Series / Reservation Dogs

Willie Jack, Elora, Bear, and Cheese.

"Being a warrior — it's not always easy. You and your thuggy-ass friends, what are you doing for your people?"

— William Knifeman

Reservation Dogs is an American comedy series created and written by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi. It premiered on August 9, 2021, on FX on Hulu and concluded on its own terms with a third season finale on September 27, 2023.

The series follows four Muscogee teenagers (nicknamed the Reservation Dogs or Rez Dogs) in rural Oklahoma: Bear Smallhill (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora Danan Postoak (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs), Cheese (Lane Factor), and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis). The four of them get into trouble as they commit crimes to get enough money to move to California, but when a rival gang moves into the area, Bear decides that he's had enough and they should fight to protect their land.

Other characters include Officer Big (Zahn McClarnon), the police officer investigating the crimes that the Rez Dogs have been committing; Rita (Sarah Podemski), Bear's mother; Mose and Mekko (Lil Mike and Funny Bone), two local rappers who are friends with the gang; the junkyard-owning meth heads Kenny Boy (Kirk Fox) and Ansel (Matty Cardarople) who buy the gang's stolen goods; Elora's pothead uncle Brownie (Gary Farmer), and Bear's spirit guide William Knifeman (Dallas Goldtooth).

The show is notable for the sheer number of Natives working in front of and behind the cameras. The directors, writers, and most of the cast and crew are Native, while Taika Waititi is himself part Māori.

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Tropes in Reservation Dogs:

• Action Prologue: The show kicks off with the Dogs' frenzied carjacking of the Flamin' Flamers truck before scaling back the action as they go back to their lives (now with some money and many boxes of chips to offload).
• Actor Allusion:
  • Coach Bobson tells Kenny Boy that he could be a standup comedian. Both Bobson (Bill Burr) and Kenny (Kirk Fox) are stand-up comics.
  • Nathan Apodaca, whose first-ever acting role is as Uncle Charley, gets two allusions in "Roofing" to the viral 2020 TikTok in which he filmed himself skateboarding down a highway while lipsynching to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" and drinking a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice. Charley wants cranberry juice with lunch, then later dances for a presumed TikTok video that Marc Don films.
  • Amber Midthunder's character does a land acknowledgment for Native American tribes. But she keeps going further back to include Neanderthals, dinosaurs, and the "Star People".
• The Alleged Car: Coach Bobson is horrified when he realizes Elora's car doesn't have a rearview mirror. Doubly so when she nonchalantly pulls it out of the glove compartment and duct tapes it into place.
• All for Nothing:
  • In the beginning of the first episode, the gang steals a truck filled with spicy chips and sells it to Kenny Boy (although they get to keep the chips). However, when Bear finds out that the truck driver lost his job because of the theft and his wife left him because he lost his job, he decides to return the money and give the truck back. After an argument with Elora, they finally decide to do it and go to Kenny Boy... who reveals that they already dismantled the entire truck except for the frame. Kenny Boy laughingly tells them they can have the frame if they want.
  • Bear gets his hopes up trying to see his dad after two years, to the point of buying him pricey gifts, despite everyone telling him his dad NEVER visits him. Unfortunately, they're right.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • The circumstances surrounding Daniel's death. He seems to have been dealing with mental or emotional issues the night before he hangs himself, resulting in his manic behavior at the honky-tonk Elora took him to. Hints about his home life point toward mental health problems.
  • It's unclear if the guy who picked up Jackie and Elora was trying to kidnap them or if he really was just trying to go to a gas station off the road.
• Amusing Injuries: Cheese isn't careful with his shovel and smacks White Steve in the face on the backswing, luckily with no lasting effects.
• Anti-Smother Love Talk: Rita is daunted by the prospect of leaving Bear by himself when she's offered a promotion she'd have to leave Okern for. Bev has to talk her into accepting that he's matured and capable of independence.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: In the second episode, Elora tries to offer some of the meat pies she and Willie Jack are selling to the staff at the clinic...while going in for help with her upset stomach, with predictable results.
  Bev: Hey, this girl with stomach pains is outside selling meat pies. Y'all want any? (the others just stare)
• Aspect Ratio Switch: Bear's first encounter with William Knifeman comes with the intrusion of black bars to the left and right of the frame.
• Back for the Finale: After single-episode cameos, Danny's parents appear in the finale. So too does William Knifeman, who had been absent from the majority of the season.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: The way Clinton begins breaking news to Rita makes it sound like he's about to lay her off. He informs her that she's been offered a promotion.
• Bathroom Break-Out: Subverted. Bear tries to break out of Maximus's trailer through the bathroom window, but fails to pry it open.
• Bathroom Stall Graffiti: The construction site porta-potties are filled with graffiti, ranging from "Jesus is my home boi" to penis drawings.
• Berserk Button: Elora does NOT like anyone suggesting they stay on the reservation, and every time Bear dips into their California money she gets royally pissed (enough to consider dumping the Dogs and joining the NDN Mafia).
• Best Served Cold: Deer Lady kills the wolf of a man who abused native children at her residential school decades after they first crossed paths. By this point, he's elderly.
• Big Brother Worship: Willie Jack looked up to her cousin Daniel and takes his death harder than anyone else. She regularly talks to a portrait of him and imagines it really being him.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti:
  • The Tall Man, who Leon thinks he sees in the early morning of episode 6. He couldn't get a good look at it, but could see it was human-shaped and very hairy. Willie Jack thinks it was Daniel's spirit saying good-bye to Leon. In real life, there are folktales about hairy human-like creatures all over North America with different tribes from Canada to Mexico referencing some kind of human-sized creature that can be a monster like the Wendigo to a harmless forest spirit.
  • Big swears he saw four Bigfoot when he was young, having snuck into the woods to read Playboy magazines. Cheese finds his assertion dubious. The Stinger of the episode cuts to two Bigfoot Nature Tinkling.
• Bittersweet Ending: Season One ends with Elora leaving for California with Jackie because the other Rez Dogs changed their minds about leaving, and she parts on a sour note with them, but Bear most of all. Bear reaffirms his love for Willie Jack and Cheese, and he seems willing to stay and see that the rez changes for the better.
• Black Comedy:
  • Hokti's Spirit Advisor remarks that she smiled more walking the Trail of Tears, a genocidal trek, than Hokti does presently.
