Written by C Hues
December 1, 2022
Season 2 of Reservation Dogs uses water as a symbol for the redemption and salvation from isolation that can be found through strong bonds with friends and family. These relationships are developed through trust and honesty, which is something that the Rez Dogs must rebuild as they become divided due to their inability to appropriately deal with Daniel’s suicide. Ultimately, Elora, Willie Jack, Cheese, and Bear each undergo difficult journeys in which they experience several failures, conflicts, and obstacles that show them that the path that they are on is wrong.
In Season 2 of Reservation Dogs, titled “The Curse”,[1] the symbolism of water is prevalent and ties into the themes of redemption, salvation, truth, and direction. When Elora and Jackie go on their road trip to California, their car breaks down and they desperately resort to hitchhiking. They are picked up by a stranger (named Victor) in a suit and tie, who acts erratically by asking them several inappropriate questions about their dating life and interests. Victor mentions, “I’m going to that big white cross with—Jesus”;[2] this directly connects to the final episode, as the Rez Dogs meet white Jesus in Los Angeles, where he mentions that he is “the truth, and the light. Don’t you forget it.”[3] This also connects to episode 6, where the song that plays by the episode’s end has the lyrics “Look at what the light did now”, and these lyrics repeat copious times.[4] While Victor drives with Elora and Jackie, suddenly, the song “Wave on Wave” by Pat Green begins to play. The lyrics to the first two verses are as follows, “Mile upon mile, got no direction. / We’re all playing the same game. / We’re all looking for redemption. / Just to pray, to say the name. / So caught up now in pretendin’ / That what we’re seekin’ is the truth. / I’m just looking for a happy ending. / All I’m looking for is you.”[5] These lyrics in the first episode foreshadow the events of the very last episode of the season, as the Rez Dogs finally travel to California, and they get lost on their way trying to find the beach. In need of guidance, they encounter white Jesus (which relates to the lyrics “just to pray, to say the name”) and he provides accurate directions which ultimately land them on the beach, where they find redemption by finally being honest and open with one another about Daniel’s death.[6] White Jesus tells them that the “mountains are uphill, beaches are down.”[7] The Rez dogs travel down into the beach and into the water, reflective of the lyrics from “Wave on Wave”, “I wandered out into the water, / And I thought that I might drown. / I don’t know what I was after, / Just know I was goin’ down.”[8] Interestingly, two songs on Pat Green’s album Wave on Wave are titled “Run” and “California”.[9] Season 2, Episode 2 of Reservation Dogs is also titled “Run”,[10] and California is the main destination that the Rez Dogs have been incessantly trying to reach since Season 1.
In the last episode, Elora expresses fears to Willie Jack that she might drown, and that she doesn’t want to go down into the water. Willie Jack promises her that she “won’t let [Elora] drown”[11] and it is due to their friendships and by standing together that they can keep each other afloat. This connects to episode 1, in which Victor expressed similar fears. When listening to “Wave on Wave”, he tells Elora and Jackie,
“Sadly, this reminds me of myself a little bit. I wandered out to the water to see if I had drowned. I just know I’m going down. That part. That part reminds me of me. I think he’s like, he wrote it for me. I’m a salesman. I travel all over. I sell art. Framed and matted art by painters like Monet and Van Gogh. Those are famous painters. Prints of course, not the real thing. Those are hard to come by. Kind of like a good friend. I have a son. I don’t know him very well. Another man raises him.”[12]
From there, the conversation starts to get odd and disturbing, but Victor is merely a reflection of what Elora would become if she continued going down the same path—a path of self-imposed alienation from her friends and family. The stranger is lonely, desperate, and directionless; much as Elora finds herself despite traveling with Jackie. Also, as the stranger mentions that he sells paintings, but “not the real thing”, this further corroborates his connection to Elora because she presents a pugnacious front to everyone around her as a self-defense mechanism. The Elora that we see is often not “the real thing”, but merely a carefully constructed character who feels that she must act tougher and colder than what she desires out of fear of losing another loved one (such as Daniel). Just like the stranger, Elora’s greatest fear is being alone. The stranger mentions that he “travels all over”, yet he still finds himself directionless; Elora ultimately manages to avoid this fate because she evolves into being sincere and trusting of her friends. Notice that Victor takes a random turn away from the path that he was supposed to be driving on, and when he tries to lock the car doors, Elora and Jackie are forced to kick and stab him in self-defense.[13] Victor’s sudden turn connects to what the Medicine Man tells Jackie at the beginning of episode 1, “YOUR MEDICINE HAS GROWN WEAK. YOU MUST TURN AWAY FROM THE PATH THAT YOU ARE ON.”[14] Notice that on the Medicine Man’s card, there is an arrow facing the left, which is the exact direction of the turn that Victor makes in episode 1.[15] Bear receives a similar message in episode 10, in which the Medicine Man tells him that he must avert from the path that he is on, leading him to stay in California instead of going back to Oklahoma.[16] In episode 2, when Elora and Jackie are running from the rednecks with shotguns, the song Cripple Creek[17] plays, also tying into the themes of water and direction. As they are chased by the rednecks and the song “Cripple Creek” continues, Elora and Jackie run in every possible direction trying to avoid being killed. When they finally lose their would-be assailants, the two young women wander aimlessly until they meet an older woman. The old woman (named Anna) that Elora and Jackie meet also serves as a warning to what Elora would eventually become if she continued down her path of self-seclusion.[18] In episode 1, the Medicine Man says, “He who hoots with the owls at night cannot soar with the eagles in the morning.”[19] In episode 2, when Anna invites Jackie and Elora over for dinner, the camera focuses on her owl place mat, which Jackie immediately turns over for fear of bad medicine. Just like an owl, the old woman is up late into the night (when she was assumed by Elora and Jackie to have been asleep), and spots Elora and Jackie stealing her car, although she does not report them.[20] Like Victor, Anna is a devout Christian, and is also separated from her family and living alone. Her children have gone off to college, and her husband has left her for another woman. Elora sees the pictures of Anna’s family and says “Everyone looks happy.” However, Anna reveals how unhappy she truly is,
