Archive

‘Wynonna Earp’ S2. E8: The Origins Story

Previously on Wynonna Earp, a cobweb-covered posse randomly blew into Purgatory like tumbleweeds to lynch Doc, Waverly Maury-ed Doc with the news that he might not be Wynonna’s baby daddy, and Wynonna revealed that the real baby daddy might be a Revenant named Jonas with a God complex. Who she promptly killed. Call Jerry Springer!

Last season, we didn’t get super deep into the Earp mythology. That the descendants of Wyatt Earp were cursed, there were 77 Revenants who would be around for each descendant to kill (or not, depending on his or her luck) starting on the heir’s 27th birthday, and Doc Holliday was granted immortality by the Stone Witch but then thrown into a well to suffer loneliness for eternity were about as much as we got. This episode is all about the Earp mythology. Specifically, providing the backstory for the curse, Bobo Del Rey, and how the Widows fit into that mythology. And boy is it a good story.

WYNONNA EARP — (Photo by: Michelle Faye/Wynonna Earp Season 2, Inc./Syfy)

We begin with Waverly recounting to Wynonna a time-probably one of many-that their sister Willa tried to kill her by making her walking onto a frozen lake whose ice she knew wasn’t thick enough to support Waverly’s weight (Remember last season we also learned she made Waverly walk on a beam in the barn? I think we can all agree Willa was an awful human being and deserved to be chewed to death slowly by Mictian the Living Tentacle rather than mercifully shot by Wynonna). It turns out that Waverly’s childhood was kind of sucky: she was ignored and passed over by her parents and tortured by Willa. In hindsight, she assesses, it’s obvious she isn’t an Earp based on how she was treated.

On the middle of the Road to Nowhere, Juan Carlos the Good Samaritan/part-time AAA guy gets out to help a stranded motorist. Except that motorist is actually Not Mercedes and she wants to know where the third seal is. We learn from their exchange that it was Juan Carlos who initially trapped the Widows, and he recognizes Not Mercedes immediately for what she is. Not Beth bites him in the back (seriously? Through his winter coat? In the shoulder blade?), and there goes my theory that Juan Carlos is an angel. Darn. An angel totally would have seen that coming.

At Shorty’s, we learn that Doc is still seeing Rosie. When talking to her, he refers to her as his “lover” and Wynonna as his “friend.” Uuuuugh. So much for Doc’s redemptive note from a few episodes ago about being “all in.” What the heck, Doc? Rosie is jealous of the time that Doc spends with the Scoobies and furthermore wants to know where he’s going, since he’s headed out on his own private mission. Ever the secretive plotter, Doc will only tell her it involves the salt flats.

Won’t he be surprised to find the Stone Witch gone! In another part of town, Wynonna is being the world’s worst ob-gyn patient. This baby is real and coming soon and she still isn’t ready to handle it, but she’s running out of time. She flees from the gynecologist’s office before she can find out the gender of her baby, but is promptly abducted by Juan Carlos’s truck. Well, you know, whoever was driving. Not the truck itself. This isn’t “Cars.”

At Shorty’s again, Waverly and Nicole are playing pool. Waverly is playing about as well as I do, which is to say that most of the time I hit the ball with the correct end of the pool cue. Both are sporting the cutest hairstyles ever and when Waverly suggests that Nicole could distract her from being worried about the results of the DNA test that she sent in by making out with her, it’s as cute as watching gifs of puppies.

Just then however, because the theme of this season is “No more than 2 minutes of WayHaught at a time,” Rosie shows up to suggest they throw a baby shower for Wynonna. “Henry” told her that Wynonna is having trouble seeing the baby as a blessing and Rosie thinks this shower will cheer her up. Because we can all agree that nothing makes you feel better about being knocked up with a possible half-Revenant demon baby conceived while drunk than having a baby shower thrown by the lover of your kind of boyfriend. What could go wrong? Nicole thinks it’s a great idea.

Dolls hauls Ewan from the Fraternal Order of Silly Costumes into an interrogation room at the sheriff’s office to grill him about Juan Carlos, since it turns out that Juan Carlos is the chief of the volunteer fire department. Ewan’s like, “Chill pill, dude, your girl is fine,” until Wynonna calls and seems to be trying to relay her location under duress. Worried and frustrated, Dolls indicates he can’t understand why Ewan doesn’t seem to care about the possibility of Wynonna being kidnapped, to which Ewan responds that his order is only charged with protecting the Ghost River Triangle from demons.

