Reservation Dogs Episode 3 Recap: Lost in the Milky Way Takes Viewers on a Cosmic Journey

The third season of Reservation Dogs, in typical Reservation Dogs form, focuses on one of our central characters, Bear, and delivers a subdued and touching episode about pain, the peril of isolation, and the capacity of love to transcend time and distance.

But first, a Spanish conquistador’s ghost comes onto the screen and issues horrible threats to our helpless, thirsty, and worn-out protagonist. Some of the conquistador’s dialogue sounds like it was taken from an old travel story that Jodorowsky adapted into a movie, and the entire opening scene has a strong Holy Mountain vibe (the flat desert setting is working hard here), with symbolic meanings that I might be able to discuss more if I had been raised more Catholic.

As a result, Bear has been cut off from the group, in part as a result of Spirit’s interference, and he is not so subtly being informed that the journey he is taking will teach him important life lessons and aid in his quest to understand his deeper purpose in life.

Bear, though, is becoming frustrated with Spirit. There is a lot to discuss in this exchange between the two because it is so tense. Bear is disappointed when Spirit describes some traditional ceremonies he used to take part in that were expressions of sacrifice for the community (the part about the eagle-semen is probably not traditional).

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I don’t care what you did a hundred years ago, Bear informs Spirit. I must get food and drink right away or I will perish. Woof.In classic Bear fashion, he lashes out at Spirit, telling him to leave him alone and to stop trying to push him toward … whatever it is he’s being pushed toward.

The dejected Spirit cries a single Iron Eyes Cody Tear (you know, that sad Italian man from the 1970s commercial) and, dejected, trots off with his horse. Bear, now finally on his own, is promptly taken out by a dart to the neck, which causes him to pass out.

Bear, who is understandably afraid, realises that he is stuck and tries to summon Spirit by first pleading and then reciting the name William Knifeman three times into the mirror (try this and let us know what you discover).

Unable to flee, Bear and Maximus are forced to take a tour of the property, which reveals that it is dotted with numerous “experiments” that were probably built to attract extraterrestrials, or as Maximus refers to them, Star People. Maximus is raising eggplants in his greenhouse as a gift to the Star People (I’ll be eating a hot plate of Star People Food Parmesan at my next Italian meal).

Then Maximus plays some home movies that he has saved from his time in Okern for Bear. When describing the movies to Bear, certain recognisable names—like Brownie and Irene—appear, indicating that Maximus is well acquainted with the types of difficulties Bear has been confronting in his neighbourhood. Later, we learn that he is also a boarding school/residential school survivor.

He then goes on to explain to Bear that he has been cruelly punished for his own visions of beings from other worlds, having been institutionalised and subjected to electroshock therapy against his will. Maximus has not had an easy life, and his difficulties have been made worse by the fact that he lacks a close community and friends with whom to discuss his views.