Written by Thelonia
Well, we gotta deal with the aftermath of that last episode, don't we.
As soon as the episode started, I think we all knew what we were in for. The "last time on Wynonna Earp" recap was basically a montage of Dolls throughout the show's run and combined with a slower acoustic cover of the opening theme song, I was ready to just bawl from the first second in of "Colder Weather," the latest episode of a show that apparently wants me dead emotionally.
And hey, speaking of emotionally dead, we open with Wynonna, taking Dolls' death as she does most traumas: drinking and yelling in the woods (Waverly + Nicole are there to supervise). When she gets cornered by a revenant and realizes she's too tired to actually shoot and dispatch him, the group decides that perhaps this isn't the best way of coping with the death.
And hey, speaking of emotionally dead, we open with Wynonna, taking Dolls' death as she does most traumas: drinking and yelling in the woods (Waverly + Nicole are there to supervise). When she gets cornered by a revenant and realizes she's too tired to actually shoot and dispatch him, the group decides that perhaps this isn't the best way of coping with the death.
Across town in Shorty's meanwhile, Contessa has Tarot cards out (be still my beating heart, I love it when shows incorporate Tarot because FOR ONCE I can get hints), and is confronting Doc about his relationship with Wynonna, and gives him some rather scathing advice: you can't compare to a ghost. (Ouch)
Waverly and Nicole are taking the lead in terms of arranging Dolls' eternal resting place, meeting with a funeral director and sorting through what looks like casket flash cards (are those real, by the way???). Talking about Dolls' funeral leads them to consider their own final resting places: Nicole wants to be left in the woods and return to Nature and Waverly wants to be with her family. Unfortunately, there are only two plots left on the Earp burial site and they are for Mama Earp and Wynonna. No room (literally) for Waverly here.
Of course it would take this, but this also leads to the first time this Season that Wynonna and Doc have really opened up to each other emotionally (apart from briefly toasting Alice and kissing in the first episode but let's not worry about that for now). It helps that their emotional reckoning is backed up by such nice looking (and also very, very cold-looking) scenery.
Also, just a note, but by God do I love the chosen family trope.
Things do start to take a turn in the episode when you find out in short order that there is a mysterious man rolling into town (pretty much never a good thing in Purgatory), and Shorty's basement (where the lab to make Dolls' drugs was set up) got raided, leading to a very ominous shot of the empty fridge, test tubes and pipettes a rolling.
"Gone like Gone Girl! The movie and the book!" |
Turns out, that was the work of Revenants, who shoot themselves up with Dolls' discard drugs (the ones that didn't work and were just kept as reference), leading to your general Revenant mayhem.
There are a couple of threads that start here, with the first being that Waverly and Nicole, who volunteered to go through Dolls' room, find a letter to Wynonna, and Nicole opens up about her tragic backstory (did no one here have even a sort of normal childhood?).
Turns out, Nicole was in fact, in Purgatory long before she came to be a cop. She was at a music festival when she was younger, did in fact survive a Cult of Bulshar attack, only remembered when she heard the name "Bulshar" at the end of last season, and now has a boatload of survivor's guilt.
(Once more everybody, my motto: Therapy for Everyone!!!!!)
(Once more everybody, my motto: Therapy for Everyone!!!!!)
A few seconds later though, a not so inconspicuous Contessa swipes Waverly's bag, including the letter to Wynonna.
Everyone's got this mustache now apparently. |
Wynonna, meanwhile, has gone on the warpath after hearing that there would be an autopsy of Dolls' body. But she gets a bit more than she bargained for when she runs into Jeremy at the station, who tells her that Dolls knew he was going to die, and so did he. Though Jeremy explains he didn't tell her because of Dolls' wishes, she is NOT hearing it, and fires him, which was a thing I didn't think she could do, but hey.
I turns out that the man with the Star tattoo on his hand is Quinn, a friend of Dolls' from Black Badge. He's able to fill in Wynonna and Doc about the experiments that led to Dolls' 'dragon' state, as well as his demise. Dolls it seems, was the last standing Black Badge experiment. It feels like a definite attempt to soften the blow last episode left by explaining just how much Dolls was able to get out of a limited time span he was given.
