1x07 California Dreamin'

[7.8/10] Another winner. Death seems to be a fact of life where the Rez Dogs come from. Elora lost her friend and probable crush Daniel. Coach Bobson seems to be on the path of losing his daughter. Both of them lost Elora’s mom, as a friend or as a parent. It’s a consequence of living in a place where prospects dwindle quickly, hope trickles slowly, and escapes are both plentiful and dangerous. That doesn’t make it easier.

The friendship that emerges between Elora and her old basketball coach is all kinds of endearing. The ridiculousness of an ill-fated driving test that turns into a shoot-out at a seedy motel that turns into yet another visit to the meth heads’ salvage (nee scrap) yard is amusing in that wry way Reservation Dogs pulls off so well.

But the main event here is recollections of loss. We get more of the story on Daniel, and holy hell, is Elora stumbling on his suicide in their hangout a jolt of cold water to the heart. We get glimpses at Daniel’s problems, from a difficult homelife that makes it so he “can’t go home,” to behavioral issues that leave him easily fixated on things like opening cars or fast dancing to slow music. We see more closely just how attached Elora was to him, and more of why our heroes internalized his dream of going to California.

It’s sad stuff. Being a teenager is already so hard. Being a teenager with no home life to fall back on, with apparent mental health issues makes it even harder. Your heart goes out to Daniel, not just because we get a picture of him through brief glimpses and his friends’ remembrances, but because he stands in for so many real young men and women, struggling with the hardships of life at a time where it’s so easy to be overwhelmed.

Despite that, there’s a real undercurrent of sweetness to this one, of Elora finding solace in an unlikely place, of she and Coach Bobson bonding over fond recollections of Elora’s mom, of him giving her a passing grade on her driving test despite (or because of) their questionable escapades, of finding out that the indigenous word he thought meant “white warrior” actually meant “toilet” in a reveal that’s both amusing and a sign of trust. There are silver linings to the bad things in life, people we can bond with or show compassion to. This episode is a lovely tribute to that idea, even as it delivers one of the series’ most heartbreaking scenes yet.