Juan Carlos possibly abducting Wynonna is not their jurisdiction. First of all, charged by who, and second of all, where were they last season when Wynonna was battling demon Revenants? Even though he’s unwilling to actually get off his butt and help, at least Ewan throws out the location of a church near Juan Carlos’ mechanic shop where he might have taken Wynonna. “Enjoy your righteousness and your protein shakes,” Dolls deadpans as he leaves. Ziiiing.

At said church, meanwhile, we learn that Wynonna isn’t exactly the abductee she seemed. In actuality, Juan Carlos invited her into his truck with the promise of information about the Widows, although now he says he can’t give it to her because it’s his “curse” to “survive and witness, never to decide.” Which is about as helpful as saying, “A baby was kidnapped.” Okay, but by whom and to where? Juan Carlos gives Wynonna Wyatt Earp’s badge and a short script to read. All she has to do, he says, is go into the church and stand over the mark he made and read the script with Peacemaker and the badge present. Then all questions will be answered.

Wynonna walks into the church to stand in a pentagram. According to Wikipedia, pentagrams are used today as a symbol of faith by many Wiccans, but once upon a time, Christians used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus. This has nothing to do with “Wynonna Earp,” however, so I guess it was that or put an “X” on the floor or like, a smiley face. Wynonna reads the sentence-long script, decides nothing happened, then walks out.

She goes to Shorty’s to report to Doc how her visit to the ob-gyn went, but he acts as though she doesn’t exist. And she doesn’t, in fact, because she’s not really there. She’s witnessing a moment from the past. Specifically, the several hours in the 1880s when Shorty’s was a saloon in the old West and the Earp curse was laid.

Unexpectedly, Bobo Del Rey shows up. Only, it’s not Bobo. His name is Robert Svain, and he looks like he might be an Old West accountant, complete with gold-rimmed spectacles, red, plaid suit, and retiring demeanor (Michael Eklund does a fantastic job here of differentiating Robert from Bobo. Kudos on the acting). Robert/Bobo is delivering a message to Doc from Wyatt Earp: Wyatt is going after the sheriff of Purgatory and he wants Doc to join him. Robert/Bobo reminds Doc that people are dying in Purgatory because of the sheriff, but Doc callously doesn’t care. He turns the offer down flat in favor of drinking and gambling, bitter about life.

Time presumably shifts forward and shots ring out outside the saloon. Wynonna goes to investigate and overhears that Wyatt shot Sheriff Clootie, a demon, and left. Wynonna follows a blood trail back to the church, where Robert/Bobo lies dripping blood from a wound near his heart. He watches as a young Constance Clootie, the Stone Witch, paralyzes the Widows using her magic powers (All three were married to Sheriff Clootie, which is why the Widows are called “the Widows”). Father Juan Carlos, the priest of the church, is also present. Given she’s now fighting her co-wives, was Constance also involved in helping stop her husband?

At modern day Shorty’s, Waverly and Nicole are decorating for the baby shower. Waverly finds it weird that Doc’s girlfriend is throwing a baby shower for Doc’s baby mama, but Nicole is an optimist. Maybe Rosie is just trying to connect and make friends. She remembers what it was like to be an outsider in Purgatory. On the other side of Purgatory, Dolls rolls up to the church with no clear idea of what to do other than threaten Juan Carlos with his fist. “If Wynonna is hurt I’m punching you in the face” seems like a weak threat, but Juan Carlos isn’t particularly worried anyway. He tells Dolls that Wynonna is fine, just on a vision quest. If she’s pulled from it, however, then it will kill her or break her mind, so Dolls is just going to have to sit tight.

Back in said vision quest, Wynonna watches as Constance nails the Widows into a wood box. Did Juan Carlos just happen to have it lying around, or was this part of a larger plan? Unanswered question. Constance mentions that Sheriff Clootie is not actually dead, just trapped by the three seals. Wynonna immediately understands that if the Widows can break them, Clootie will rise again, which would be super bad news (time to mention that “Wynonna Earp” has been renewed for season 3.

I guess we know who the Big Bad in season 3 is going to be…). In the present time, Dolls has a chat with Juan Carlos while they wait for Wynonna’s quest to end. Juan Carlos tells him that like Doc, he was granted immortality, but he was not allowed (again, by whom?) to interfere significantly with mortal affairs. Only now he’s dying of gangrene because of the bite from Not Beth, so he’s like, “Eh, whatever, I’ll interfere.” As he tells Dolls this, one of the Widows appears. Juan Carlos says he doesn’t know where the third seal is, and asks Dolls to fight the Widows off to protect Wynonna, since she can’t be moved to safety.

