"House Made of Bongs" is the fifth episode of the third and final season of the comedy and teen drama television series Reservation Dogs. The episode was released on FX on Hulu on August 23, 2023. It is the twenty-third episode overall; it was directed by Blackhorse Lowe and written by Tommy Pico and Sterlin Harjo. The episode takes place in 1976 and features no appearances by the main cast. In the episode, a group of students at a boarding school on an Indian reservation attend a party where they prepare for their futures. Inspiration for the episode was taken from films written and directed by Richard Linklater and Stephen Spielberg, as well as other 1970s films. Several songs from the 1960s and 1970s were featured. "House Made of Bongs" received positive reviews from critics and received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination.
In 1976 in Okern, Maximus, Brownie, Bucky, Irene, and Mabel are students at the same Native American boarding school where the spirit Deer Lady and her friends were abused and assimilated into white culture as children some years earlier.[a] However, it has since been modernized and is more like a regular boarding school; there are now Indian teachers and there are sports teams called "Chieftains" (with an Indian mascot). It is the end of the school year. Maximus (who prefers to be called Cvpon) is filming his friends, making home movies.[b] They go to a party by a lake where they smoke marijuana, drink, and take LSD. They talk about what they want for their older selves. Maximus has never taken LSD before and is experiencing a very altered state of reality. Fixico arrives and is very popular. He has recently begun his training as a medicine man (or spiritual healer), which makes Maximus jealous. Fixico tries to reconcile with Maximus but fails. Driving home, Maximus witnesses an extraterrestrial spaceship land and talks with the occupants, but his friends refuse to believe him.
Production
The episode was directed by Blackhorse Lowe and written by Tommy Pico and Sterlin Harjo.[1] None of the main cast appeared in the episode; it instead primarily features five guest stars (Isaac Arellanes, Mato Wayuhi, Shelby Factor, Quannah Chasinghorse, and Nathan Alexis) who portray the younger version of characters who have previously recurred throughout the series.[2] The five appeared as Maximus, Bucky, Mabel, Irene, and Brownie, respectively.[3] Factor and Alexis are siblings of series regulars Lane Factor and Paulina Alexis who portray Cheese and Willie Jack.[4] Lowe compared the script to the film Dazed and Confused and stated that his inspiration was taken from Steven Spielberg-directed films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[5]
"House Made of Bongs" was released on Hulu on August 23, 2023, under their FX on Hulu content hub.[1] Reviewing for The A.V. Club, Manuel Betancourt stated that the episode allowed Reservation Dogs to "offer a much more robust vision of Native life over the decades" and noted the comparisons to the film Dazed and Confused.[10] Betancourt also opines that the episode is one of the funniest in the third season and most inventive in the series overall.[10]Den of Geek writer Alec Bojaland also mentioned the similarities and said that the episode was "quixotically moving in the strangest way."[2] Bojaland later noted how the "tragic" ending up the episode was progressed in the following episode, "Frankfurter Sandwich".[8]
Kali Simmons with Vulture notes that "House Made of Bongs" allowed viewers to see the similarities between Maximus and Bear (one of the characters followed in a traditional episode).[11]TV Insider's Megan Darwish wrote that the younger actors "seemingly encapsulate their older counterparts with pitch-perfect performances".[12] Alan Sepinwall, writing for Rolling Stone, mentions the contrast of the scenes set at the school compared to the modernized version seen in the present-day set episodes and its state as a place of cultural assimilation that was seen two episodes earlier in "Deer Lady".[13] Pico and Harjo were nominated in the episodic comedy category for their work on the episode at the 2024 Writers Guild of America Awards.[14]
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