Wynonna Earp
SyFy
Season 3 Episode 9 ‘Undo It’ Review
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Alright Earpers! Purgatory Paul here with your Weekly Wynonna Round up! Your Revenant Review, Earpin Editorial, formal naming is still in progress, but I’m here to break down the intense happenings of the latest episode of the adventures of the Heir herself, Wynonna Earp. For those who aren’t caught up yet, STOP what you are doing, put down the phone, step away from the computer, go watch any Wynonna Earp you may have missed up to and including the latest masterpiece, 3×09! One, I’m talking spoilers galore and don’t want to ruin the experience, and two, holy crap is it good!
When we last left the Ghost River Triangle’s resident Supernatural Scooby Gang, Bulshar had blown a weird powder like substance into the faces of Wynonna and Doc out in the barn. As we ended last week in worry and suspense, eagerly awaiting the next episode so we can learn what Bulshar did to our heroic kinda-sorta-couple, what do we naturally open the new episode with? That’s right, you guessed it, pseudo sex sounds compliments of WayHaught.
Ah yes, context, well you see, we open to an exterior shot of the Homestead, the air filled with grunting, moaning, ‘yes’s, ‘almost’s, and a ‘do you think we need more lube?’ for good measure. We cut into the house, Waverly and Nicole face inches apart, eyes closed, rocking back and forth, their hands nowhere to be seen. Get your head out of the gutter kids! They’re obviously using a bunch of tactics they found on YouTube to try and remove Bulshar’s ring from Waverly’s finger. Audience fake out aside, Waverly seems open to keeping the ring until Nicole makes her worried that the next time the ring acts up it might hurt one of their friends. As Waverly sends Nicole out to the barn to look for boltcutters from Wynonna’s ‘I’m totally not supposed to tell you about’ B&E kit. At the exit, the perfect chemistry between Dominique Provost-Chalkley and Kat Barrel, coupled with the impeccable writing from Brendon Yorke provide a fun little fan service scene:
The cast and crew from Wynonna Earp are notorious for live tweeting episodes and breaking the Earpers’ internets in the process. One such instance, Wynonna herself Melanie Scorfano tweeted for Waverly to stop touching things (first the tentacle goo, then Bulshar’s ring) to which Kat Barrel responded with ‘except for Nicole, keep touching Nicole’ – which sent all of the WayHaught shippers, which is face it, everybody, into a tizzy! To pay homage to that Haught tells Waverly ‘try not to touch anything’ as she leaves, getting a pouty ‘not even you?’ in return. Then to add fuel to the Internet frenzy fire, Haught seals it all off with a ‘When we get that ring off, we get off’ and a seductive smirk.
Out in the barn, it appears that Doc and Wynonna are in the midst of make up sex, refusing Nicole entry into the barn with a bunch of blush inducing statements the soon-to-be-sherrif doesn’t want to hear about her hopefully-soon-to-be sister-in-law. However, it turns out that Wynonna and Doc are actually sitting in a trance, the sexy time being all a part of a hallucination created by Bulshar and whatever that powder was. The intent of Bulshar’s mind game situation is unknown early on, but the only thing for certain is it isn’t good. The next hallucination sees Wynonna and Doc walking through the forest as the Heir gets a zap from Peacemaker (remember when that happened when Hypnos put everyone else to sleep and Wyatt’s gun became a supernatural alarm clock?) revealing the dream to be a trap of Bulshar’s. Doc takes longer to snap out of it, leaving Wynonna to fight off Bulshar’s evil Bee Keeper Minions who are trying to force feed her seeds, unwilling to take a chance, Bulshar ups the creepy ante by throwing another dust cloud into their faces entering a worse trance or a dream within a dream, or some other hellacious Inception style insanity. Awakening in the basement of Shorty’s, Wynonna runs up stairs and is promptly shot in the chest with an arrow — wait?! What the hell just happened?!
