Charley mentions that he used to be the worst worker out of all of them, but since Daniel died, he’s like a robot at work. At first, Bear avoids him. After a conversation with the Spirit (played joyfully again by Dallas Goldtooth), Bear decides to stop avoiding the topic of Daniel’s death and start processing it. Part of that is actually talking about it. Eventually, he does with Danny. He listens to Danny talk honestly about the guilt he carries for what happened with Daniel. Bear starts to agree with him, and Danny shuts him down. He lets him that he’s young and he cannot put Daniel’s death on his own shoulders. He then imparts on him the importance of doing things right the first time. He doesn’t say it, but it hangs in the air. He’s saying it because you don’t know how many chances you’ll get to do things right. You can’t always rely on the process of failing and learning. He knows this firsthand. Just before Danny and Bear wrap it up for the day, the camera cuts to behind them, their silhouettes only visible to us through the streaming sun in the sky. Suddenly, something starts to move in the sky. Both Danny and Bear start to watch it. It’s difficult to read it as anything other than something related to Daniel. Neither try to figure out precisely what they just witnessed. Because they don’t have to. They just felt it. Between them and in front of them.

Reservation Dogs’ second season is exploring what happens to a dream deferred. The entirety of the show’s first season was predicated on reaching for the unreachable. Their dreams were unrealized and aspirational. Even though it was without Daniel, it wasn’t truly without him. The California dream was his and the Reservation Dogs resolved to see it through for him. This second season has been asking what that dream looks like when it isn’t aspirational anymore. It examines what the dream looks like when reality hits for everyone. Elora and Jackie quickly run out of money, briefly get kidnapped, and are almost killed. Bear has now taken up the mantle his father left behind. Presumably, Willie Jack and Cheese are still to come. It’s not just a dream deferred though. Because that dream was inextricably tied to Daniel, the Reservation Dogs – one-by-one – are now forced to truly deal with what life is like without him.