Reservation Dogs
House Made of Bongs
Season 3
Episode 5
Editor’s Rating
Photo: Shane Brown/FX
In the Greek delusion of Prometheus, the deity brings mild, creativity, and data to humankind, however in return he’s punished severely. The gods see his act of kindness to people as a transgression, and so Prometheus was compelled to endure an countless cycle of torture, remoted from people and gods alike. A lesson from the story is that this: Sometimes our actions have unintended penalties that we can’t predict. And typically acts of curiosity which might be carried out with good intentions can nonetheless take a tragic flip.
We’re formally midway by the third and closing season of Reservation Dogsand this week we’re taking a detour away from the trials and tribulations of Bear, Elora, Cheese, and Willie Jack to be able to study the bigger social dynamics at play inside the city of Okern. An ongoing theme all through the sequence has been the interconnection between the previous lives of the adults on the town and the way these experiences form the current circumstances of the Reservation Dogs. Earlier this season we have been launched to the character of Maximus, the remoted elder whose tragic previous has led him to desert humankind and switch his focus upwards, in direction of the mysteries of the galaxy. We know the place he ended up, however how did he get there? In this episode, a part of Maximus’s previous is illuminated, and we study that elders like Bucky (city wanderer, copper thief, and ding-a-ling sculptor), Mabel (Elora’s grandmother who walked on final season), Brownie (not but having achieved the title of Uncle), and Irene (Cheese’s adoptive grandmother) have additionally struggled — and maybe some are nonetheless struggling — to carve out a spot for themselves on this messy world.
We’re again on the St. Nicholas Training School — yep, the exact same boarding faculty that Deer Lady went to. Over time, the varsity has been remodeled; now at the very least among the employees are additionally Indigenous, there’s no extra required uniforms, and college students can come and go a bit if they’ve a automotive. It’s extra like the normal highschool many people have attended, however there are nonetheless dorms for college kids who want someplace to be. This is the place we discover Maximus. It’s 1976, and he’s only a younger man. It’s the top of the varsity 12 months (the conclusion of Maxiumus’s junior 12 months), and it appears to be like like he’s going to be spending the summer time within the St. Nicholas dorms, being with out anyplace else to go. Bucky invitations Maximus to stick with him for the summer time, however Maximus insists that he’s received sufficient studying and films to maintain him busy whereas he’s on their own.
But earlier than the lengthy, remoted summer time begins, Maximus and his buddies are planning a giant, trippy blowout get together within the woods. Irene and Mabel are counting on Maximus to choose up some acid for the get together. He heads out again behind the varsity to see if he can rating from some buddies, however they inform him that he’ll want to speak to Fixico (yup, that Fixico, the drugs man who we’ve seen promoting his wares out entrance of the IHS). The downside is that Fixico is Maximus’s cousin they usually haven’t been speaking not too long ago due to some not too long ago boiled-over battle between the 2. Mabel is one piece of the battle — Maximus is relationship her now, however she not too long ago broke up with Fixico. Everyone on the town thinks that that is the extent of the meat between the 2 boys, however there’s one thing extra critical that’s inflicting Maximus to provide his cousin the silent remedy.
Brownie, Bucky, Maximus, Irene, and Mabel cruise over to the sacred Sonics, and the gang provides Maximus an earful for failing to attain for them. Things solely get extra embarrassing for Maximus when Fixico drives up and Brownie decides to attain some tabs from him, disregarding Maximus’s needs to keep away from any dealings together with his cousin. When he lastly breaks and ponies up the money for the tabs (“for Mabel”), the crew make their method out to the end-of-year celebration within the woods.
Unfortunately, even out within the woods together with his pals and his woman, Maximus can’t escape his issues: Fixico is on the get together too. After some mild coaxing, Mabel will get Maximus to open up. He explains to her that “he’s said some stuff that’s hard to take back” and that Fixico typically fails to acknowledge the privileges he has (money, household, a distinguished place in neighborhood due to his function as a medicine-man-in-training) when he’s round Maximus: “he doesn’t acknowledge that I don’t have those things.” Maximus is jealous that his cousin has secured a spot locally, however his jealousy isn’t totally irrational, and Mabel acknowledges as a lot, telling Maximus, “I get it — don’t make it right, but yeah, I get it.”
Over joints, the children share what every has deliberate for the long run. At this level Brownie has already dropped out of highschool and is touring as a welder, and he desires to make use of the money he saves as much as begin a “dojo.” Irene has her eyes set on becoming a member of AIM (the American Indian Movement) and snagging a person alongside the way in which. Mabel desires to be a mother. And our little what’s up Maximus desires to be a filmmaker (as evidenced by the home films we’ve seen on this episode and again in episode two of this season). The group tease Maximus, and he doesn’t obtain their jokes very nicely, confronting Irene and Brownie saying that they at all times attempt to tear down people with huge desires (“like crabs in a bucket”). They let up just a little after being referred to as out, however plainly Maximus is beginning to develop impatient together with his pals.
