Reservation Dogs (2.4) Episode Recap: In A Galaxy Far, Far Away...

There is not always a comfort in knowing someone is going to die. It doesn’t stop you from having to confront what life looks like without that person. Sometimes it just prolongs the process. Dying is one of the few experiences shared by everybody at one time or another. Some deaths occur without much recognition. Some deaths cause grief and others elation. Sometimes death is the catalyst for tearing everything apart. It can also bring everything together. That’s what happens in this week’s Reservation Dogs.

Quiet isn’t an apt word to regularly describe Reservation Dogs, but there is a certain quietude about the show itself. It’s big in its ambition but most of its dialogue is played close to the chest. Exposition and monologues are rare. When they do occur, it’s typically an elder in the community explaining a cultural practice to the younger generation. As a result, you get a sense of the world through the dialogue and the way characters interact with each other and their surroundings. This week’s Reservation Dogs explores what happens when that dialogue is largely muted. As Elora’s (Devery Jacobs) grandma is in the final stages of her illness, many members of the community show up to pay their respects. It is the first time since season one’s finale that we have seen all the Reservation Dogs together. There’s some tension (primarily between Willie Jack and Elora), but it never gets in the way of the episode. Most of the dialogue in the episode capitalizes what the show does best. It Is mostly in scenes that build a sense of community: making frybread, eating dinner together, and cleaning the dishes. It creates a flow in the episode that’s only really disrupted when Bear talks to the spirit outside. That’s not typical for a sitcom. (Reservation Dogs is not strictly a sitcom, and it’s certainly gotten further away from that in the early part of this season, but I’d argue that’s what the show is at its core.) In most TV shows, the seams eventually start to appear. One scene ends and another begins, as though largely divorced from what just happened. While it is largely dependent on the editing, there’s not often a sense of pacing from scene-to-scene in sitcoms (unless a joke hinges on it). Reservation Dogs disrupts that typical format in favor of one that exhibits more free-wheeling inclinations. While that can be more difficult to effectively to adapt to a dramatic storyline, Reservation Dogs made it look easy in this week’s episode. Aided by some wonderfully adept directing around a small space from Danis Goulet and tight editing from Patrick Tuck, the episode coming together in the way it does rests in the capable hands of Devery Jacobs.

Jacobs (who has already had some great performances on this show before) gives her best performance yet in this episode. Though the camera is regularly hovering around her, she doesn’t have but a few lines and conveys everything through her facial expressions. It’s a detachment that breaks down over the course of the episode. You can physically see her holding everything in throughout the episode. Each moment builds on the last from hugging people as they enter the home to having a conversation with her aunt she hasn’t seen since her mother died. When Elora is alone by her grandmother’s side, after hearing story upon story of how wonderful she was, Jacobs utters, “Since when were you sweet?” soft enough to break your heart into a million pieces. Finally, when her grandma passes, the dam cracks. Just as it’s about to become a full-blown flood, she squeaks out a line about needing air when Bear stands up to greet her. She holds on just until she gets to the backyard. Then she crumples. Jacobs physically shrinks into herself and starts sobbing. You can hear her desperately sucking air, trying to collect herself, and her body won’t let her. It’s a physical manifestation of grief, sadness, and loss. It is the culmination of an episode’s worth of conveying every one of those emotions with just her face.

Seemingly, Reservation Dogs has not chosen the path of least resistance. A death in the family is enough to draw a cast of characters back together permanently. There’s little indication that is what is happening. Elora clearly seems to have doubts about California despite telling Jackie that she will be ready to get on the road again. Even her aunt implores her to get out of town. But there’s something that keeps Elora coming back. Something that pulls her to this place. I don’t know if it’s the other Reservation Dogs. I don’t think she knows. That’s part of growing up. You learn things about yourself. You start to figure out what you want maybe even what you need. As you figure those things out, you just have to hope that it’s not too late to still chase your dreams, repair fractured relationships, and mourn life’s setbacks. The biggest question hanging in the air after this episode is whether Elora will get back on the road with Jackie and leave Oklahoma behind once again. The answer, especially in the eyes of the other Reservation Dogs (particularly Bear), might not be that simple though.