  • Bear suggests to Elora having a father-child relationship like he does with his dad. While this might sound positive devoid of context, Bear's dad is a Glorified Sperm Donor.
• Black Magic: Uncle Brownie wants no part of the curse Willie Jack wants him to lay on the NDN Mafia, citing that bad medicine is not to be messed with. She had acquired a baggie of Jackie's hair from Auntie B for that express purpose. Season 2 reveals she got one of the white men at the bar to perform a curse with the hair clippings.
• Black Speech: In a flashback to an Indian residential school, the abusive English-speaking nuns and teachers have their words dubbed with meaningless gibberish. This shows the boarding school experience from the point of view of Native children who do not speak English. Their tone is always very harsh, which serves to make them sound guttural and quite menacing, even monstrous, appropriately enough.
• Blatant Lies: Punkin pretends he's at the airport and learning his flight was canceled to keep from having to meet Bear on the rez. He does a piss-poor job of acting like he's talking to an airline clerk and Bear isn't fooled for a second.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Big ignores Bucky's warning to only use a drop of his homemade ghost pepper/jalapeño hot sauce. He soon regrets it.
• Bloody Hilarious: The Rez Dogs and Uncle Brownie try to pull a dead deer out of a car trunk so they can butcher it. Unfortunately the deer's been rotting in there all day, and when they yank on its legs they pop right off and blast them in the face with blood.
• Boarding School of Horrors: "Deer Lady" in Season 3 shows Native children forced into a residential school during the early 20th century away from their families. They are forbidden to speak their language while there (even when none speak English), forced to do manual labor, harshly punished for breaking any rules (to the point some are killed) and hunted down if any run away. Sadly, it's all Truth in Television.
• 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, whose prayer to Daniel at the Pacific Ocean addresses all the negative feelings he'd bottled up about Daniel leaving everyone.
  • The first and last episodes begin with a voiceover of the local radio DJ as the camera pans around the land.
• Braids, Beads and Buckskins: This is what William Knifeman, Bear's spirit guide, wears. He points out that since it's pretty cold in the spirit world, his nipples are always hard.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting:
  • 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.
  • When her friends are discussing life goals, Mabel tells them hers is to become a better mother to her children than her mother was to her.
• Brick Joke:
  • In one episode, Bucky makes copper wire sculptures, one of which appears to have two penises. Big accidentally gets high a season later and sees a giant version walking through a field.
  • Season 2 has a running gag of characters saying "'Sup, white Jesus" whenever they see a statue or painting of him. White Jesus actually appears in the finale.
  • MissM8tri@rch does a land acknowledgement for the ancient "Star People" in season 2. In season 3, Bear meets a man who believes in the Star People and is preparing for their return.
• But Now I Must Go: There's no specific reason given, but William Knifeman makes one final visit to Bear during Fixico's funeral. "Goodbye" is considered a colonial term, though, so he refuses to use it.
• Bystander Syndrome: A kid passing by on his bike witnesses Bear getting beat up by the NDN Mafia. Rather than help him or alert anyone else, the kid takes a bite of a candy bar and then rides off.
• Call-Back: When Rick walks over to confront Elora for tailing him, she warns him that she has a knife and she's used it before. This calls back to the previous season's hitchhiking misadventure, when she stabbed the salesman driving her and Jackie.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Rick Miller is not referred to as Dad because he's been out of Elora's life since her first birthday and has made no effort to reconnect.
• The Cameo: Amber Midthunder plays MissM8tri@rch, a Native American activist in "Decolonativization" with a well-meaning though rather ditzy and romanticized worldview.
• Camp Gay:
  • The IHS psychiatrist spends most of his short session with Rita gushing over Lou Diamond Phillips and speaks with a stereotypical affectation.
  • The college intake counselor keeps a Chippendales photo framed on his desk, dresses femininely, and has an even more stereotypically gay voice.
• Camping Episode: Cheese is dragged out on an overnight fishing trip by Big, Bucky, and Brownie after spending a week cooped up in his room gaming.
• The Caper: The Rez Dogs' plan to kidnap Maximus from his mental hospital involves a team to distract the front desk, a team to cut the phone lines, a team to retrieve Maximus, a lookout, and the getaway drivers. Though the breakout is Willie Jack's idea, Bear calls the shots.
• Category Traitor: Brownie calls Big a "traitor" for being a cop. He is also mildly disdainful of Indians who worship "the white man's God."
• Central Theme: The show emphasizes the importance of community, and also that the youth have knowledge that can help elders in the same way that the elders' knowledge helps them.
• Character Name Alias: Jackie and Elora struggle to come up with false names to give to the drivers that pick them up while they're hitchhiking. The first time, they call themselves "Janet" and "Jackson," while the second time they're "Mariah" and "Carrie."
• Chekhov's Gag: "White Jesus" pops up a couple times as a Running Gag about the Middle Eastern figure's Divine Race Lift in Western depictions, only for the Rez Dogs to encounter a homeless white man dressed as and acting like Jesus who leads them to Skid Row after their car is stolen in L.A. They readily refer to him as "White Jesus" and all but Elora are quick to follow him. By the time they leave his care, they all appreciate him.
• Clashing Cousins: Maximus doesn't want to associate with his cousin Fixico. To him, Fixico doesn't recognize how privileged he is having a well-respected career path paved for him. Fixico wants to mend fences, thinking that the falling-out was over something more superficial. They don't reconcile until Fixico's on his deathbed.
• Cluster F-Bomb: All over the place, but Elora and Willie Jack take the cake. Willie Jack, in particular, can't seem to go a single sentence without squeezing a "fuck" in it. This includes when addressing elders.
• Confiscated Phone: The fate of any phone at the group home besides the landline (which James refuses to share the usage of) is confiscation. As a result, Cheese has to use a contraband phone late at night to call Irene.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Of two flavors.
  • From his first scene, Big is established as a JFK/moon landing conspiracist. He also believes sugar was invented to kill Native Americans.
  • Maximus, introduced in the third season, believes in star people (read: extraterrestrials) who come in contact with him that he gifts eggplants to.
• Contemplating Your Hands: Both Big and Kenny Boy contemplate their hands while high on psychedelics. Kenny even kisses his.
