Wynonna Earp opens with a bang – the heir’s fist lands square on Whiskey Jim’s jaw. With Jim (Joris Jarsky) shown to be alive, still tied to a chair, the Revenant Kill Count needs to be adjusted: 19/77 revenants have thus far been shown to hitch a ride back to Hell by way of Peacemaker. Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) stands in front of the imprisoned revenant with her recently discovered alive sister, Willa (Natalie Krill) and the two pepper the demon with questions, back and forth, confusing him.
When he finally can speak, he croaks out that he doesn’t even know who the woman with Wynonna is. Willa reveals her identity and he says “the surge,” explaining that a few years before Wynonna came back (and came of age), there was a ripple of power and magic in the Ghost River Triangle; it was the curse igniting for Willa to inherit. In a fit of anger at a follow up comment from Jim, Willa pulls Peacemaker out of Wynonna’s holster and kills their captive, claiming they would get no more useful information from him, so why waste their time? (Let’s go ahead and re-adjust that Revenant Kill Count: 20/77.)
When Wynonna tells her that Whiskey Jim was not theirs to kill, he was, for all intents and purposes, Agent Dolls’ information giving punching bag, Willa blows the Black Badge deputy off as an interloper with an attitude problem. She then tells Wynonna that she needs to know more about Bobo and why he saved her and what he knows about her. She also questions why they are constantly at odds with one another and Wynonna tells it like she sees it: for some reason, there are now two heirs to the same curse.
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Exploring her memories under hypnosis with Agent Dolls (Shamier Anderson), Willa sees herself inside a small room holding an origami bird next to a table with a sketch of a man propped up on tapered candles. When she drifts, he tries to correct her by directing her to look at his forehead and she snaps at him. Even though she quickly apologizes, Wynonna calls it quits for the session, worried about the effects of hypnotizing a cult victim. Willa refuses, stubbornly pushing for more. Sitting in front of her inside the Black Badge office, Agent Dolls directs Willa’s breathing. She is reliving the abduction, remembering her father’s death and Wynonna holding Peacemaker. She also remembers the revenant that holds her telling her that if she screams, her sisters will die, too. She breaks down crying and walks off to get some air. Agent Dolls offers to get Officer Nichole Haught (Katherine Barrell) to drive her home.
At the homestead, Nichole dresses Waverly’s (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) wound from the shootout (see Episode 11) at the dining table. Willa walks in and calls the medication poison, a holdover from her time in the commune (see Episode 10). The care of Waverly’s injury manifests a sort of dominance and ownership display in Willa, pushing Nichole away from her sister – but it does not come across so much as based in sisterly love.
Sitting at his desk, Agent Dolls is focused on his laptop when Wynonna comes in asking to talk about who tried to assassinate him. He reluctantly agrees to discuss it, saying there are a lot of people that may want him dead. In addition to the locals (like Bobo Del Rey), he mentions his own boss, Agent Lucado, which catches Wynonna by surprise. She then brings up Doc Holliday since he is presumed to have fled town before the shooting began. For a change, Agent Dolls defends the immortal gunslinger saying that if the man wanted him dead, he’d do it in person with a stick of dynamite.
Changing the subject from Doc, Wynonna picks through the material evidence on Agent Dolls’ desk, all that remains of the attack on the homestead; Agent Dolls personally disposed of the bodies, gathering photos of the tattoos from the men that attempted to assassinate him. He identifies them as Rangers, like him, but also part of another group, based on another tattoo he doesn’t recognize. Wynonna knows it though, and fills in her boss on the Machetes, a local group known for their guns and drugs.
Sheriff Nedley (Greg Lawson) barges in with a file for Agent Dolls. Wynonna is ignored when she asks what is going on, Agent Dolls saying he would handle it himself. When Nedley leaves, Dolls pulls Wynonna off for their hunt of the Machetes.
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Bobo Del Rey (Michael Eklund) has a throne-like barber’s chair set up just inside Shorty’s and is getting his head shaved while listening to the complaints from the other revenants. In his left hand, he holds aloft a green crystal, one of the crystals that Judge Cryderman brought him before the Poker Spectacular (see Episode 11). Cryderman (David LeReaney) sits in a chair of his own next to Bobo, nervous to have a demon wielding a straight edge at his neck. His materialistic view of the world makes him question why Bobo insists on having a party in one of the older hotels in town.
