‘Reservation Dogs’ Editor Was Influenced by Robert Altman for Finale 

“It really begins with the footage,” editor Varun Viswanath says.

While that’s the norm for any editor, Viswanath, who is nominated for an Emmy alongside fellow editor Patrick Tuck for FX’s “Reservation Dogs,” has a secret weapon in the cutting room: co-creators and showrunners Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi.

Not only do they do long takes, but they do also resets. “We get to hear what they’re saying to the actors, and it’s an extra tool to get into their heads and understand their preferences,” Viswanath says. Viswanath and Tuck joined forces to collaborate on cutting the series finale, “Dig.”

In the episode, the town comes together to honor medicine man Fixico (Richard Ray Whitman) after his death. While the theme of community anchors the entire series, it is key to this episode. The central characters all reach different resolutions: Elora (Devery Jacobs) is heading off to a new adventure in college; Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) learns about independence as his mother takes a job in the city and he creates his path — perhaps with Jackie (Elva Guerra); and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), having apprenticed under Fixico, has turned her attention to helping others on the reservation. As for Cheese (Lane Factor), his new glasses give him a sharper view on life.

For the finale, Harjo wanted the episode to be about the kids and the community, and the best place to show that would be at a funeral. “One of the happiest times in our community is when you go to mourn someone’s death,” he says. “I think people are more honest when faced with death, so they’ll tell one another they love each other more, and their guards are down.”

As a huge fan of cinema, Harjo admits that each episode contained references to other films, including “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Dazed and Confused.” Harjo thought of Robert Altman when writing and filming this episode and how the filmmaker used his ensemble casts. In particular, he looked at how Altman would use slow zooms, switching between a background and a foreground character and having them talk over each other.

When it came to editing, Tuck and Harjo wanted to capture the essence of community and that feeling of being there. “There were long sweeping shots intercut with moments of [the central characters] in the future and seeing their life is just beginning,” says Tuck.

“They’ve come home, they’ve matured and they’ve come full circle.” Another powerful scene involved Willie Jack visiting her Aunt Hokti (Lily Gladstone) in prison. Willie Jack tells Hokti that Fixico has died, but admits she didn’t get to spend much time with him. With that information, Hokti uses a selection of candy to explain the power of community to her young niece.

Viswanath had also cut the prison sequence in Season 2. “I decided not to try to get radical and shoot it differently,” says Harjo. “I wanted it to feel familiar to Season 2. But what was really great about that is it’s this very quiet moment before the chaos of the rest of the episode.” That jail scene was a prologue before the audience got to see the community in action, says Harjo. “What better way to express the importance of community than through a character that has to be taken away from the community and kept apart from it? That holds this weight that it wouldn’t have if she wasn’t in jail.”

Viswanath found the scene poignant to cut and admits he didn’t have much footage to work with. “That scene for me is a great microcosm of the Native community that Sterlin and his crew represent,” he says.

The importance of the scene reflects the power of handing down multi-generational secrets and how the community can still be fostered even in a restricted environment. That segues into Willie Jack “making sure that the machine of community is working the way it’s meant to be,” says Harjo.

Bear has to say another goodbye, this time to his spiritual guide, William “Spirit” Knifeman, played by Dallas Goldtooth. “You deserve to be loved, and you deserve to love,” Spirit says, reminding Bear
that the community offers him that love.

Viswanath, who cut their first encounter in the pilot, felt Bear went through the biggest emotional growth and that the goodbye was a full-circle moment. He had a goal in capturing that farewell scene: “To see how much more nuanced he is with the little expressions on his face, and how much more measured they are,” the editors says of WoonA-Tai’s performance.

The final shot in the episode features the group of people together, sharing their love. In the edit bay, Tuck debated intercutting other coverage for certain lines, but in the end settled on the sweeping shot of the foursome.

“We had to really fight the instinct to cut to separate coverage, deciding instead to let the audience — and the Rez Dogs themselves — feel present in the moment, surrounded by the people and community they love. It’s such a beautiful style to show how these characters have matured and grown across three seasons, and a perfect way to end the series,” says Tuck. “It encompasses everything you want to feel in that moment.”

The scenes leading up to that ending centered on heavily emotional moments of farewell and loss, but as Viswanath points out, it always leads to one theme: “You can go back to your community, share a meal and be uplifted.”