• Cool Old Guy: 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. In the finale, it's revealed that he's passed on and begun a courtship with Hokti's Spirit Advisor Gram.
• Cops and Detectives: In episode 5, Cheese signed up for the ride-along program at his high school with the Tribal police officers. The officer who was supposed to take him called out sick, so he gets stuck with Big. Big asks Cheese if he is just doing the program to get out of school for the day, but Cheese tells Big he wants to be a detective.
• Crapsack World: The Reservation. The homes and streets are rundown, teens run amok committing petty crimes, the only tribal cop is a moron, and the only clinic is staffed by apathetic jerks. The Dogs blame the rez itself, almost like a Genius Loci, for their friend Daniel's death.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Bear is unpleasantly surprised when the medallion he buys from Auntie B as a present for his dad looks a little too much like a penis. Then he spots the wall and finds out ALL of her medallions look like that.
• Crocodile Tears: Elora cries convincingly to get Coach Bobson to switch to the driver's seat during her exam. As he's walking around the car, she grins.
• Cutting Back to Reality:
  • When Maximus looks out his window, he sees a group of grey-clad star people striding toward him. When Bear looks out, he sees squad cars have arrived to usher Maximus back to his psych ward.
  • Cheese presses down a dilapidated hallway in combat gear, slaughtering High-Pressure Blood zombies with a blade and delivering snappy one-liners. It's then revealed that he's playing a VR zombie game in his bedroom.
• Cut Phone Lines: Jackie and Elora are tasked with cutting the hospital phone lines. Neither of them know what to look for, so they have to take Cheese with them to identify the cable.
• Dartboard of Hate: Brownie has a painting of Andrew Jackson on his wall that he uses as a dartboard.
• A Day in the Limelight: The show loves swapping focuses, starting midway through the first season.
  • "Come And Get Your Love" focuses on Officer Big and his unusual backstory with the Deer Lady. He gets focus again in the eighth episode of Season 2, alongside Kenny Boy.
  • Episodes 5, 6, 7 are dedicated to Cheese, Willie Jack, and Elora each spending a day bonding with an adult mentor. Cheese with Officer Big, Willie Jack with her father, and Elora with Coach Bobson. In the third episode of Season 2, Bear bonds with Daniel's dad, Danny. Again in the third season, Episode 2 focuses on Bear and new character Maximus, 6 focuses on Cheese, 8 has some focus on Willie Jack, and 9 focuses on Elora.
  • The fifth episode of Season 2 focuses on the aunties as they go to the IHS conference.
  • The third episode of Season 3 delves into the Deer Lady's past.
  • The fifth episode of Season 3 flashes back to the grandparents' generation in high school.
  • The seventh episode of Season 3 focuses on Rita.
• Dead Person Conversation: Mabel appears to Elora, offering her motivational words and threatening to haunt her should she sell Mabel's favorite dish set.
• Delinquents: The Rez Dogs and their rivals, the NDN Mafia. The Dogs repeatedly commit thefts of various magnitude while the NDN Mafia is shown committing assault and battery (on Bear) at least once.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: 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 Lynyrd Skynyrd 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 his best friend is Lakota and he's always been into Native women. Rita exits immediately.
• Disappeared Dad: Bear's dad hasn't seen him in two years, is constantly bailing on visits with him and his mom, and he needs a reminder for what age Bear is. Of the Rez Dogs, only Willie Jack's dad is present in his child's life.
• Dissimile: Cheese compares Big's childhood encounters with the Deer Lady to Batman's backstory, before retracting each dissimilarity to the point of offense.
  Cheese: Wow, that's kind of like Batman's origin story, in a way. I mean, except your parents didn't die and you don't have a butler. You're not that rich, either, or else you'd fix this radio. Probably have a better car, too. Not all that smart, either. Not like Batman.
• Divine Race Lift: Discussed. Images of Jesus that appear in the show depict him as white and characters greet them with a "'Sup, white Jesus?" However, William Knifeman claims to have met Jesus and says he's a brown man. The Rez Dogs eventually meet him and he appears as a white man.
• Dope Slap: Though Cheese asked for permission to insult Big in front of the group home boys, announcing that Big is a child molester earns him a swift whap to the head.
• Down in the Dumps: The meth heads, Kenny Boy and Ansel, own the local scrapyard where the Rez Dogs sell their stolen materials. The business doubles as a garage, as they fix various parts of Elora's damaged car.
• Driven to Suicide: What happened to Daniel. He hanged himself and Elora found him.
• Driving Test: Elora needs to pass her driving test so that she can drive everyone to California. Her examiner turns out to be her old basketball coach.
• Drugs Causing Slow-Motion:
  • Big and Kenny's psychedelic trip in the woods is accompanied by slowed, wavy visuals.
  • Maximus's first time dropping acid slows the world around him down so much that Bucky's voice gets pitched down to nigh incomprehensibility.
• Drunk Driver:
  • A drunken motorcycle ride killed Elora's mom and her boyfriend. Big hasn't forgiven himself for not being able to stop them.
  • Maximus drives his friends home while still tripping on acid because he's comparatively sober. He somehow manages to avoid crashing despite not being fully with it or awake, then a UFO appears and he stops the car to greet The Greys.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Willie Jack's contrite after making a crack about Jackie's brother and learning he killed himself, trying to apologize. Jackie doesn't accept though, saying to watch her back. She's forgiven after offering one free punch to Jackie.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In Brownie's first appearance, he implies he and Cookie were about the same age and both raised by Mabel as kids. In "House Made of Bongs", it's shown that he and Mabel are about the same age and went to high school together.
• Easter Egg: There are two blink-and-you'll-miss-it references to The 1491s, the comedy troupe involved with all aspects of the show (creation, production, writing, acting). Bear's house number is 1491, and that's also the number of the bus in the third season premiere.
• Embarrassing Nickname: A Running Gag is Indians giving their non-Indian friends embarrassing nicknames in their language. Coach Bobson is given a name that means "Toilet" but he's told it means "Great White Warrior". Dr. Kang is given a name that means "Ass" but he's told it means "Cousin."
• Ending Memorial Service: The series finale "Dig" centers around Old Man Fixico's funeral.
• Erudite Stoner: Brownie grows his own marijuana but is also knowledgeable about curses. There's also the white barfly "wizard" who actually puts the curse on Jackie.