And now, the wake. It seems like this would be the emotional high point of the episode, but despite the fact that there is a nice montage of everyone talking (and eating Waverly's many, many sandwiches), the whole thing devolves a bit into a shoot-out when the drugged up Revenants crash the party.
At some point during the fight, Jeremy yells to Wynonna that they're hopped up on the stolen drugs, which immediately catches Quinn's attention (and in a kind of scary way - we're still not 100% on this guy). Jeremy explains that they might have samples left at the station, which could be a liability given what just happened. After leveling the situation on him and Black Badge, he leaves to check on the samples (and presumably, pack his bags, he is still sort of fired at this point).
Waverly and Doc do miss this entire fight as Waverly enlists Doc to come help her confront Contessa, (also known as Kataleen, or more simply, Kate). This leads to one of the funniest lines of the episode, which comes courtesy of some pretty heavy lamp-shading:
"Does anyone around here not have a secret Wife?"
Cause guess what Kate is???
If you guessed "Doc's wife who is a Vampire now" then you win! |
This is gonna make things with Wynonna even MORE awkward than they already were, great. But also, Kate doesn't know about Alice, so honestly, they should all have a sit-down because this could go south pretty quick.
Nicole manages to "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" Wynonna into forgiving Jeremy and telling him he's not fired, she's just upset Dolls is gone, which then leads to a very upsetting jump cut.
It's not good when jump cuts involve staples in legs, I'm just putting that out into the universe.
We got ourselves a good old fashioned stand off, with Quinn with a gun to Jeremy's head since he sees him as an extension of Black Badge and thus responsible for killing Dolls as well as all their squad members, and Wynonna not wanting Jeremy to die.
In a master class in "it's easier to walk someone else through their problems than it is to confront your own," Wynonna manages to get him to realize this isn't good for him emotionally, and doesn't mean anything for those he's lost. He just has to keep living without them, which sucks, but is better than letting your grief make you into a monster. And stapling someone's leg.
And here we go, the most upsetting moment of the episode, but also the one that really gives us closures.
I think a lot of people were sort of expecting Dolls to pop back up (Bobo's done that a few times, and it's sort of a thing in these types of Supernatural shows), but not only is he buried, he's been cremated, which, apart from being appropriate given the Dragon thing, also means no one will dig him back up to run more tests on him. He's at peace.
It was at some point during this scene, which takes place mostly in slow motion and with a sad acoustic song playing over it that I had the conscious thought that I was being emotionally manipulated to cry, but also, screw it, it worked. I cried, I think we all cried, and I think it helped a lot with both the audience and the characters in terms of wrapping up Dolls' story and his place in the show and the team.
As Wynonna and Waverly hang out by the campfire at the Homestead (which I guess is their tradition now, even post-shadow Demon), we get to settle the "where's Waverly gonna go when she dies" question (her and Wynonna will be buried on the Homestead together), AND we finally get to see what's inside of Dolls' envelope to Wynonna. No, it's not a letter, or you know, actual written words. Dolls isn't that kind of guy.
It's two pictures. One of the whole group out for dinner (only Waverly seems to realize that someone's taking the picture), and one's of Wynonna, which definitely looks like it was kept in a wallet, which made me more emotional than I thought.
Dolls was such a private person that it seems sometimes like we didn't know just how invested in everyone he was. He clearly loved Wynonna, that was obvious, but his place as a member of the group (CHOSEN FAMILY TROPE AAAAH) has never been clearer than in his absence.
We end the episode off with Doc and Kate, who are apparently just gonna pick up where they left off without having a, you know, "so what have you been doing in the past few hundred years" conversation, which seems like it's just a set up for things to explode Jerry Springer style, but HEY! What do I know.
"You slept with Doc! Who hasn't!" |
Things to look out for (aka: I HAVE CONCERNS):
- We've got resolution on the Contessa and Nicole backstory questions!
- Now all that I want is confirmation on my Ents. I need to know, please Emily.
Overall, this episode is a testament to how well the show addresses emotional development. Dolls was a major part of the show and the team, and it's going to be different without him. But this was an excellent send-off and sets the stage for a show with higher stakes than it did before.
Also things are going to go nuts when Kate & Wynonna get on the same page, so looking forward to that.
You can watch Seasons 1 & 2 of Wynonna Earp on Netlix and Season 3 is currently playing on SyFy.
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