Back in the past, Robert/Bobo is dying in the church when Constance comes back to pay him a visit. She rubs it in that Wyatt has left to find Doc, leaving him all alone. His death, at least, is a noble one: Sheriff Clootie held him as a human shield, so he told Wyatt to shoot through him to get to Clootie. Unfortunately for him, that also means that when Clootie uttered his curse that all men henceforth shot by Wyatt using Peacemaker would be resurrected as demon Revenants to kill Earp’s heirs, that included him.

He will be the first Revenant. Constance offers him a deal in return for bringing her the bones of her dead demon sons that Wyatt killed. He’ll live, and he won’t be a Revenant. Robert/Bobo doesn’t particularly want to help her, but as Constance notes, Hell will burn the goodness right out of him, an unappetizing thought.

Dolls loses his fight against the Widows and falls asleep under the influence of their venomous breath.

At modern Shorty’s, Waverly discovers to her horror that Nicole took the results of her DNA test and withheld them from her. Nicole’s decision to unilaterally control this information is patronizing and wrong and ultimately stupid, no matter if Nicole justifies it as trying to protect Waverly. Especially since as Shakespeare wrote, “the truth will out.” Waverly immediately intuits Nicole only would have done this if the results showed that Waverly wasn’t an Earp. She flees.

In the past, Constance has brought Robert/Bobo to the well where she trapped Doc as retribution for Wyatt killing her sons. Her ring can heal Robert/Bobo and make him immortal, she says, but it’s on Doc’s finger. She offers him a choice: rescue Doc and get the ring that will save him from becoming a demon, but Doc and Wyatt will be reunited and he will be forgotten and ignored by Wyatt, or get the ring and don’t save Doc. Robert/Bobo chooses to get the ring first, but a suspicious Doc (who doesn’t recognize him) won’t give it up. As a result, the pride of both leads to their respective downfalls. Robert/Bobo leaves both Doc and the ring in the well, choosing Hell instead out of bitterness against Doc.

In the present, the Widows are eating Juan Carlos alive (SO not okay). Dolls uses his dragon abilities to break out of the sleep spell and kills Juan Carlos as a mercy to him, then begins to barricade himself and Wynonna into the church to keep the Widows out. He collapses as their venom takes effect again, and the Widows decide to burn the church down.

A dying Robert/Bobo can see Wynonna (this sets up a paradox, since Emily Andras, who wrote the episode, claims that Wynonna did not time travel). He believes she’s his guardian angel, because he’s seen glimpses of her all his life. He begs her for salvation, but an aghast Wynonna, who is coughing because of the smoke she’s inhaling in the present, tells him that he deserves his fate for leaving Doc in the well. Robert/Bobo explains that Doc is there to guard something, but then admits he acted out of jealousy.

Because he believes Wynonna is an angel, he swears that he’ll never hurt her even when resurrected and asks her name. Wynonna tells him her name is “Waverly,” and he promises to remember through all his resurrections. Wynonna then dies in the past in his arms and my heart weeps for Robert Svain, who was a good but jealous man. Robert/Bobo tolls the church bell for her.

In the present, the church is almost completely destroyed by the fire. Dolls has dragged an unconscious Wynonna out and the Fraternal Order of Firemen show up to put out the fire as Wynonna wakes up. How did they know where to come, Dolls asks. The ringing of the church bell, one of the firemen says.

Waverly is standing on the same frozen pond where she almost died. Her results, we know, don’t match Wynonna. She’s remembering that day she almost died. It wasn’t Wynonna who saved her from freezing to death in the lake; it was Bobo.

At the Homestead, Dolls and Wynonna lie in bed together fully clothed. Wynonna reveals that the third seal is Constance Clootie’s wedding ring. She and Dolls snuggle (too cute!) and then Wynonna has an awful thought: if she was dead for 70 seconds, does that mean the Earp heir died and now all the Revenants she killed come back? She dismisses the thought as somewhere, Bobo Del Rey resurrects. Aaaaah! (But per the previous interview with Andras, only Bobo is coming back, FYI.)

This was a really fantastic episode. Although the idea of a “spirit quest” could have turned out hokey had the plot not been strong, the Robert Svain/Bobo Del Rey origin story has huge promise to be a massive redemption arc (think Darth Vader, but less angsty Hayden Christensen). Now we all have a reason to root for Bobo. As an added bonus, the backstory placed the Widows firmly within the Wynonna Earp mythology instead of them being some random demons that Black Badge Division captured God knows where. Although the approximately 2 minutes of WayHaught per episode is kind of disappointing (of course I want more!), Waverly’s search for her true identity continues to be a really interesting aspect of season 2. The show is really set up for a strong end to season 2 and a good start to season 3.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button