• Establishing Character Moment: Big is immediately established as an ineffective cop who's a bit nutty, as his first scene is him in his squad car totally missing the stolen Flamin' Flamers truck driving by because he's too busy watching a conspiracy theory video on his phone.
• Ethical Slut: Rita, Bev, Teenie, and Natalie are all unapologetic about their love of no-strings-attached sex. Bev is especially proud of all her "kills" at IHS conferences. Nevertheless, they are responsible parental/auntie figures to the younger generation.
• Everybody Cries: Once Big pours his heart out to the camping group and breaks down in dramatic sobs, Brownie and Bucky are moved into confronting their own grief and join him. Cheese admits that his sharing circle idea was more effective than expected.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Kenny Boy's ancient school bus, whose engine starts smoking upon its return to the rez, bursts into flames right after everyone escapes it.
• Fan Disservice: Uncle Brownie escapes his tornado-redirection prayer with his life, but the spirits disappear all his clothes as an alternative sacrifice. He stands up anyway, revealing the full extent of his elderly, overweight figure (with only slight pixelation below his waist).
• Fantasy Sequence: After consuming strong edibles, the aunties hit the dancefloor. The scene cuts to them in coordinated green-sequined outfits, dancing their childhood choreography to Brandy's "Sittin' Up in My Room" as background dancers join in and the crowds cheer them on. They're then revealed to be awkwardly shuffling around a near-empty dance floor, looking half-dead.
• Five-Finger Discount: One of the crimes the Rez Dogs were shown committing is stealing steaks from the local market. In the first episode, the proprietor of the market tells Cheese if he's going to steal something, just tell him because he can just write it off.
• Flashback B-Plot:
  • "This Is Where the Plot Thickens" has the present-day situation of Big and Kenny Boy's psychedelic adventure, interspersed with the events Big still blames himself for fifteen years on: the night he failed to stop Cookie's boyfriend from driving drunk, resulting in their deaths.
  • "Deer Lady" switches between the titular spirit in the present eating pie with Bear in a diner before driving him home and scenes from decades prior of her abusive experiences as a child in an Indian residential school.
• Food Porn:
  • Punkin Lusty's music video "Greasy Fry Bread" has several closeup shots of the titular food.
  • "Mabel" shows several closeup shots of food being cooked for the guests who come to visit Mabel on her deathbed.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Inverted, as it is two European-American men, as well as a Korean-American who show a somewhat condescending appreciation for culture Indigenous to the Americas, but otherwise played straight;
  • David, a white doctor Rita has a one night stand with, claims to be especially attracted to Native women.
  • Dr. Kang, a Korean-American doctor at IHS, develops this. He's proud to be given a "native name" at the IHS conference, not knowing it meant "ass."
  • Kenny Boy the white junkyard owner is obsessed with all indigenous cultures, regularly referring to peoples and languages that are completely unrelated to the reservation he lives on. Somewhat subverted. While Kenny seems like an Innocent Bigot, he's revealed to be a staunch defender of Muscogee land rights who's under the Deer Lady's protection. But he appears to think himself native...
• Foreshadowing: Old Man Fixico tells Willie Jack that he feels his time is coming to an end. Sure enough, the series finale centers around his funeral.
• Framing Device:
  • Willie Jack talking to Daniel's photo acts as a framing device for the two-part second series premiere.
  • William Knifeman addresses the audience from the spirit world as a framing for the third season opener.
• Free-Range Children: During his ride along with Big, Cheese helps him pull over the NDN Mafia. Based on their conversation at the beginning of the episode, this episode is occurring on a school day. It is light out, but Big never asks the teens why they aren't in school or if they are driving during lunchtime.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Bear's house number is 1491, the last year before Christopher Columbus came to the American continents. The 1491s are a sketch comedy troupe that members of the cast and writers, including Dallas Goldtooth (Spirit) and Sterlin Harjo (show creator), are part of.
  • Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that at Daniel's shrine in the Rez Dogs' hangout, the kids left a bottle of LACTAID tablets among the offerings.
• Freudian Threat: Maximus threatens to use Bear's "little hushwa" as catfish bait.
• Fun with Acronyms: The youth summit that everyone attends is called NARDS, which stands for Native American Reclamation and Decolonization Symposium. Two episodes earlier, William Knifeman referred to "nards" in a decidedly oversharing story about his testicles.
• Gang Initiation Fight: The best day of White Steve's life was when he joined the NDN Mafia. A flashback shows that his initiation involved getting the crap kicked out of him by the other three members.
• Gangland Drive-By: The Rez Dogs are shot with paintball guns by their new rivals, the NDN Mafia.
• Getaway Driver:
  • Elora drives both the stolen chip truck and her own clunker when her driving instructor needs to escape a methhead he shot.
  • Kenny Boy is hurt that his only role in Bear's caper is as the getaway driver. The kids defuse the situation by pointing out he's the only one with a CDL license. When it's time to make their getaway, he decides his role is actually fun.
• Girl's Night Out Episode: "Wide Net" focuses only on the aunties as they let loose at the IHS conference. They party, snag, commiserate, and mend rifts.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Rita's internal thoughts are represented by a version of her wearing blue and white feather earrings that have a halo and angel wings on them and a version of her wearing black and red feather earrings with a devil's pitchfork on them.
• Grass is Greener: Rita wishes she were free to travel without being tethered to child-rearing like Teenie. Teenie wishes she were still living on the rez and raising a family like Rita.
• Grief-Induced Split: Danny, Daniel's father, reveals to Bear that he and Hokti divorced following Daniel's death. In addition, Danny quit drinking, as his alcohol-fueled behavior contributed to Daniel's horrible home life.
• Harmful to Hitchhikers: Elora and Jackie hitch a ride with a chatterbox traveling salesman. When his departure from the main road scares them, Jackie repeatedly kicks him in the face and Elora stabs his arm before they both jump out of the car.
• Hated Hometown: Deconstructed. While the Reservation Dogs seemed determined to earn or steal enough money to escape the rez for California, Elora seems to be the only one whose heart is truly in it. Everyone else professes to hate the place, but are conflicted about maybe staying to make it a better place instead. Willie Jack's dad points out that most Natives who leave the reservation out of hate end up returning because they understand it better than the outside world.
• Heel Realization: Bear in the first episode has 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.