When Bobo is satisfied that the party is in motion, he allows Cryderman to live. The sounds of torture wafts into the room, however, causing the judge to squirm and beg for it to end. The source of the wailing is a woman skinning her own face, the work of the revenant Big Bubba (Josh Bertwistle), a demon that wears a metal face mask. Bobo bends down to inspect the woman and he critiques the work, telling Big Bubba to “dial it back” a little. Bubba nods and drags the woman away.
Wynonna and Agent Dolls walk up to the Machetes’ biker bar and stop to talk to a man sitting on a motorcycle, the apparent security man for the club. Agent Dolls directly comes out and identifies as Black Badge whereas Wynonna plays the “I’m just a girl” card. Neither gains them immediate access, so Agent Dolls throws a sucker punch, hitting the man over the heart and causing the man to fall into the mud. Agent Dolls steps over the man and tells Wynonna to come as he enters the building.
Nichole and Waverly talk in the barn, meeting up after Willa rewrapped Waverly’s bullet wound. Waverly’s confession of being exhausted, not just physically, but emotionally as well, prompts Nichole’s own protective side to come out. The officer showers her girlfriend in kisses until the two are embracing on the hay bales. Clothes are peeled off in a feverish fashion and the steam begins to rise – until Willa walks in on them and pours ice on the whole situation with one sentence: “Wynonna never said anything about you being a gay.” Waverly’s guilty look toward the ground clues Willa in on the fact that Wynonna doesn’t yet know. And for all her bravado, Nichole grabs her shirt and leaves, avoiding a confrontation with Willa.
Waverly just sits as Willa walks up. When Willa brings up how Wynonna will be upset at finding out from someone other than Waverly that she’s in a lesbian relationship, Waverly breaks. She points out a pattern in their sisterly relationship where Willa bullied and picked on Waverly every chance she got because Daddy Earp played favorites with the eldest. Her anger is palpable as she leaves Willa in the barn. To her credit, Willa actually may be apologetic based on her lingering stare at the empty space where Waverly was standing.
Wynonna is surprised to find a revenant among the Machetes inside the biker bar. She and Agent Dolls are fighting two men near the empty pool tables and when she gets an opening, she pulls Peacemaker. She prepares to send her foe to Hell but, unexpectedly, the gun fizzles. It began to glow, but the moment she pulled the trigger, the glow sparked and left and the gun did not fire. After the initial shock, she uses it to pistol-whip her opponent. Agent Dolls slams his biker friend into a table and draws his service weapon to keep him down. He then asks who hired the men to take him out and is surprised to hear Judge Cryderman’s name. The man on the ground knows nothing about where the judge is or why he wants Agent Dolls dead.
In the SUV, Wynonna digs through the bag of money provided to the Machetes for the assassination, astonished to see so much cash in one place. She is equally disappointed to hear Agent Dolls earmark the money for charity. She takes a deep breath and tries to bring up the problem with the gun, feeling scared and unsure of herself now. Agent Dolls won’t hear it though, telling her that he trusts her completely, including her skills. He prefers to have no one else in the field with him. The deeply intimate moment is broken by Wynonna awkwardly switching to food, but Dolls interrupts her. The look on his face is the perfect rip the bandaid off as he blurts out, “I have to show you something.”
The burnt husk of a pink Cadillac sits on a flatbed in front of the two deputies. Agent Dolls tells Wynonna that Sheriff Nedley found it returning to the Ghost River Triangle, empty, but burned to a crisp. She just stares mutely at the car. He tries to keep her mind from going to the worst scenario possible by admitting that if anyone could escape a burning vehicle, it would be Doc Holliday. She slips into mourning mode despite his best efforts. Dolls wraps his arm around her and pulls her close.
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In the field at the edge of the Earp homestead, Willa stares off in the distance. A noise catches her attention and she turns to the wooden fence marking the end of the property. A blue folded paper swan sits on one of the cross-bars. Bobo surprises her, standing against the fence, watching her with a strange fascination. There is a bit of hunger, like a predator watching prey, but there is also a bit of heat, like a man dancing a tango (Michael Eklund can pull of a stunning smoldering expression).
Willa sees all of this and more, telling him that she is certain he has already hurt her and promising to be hunt him down when she remembers exactly how. While the two maintain eye contact, Bobo reaches out to cup Willa’s hand holding the origami, but he quickly pulls back his arm as Waverly shoots him. Since Waverly is not the heir and does not wield Peacemaker, he takes the warning shot for what it is and walks away with one last look at Willa.
