History Series / ReservationDogs

* DrivingTest: Elora needs to pass her driving test so that she can drive everyone to California. Her instructor turns out to be her old basketball coach.

* FlashbackBPlot: "Deer Lady" switches between the titular spirit in the present [[spoiler:eating pie with Bear in a diner and driving him home]] and scenes from decades prior [[spoiler:of her abusive experiences as a child in an Indian residential school.]]

* FramingDevice: Willie Jack talking to Daniel's photo acts as a framing device for the two-part second series premiere.

** While Cheese is normally the most mindful Rez Dog, the NDN Mafia know he was the one who tried to sabotage their car because he forgot to take the funnel labeled with his name with him when he fled the scene.

* InterrogationFlashback: "Send It" is framed by Big interrogating everyone involved with breaking Maximus out of his hospital, intercut with the phases of the plan as it unfolded.

* KarmicNod: A bar patron yells at Uncle Brownie for breaking his nose but Brownie points out that he sold him the meth that caused him to do it. This is the patron's reaction.

* MistakenForInsane: Rob thinks Rita's lost her mind because she's talking to thin air. [[spoiler:She's talking to the spirit of Cookie.]]
* MistakenNationality: Cheese assumes Dr. Kang is Chinese. He clarifies that he is a Korean-American from San Diego.

* ParallelParking: Coach Bobson has Elora parallel park in a spot too small for her car. Her CrocodileTears get him to swap places with her, only for him to resort to ramming into the adjacent cars until hers is free.

** Daniel's parents, Danny and Hokti, both get episodes focusing on them. Danny is a roofer who becomes Bear's coworker and the two discuss Daniel together. Hokti is in prison for unknown reasons and has a spirit guide of her own.

** When the Reservation Dogs get shot with paintballs, Bear's "death" is shown like Sgt. Elias's in ''Film/{{Platoon}}''.
** When Bear goes to Willie's aunt to buy a bead medallion for his dad, she shows him one in a box that casts a golden light when you open it like the briefcase in ''Film/PulpFiction''. Though this time we actually get to see what's inside. [[BaitAndSwitch It's just a pickle.]]

** Mose and Mekko's parting words [[spoiler:at Fixico's casket]] are "see you at the crossroads," a reference to Music/BoneThugsNHarmony's biggest hit "Tha Crossroads" (which is, fittingly, [[spoiler:a GriefSong]]).

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Uncle Brownie has a reputation for being a ruffian, claiming to have once knocked out 20 people during a BarBrawl ([[spoiler:it was actually 30]]). When he returns to the bar where that fight took place, the bartender and the patrons are initially not happy to see him again.
** Bear's ancestor William Knifeman was [[ExactWords AT the Battle of Little Big Horn]], but he's not one of the famous warriors, and thanks to an unfortunate horse-accident, he died in the middle of the first charge.
** Bear eventually feels guilty about hijacking the chip truck and causing the driver to lose his job, and decides to buy it back. The chop shop they sold it to haven't been sitting around waiting for him to discover his conscience, and have long since stripped the truck down to its frame.

* ShippingGoggles:[[invoked]] When Bear and Jackie have an argument while assigned to sweep the IHS lobby, Bev tells Rita that she's going to be a grandmother. Rita disagrees and thinks she's reading too far into their interaction.

* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: Tino wants Julio to get him a job at Red Lobster so that when he ages out of the delinquent group home, he'll be able to provide his children with a better life than was provided to him.

* CoolOldGuy: While in the jail visitation waiting room, Willie Jack ends up in conversation with an old white man there to see his daughter. He explains his dislike of incarceration as a concept, discusses his recreational drug usage, and offers her friendly life advice.

* DiggingYourselfDeeper: After a one night stand with a handsome and wealthy doctor, Rita is dismayed when she spots a Confederate flag tattoo on his arm (he claims to be a Music/LynyrdSkynyrd fan). Trying to show how open-minded he is, the doctor admits his house is built on Native land his grandfather bought cheap. Then to show he's not racist he says [[SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX his best friend is Lakota]] and [[RaceFetish he's always been into Native women]]. Rita exits immediately.

* HeelRealization: Bear has one in the first episode as the one-two punch of realizing he ruined someone's life and his first encounter with William Knifeman prompts him to consider that maybe his thieving ways make him the bad guy and that his community is worth protecting.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: The Deer Lady does her [[VigilanteWoman unpleasant business]] with a bit of sharpened antler as a makeshift shiv.

* LanguageBarrier: PlayedForHorror. The children in "Deer Lady" don’t speak English, so from ''their'' perspective, the adults are speaking complete gibberish. It also makes their abusive attacks seem that much more random and unmotivated.

* NoEyeInMagic: The aunties avert their eyes from Seminole man who greets them at the IHS conference because Teenie insists that Seminoles can impregnate a woman with just a glance. [[spoiler:Bev snags him that night anyway.]]

** Bear is terrified when he realizes he's eating with the Deer Lady.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Spirits exist, but they can only be seen by some people. Spirits can eat, use bathrooms, and physically interact with the people they appear to.

* PopUpTexting: The Rez Dogs' group chat pops up on screen with labels as to who's texting.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: The Dogs love the catfish at Rob & Cleo's store.

* UnfazedEveryman: How most of the characters who encounter spirits or the supernatural react to their existence. Rita is the only aversion.

* {{Bookends}}: Season 2's double-episode opener and its season finale both resolve unaddressed resentment with a prayer at a body of water. The first is given by Bucky and Brownie on the rez and settles their long-held grudge about Brownie sleeping with Bucky's girl. The second is from Cheese, [[spoiler:whose prayer to Daniel at the Pacific Ocean addresses all the negative feelings he'd bottled up about Daniel leaving everyone.]]

* HonorBeforeReason: Bear gets surrounded by the NDN Mafia in the second episode. Rather than running, he tells them to BringIt. After the inevitable CurbstompBattle in their favor, William Knifeman points out it would have been smarter for Bear to flee.

* MayDecemberRomance: Played with for [[spoiler:Hokti's SpiritAdvisor]] and her new beau. She's a young woman in appearance while he's a white-haired old man, but she lived and died a century before him.