• Heist Episode: "Send It" sees the Rez Dogs execute a caper in the form of locating and breaking Maximus out of his psychiatric hospital. Bear acts as the team's Mastermind, directing each member of the crew to their assigned task. Since the breakout was Willie Jack's idea, she and Bear are the two tasked with retrieving Maximus.
• Heritage Disconnect: "City Indians" such as Jackie, Augusto Firekeeper, and MissM8tri@rch have trouble fitting in on the reservation. The latter two come off as overcompensating with their activism, and MissM8tri@rch also seems embarrassed to admit that she comes from the Bay Area. Amber Midthunder, who played her, noted in an interview too that her outfit is a mishmash from different tribes' traditional clothing, subtly indicating that she's not actually too familiar with their traditions.
• Hilarious Outtakes: The end credits of "Friday" play out over an outtake of the scene where Bev and Big flirt overtly. In the outtake (but not in the official scene), they share Bev's stretched-out piece of gum, an improv so outrageous that the actors corpse. invoked
• Hobos: The Rez Dogs spend a night sleeping under a tarp on Skid Row, at least until everyone is evicted by the police. They had been brought there by White Jesus, who explained that sleeping in the encampment is a better alternative to walking to their destination at night.
• Hold My Glasses: Willie Jack takes off her earrings before going to fight the NDN Mafia in the IHS parking lot.
• Homage Shot:
  • The shot in "California Dreamin'" where Elora finds Daniel's dead, hanging body is a nod to a EP Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit. In both shots the dead body is only identified by their shoes.
  • The shot where Bear is "killed" by the NDN Mafia's paintball guns is based on Sergeant Elias' death in Platoon.
  • When the Rez Dogs open a case containing a fancy beaded medallion, it glows in their faces similar to Pulp Fiction.
  • After their memorial for Daniel, there's a Team Power Walk shot of the Rez Dogs wearing black suits, a reference to Reservoir Dogs, the inspiration for the show's title.
  • Multiple shots in "This Is Where the Plot Thickens" reference scenes from Zahn McClarnon's role in Fargo.
• Honor Before Reason: Bear gets surrounded by the NDN Mafia in the second episode. Rather than running, he tells them to Bring It. After the inevitable Curb-Stomp Battle in their favor, William Knifeman points out it would have been smarter for Bear to flee.
• Horsing Around: William Knifeman calls his horse a "little shit" because it tripped in a gopher hole and fell on him at the Battle of Little Big Horn. It also ignores him. When he wants it to move forward, it either stands still or lies down.
• Hostile Hitchhiker: Downplayed with salesman who Jackie and Elora hitch a ride with. The driver acts a bit creepy and has a sinister vibe, but he doesn't directly harm or threaten the girls before they attack him.
• How Many Fingers?: After Cheese fails to notice how much of the graffiti had yet to be removed, Willie Jack holds up some fingers to test his eyesight. He guesses wrong.
• Hypocritical Humor: One of the drunks at the bar tells Bear and Willie Jack to get a job. When they inquire as to his career, he reveals that he's on disability (thus allowing him to spend all his time at the bar).
• Idiot Ball:
  • 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 with him the funnel labeled with his name when he fled the scene.
  • Nobody realizes that the long-haired guy in front of Cheese in the bus queue isn't Bear, and thus that Bear isn't on the bus, until they reach home and he doesn't disembark with everyone else.
• Imagine Spot:
  • During her awkward breakfast with the doctor she hooked up with, Rita imagines him as a colonialist with Native servants/slaves.
  • When talking with her dad about what she can do in California, Willie Jack imagines herself as a chef, a dog rescuer, and an MMA fighter in quick succession.
• Incredibly Obvious Tail: It doesn't take Rick many turns on suburban roads for him to realize the red sedan making all the same moves as him is following him. He pulls into a gas station to confront the driver, who didn't realize the obviousness.
• Infodump: Willie Jack narrates all the changes that have occurred between the first and second seasons to Daniel's photo at the beginning of the second season opener.
• Inherently Attractive Profession: Bear's deadbeat dad is a rapper. His mother Rita expresses interest in finding "a lawyer dad or a doctor dad." She actually does hook up with a doctor later in the show and is charmed by him, but exits once she realizes his subtle racism.
• Initiation Ceremony: The Order of the Midstreamers' biannual initiation ceremony involves all the members donning purple cloaks and stuffed catfish heads in a secluded part of the woods where they have a large owl statue. The initiates strip naked, have blood ritualistically dumped on their heads, then vigorously *ahem* fornicate with beheaded catfish carcasses.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Bear ignorantly assumes that the home Dr. Kang wishes to return to is China. It's actually San Diego, and Dr. Kang is Korean. To illustrate the ignorance of the question, Dr. Kang asks Bear if he is Navajo or Inuit, of which he is neither (as he's Muscogee).
• Interrogation Flashback: "Send It" is framed by Big interrogating everyone involved with the fiery school bus explosion stemming from breaking Maximus out of the hospital, intercut with the phases of the plan as it unfolded.
• Interservice Rivalry: Big and the tribal cops are looked down on by the regular cops.
• Intoxication Ensues: Several instances.
  • Downplayed. The aunties eat edibles at the IHS conference, thinking they're only 10 mg. Only after do they learn that Teenie lied: the edibles were actually 25 mg. The women end up on the dancefloor swaying like zombies after the weed hits.
  • Happens again when Big drinks a soda that unbeknownst to him was dosed with LSD and ayahuasca. He spends most of the episode tripping.
• Karmic Nod: 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. The patron nods in acceptance.
• The Klan: The Order of the Midstreamers are a group of wealthy white men who believe they are the rightful heirs of Indian Territory and its mineral rights. Instead of white hoods, they wear stuffed catfish heads and purple. Their initiation ritual involves stripping naked, having blood poured over their heads, and fucking a beheaded catfish.
• Lady Swearsalot: Almost every other word out of Willie Jack's mouth is an F-bomb. Elora only slightly less so.
• Language Barrier: Played for Horror. 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.
• "Last Day of School" Plot: "House Made of Bongs" takes place on the last day of school in 1976. The teens head to a party in the woods, get high, and talk about their intended futures.
• Lazy Alias: White Steve's race-based aliases for him and Bone Thug Dog are Mr. White and Mr. Brown. The latter is nixed, so White Steve hastily revises his friend's alias to Mr. Dog.
