‘Reservation Dogs’ Season 2 Recap: What To Remember Ahead of Season 3

The third and final season of FX’s Reservation Dogs is nearly upon us, and its trailer promises yet another round of laughter and emotional tears. The show created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi began as the story of four Indigenous teens from Oklahoma – the titular Reservation Dogs – trying to get out of their hometown and all the way to California to honor the memory of a dead friend. Now, Season 3 will see Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), and Cheese (Lane Factor) back to the Rez and into the arms of some pretty pissed parents and legal guardians. Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai), meanwhile, will face a journey of his own alongside his loyal spirit friend, played by Dallas Goldtooth.

But, wait, how exactly did we get here? Didn’t Elora run away to California with Jackie (Elva Guerra) at the end of Season 1? How is Bear even talking to her after that? Well, in an eventful second season, Reservation Dogs saw its four protagonists through a series of hardships that included an ill-fated road trip, a death in the family, and an unjust arrest. After this series of events, the Rez Dogs made their way to California, where they finally made peace with Daniel’s passing. But in case you’re missing some details, here’s everything you need to remember before Season 3 of Reservation Dogs comes along.

RELATED: ‘Reservation Dogs’ Season 3 Review: A Bold Beginning of the End for This Small Miracle of Television

What Happens to Elora and Jackie on Their Trip to California?

Upset that her friends bailed on her at the last minute and that Bear used a considerable part of their funds to buy a gift for his deadbeat dad, Elora finished Season 1 taking off to California with her once sworn enemy, Jackie. But being on the road turns out to be tougher than the two girls expected. After their car – or, rather, Elora’s grandmother’s car – breaks down, they decide to turn to hitchhiking only to be dragged down a spiral of bad luck. Their first ride turns out to be some creepy dude that tries to take them to a road less traveled — literally — causing Elora and Jackie to panic, stab him, and exit the car in a hurry, leaving all their money behind. Following this initial scare, the girls decide to rob a car on their own only to get chased down by a group of racist rednecks with guns.

Lady Luck finally smiles upon Elora and Jackie in the form of Anna (Megan Mullally), a white divorcee who, despite being weird in her own right, offers them some food and a place to stay for the night. But, despite being thankful for the hospitality, the girls don’t plan on overstaying their welcome: as soon as Anna is asleep, they take one of her cars and go back on the road. This time, however, it’s not California that they plan on reaching: the goal is to return to Rez. First, though, they have to make a quick stop at Jackie’s mom’s. Titled “Run”, Episode 2 of Reservation Dogs Season 2 gives us the first clues in the show that Daniel’s (Dalton Cramer) suicide isn’t a one-of-a-kind event, but a systemic issue. At Jackie’s place, Elora finds out that her newfound friend had a brother that took his own life much like her old friend did. This left a mark not only on Jackie, but also on her mom, as it is implied she spends her days asleep on the couch.

Jackie borrows some money from her mom and a chain from a neighbor, and she and Elora return home with their broken car in tow. While the two girls might have no idea of what caused their road trip to fail so badly, Willie Jack might have a clue. She’s convinced that the white curse she put on Jackie at the end of Season 1 is not only affecting her but also backfiring on the Reservation Dogs as a whole. This is why Elora left them and why Bear has been acting so sad all the time. So, she sets off with an unwilling Bear to break the curse. She finds help in the form of Bucky (Wes Studi) and Uncle Brownie (Gary Farmer), who’s convinced that he became a holy man after stopping that tornado. Taking the opportunity to make amends for past mistakes, the two take Willie Jack and Cheese to the river, where they perform an ancient ritual while chanting Tom Petty‘s “Free Fallin'”, cleansing the kids of the curse.

Season 2 Is Full of Conflict for the Reservation Dogs

Getting rid of the curse turns out not to be enough to cure the bad blood between Elora and the rest of the Reservation Dogs. Things seem to be going back to normal during Mabel’s (Geraldine Keams), Elora’s grandmother’s, passing, in which the whole village comes together to help the Postoak family. But, when Jackie appears alongside her aunt Bev (Jana Schmieding), it soon becomes clear that there’s still a lot of ground the kids need to cover in order to forgive each other.

