Reservation Dogs: Dig

September 27, 2023 1:20 PM - Season 3, Episode 10

Old man Fixico has passed. He was a real one. The community comes together to pay their respects. For Uncle. Will the circle be unbroken? By and by lord by and by.

May we all see our loved ones on the other side. What a good day it'll be. I'm gonna miss this show so much. It's meant a lot to me. But I know Sterlin and all the Rez Dogs are going to go on to great things. Aho.

posted by downtohisturtles (19 comments total)

I'm so glad this show got made, and made so well.

I've never even thought of a grave digging party. Why not!
posted by Acari at 8:46 PM on September 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

Throughout this episode I kept thinking “I wish this show could go on forever.”
posted by babelfish at 6:42 AM on September 28, 2023 [9 favorites]

I loved the whole thing. Perfect way to end such a great show.

I hope it opens the doors for more marginalized groups to be able to tell their stories from their perspectives, without having to rely on the more stereotypical motifs of their culture.
posted by luckynerd at 9:21 AM on September 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

Digging a hole is never easy, but digging a hole to bury someone must be real work. It's deep and there will be rocks.

I learned and loved so much. I haven't learned and loved this much in too long.

I don't rewatch, but I suspect I might here. First because I will miss them all, and second because I will see more next time than I did this first time. I loved The Bear, but that made me relive my own experience through pain. This showed me someone else's experience and I learned so much more.
posted by Stanczyk at 4:22 PM on September 28, 2023 [11 favorites]

I loved this show so much, and like everyone else has more or less said, it feels bittersweet that it is over, even though it ended on such a high note. Like Willie Jack and Fixico, I feel like I was just starting to learn something, and then it was taken from me. But I also feel better for having had the experience, and I feel like something of it will live on in me. I cannot articulate exactly how, but I have the sensation that I am a better person for having known these made-up characters. All of them. There isn't a single one that wasn't deep and layered and nuanced and complex like every real person is. Even the ghosts. Even the Sasquatches and the Deer Lady. I can't wait to see what comes next for any of the actors, writers, producers, or anyone who touched the show in any way.
posted by tempestuoso at 8:20 PM on September 28, 2023 [13 favorites]

I would like to bargain for just a few more episodes before I accept that it's over. Like just one more where Cheese is the heart of the story, maybe? And one more with Maximus and the elders? And one where Willie Jack and Elora and Jackie get some time together on their own? And maybe one where Bear gets to start showing somebody new the ropes at work? There's still so much I'd like to know about these characters. I'm really glad the show closed with a really moving season, but I'm going to miss it.
posted by EvaDestruction at 3:57 PM on September 29, 2023 [6 favorites]

We were definitely wishing for more of a final send off for Cheese. But we know he'll be okay because Grandma Irene and all the uncles are looking out for him.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:22 PM on September 29, 2023 [5 favorites]

This series has been everything to me. I'm Sicangu Lakota and nobody makes movies or TV shows about Indigenous people and certainly never Indigenous women. I'm going to miss this space where I can feel like myself and not a monster.
posted by Heaventhenthesea at 8:01 PM on September 29, 2023 [19 favorites]

Yeah, I have no argument with the wonderful notes of the ending. I'm just going to miss these characters so much. The entire series was such a rewarding watch, and I'm glad they got to finish on their own terms. I feel better after looking at Sterlin Harjo's IMDB and seeing he has two new projects.
posted by gladly at 9:14 AM on October 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

Loved it - just good vibes everywhere in this episode. There was never going to be enough episodes in this final season to close everything down, but the community will continue and that's enough for me. Stoked that William Knifeman made one last appearance.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:07 PM on October 1, 2023 [4 favorites]

I don't rewatch, but I suspect I might here. First because I will miss them all, and second because I will see more next time than I did this first time. I loved The Bear, but that made me relive my own experience through pain. This showed me someone else's experience and I learned so much more. (emphasis added)

That pretty well sums up my feelings. There's too much stuff I haven't seen so I'm usually leery of retreading, but I feel pretty confident I'll revisit this.

I've never known FX to be home to any stellar shows, and somehow between The Bear and Reservation Dogs it has, in my eyes, two of the best on television. They both evoke powerful, if very different, feelings from me.