• Locked in a Room: The Season 1 finale has the Rez Dogs and the NDN Mafia, along with most of the other main characters, locked in a church basement due to a tornado. This causes some friendly moments between White Steve and the Rez Dogs as well as the boiling over of tensions between Elora and the other Rez Dogs.
• Long-Lost Relative: In Season 3 episode "Elora's Dad," Elora finally meets Rick, her birth father, and discovers that she also has three half-siblings who are very happy to have an older sister.
• Magical Native American: Note that the majority of the cast are indigenous, so the trope is played with extensively.
  • Parodied with William Knifeman. He's a spirit guide, that much is true, but the advice he gives isn't wise so much as self-evident, his off-kilter nature often leads him on unnecessary tangents, he dislikes the spirit realm because he's always cold and hungry, and he enters and exits scenes in truly undignified ways (his horse laying down and refusing to budge; being seen pissing behind a dumpster, etc).
  • Subverted with Fixico, the old medicine man who hangs out in front of the clinic offering traditional Native medicine. When Wille Jack asks if he has anything for Elora's stomachache, Fixico briefly checks his wares before telling her no, forcing Elora to go to the clinic.
  • Uncle Brownie has strong medicine, utilizing it to redirect a tornado in the first season finale.
  • Some characters can see and interact with spirits. It's in the blood for Rita and Bear.
• Magic Realism: Nestled neatly in a realistic story of delinquent kids growing up on the rez, we see Big's childhood encounters with the mythical Deer Lady, and the Tall Man may or may not hang out in the nearby woods. A Bigfoot family, too. Bear also receives regular messages from a dead warrior, and may have seen Daniel's spirit lingering near where he died.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • In keeping with the Magic Realism, it's never definitively spelled out if White Jesus is a delusional homeless person or actually Jesus. The kids certainly treat him as if he's real.
  • Maximus meets a "Star Person" who claims to be his "relative." In a show where spirits exist, it might be real, though Maximus was high on acid at the time.
• May–December Romance: Played with for Hokti's Spirit Advisor 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.
• Mistaken for Insane: Rob thinks Rita's lost her mind because she's talking to thin air. She's having lunch with Cookie's spirit.
• Mistaken Nationality: Both Bear and Fixico assume that Dr. Kang is an immigrant from Asia. He's Korean-American from San Diego.
• Moving-Away Ending: Elora moves to the dorms for college and Rita moves to Oklahoma City for a promotion at the end of the finale.
• Mugging the Monster: In a flashback, Big is stuck in the bathroom at a convenience store while it's being robbed by two masked men. They knock out the cashier and threaten the only other customer... who happens to be the Deer Lady. She responds by murdering both of them.
• Nature Tinkling: While in the wilderness, Bucky, Big, Brownie, and Cheese all pee together lined up like they're at a urinal. The pee streams are shown on-screen first.
• Near-Death Experience: Uncle Brownie escapes his tornado-redirection prayer with his life, but his clothes "went to the place where the spirits go" because something had to be taken.
• Neglected Rez: Okern, Oklahoma is a run-down rez town, with drugs and poverty running rampant. Elora points out that living in this place is what killed their friend Daniel a year before the start of the series. Despite this, there is room for healing and growth across the generations of people who call the rez home.
• Noble Savage:
  • Parodied by William Knifeman, Bear's spirit guide, who says he was at the Battle of Little Big Horn, but is quick to point out that he never saw battle and died when his horse tripped on a gopher hole.
  • MissM8tri@rch's view of Native American history. She views their ancestors as peaceful proto-hippies who spent all their time eating berries and making love.
• No Eye in Magic: 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. Bev snags him that night anyway.
• No Name Given: MissM8tri@rch, a Native American activist, is never called by her real name. (That's her online handle.)
• Oh, Crap!: A very justifiable reaction to being suddenly confronted with the paranormal.
  • Bear is terrified when he realizes he's eating with the Deer Lady, given she's a Vigilante Woman.
  • Maximus' reaction when the UFO stops the car.
  • Rita freaks out when Cookie's spirit appears in her room.
• Ominous Owl: Owls are considered a bad omen in many Native cultures, so they're treated as such when appearing in any form.
  • In episode 3, the kids react with shock and horror to a fake owl, and try to avoid looking at it. The fake owl's eyes are even censored by pixelation.
  • In the season two premiere, while having dinner, Elora notices a potholder with an owl embroidered on it; she quietly flips it over to the other side.
  • The giant owl statue used by the Order of the Midstreamers has its eyes pixelated.
• One Free Hit: As her sincerest form of apology, Willie Jack grants Jackie one free punch to her head or gut.
• Origins Episode: "Deer Lady" delves into the guardian spirit's past, specifically her human childhood in a residential school and how that made her the vigilante she is today.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Explored in two generations.
  • Mabel outlived her daughter Cookie, whose death turned Mabel from the kindliest mother figure to a cold and unfeeling guardian to her orphaned granddaughter.
  • Danny and Hokti outlived their only child Daniel, causing their divorce. In the year since, Danny gave up alcohol and became a workaholic, while Hokti went to jail.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: 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. They're also incapable of teleporting away, instead needing to exit encounters by walking off.
• Parallel Parking: Coach Bobson has Elora parallel park in a spot too small for her car during her Driving Test. Her Crocodile Tears get him to swap places with her, only for him to resort to ramming into the adjacent cars until hers is free.
• Parents as People: The older characters are as developed as the younger ones and often get their own flashback episodes.
  • Willie Jack's dad, Leon, apologizes to Willie Jack if he seems different to her over the past year. It is implied that not only the Reservation Dogs were deeply affected by Daniel's passing, but a few of the adults in their lives as well, based on his dialogue with his daughter.
  • Daniel's grieving 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.
  • Rita, Bev, Teenie, and Natalie have episodes focusing on them, the strain on their relationship, and their grief over Cookie's (Elora's mother) death.
• Passing the Torch: Fixico doesn't have anyone to pass his medicinal knowledge to, which is unfortunate because he feels his time is coming soon. Willie Jack asks to be his apprentice.
• The Patient Has Left the Building: The Rez Dogs intend to invoke an unsanctioned psychiatric hospital breakout. Only to learn that Maximus can leave whenever he wants; he only gets taken to the hospital when he goes off his meds and uses the place like an apartment/hotel.