Following in the footsteps of “Run”, the fourth episode of Reservation Dogs Season 2, “Mabel”, highlights that every generation in the Rez has a Daniel of their own. The return of Elora’s aunt Teenie (Tamara Podemski) to town serves as a catalyst for Rita (Sarah Podemski), Big (Zahn McClarnon), and the other members of the previous generation to relive the death of Cookie (Janae Collins). Elora’s mom passed away years prior, when her daughter was just a baby, while riding in a motorcycle with her drunken boyfriend. This traumatic death – which is also somewhat self-inflicted, if only for the carelessness it involves – completely broke Cookie’s group of friends and prompted Teenie to leave the community behind. Meanwhile, Big, who saw Cookie and her man riding together, blames himself for being powerless to stop their demise.

Back to the kids, they have a second opportunity to make amends at a youth event held by the IHS, in which a couple of clueless Native American influencers are invited to teach teens about decolonization. Forced to participate in a series of trust exercises, such as dancing with a potato between their heads and guiding each other blindfolded, Elora and Bear begin to rekindle their friendship. But everything goes downhill after Willie Jack drops Jackie on the ground during one of the exercises and uses a paper she wrote about a childhood memory of her brother to humiliate her. In defense of Willie Jack, she didn’t know that Jackie’s brother had committed suicide, but that doesn’t make anyone less mad. Jackie storms out of the health clinic and tells Willie Jack to watch her back, while Elora and Bear have a fight that threatens their friendship forever.

The kids, however, are forced to come together once again when Jackie gives them some disturbing news: while biking through the Rez, she sees Cheese being arrested alongside his uncle Charley (Nathan Apodaca). Sent to a group home, the fourth member of the Reservation Dogs is finally rescued by his friends, Big, and his new grandma, Irene (Casey Camp-Horinek), a.k.a. the old lady he met at IHS in Season 1.

Daniel’s Letter Brings the Rez Dogs Back Together

One would think that getting a friend out of a group home would be enough to get four teenagers over their petty problems, but the gang still isn’t the same. Willie Jack, in particular, misses her friends, whom she feels are only hanging out just to be polite, and not out of true love for each other. The fact that both Elora and Bear now have jobs doesn’t help, either. Things change, however, when she receives a letter written by Daniel when they first started high school. Part of a time capsule project, the letter is given to her by their teacher, who believes Willie Jack should be the one to have it since she and Daniel were cousins.

Unsure of what to do with it, Willie Jack enlists her imprisoned aunt Hokti (Lily Gladstone) for help. Once a powerful healer, Hokti has grown bitter after the death of her son, but Willie Jack manages to melt her heart enough to dole out some much-needed advice. Together, Hokti and Willie Jack pray to the spirits of their ancestors in an extremely moving scene that has both Willie Jack and the viewers with tears in their eyes. The answer to Willie Jack’s problem is simple, but also quite complex: she must create a space in which their friends can heal themselves. However, she must also remember that there is no help for those that don’t want to be helped. And, so, she invites Elora, Bear, and Cheese to her place and gives them Daniel’s letter, hoping that this will be enough to bring them back together.

The Reservation Dogs Set Off to California

There’s no knowing yet whether Daniel’s letter will mend Willie Jack, Elora, Bear, and Cheese’s friendship for good, but, after reading it, the Reservation Dogs decide once again to go on the road. After all, Daniel’s letter was all about going to California (and having a crush on Elora), so it’s up to his friends to make his dream come true. After borrowing a car from a surprisingly amenable Kenny Boy (Kirk Fox), whose perspective on life changed a lot after a bizarre encounter with the codfish-loving cult, the Reservation Dogs bid farewell to their homes and set off on their journey.

Season 2, Episode 10, “I Still Believe”, is all about the kids’ road trip. This time, Elora’s car manages to take them all the way, but that doesn’t mean things are any easier. The car gets jacked as soon as they get to California, alongside, you guessed it, all of their money. The robbers also take Daniel’s letter, which the kids had been planning to throw into the ocean as a last farewell.

Eventually, though, the Reservation Dogs make it to the beach, partly on their own and partly with the help of a hobo by the name of White Jesus (Brandon Boyd). Mimicking the ritual performed by Brownie and Bucky to get rid of the curse, Willie Jack chants “Free Fallin'” once more. Cheese says a prayer, and then they take off their shoes and go into the ocean with the intent of letting go of the pain of having lost Daniel. Once in the water, they see Daniel’s spirit, and the five kids embrace for the first time since he took his own life. As the last minutes of the episode play out, Bear announces that he is not going back. It’s a bittersweet ending for a bittersweet season, one that reminds us why this show will be so missed after it is gone.