Lisa Chee and Ben Alito lounged on some folding chairs on the patio of WOMPA, an artist space in Tulsa, on a recent sweltering summer night with water and pop in a nearby cooler. Amidst the sound of cicadas and grasshoppers that make up the symphony of an Oklahoma summer night, they were waiting among about a hundred other Reservation Dogs fans to catch the first two episodes of the final season.
“We saw the premiere last year, and we're here to enjoy the show,” Chee and Alito said, both are anxiously waiting to see where the final season takes them.
“I know it's going to have to come to an end, and I hope it really goes out on a good note,” Alito said.
Last year’s premier of season two was a star-studded affair at the River Spirit Casino in Tulsa, but with the writer’s and actor’s strike going on, a big premier wasn’t possible. Creators of the show still wanted to have something, so fans could celebrate.
“There’s something serendipitous about this place,” Rockee Harjo said before the first two episodes started rolling. Rockee is Sterlin Harjo’s brother, one of the creators of the show. Rockee worked on the show as a location manager. Having the screening at WOMPA, he said, made the experience come full circle.
“A lot of the first stories of Reservation Dogs happened in this building. I wouldn't have had my job on Reservation Dogs without being here,” Rockee told the crowd. Some of the first table reads with the actors happened in this space.
The show was made possible with a lot of love, sweat and tears from locals, which is how Harjo wanted it, said Bobby Dean Orcutt. Orcutt’s company Low Road Merc Company sells the merchandise for Crazy Eagle Media, Harjo’s production company.
He organized an artist market for folks who came early for the premier. One of his signature shirts featured the logo for the fast food chain Sonic-whose styrofoam cups and tater tots can be seen in the hands of actors on the show. Also emblazoned on the shirt, an often used and very colorful, profane term uttered by those on the show.
“So, we've got a few of the old Sonic Don't be a S**t A**. We're blowing that out, though Sonic of America was not supportive of it,” Orcutt said.
Orcutt has known Sterlin Harjo for a longtime and produced a documentary with him called Terlton, about a small town in Pawnee County that experienced a tragedy when a fireworks building exploded in the mid 1980s. He says Harjo made the show on his own terms and made folks in the state proud.
“Just like seeing what Sterlin has done, how he kind of like dug his heels in the way that it was filmed, the way that it was treated,” Oructt said. “The decision to go out on the high note, like making it perfect, like imagine if Green Day had broken up in 1994 and like put out Dookie, and they were like the best band ever and then went away.”
Two weeks before the first two episodes dropped on FX on Hulu, Orcutt contacted a bunch of artists and makers to sell stuff before people settled in with meat pies and NDN tacos.
One of those vendors was Sydney Gray. She worked in the costume department on Reservation Dogs as a custom stitcher, designer and made some of the earrings and necklaces on the show. Gray said the experience has been once in a lifetime.
“I am so excited for people to see season three because this is truly a journey about healing and I think a lot of people are going to get closure from these characters that they weren't expecting,” Gray said when asked about what she’s looking forward to for season three.
“And it's very masterfully done by all the writers and directors despite the circumstances with the strikes. And I think people are going to be really in for a wonderful experience seeing season three.”
Dylan Brodie was an associate producer for all three seasons. He’s worked with Sterlin Harjo for a decade on various projects. Without giving away too many surprises, he said fans are in for a ride on the last season.
“Our characters are going to be positioned with a choice of do they stay with their community or do they spread their wings and see where the world will take them,” Brodie told KOSU. “They will learn about their past, the people that brought them into this world and gave them life.”
Brodie said Reservation Dogs is a commentary on family and what our community means to us.
“I see the three seasons of Reservation Dogs as a triptych of grief,” Brodie said. “It's the power of what loss can do for us, how it can completely change our lives, how it alters our paths, and ultimately holds the power to change things for the better.”
The first five episodes of the new season have dealt with some sensitive and traumatic issues-including one about the government's federal Indian boarding school policy-which has prompted a lot of discussion and praise online for the show.
And, whether the gang decides to stay in Oklahoma or move on, everyone knows they'll be staying gold.