• Pixelation:
  • Owls' eyes, including in artwork, are pixelated because the birds are considered bad omens.
  • Brownie, William Knifeman, and Big variously have their exposed privates pixelated.
• Police Are Useless: Officer Big is too busy watching a documentary about the JFK assassination on his phone to notice the theft of the chip truck. Later on, as he inspects some discarded catfish, he ends up locking himself out of his own police car.
• Pop-Up Texting: The Rez Dogs' group chat pops up on-screen with labels as to who's texting.
• Porn Stash: Big's childhood encounter with a Bigfoot family only happens because he snuck into the woods to read his collection of Playboy magazines.
• Posthumous Character:
  • Daniel, who was a member of the Rez Dogs friend group. The first episode takes place on the first anniversary of his death. Bear has seen his spirit at least once.
  • Cookie, Elora's mother, is seen in flashbacks both to her childhood and to the night she died. She passed when Elora, now a teenager, was three.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Kenny Boy and White Steve act like they're part of the Muscogee community, even though they're distinctly Caucasian. This earns them perplexed side-eyes.
• Prison Episode: Though it's technically only a government-mandated group home, Cheese gets locked away when Uncle Charley is arrested for growing pot. His release is contingent on finding a new guardian.
• Product Placement: Brownie frequently eats at Sonic and has cups with their logo all over his home. It gets frequent reference as a place for the characters to go to.
• Profound by Pop Song: The spirit warrior quotes Kansas to Bear when pressed to offer life advice he doesn't have. If Bear notices the reference, he doesn't acknowledge it.
  Spirit: Take responsibility for yourself, young warrior. "Carry on, my wayward son. There will be peace when you are done." [throws french fry at Bear's face] Aho.
• Rivals Team Up: After seeing Cheese get arrested, Jackie breaks the news to her bitter enemies, Willie Jack and Bear. Elora is surprised to see the three of them together when they come to collect her.
• Roadkill for Dinner: Bear convinces Elora to let him take the deer that an old white couple had run over, saying that they can use the roadkill meat to make backstrap.
• Running Gag: Throughout episode 4, various people are seen listening to or rapping Punkin's song "Greasy Fry Bread." The credits even roll over a soulful acoustic version.
• Safety Gear Is Cowardly: Elora thinks wearing a seatbelt during the Rez Dogs' truck heist is uncool. Bear points out that putting her head through the windshield wouldn't be cool either.
• Ship Tease: Bear and Jackie have a Sleep Cute moment together, keep texting each other while he's on the Rez Dogs pilgrimage to California, and are paired together in IHS cleaning chores (the ensuing argument from which Bev sees as Belligerent Sexual Tension). It's hinted in the finale that they're together when Jackie helps Bear and Rita pack for Rita's move to OKC.
• Shout-Out:
  • The name of the show is a shout-out to Reservoir Dogs and, at the end of the first episode, the Rez Dogs have dressed in nice suits and do a slow walk just like the film. Bear also has the film poster in his room.
  • Elora Danan is named after a character from Willow. Pointing this out tends to prompt other characters to share behind-the-scenes trivia about the film with her totally unsolicited.
  • Another Willow shout-out: Kenny Boy's business is named "Burglecutt Salvage."
  • Leon, Willie Jack's father, makes a joke about hunting "Cardassians" in LA, though he's referring to the Kardashians.
  • Cheese's improvised prayer mentions a galaxy far, far away.
  • Big names his car Redbone One after the all-Indian band and frequently listens to "Come and Get Your Love" while working. The episode ends with actual video of the band performing the song.
  • On his first day as a roofer, Bear is sent on a Snipe Hunt for a fake tool that supposedly stretches something.
  • Leon calls Bear and Jackie "Zoolander and Tinker-hell."
  • Mose and Mekko's parting words at Fixico's casket are "see you at the crossroads," a lyric from Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's biggest hit "Tha Crossroads" (which is, fittingly, a Grief Song).
• The Shrink: Larry the IHS psychiatrist appears prone to digressions about his own weird issues. He tells Rita about the time he mistook a Hopi welder for Lou Diamond Phillips and attributes everything (including that) to native generational trauma.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: When Bear is thrown into his job as a roofer without training and almost plummets off as a result, his spirit guide isn't surprised.
  Bear: It's like, they don't even teach you anything, just expect you to know.
  William Knifeman: Yeah. That's the native way of teaching. We have this, uh, traditional pedagogy of, uh: Just get out there and learn, fucker.
• Skeptic No Longer: It takes Cookie manifesting for Rita to believe Bear that he was driven home by the Deer Lady. Up until then, she'd dismissed his claims as a lie that disrespectfully invoked spirits.
• Sleep Cute: Bear and Jackie fall asleep on Mabel's couch together. Jackie is disgusted when she wakes up and realizes it happened.
• Snipe Hunt: On his first day as a roofer, Bear gets sent to fetch the "board stretcher" by the other workers.
• Sock It to Them: Referred to euphemistically as "soaping," a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of one of Cheese's roommates is his wake-up on his first morning in the group home. Though the beating occurs off-screen, the weapons are understood to be bar soap in socks.
• Spirit Advisor:
  • William Knifeman acts as Bear's and as of the first season finale, Brownie's spirit guide.
  • Season 2 reveals that Daniel's mother Hokti has her own advisor, a woman whose cheeriness is in stark contrast to Hokti's antisocial gloominess.
  • Cookie has been giving Rita guidance as a spirit, though she doesn't make herself known to Rita for a decade and a half.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Weeze gets bogged down by the details of how exactly he's supposed to scream for everyone's attention if something goes down while he's on lookout. It's then pointed out that he can just text the group chat.
• The Stinger: In the middle of the credits, "Frankfurter Sandwich" cuts to two Bigfoot creatures pissing on a log.
• The Stoner:
  • Brownie has been a pothead since his youth, rocking a marijuana leaf patch on his vest.
  • Rick Miller is smoking a joint for most of his screen time. Elora even calls him a stoner in the Rez Dogs group chat.
• Strong Family Resemblance: According to Uncle Brownie, Elora looks so much like her mother Cookie it's like looking at a ghost. Aunt Teenie in the second season agrees that Elora is a spitting image of her mother. Rick Miller only needs to take one look at her to know she's his daughter.
