Reservation Dogs’ finale ends the best show on TV in style

The finale to the series Reservation Dogs, “Dig,” starts in jail. Willie Jack, played by Paulina Alexis, is on a visit to her aunt Hokti.The Flower Moon Killers’s Lily Gladstone) with some news to share: A beloved elder close to both of them has passed.

“Just feels like… I didn’t get to spend enough time with him,” Willie Jack says. “Like… like he left before I got to learn anything from him. And we spent a lot of time together.”

Hokti responds after some consideration using the snacks Willie Jack gave her. Hokti places a bag full of chips in the centre of the dining table to act as the elder. The rest of the assorted snacks on the table surrounding the bag of chips become the people he was close to – Willie Jack, Willie Jack’s parents, Hokti herself, and many others in the fictional community of Okern, Oklahoma.

As she speaks, she takes a group of chips out of the bag, and places one on each of the surrounding snacks, reflecting the elder’s impact on the people in his community.

Image: FX

“Say that he spent time with each of these people, a good moment. Let’s even say that he spoke to them about some things. Say he gave them teachings,” Hokti says. “Now, each one of these people – they carry that with them. Imagine all of the people who are near you. You friends. They all have you in their pockets. [the elder]With them too. And all this — that’s how community works. It’s sprawling. It’s spreading. Why did they try to eliminate us? It’s our community. If you destroy that, it will also break down the individual.

“[He] isn’t gone,” Hokti says. “He’s right here, between you and me.”

Losses of family members, which require healing, are the bookends to this show. The Rez Dogs experienced a lot between: chip-truck heists and hospital breakouts; dangerous road trips; encounters with mythical beings. At the end, Reservation DogsIt was about the community.

Sterlin Harjo’s teen dramedy about four Indigenous teenagers in Oklahoma, with all Indigenous writers and directors, meant so much to so many people. This teen drama taught important lessons about community and friendship, while telling stories that were both funny and moving. This third season focused on the intergenerational connection. When the children grow older and begin to make decisions about their future (and the place they will live), they are drawn towards the elders of their communities. Rez Dogs depicts this both through direct connection — like the bond Willie Jack mourns here, or Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) meeting a lost elder in the middle of nowhere — and structurally, in flashback episodes that show the stories of Okern’s elders from their youth (and draw direct comparisons between the two groups of kids across time).

Image: FX

Image: FX

The show was able to use these parallels as a way of commenting on grief, ageing, and time passing. But above all else, Rez DogsThe show told funny, heartwarming stories with a lot of laughter and lovable characters. The core group of Rez Dogs — Willie Jack, Bear, Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs, Marvel’s Echo“) and cheese (Lane Factor The Fabelmans) — are among the most lovable group of misfits to have ever graced TV, and their growth into the adults they will become is an absolute delight. That’s especially true of Bear, who started the show as a somewhat self-obsessed, self-appointed leader of the group. He realizes that he must be more than just a leader. MembersIt is a community that has stayed close.

Rez Dogs was adept at so many different modes, going from “Cheese goes camping with the elders” (a personal favorite) one week to “Rita is visited by the spirit of her long-dead friend” the next, and never once missing a beat. Are they grand and mythical? Check. What about the aunties who go absolutely wild at a convention? Check. Check. Check. What more could you ask for from a show? Rez Dogs It was a good idea.

All of this came together for the finale. A funeral episode brought back almost the entire cast. After decades of separation, elders reunited, kids put their differences aside, and community members who moved away for many years returned to celebrate one final time. This was the most beautiful show ever. It culminated in a display of generational harmony. The teachings, tenderness, and joy the show spread to its audience will live on well past the show’s finale, like all great art. And that’s forever.

Hokti paraphrased: Rez Dogs isn’t gone. It’s right here, between you and me.