Rez Dogs went out like it lived: on top
polygon.comThe series finale of Reservation Dogs, “Dig,” starts in jail. Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) is visiting her auntie Hokti (Killers of the Flower Moon’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.”
After some thought, Hokti uses snacks Willie Jack brought her to respond. She takes a bag of chips and places it in the middle of the table, using it to stand in for 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.
“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. Now, imagine all the people that are close to you. Your friends. Now, they all carry you with them, so, in turn, they carry [the elder] with them, too. And all this — that’s how community works. It’s sprawling. It spreads. What do you think they came for when they tried to get rid of us? Our community. You break that, then you break the individual.
“[He] isn’t gone,” Hokti says. “He’s right here, between you and me.”
The show is bookended by the loss of loved ones, losses that require healing. In between, the Rez Dogs went
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