• Super Doc: Deconstructed. Dr. Kang is introduced as someone who works with eyes, but he then later goes to treat Elora's stomach pain and Bear's injured nose in the same episode. This is lampshaded by Bear who is confused at an ophthalmologist showing up to diagnose his issue. Given the perpetually-full waiting room, the apathy of the secretaries, and the fact that the clinic is clearly not top-of-the-line, this is implied to be the result of a Critical Staffing Shortage. Dr. Kang himself is exhausted.
  Bear: Aren't you the eye doctor?
  Dr. Kang: I'm the everything doctor. Toes, backs, assholes.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: 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.
• Sympathetic Magic: Personal items are needed both to curse and un-curse someone. These can range from hair clippings to articles of clothing or cosmetics.
• Take That!:
  • A nun who teaches at a Native boarding school where Native children were forced to go to learn English and convert to Christianity is named in the credits as Sister Stitt, likely as a dig at Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt for his ongoing conflict with tribal governments in eastern Oklahoma.
  • "Go Washington Foreskins" is seen among the graffiti in William Knifeman's porta-potty. This takes a jab at Washington DC's NFL team, which until 2020 was called the Washington Redskins (a racial slur).
  • Bev begs the Creator for the opportunity to move anywhere that's outside Okern. Kansas City, DC, or even Texas. Rita calls her out on that last one, and Bev admits she wouldn't move there.
• Taking the Heat: Big intends to charge everyone involved with the flaming school bus with a misdemeanor. Kenny tells him that he can't let the kids get in trouble for doing something good for their elders, so he insists the only people involved were him and Ansel.
• Teen Pregnancy:
  • Rita and Cookie had their children at about 17 years old.
  • At the group home in Season 2, Cheese's new friend Tino reveals that he fathered (at least) two children before being locked up at age 16.
• Theme Naming: Probably Theme Nicknaming, but Elora's mom was Cookie and her 'uncle' is Brownie.
• This Means Warpaint: Kenny Boy reaches under the bus's steering column to coat his fingertips with some kind of oil, which he uses to draw dark stripes on his cheeks as warpaint. Only then can The Caper commence.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Big, the tribal cop who nobody ever takes seriously (and often with good reason), gets credited on the news with the takedown of the Order of the Midstreamers with a deputized Kenny Boy.
• Title-Only Opening: The show opening consists of "Reservation Dogs" popping up in large text over a scene.
• Toilet Humor:
  • The spirit talks to Bear about grief and hardship while seated in the adjacent porta-potty, nonchalantly taking a dump while doing so.
  • Brownie has Cheese listen quietly to ambient nature at the lake, only to rip one loudly.
• Tomboyish Name:
  • Willie Jack dresses boyishly, has a rough way of movement, and goes hunting with her dad. Fittingly, Auntie B reveals Willie Jack is short for "Wilhelmina Jacqueline".
  • Gang leader Jackie has a unisex name, boyish short hair and pretty masculine clothing.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The Dogs love the catfish at Rob & Cleo's store. They also love Flamin' Flamers, the hot chip Elora eats so much of that she gets stomach pains.
• Trapped with the Therapy Session: Willie Jack and Cheese follow Bucky and Brownie to a curse-reversing prayer ceremony, only to be stuck listening to their thinly-veiled argument rehashing the reason for their long and bitter feud. (Turns out that Brownie once slept with Bucky's girl while they were on a break.)
• Traumatic Haircut: The first thing the children are subjected to at the residential school is their long braids being lopped off. Truth in Television, as haircuts were reserved for significant situations like mourning, so the residential schools' policy of forcibly cutting hair was just one of many ways they removed children from their cultural practices.
• Travel Montage: A map of Indian Country, complete with labels and illustrations of the various peoples passed by, accompanies the gang's drive to L.A. in Daniel's honor.
• Tropaholics Anonymous: Gene at the boys' home forces the boys to regularly participate in the "fifth step" of his recovery process, a sharing circle. He details to Cheese the bizarre story that led him to join a recovery program.
• Trust-Building Blunder: At the symposium, Jackie is told do a trust fall with Willie Jack. Her insistence that Willie Jack will drop her is ignored, only for her to be proven right. Willie Jack steps away and lets Jackie hit the floor as revenge for the NDN Mafia jumping Bear.
• Unexpected Kindness: The Rez Dogs are caught breaking into Kenny Boy's garage with the intent to steal Elora's car back from the lot. Much to their surprise, he tells them the passcode, granting Elora her car so long as she returns it afterwards. She intends to keep the promise.
• Unfazed Everyman: Most of the characters who encounter spirits or the supernatural take their existences in stride. Rita is the only aversion, as she thinks she's having a mental breakdown.
• Vehicular Sabotage: A flashback shows Cheese dumping stuff through a funnel into the NDN Mafia's car in hopes of causing it to break down. He then forgets to take his funnel with him, it being clearly labeled with his name. The NDN Mafia inform him that his sabotage failed.
• Villains Out Shopping: The leader of the NDN Mafia, Jackie, works at a supermarket. Elora runs into her while shopping and both girls have a mutual Oh, Crap! moment. After helping Elora find plasticware, Jackie makes an offer for Elora to jump ship to join the NDN Mafia, since she tells Elora she can help her get to California better than the Reservation Dogs can.
• Voiceover Letter: Daniel's voice reads out his Time Capsule letter from freshman year, with a flashback to the class where everyone wrote those letters. It outlines his plan for visiting California and reveals that he was harboring requited feelings for Elora.
• What Are You in For?: Cheese gets asked the reason for his being sent to the group home. He isn't sure why, given that the person being arrested was his cousin-uncle Charley.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Season 3's "House Made of Bongs" takes place entirely in 1976, following the grandparents' generation on the last day of the school year.
• Wild Teen Party: Bear throws a rager while Rita is out of town at an IHS conference, though the episode focuses more on her antics than his. In the following episode, Rita uses the party as reasoning for why Bear has to help her with setting up for the youth summit.
• You Remind Me of X:
  • Bear reminds Deer Lady of her determined childhood friend that she met at the residential school.
  • Cheese reminds Bucky and Brownie of their long-estranged friend Maximus.
• Your Makeup Is Running: Willie Jack's war paint (really Halloween store facepaint) runs when she cries from missing Daniel.

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