Waverly runs up to her sister and the two apologize to each other, Willa for what she did as a child and Waverly for calling her names and storming out. They puzzle over the paper bird for a moment before Waverly thinks she knows what it means.
In a basement lab, Big Bubba mixes chemicals in makeshift trays with homemade tools. With his mask around his throat, scars are seen across his face and down his neck. He does a line of something off a small silver plate and, reeling from the hit. He screams out, addressing someone off camera, about being lucky to find them and how much he admires them and their knife skills. It turns out, Bubba was the man that dragged off Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon) when his car broke down returning to the Ghost River Triangle (see Episode 11). Doc, bloody and beaten, is shackled to a St Andrew’s Cross (an X-shaped restraint) embedded in the floor. He tells Bubba that he always enjoys meeting his fans, identifies him as the brother of the torture-loving revenant Vinnie (see Episode 5), and asks who is financing and funding his new lab.
Bubba’s inner demon side shows when he confronts Doc about working with Wynonna and her subsequent killing of his brother, but when Doc calls him “friend,” he calms back down into a smiling dolt. He demands knife throwing lessons from Doc in exchange for information on his benefactor and employer. Doc agrees on the condition that his hat is returned to him. After revealing that Bobo Del Rey is his boss, Bubba sets the rules for their deal: one question will get one answer in exchange for one lesson. Oh, and Doc cannot have his hat back. Doc reluctantly agrees and Bubba runs off to get Doc’s knife from the table.
He stands in front of Doc, a good ten to fifteen feet away, and listens as his target, Doc, gives the first lesson; Doc instructs him to stand with his feet planted to the ground and to shoot from the elbow, not the shoulder – the actual opposite of what should be done. The knife lands firmly in the wood just below Doc’s arm. A look of relief crosses the gunslinger’s face as he praises his pupil with a smile. Bubba gives him a drink of whiskey before Doc asks how long he is intended to be held captive, which is answered by an ominous answer: he will keep Doc until everyone is gone.
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Agent Dolls follows Wynonna down the sidewalk telling her they have time. There is no need to rush to find out who killed him or got Doc. She stops outside Shorty’s and looks through the window and Agent Dolls tells her they don’t always have to “go in guns blazing”. Wynonna cuts him off because Judge Cryderman is in the middle of a suicide attempt.
Inside the bar, the judge has a noose hanging from a ceiling beam and is standing on a chair. His head is too big to fit inside the loop as tied, which allows Wynonna enough time to pull the rope from him. As she gets the rope down, Agent Dolls helps the crying man into a chair. When asked why he hired the Machetes to kill Agent Dolls, Cryderman confesses that Bobo has been behind everything he has ever done, even when it is at his own expense.
He then reveals that Bobo will be hosting a party that night in the Wainwright hotel and that he is obsessed with finding “the lead,” but Cryderman has no idea what it is or if Bobo has found it yet. When Wynonna insists that Judge Cryderman get them into the party, Agent Dolls tells her that the whole town got an invitation in the mail, even her. Agent Dolls invites the judge to go with them under Black Badge protection but he refuses. Wynonna’s phone rings so she heads out the door with Agent Dolls following. With their backs turned, the judge pulls a gun out from his back and paints the bar with his brains.
From his restraints, Doc deduces he and Big Bubba are still in Purgatory based on the feel of the vibrations he is picking up from the ground. When Bubba mindlessly confirms this, Doc begins asking about the ingredients on the table. He attempts to befriend the demon by talking about how he designed his own gunpowder. Bubba lights up and brags about what kind of power his creation will have, but Doc feigns indifference claiming that nothing can impress him anymore.
In response, Bubba pulls a drop cloth off a glass cage containing a man. The cage is completely sealed with hoses feeding air inside. Bubba connects his canister to the hose and pumps in his concoction, which Doc notices has a distinct smell of peaches. The man tries the break out of the cage, but quickly succumbs to the gas; he begins frothing in the mouth and picks up a knife, the only thing inside with him, and stabs himself in the stomach over and over until he is dead.
Waverly and Willa walk through a field, each carrying a shotgun. Willa notes that Swan Reservoir is a lot creepier than its name implies. Waverly explains that it is a protected bird sanctuary, which makes it a very poetic place to “cage a young bird,” referring to a potential place to hide Willa after her kidnapping. A lone tree stands in the open land with a decent sized treehouse claiming its limbs.
