By Kali Simmons, who investigates the representation of Indigenous individuals in media.
This season, most episodes of Reservation Dogs have focused on the story of Maximus, a previous Okern resident who was changed into a recluse after a run-in with aliens (or, as he calls them, star individuals). The extraterrestrial encounter drove a wedge inbetween Maximus and his pals, as Bucky, Brownie, Irene, and Mabel dismissed the sighting as simple hallucination, whereas Maximus firmlyinsisted that what he had experienced was genuine. And provided that visitations of spirits and transcendent beings are a relatively routine incident in Reservation Dogs, it feels like audiences are required to at least thinkabout the possibility that aliens are “real” within the world of the series and think that there’s a kernel of reality in what Maximus declares to haveactually experienced.
Even priorto this, Maximus was currently losing his faith in individuals since of a long-simmering beef inbetween himself and his “cousin-brother” Fixico, whom, up upuntil this season, we haveactually understood as “Old Man” Fixico, a therapist who vends outdoors of the Indian Health Clinic. Back when Fixico was a young male on track to endedupbeing a therapist, Maximus declared that his relative had consistently stoppedworking to acknowledge secret distinctions in their upbringing, which for Maximus was a indication that Fixico was possibly not yet allset or deserving of the praise the brand-new position was amassing his relative.
Ever consideringthat, Fixico and Maximus haveactually held onto their animosity, each male bearing partial obligation for their continuous fight. But they are not the just accountable celebrations. As we saw in the episode “Deer Lady,” Residential schools severed the ties inbetween seniorcitizens and youth, and those relationships have just now began to be reconstruct. These schools, both IRL and within the world of the reveal, likewise led to reduced self-confidence, increased rates of suicide, and increased rates of drug usage within neighborhoods. We likewise understand that such issues continue to afflict Okern, offered the catastrophe surrounding Daniel, which was the focus of the last 2 seasons of the series. Given how deeply related each aspect is, it’s tough to point the finger at one specific minute or individual as the source of a character’s injury.
Through these interlocking stories, Reservation Dogs has been asking an essential concern: How do we recover from a violence that has neverever ended? In her poem, “I am graffiti,” Leanne Betasamosake Simpson composes of Indigenous Peoples, “We are the singing residues / left over after / the bomb went off in sluggish movement over a century rather of a fractionated 2nd.” As we’ve seen this season, the problems dealtwith by the Rez Dogs are echoes of those dealtwith by their momsanddads and seniorcitizens. How do we make it stop? And similarly, how do we take duty for our actions when we run under conditions of continuous tension? How do we call house all those things that haveactually been missingouton (but were neverever lost) in an respectable and ethical method? And how do we make house an accommodating area for those who ran away? And all while living in a consistent blast zone, as it were? Reservation Dogs can’t provide us all the responses, however it provides minutes of humor and relief as it designs possible interventions. So: This week’s episode brings the story of Maximus to its conclusion by bringing the male house, however it’s no simple (or legal) task to do so.
“Send It,” mainly informed through flashbacks of the “heist,” which has currently tookplace, opens on a series of interrogations that Big is carryingout with Elora, Bear, Cheese, Willie Jack, and numerous members of Jackie’s gang, consistingof White Steve, Wheeze, and Bone Thug Dog. Some kind of criminalactivity hasactually been devoted, and Big is intent on sorting out precisely what went down. It’s Willie Jack who lastly spills the beans on part of the plot, informing Big that “it all begun at senior breakfast,” where she was serving as the plus-one for old guy Fixico while “learning his wizard methods” (and scoring some totallyfree food in the procedure). Shortly after being captured up on the spat inbetween Fixico and Maximus (which it appears like Fixico is still quite aching about, calling his cousin-brother a “mean child of a bitch”), Willie Jack witnesses the therapist Fixico have a heart attack.
Cut to the Rez Dogs and Jackie’s outlaws joined for the cause of breaking out Maximus from the Tulsa healthcenter. They’ve approached Kenny Boy, who is the regional junkyard owner and purveyor of taken products throughout town, for aid. Kenn