Like many others, there's a part of me that wants it to go on because I've become attached to these characters and their world. But I also love when a piece of art can conclude on its own terms rather than get stretched out until it becomes a shadow of itself. So I'm happier to have three excellent seasons rather than six or seven with some mediocrity, especially when I was skeptical of how season three could go. (Season two's ending could easily have closed the series.) I'm glad my worries were unfounded.

I haven't participated in the threads, but I've been reading along. I've enjoyed everyone's thoughts and insights over the course of this show!

P.S. William Knifeman missing for most of season three was a bit of a bummer, but that meant his final showing made an even bigger impact for me.
posted by xenization at 7:11 AM on October 2, 2023 [8 favorites]

These people that made this perfect thing should get every TV or book or movie job for as long as they live, and when they are gone, all of that stuff should go to their descendants and disciples forever. I don't want to see or hear or read anybody else or anything made by anybody else. If my family and everybody I love precedes me in death and I somehow have money left when I'm about to die, I'm going to leave it all to Sterlin Harjo.
posted by Don Pepino at 1:08 PM on October 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

There may be hope to see this "universe" again:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/reservation-dogs-series-finale-explained-spin-off-ideas-1235736827/
posted by luckynerd at 2:47 PM on October 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'd be down for spin-offs. But I hope the core actors (young and old) move on to more great projects and roles outside of that universe as well. Seems like the sort of universe that could expand in different directions in both the mortal and supernatural plains, and be a runway for First Nations stories and talent.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:38 AM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

Can we get a workplace sitcom at IHS with Rita? With frequent cameos from Bev somehow.
posted by Night_owl at 12:13 PM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

This really was a beautiful send off for an equally beautiful show. For a few years, I lived very close to the reservations in Oklahoma, but never had an opportunity to engage with those communities outside of meeting the occasional member of one of the tribes and taking a specific Native American history course in college. Which is to say, I appreciated being offered this opportunity to have a glimpse into tribal life and culture. As a show, though, Reservation Dogs succeeded because it was so well written, it cared about its characters and their lives in ways a lot of show don't allow themselves to do so. I didn't want it to end as I watched.

I was howled with delight when William Knifeman appeared at the end. It had been my hope, but I had missed his random appearances. Dallas Goldtooth has just rocked in his recent roles.

I appreciated how the grave digging concluded much of this season's theme of connecting the young members of the tribe with the elders. That they came together to contribute something incredibly important that required everyone's participation to complete in a timely manner on behalf of those that had passed. Also liked how we started to see our Reservation Dogs take their next steps forward into their future.
posted by Atreides at 9:09 AM on October 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

3 of the writers are from Minnesota, they did this interview on public radio a few weeks ago:

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/09/26/an-interview-with-3-reservation-dogs-actors-writers-from-minnesota
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:38 AM on October 7, 2023

So many things to love about this series!

- The inter-generational respect. There was no scoffing that kids these days don't work, or those old people don't get it. They care for each other. When Willie Jack adds Flaming Flamers to the Real Medicine table, Fixico doesn't say "that's not medicine!" - he nods his support.
- The teenagers aren't all on an automatic path to college, and we see them taking up important roles in their community. The typical teenager of TV uses the support of the community as a springboard toward college and then some type of worldly success outside of the small town but owes nothing back. Staying home is not a failure here.
- A lot of acceptance of choices. It might seem pretty weird for Cheese to decide Irene is his grandmother. Once they find each other, everyone refers to her as his Grandma. No air-quotes, just acceptance.
- Obviously, the humor!

In this episode in particular, I thought it was such a real representation of a funeral party. Most people are laughing and having a reunion, but a small group will start crying - then later they are laughing and a different small group is crying. It hits everyone differently.

When Elora is moving out, it looks like the truck she is loading is the one her dad was selling.

Irene is so serene, yet funny. And also completely beautiful. I think I will move in with her and Cheese.
posted by Emmy Rae at 2:22 PM on October 7, 2023 [8 favorites]

I loved this whole series so much. Like everyone else said, I’m sad to say goodbye to these characters, but I’m glad it was such a perfectly contained show.

A relative I was very close to died recently, and I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy. What is legacy, what was their legacy, what will be my legacy when I die. This relative was childless and I am childless too. Willie Jack’s Auntie Hokti’s speech to her when she visited her in jail was beautiful and comforting to me as a childless person—a great explanation of legacy within community.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:07 PM on November 30, 2023 [3 favorites]