The girls venture inside and find paper swans littering the place. Willa is drawn to the trunk of the tree in the middle of the room and upon touching it, has a memory of being a little girl hugging the tree with the Stone Witch (Rayisa Kondracki) behind her. Constance Clootie blows on her hair, sending her memories into the tree. Pulling away, Willa tells Waverly the witch saved her, but she didn’t understand then what the consequences would be of her help. The tree house had been her prison with Bobo her personal guard. His relationship with the young Willa is not quite clear from the flashes, though. Now that her memories have returned, all of them, she says there is a lot that needs to be done. As she walks out to leave, Waverly’s phone rings – Agent Dolls needs her dress size.
Agent Dolls lays out two dresses at the Black Badge offices. Wynonna, spoiled by one too many super-spy movies, runs down a list of possible features from being bulletproof to being full of sensors. Agent Dolls tells her the only feature it has is covering her body. She then informs him that she can find her own dress and rolls her eyes when he gives his assessment of her wardrobe based on what he has seen her wear. She then walks over to blueprints of the hotel and comments on the lack of clues to “the lead” and how the Winter Solstice party is still a mystery. Before Agent Dolls can give his input, Waverly and Willa walk in and tell Wynonna they found where Willa had been held.
With her memories returned, Willa’s mannerisms have altered, her walk more confident and purposeful, and her voice is stronger, more sure of her actions. They fill in Agent Dolls and Wynonna about her captivity, confirming Bobo was the one that took Willa, and how the Stone Witch was involved. As they continue, a flashback plays of Willa, hiding under the bed in the barn. Ward Earp (Patrick Maceachern) and Bobo make a deal and “the lead” is bargained to Bobo. Willa is certain that Bobo either has “the lead” or knows where it is. Agent Dolls agrees, bringing up the party at the hotel. Wynonna swears the party is a trap and that they will be outnumbered, but Willa pipes up that “nothing outnumbers three Earps.” Agent Dolls sides with Willa and Waverly, leaving Wynonna to relent and demand a plan be made.
Big Bubba throws Doc’s knife and, again, barely missing his captive’s wrist. He is elated, sure he is getting better with each throw. Another revenant walks down into the basement to pick up a box of individually bagged powder while talking about how they will be free to roam the next day. Bubba tells him to deliver it straight to Bobo and mentions there is a little extra if he wants to keep it as a tip.
While Bubba and the other demon talk, Doc uses the distraction to cut himself free with the knife planted deep in the wood right against his leather cuff. When the revenant walks back up the stairs, Bubba returns to his table laboratory, his back to Doc. Doc’s knife then pierces through his head, knife point protruding from his mouth. Doc walks up to the fallen revenant to retrieve his knife and his hat, confessing he lied: the throw is all in the wrist. He then heads off to find the party.
The Waynewrite hotel is a white, two-story Victorian with a balcony and a wrapping porch. Agent Dolls, Waverly, and Willa enter together and the girls make their way up the stairs while Agent Dolls stops by Sheriff Nedley.
At the Earp barn, Wynonna relives her own memory of the day her daddy made a deal with the devil. She was with Willa and overheard Bobo ask why Ward would make such an agreement. He responds that he is doing it for his daughters. He agrees to walk across the Ghost River Triangle with the revenant to free his children from the curse. From their hiding space, Willa turns and asks Wynonna about a letter, something their father told them to hide. Coming out of the memory, Wynonna climbs up and pulls down a loose board from the ceiling and pulls out a yellowed, dusty letter. She unfolds the crisp pages and realizes what it is: the lead.
Waverly walks down the stairs to her girlfriend Nichole. Their banter turns sour when Waverly slips up and says “if we get out of here,” putting Officer Haught on alert. Waverly tells her to stay near an exit. Nichole then notices Willa on the stairs and Waverly returns to her sister. As Waverly passes him, Champ (Dylan Koroll) walks over to Nichole, obviously drunk, and begins to show his bigoted side by calling their relationship “disgusting.”
Willa and Waverly take a stroll through the party, taking note of the room. Willa’s attitude is bolder than it was when she left the treehouse. Her remarks seethe with sarcasm and the rebellious spunk of her bar escape (see Episode 11) makes a hard appearance. Waverly, being the most caring sister in the world, catches none of this, instead blaming herself for being too insensitive. She forgets that Willa has not had the opportunity to go out and party just to relax. Willa says she would feel safer if Peacemaker were with them and verifies that Wynonna is actually coming to the party.