“Hmm, yeah we were—or are. Uh, I don’t know, some of us. Very weird getting a divorce at my age. I mean, to be starting over. My kids are off at college. Uh…are you girls running away? Oh, I knew it. Damn it, I’m so jealous. I always wanted to run away. Hmm, never too late. Maybe I’ll go with you. I’ll pay for gas. But I mean, really…I would go.”[21]
As Anna makes a desperate plea to tag along, Elora is drinking a glass of water.[22] Just as with Victor, the theme of water is shown to emphasize the path that Elora must go on to avoid the fates of these older people who feel that they have lost their family and friends. Jackie later says that she doesn’t feel any sympathy for Anna or regret that she stole her car because Anna has everything.[23] Anna has a nice, large, empty house and (had) a couple of cars. Financially, she seems secure. However, Anna lacks her family, which is what Elora also does not have (all she has is a cold relationship with her terminally ill grandmother, a disconnection with an aunt who left her as a baby, and increasingly antagonistic interactions with her formerly close friends—Bear, Willie Jack, and Cheese). When Willie Jack and Cheese try to get rid of the curse that the former placed on Jackie, they enlist the help of the elders Brownie and Bucky. The two elders take the younger generation down into a nearby lake and say a prayer to the Creator to set things right. Brownie specifically asks the Creator, “Let this water here wash away all that bad medicine.”[24] Similarly, in the last episode of Reservation Dogs, Season 2, the Rez Dogs go into the water and wash themselves of the lies that they lived with as a coping mechanism to avoid confronting their true feelings about Daniel’s death.[25]
The themes of isolation, water and redemption also tie into episode 6, Decolonativization.[26] At the end of this episode, Bear tells Elora, “All you’ve done is shit on your friends and expect us to show up for you. Honestly, you’re gonna end up exactly like your grandma—alone until it’s too late.”[27] This is exactly what happens by the end of the episode, as Elora sits alone in her living room at home. She hears singing (in Muscogee) coming from her grandmother’s room (who had recently passed away with similar singing heard during her time of death[28] and during Daniel’s funeral[29]), and when she opens the door, the singing stops. She goes back into the living room, where she hears rainfall and thunder.[30] In episode 3, after Elora tells Bear that her grandmother is dying, a song plays that features the lyrics “You are the water”.[31] This substantiates the healing power of water, and how Elora and the rest of the Rez Dogs eventually must be baptized in the water anew and become free of carrying on Daniel’s pain. At the start of episode 10, large bodies of water are shown from above. This symbolizes that Daniel is looking at the Rez Dogs from beyond and leading them to the water so they can become a stronger family, united in honoring him instead of taking on his pain.
Ultimately, the symbolism of water is extensive throughout Season 2 of Reservation Dogs. It represents forgiveness and new beginnings, as shown when Bear, Elora, Willie Jack, and Cheese finally go to the water on a Los Angeles beach, and ultimately decide to live new lives in California. They simultaneously honor Daniel’s memory while moving past the pain of his death by finally being vulnerable with one another about the situation and how it affected them.
[1] Reservation Dogs. Creators: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi. Starring: D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Jewel Alexis, Lane Factor, Elva Guerra. Season 2. Episode 1. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/reservation_dogs
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 10. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/reservation_dogs
[4] Ibid. Season 2, Episode 6.
[5] Wave on Wave. Pat Green. LyricFind. David Nneuhauser, Justin Pollard, Pat Green. BMG Rights Management, Calhoun Enterprises, O/B/O Capasso, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.
[6] Reservation Dogs. Creators: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi. Starring: D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Jewel Alexis, Lane Factor, Elva Guerra. Season 2. Episode 10. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/reservation_dogs
[7] Ibid.
[8] Wave on Wave. Pat Green. LyricFind. David Nneuhauser, Justin Pollard, Pat Green. BMG Rights Management, Calhoun Enterprises, O/B/O Capasso, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Reservation Dogs. Creators: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi. Starring: D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Jewel Alexis, Lane Factor, Elva Guerra. Season 2. Episode 2. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/reservation_dogs
[11] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 10.
[12] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 1.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 10. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/reservation_dogs
[17] https://www.bluegrassnet.com Cripple Creek.
[18] Reservation Dogs. Creators: Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi. Starring: D’Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Jewel Alexis, Lane Factor, Elva Guerra. Season 2. Episode 2. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/reservation_dogs
[19] Ibid.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 10.
[26] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 6.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 4.
[29] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 10.
[30] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 6.
[31] Ibid. Season 2. Episode 3.