WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the premiere of Reservation Dogs Season 1, Episode 3, "Uncle Brownie," which aired Monday on FX on Hulu.
Reservation Dogs took a hilarious but heartbreaking visit to the reservation's medical clinic last week, and this week it's taking an equally close but funny look at how colonization affects Indigenous cultures, specifically addressing weed in Season 1, Episode 3, "Uncle Brownie." White society made the marijuana industry mainstream, but it doesn't like to address how this leaves thousands of people behind.
The disconnect between two cultures is laid out in the opening scene of "Uncle Brownie." A married couple take a road trip past the rez, where they have a lively discussion about the effects colonization had on America's Indigenous cultures, thus laying out the metaphorical groundwork for the meat of the episode. The scene transitions, by way of a roadkill deer, into Elora Danan's plan to take Bear out to meet someone who can teach him to fight.
Uncle Brownie is an eccentric hermit, who's legendary when it comes to a good brawl. He's talked into Elora Danan's car to discuss the basics of fighting, but it comes at a cost. The Reservation Dogs will be his chauffeur as he looks for someone to buy his fifteen year old stash of homegrown weed. The downside, nobody wants to buy it since there's a legal dispensary in town, and anyone can buy the good stuff at relatively reasonable rates.
Marijuana isn't just a way for Uncle Brownie to ignore his troubles. To him, it's a part of his history and culture, something cleaner and more safe than white man's alcohol. Smoking a natural herb is one of the few modern methods left to remember the old ways, so the offense he takes when potential buyers turn down his personal stash is personal, as it's another door to an already mostly-erased history sealed off. The hurt can be glimpsed in his face before he turns brash again.
The fledgling legal marijuana industry isn't all bad, as Brownie discovers for himself on a visit to a chill smoke shop; however, it's an industry that's also built on decades of minority labor and lopsided incarceration rates. In both the United States and Canada, the prevalence of non-violent charges and jail time against Black, Hispanic and Indigenous peoples versus white people is harrowing to look at. While legalization is snowballing in the US, non-violent drug offenders continue to overflow the prison system.
Reservation Dogs explores and discusses this phenomena without being forward about it, yet the meaning is clear. Uncle Brownie is disenfranchised from society, and he's right to feel like the modern world has passed him by. However, it's not all bad news for Brownie because he's not the only person who feels that way. By the end of the episode, Brownie revisits some old stomping grounds, and he finds some people who still appreciate his weed and the way things used to be in the old reservation town.
On only its third episode, Reservation Dogs has again opened a frank but funny discussion about the realities of life for many Indigenous people. It's not wasting time on blame; it's laying out the facts. Like Uncle Brownie, by the time the credits roll, it's worth the audience's time to sit back and contemplate how things got this way.
Created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, Reservation Dogs drops new episodes every Monday on FX on Hulu.