That scene in season 4 episode 3 where Chee confronts Leaphorn has popped up in my mind every now and then. It’s really interesting and I’m gonna yap about it under the cut, to keep the spoilers hidden.
Okay so the scene actually ties back to so many things, like to their conversation at the beginning of episode 3. Chee has just crawled out of the death hogan and seems a bit unsteady, so Leaphorn asks him to come to the cleansing sweat with him tomorrow. Says the chindi will take hold in Chee otherwise.
Chee declines, insists that he’s fine. And I think that ties into the conversation he has later with Manuelito on episode 7. Suffering from the ghost sickness, miserable, Chee confesses he feels like he stopped being a Navajo a long time ago. Which was also why Chee didn’t take his dying mother back to the reservation, because he thought too much time and distance had passed since they moved to live in LA, and nobody back on the rez would care about them anymore.
And then there’s of course all the other indications about Chee that he doesn’t practice Navajo ways, at least not at the start of the series. Like he didn’t use to carry medicine.
So, back at that conversation where Chee is invited to the sweat, he probably didn’t believe in ghost sickness but I think he might have also not felt like it was appropriate for him to take up on the offer. In the past Chee has attended other Navajo ceremonies but the sweat would have been personal, something concerning his wellbeing.
And he says as much on episode 8, when he and Manuelito are standing outside the hogan where his ghost sickness ceremony will take place. That he feels like he doesn’t deserve the ceremony, especially since at that point no-one other than Manuelito has come to attend.
Back to the episode 3 conversation, even with Leaphorn trying to persuade Chee by saying that he’ll never make it in their line of work if he doesn’t take care about his spiritual side, Chee still insists he’s fine. At that time Emma has already left Joe, and Leaphorn hints that she used to try and get Joe to attend to his spiritual side but he never prioritized it. And he regrets it, because Joe’s stubbornness definitely affected their relationship in a bad way. And the same might happen to Chee.
A bit later on episode 3 Chee learns that Leaphorn has chosen Manuelito to take over the NTP, after he retires. He gets understandably upset that he was not told about this, but then Chee lashes out at Manuelito unfairly. And after that, Chee turns up at Leaphorn’s house and has that confrontation with him.
In that conversation Chee says he’s seen the toll their job has taken on Leaphorn, and how he’s tried to lighten up that load for him. When Leaphorn answers that Chee is a good cop, but Manuelito’s the right choice because she takes care of her spiritual side in a way neither of them do, Chee counters in a sort of contradicting way that it’s not true because Leaphorn himself made it that far. Though Chee just earlier acknowledged the job has taken its toll on lieutenant.
Angry, and maybe because of the ghost sickness affecting him, Chee goes on to accuse Leaphorn being full of shit and pushing everyone in his life away by his lies, because that’s just who he is.
And I think this reflects back on many points during the series. Because Leaphorn definitely lies and keeps things to himself. Not because he necessarily means anything bad by it, but I think it’s part of his characteristics to know every last detail and have all the leads in his pocket. As that dancer said on episode 5; here’s two kinds of lies, the ones you tell to hurt people and the kind you tell to protect them.
Bit of a sidetrack here, but I think that’s also why Leaphorn chose Manuelito to be his successor. She’s more honest and by-the-book than neither Chee nor Leaphorn.
Also, during that conversation between Chee and Leaphorn, Chee brings up how he pulled badly injured Leaphorn out of that canyon and kept his mouth shut when he figured out that Leaphorn had killed Vines. Leaphorn goes to acknowledge that he’s aware Chee would do anything for him. But I think it’s interesting Leaphorn doesn’t, actually throughout the whole confrontation, defend himself in pretty much any way.
Like, earlier in the series Leaphorn has rescued Chee in the exact same ways. Season 2 episode 1-2 where Chee gets shot and is bleeding out, Leaphorn literally drags him to safety. And earlier during season 1 episode 6, Chee confesses that he and Manuelito blew up that cave and took the blame for killing Whitover, Leaphorn keeps his mouth shut about it.
But during that argument on season 4, Leaphorn doesn’t say anything about these things. Maybe he doesn’t want to or need to. Maybe he understands that Chee needs to put his anger somewhere, and Leaphorn choosing Manuelito over him and keeping the promotion/retirement between the two of them feels a bit justified.
In the end, on episode 8, Chee does apologize to Leaphorn for saying awful things. And he says Manuelito would make a good lieutenant, though, for some reason I don’t fully grasp Chee hints he might return to FBI after her promotion. Why wouldn’t he be comfortable working under her at NTP? Chee, bruh, would you really prefer to be Agent Cheeseburger rather than work for lieutenant Manuelito??