With a blue scarf over her hair and a black coat over her dress, Wynonna climbs into the hotel from a second floor window. Waverly and Willa welcome her and inform her that there is no security or metal detectors; she could have entered through the front door. Willa asks if Peacemaker is inside Wynonna’s purse, catching Waverly’s attention. Wynonna gives Willa the bag while she hands Waverly the letter from the barn.
In a red, plunge v-neck dress that hugs her every curve, Wynonna turns heads walking through the party to Agent Dolls. He is impressed at how well she cleans up and it takes him a moment to focus on the letter she hands him to read. The letter was written to a Robert Svane by Wyatt Earp after he was cursed and it contains information about how the curse came about (Wyatt killed Constance Clootie’s demon husband) and how to free the revenants from the Ghost River Triangle (walk willingly with a demon over the border on the Winter Solstice).
The girls piece together that the attack on the homestead was meant to be Bobo “kidnapping” Ward so that no one knew they walked willingly side by side. But in his haste to ensure Ward’s cooperation, Bobo also took Willa. They figure Bobo will try again, soon. Waverly still doesn’t grasp why Bobo would need “the lead,” and Wynonna explains how the heir is the lead. This makes sense when considering that Bobo lost it to Constance and the witch promised to return it but didn’t know where it had gone. Wynonna then painfully admits that she is not the true Earp heir. When Wynonna moves to get Willa to a safe place, Willa pulls away, her attitude flaring. She says she will stay right where she is at.
Defending her outburst, Willa says she is finished being afraid. Agent Dolls agrees that Bobo has had ample opportunity to take Willa since she has returned, but he hasn’t. He insists there is something important with the party, but can’t pinpoint what. Willa, again catching Waverly’s attention, raises the oversized clutch, proclaiming they at least have Peacemaker with them. Agent Dolls asks what they should do until Bobo arrives and Willa lifts a glass of champagne and suggests enjoying the party.
Nichole tries to walk away from Champ, but he keeps following, harping on the woman who he thinks stole his girlfriend. Nichole fights back a physical response, instead defending Waverly by saying she does not belong to anyone and can make her own decisions. Champ pushes away, drinking another glass of bubbly as he mutters on about feminism. Waverly confronts him, calling him a “raging homophobe,” but in his drunken state, he refuses to stop talking.
Sheriff Nedley appears and tells him he has had enough to drink and Champs own self-perceived inadequacies surface and he outs Waverly and Nichole to the sheriff. Nedley takes it in stride and says this is their private business and he offers to take Champ home. Champ, however, begins to double over, breaking the glass he had in his hand. Waverly asks if he is alright and then notices the foaming in his mouth. He lunges for Waverly but is blocked by Nedley. When he turns around, Nichole punches him in the face and handcuffs him.
Agent Dolls hands Wynonna a glass of champagne and tells her to at least sip and blend in. He says they at least know Bobo’s plan, assuming he is right about Willa. Wynonna confirms that Willa is the heir and brings up the gun fizzling in her hand. She laments the loss of the connection with the gun and becoming a normal human again. She gets emotional, admitting she never wanted to be the heir and deal with the curse. But once she was, once she accepted it, that is all she wanted to do. Her vulnerability pulls at Agent Dolls, who finally admits that he won’t let her leave because he needs her by his side. Wynonna, tears in her eyes, kisses Dolls.
As the deputies pull away from their kiss, they realize that Doc Holliday is standing before them. With hurt in his eyes, he removes his hat and leans in, appearing to take Wynonna’s hand. Instead, he picks up a glass of champagne and offers a silent toast to Agent Dolls. Before he drinks, however, he smells peaches and throws the drink to the floor. Wynonna and Dolls are confused when Doc asks if they had drank any, but tell him they did not and ask what is going on. He says they need to stop everyone from drinking, but before he can continue, Bobo enters and addresses the crowd.
Bobo begins by saying he has good news and bad news. When he finds Willa, he caresses down her face and reveals the good news: he has an antidote. The bad news: the single dose of antidote is for the drugged champagne and it will be given to the one person that captures or kills Wynonna. A mob of well dressed people turn to the former heir.
Waverly is tasked with getting Willa to safety, but when she stops to talk to Nichole, Willa slips away, purse in hand.
Outside in the street, Willa walks up to Bobo who places a gentle kiss on the back of her hand before walking hand-in-hand with her down the street into the fog and night beyond.
Syfy
Total Revenant Kill Count: 20/77
Wynonna Earp returns to Syfy on Friday, June 9, 2017, at 10/9c.
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