The group dose collectively, and Bucky rapidly realizes that that is Maximus’s first time doing the drug. Bucky then tells him “you don’t realize you’re feeling it until you’ve already been feeling it for a while … and then you can’t recall feeling any other way.” This assertion describes each the sensation of being excessive on acid and the ways in which grudges (just like the one Maximus has been holding in opposition to Fixico) can take over one’s notion of issues. You keep mad at somebody lengthy sufficient, quickly all you possibly can recall is that anger. We’ve seen the place Maximus’ emotions have landed him (in isolation), which provides an extra sense of foreboding of Bucky’s phrases.
Later that evening the crew are on the point of head out when Fixico approaches Maximus. Fixico says that their grandmother is nervous, and he shares that Maximus is welcome to remain at her home if he wants someplace to go. The stoned, still-kinda-high-on-acid Maximus refuses the provide, insisting that he’ll be superb going it alone this summer time. Then, Maximus lastly explodes on his cousin, cursing and shouting and telling him that his medication is definitely poison. With Brownie too wasted to drive, Maximus takes the wheel of the previous black rez automotive and speeds off into the evening.
Maximus is struggling to maintain it collectively and get everybody home secure when issues get weirder. Suddenly, Brownie’s automotive is illuminated by an odd mild, and the street turns into lined in fog. Maximus slams on the brakes and exits the automotive, solely to search out himself face-to-face with a Star Person. Floating above the being is a big glowing ship and a hovering geometric object. The customer speaks on to Maximus, telling him “I’m your relative” and that they’ve come all the way down to Earth to take a look round. Then, simply as out of the blue because the Star Person appeared, they’re gone, leaving Maximus standing alone on the aspect of the street. The remainder of the crew, who have been seemingly frozen throughout the Star Person’s go to with Maximus, exit the automobile and ask what’s taking place. When Maximus explains what he noticed, Bucky, Irene and Brownie dismiss the occasion, attributing it to the acid. Mabel, who says nothing both method, tries to consolation Maximus, however he pushes her away.
In a close-up shot, we see one thing in Maximus break. He stays silent as his pals begin to make jokes about what he’s claimed to witness. If you recall again in episode two, Bear tells a grown-up Maximus that he additionally sees spirits that others can’t understand, and the very first thing Maximus asks the boy is that if his pals imagine him when he says that he can see spirits. This second on the aspect of the street nonetheless haunts Maximus: His pals haven’t solely did not take his aspirations to be a filmmaker severely, they’ve additionally dismissed his go to from the Star People as mere hallucinations. As their automotive pulls out into the darkness, the group is now fully silent.
We know the place all these selections have led Maximus, and it’s tragic. Maximus is just like the Prometheus of Okern: While he’s been chosen for a go to by the Star People, his reward of data is summarily rejected, and he’s punished each bodily and emotionally for what he has seen (keep in mind that in episode two he says that he’s been subjected to electrotherapy and institutionalized in opposition to his will). But his destiny isn’t the results of some evil power intent on punishing him — Maximus is the place he’s due to easy indifference and ignorance. He has turned his again on a world that refuses to acknowledge what he can see. And but regardless of what he has been made to endure, we all know that Maximus refuses to let go of affection.
So, what are we to make of all of this? Clear parallels have fashioned between Bear and Maximus: Both wish to escape Okern, each see issues that others don’t, each have scorching tempers and a few issues coping with their emotions (particularly in terms of male members of the family). How will this story tie into the latter half of the season? Will we get one other go to from the Star People? From Maximus? Perhaps now that Maximus’s previous good friend Brownie has seen his personal spirits, will he settle for the reality of the Star People? How does this flashback to the previous connect with Fixico’s prophecy of his personal passing? If Mabel’s demise wasn’t sufficient to carry Maximus home, perhaps the passing of Fixico can be what leads the stray man again to his neighborhood.
• At one level on this episode, Bucky fingers Maximus a e-book titled Mirrors Made of Millenia: A Novel. I might hardly make out the creator’s title, but it surely appears to be like prefer it was written by somebody named T. Sampson. All of my searches for a e-book beneath that title got here up with nothing, however that language of mirrors comes up once more in Bucky’s excessive ramblings that he shares proper earlier than the Star Person visits with Maximus. (Bucky says, “In the book, there’s a passage: ‘When you look out across the length of the open road, you are a person who deserves to pursue as many firsts as it takes to determine your self-worth.’”) My greatest guess is that the final title Sampson is an allusion to Will Sampson, a Muscogee actor lots of you’d acknowledge from his function as Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Throughout the sequence, books have appeared time and again as clues (I’m eager about the textual content on “man moons” that circulated round city final season, and Deer Lady’s poetry e-book from earlier this season) and due to this, I believe that this gained’t be the final time we catch sight of this specific novel.
