Through four episodes, Emma Leaphorn's storyline has taken a step back in Dark Winds season 3, but now that she finally knows the truth, she'll play a larger role. While it's wonderful to see her getting more screen time, it's been really uncomfortable as most of her scenes have been tense or angry ones with her husband.

Halfway through Joe's decision to leave B.J. Vines to die in the desert at the end of season 2. While Joe's decision was wholly understandable to the audience, it's easy to sympathize and empathize with the character as he's the protagonist and the story is told from his perspective. However, his decision impacts Emma as much as it impacts him, and in so many ways, he's let Emma down in significant ways that would shake the foundation of a marriage.

Dark Winds Season 3 Seems Determined To Destroy Joe & Emma's Relationship

It's Hard To See How They'll Recover From This

For starters, as she angrily reminds him, J.J. wasn't just Joe's son, but her son as well. Even so, Joe acted on his own when he made his choice, never once asking Emma before he decided to be the judge, jury, and executioner to the man behind their son's murder. He'd also hidden it from her and likely would have continued to hide it had his mental health not begun to spiral so badly. She's now also legally and potentially criminally implicated, which was confirmed when Agent Washington asks Joe whether, if she were to question Emma about his whereabouts on the night Vines went missing, Emma would vouch for him. Joe has put Emma in a terrible position: either incriminate her husband or incriminate herself.

But perhaps even worse for Emma than the criminal implications are the spiritual ones. Some viewers have argued that Emma overreacted when learning what Joe did to B.J. Vines, but that's incredibly unfair. Those who don't quite fully understand Navajo beliefs or think Emma's firm foundations in her customs are silly are being, quite frankly, ignorant and dismissive of Emma's core beliefs as a character. Her Navajo faith is everything to her, and Joe knows it. What Joe did darkened not only the memory of their son in this world and the next, but also invited the angry spirit of B.J. Vines, his ch’į́į́dii, into their home.

Joe & Emma's Relationship Is The Heart Of Dark Winds

She Is The Wise Balance He Needs

Considering how Joe has violated the very foundations of their marriage and Emma's trust in him in fundamental ways, it's hard to fathom right now how they'll ever repair it. Even if Joe somehow does escape being arrested and going on trial in Dark Winds season 3, that still leaves the rest of the damage already done. If they were to separate and divorce, it would be devastating, as the relationship between Joe and Emma is the heart of the show. Some of the most poignant scenes in Dark Winds have not been the ones involving crime or action, but the quieter moments of Joe and Emma trying to navigate a life together in the wake of a lost child.

Throughout the series, Joe has been a good man, but often a dark and troubled one thanks to his own taciturn nature and the horror of the things he's seen as a Navajo Tribal Police lieutenant. Emma has been his light and his solace, providing him comfort and wisdom at the times he's most needed them. Her gentle nature belies how strong she is, and it's Emma's guidance that has centered Joe and allowed him to keep doing the job he does. She's also kept Joe's Navajo practices alive, which is just as important. Without the of his wife, Joe would likely have allowed his spiritual life to atrophy, which would be an incredibly dangerous thing considering the dark nature of his job.

If Joe & Emma Divorce, It's Still A Better Ending For Them Than In The Books

Their Separation In The Books Is Far More Permanent

The awful thing is, if Joe and Emma divorce in Dark Winds, it's still a better end for them than what happens in the Tony Hillerman book series on which Dark Winds is based. There, Emma dies after the events of the seventh book in the series, Skinwalkers. The next book, A Thief of Time, confirms that Emma has ed and Joe is in his grieving process. Emma develops a brain tumor and, sadly, she does not survive the operation. However, in the twelfth book in the series, The Fallen Man, it's revealed that Emma actually did not die from the surgery, but from a staph infection she contracted afterward while in the hospital.

Emma was and is the love of his life, and, to this point in the decades-long series, Joe has remained a widower, preferring to remain alone than to marry anyone else who isn't Emma

Her death profoundly impacts Joe, and he spends a long time in mourning. Joe has occasional dalliances afterward and even one near-relationship with the anthropologist Louisa Bourebonette. Still, they never go anywhere, and Joe never remarries. Emma was and is the love of his life, and, to this point in the decades-long series, Joe has remained a widower, preferring to remain alone than to marry anyone else who isn't Emma. If Dark Winds insists on following a storyline where Joe loses Emma, at least divorce is far kinder than death.