Out in the normal…no, far from normal, less creepy…well the ring stuff is creepy too, uhhh, out in the awake world – WayHaught seek help from Derek the jeweler, creepily played by Dylan Roberts, to assess and attempt to remove the ring. After a ton of inappropriate jokes, generally being uncomfortable, and failure to remove the ring, the ladies are saved by a disturbance call out the the Gardner home. Derek seems way way to interested in the ring, which means creepy is probably a Revenant. There are 77 after all, I know we haven’t seen them all yet, I should really make a chart though. As Waves and Nicole get to the house, puzzled because Kate left, they encounter Mercedes. That’s right Earpers! Dani F**kin Kind is back! Returning from an international plastic surgery tour to end up with a face that looks like Frankenstein concept art (or a charcuterie board according to Mercedes) we are treated to a number of hilarious quips by Dani Kind. Truthfully if they ever decide to cast a Female Deadpool for Marvel, Dani Kind should be the front runner. Her quips and word play insults are effortless and her timing is absolutely flawless.
Surprise Derek followed WayHaught to the Gardner house, and yup, demon. His power is an electrical current that can cut diamonds, makes sense his cover job was a jeweler, or maybe their demon abilities were kind of like the Flash TV Show Metahumans, where their powers are indicative to what they were doing/around at the time of the Dark Matter exposure. Maybe their Wild West jobs or reputations/crime M.O.s at the time Wyatt killed them with Peacemaker established their extra powers. Derek threatens to shock Mercedes and Nicole to death (or as he put it Ginger 1 and Ginger 2, which I hope someone makes Thing 1&2 style shirts for Dani and Kat for an upcoming Con) unless Waves cuts her ring bearing finger off. With her hand acting under its own volition, a bit of an Idle Hands vibe), Waverly draws Derek closer then grabs onto his face and burns him to death. Two weeks now that Waverly ‘Adorable Psycho’ Earp ends the threats at hand with a finishing move worthy of a Mortal Kombat Fatality.
Tiny moments within the Gardner House scene, essentially Mercedes, provide gut busting hilarity. I’m so happy to have Dani Kind back on the show providing one liners with the best of them. It takes a HELL of a lot to steal a scene from Waverly and Nicole, but the funny bone buster of the episode goes to Mercedes ‘fix my freaking Hatchet Face’ Gardner by a mile!
On a less funny note, Wynonna has found herself in a hellacious loop constructed by Bulshar, each time she goes up stairs she dies a new horrible painful way. Meanwhile, Doc is hidden somewhere, his face appearing in the wood of the building like a projector, able to talk to Wynonna. We have to talk about April Mullen’s directing for this episode, the shots that she brought to life from Brendon’s writing are simply exceptional. The beauty and the emotion captured in a simple moment on screen, are stunning. This episode is also an incredible testament to the master class level performances that Melanie Scorfano and Tim Rozen give. Highlighted by a scene with Wynonna leaning against the wall with Doc’s face projected – Wynonna utterly exhausted asking ‘are you sure this isn’t Hell?’ Doc powerless to help, responds it isn’t, because he was alone in Hell. The raw emotion delivered with ‘I never gave up on you Doc, even when it looked like it. I wish you hadn’t given up on me.’ ‘I would never, never give up on you, not on Alice.’ Followed by the most heart wrenching, emotion carrying tears I’ve ever seen on screen. The way these two work together I cannot even adequately express in words.
After Wynonna realizes that the respawning moments are akin to a video game (which Doc perfectly responds with, oh great, my forte) she goes out the door from Shorty’s basement into the Homestead (albeit with a moved chair by dickhead Bulshar). As it’s revealed that Doc is being buried alive, Wynonna tries going into overdrive – finding Bobo, crazier than usual, in the barn. Whether she kills Bobo or dies, she gets started over, so eventually, Wynonna tried to reason with Bobo. Unfortunately, it’s to no avail and the two kill each other, falling near one another, bleeding out. This absolutely GORGEOUS shot, framed in a pale somber blue, as Wynonna tries to reason with Bobo’s former humanity, mentioning that he cared about Willa and their angel Waverly.
Wynonna then comes face to face with Bulshar, trading profane insults with criptic musings. Bulshar’s Reality Stone driven Groundhogs Day from Hell continues down a darker path. Earp finds that Doc is buried under the floor and frees him. The two confront Bulshar and he proclaims they won, turning to dust from a shot by Peacemaker. Back in the Homestead Barn, Wynonna and Doc embrace, tears of relief in their eyes. Nicole’s voice, similar from the beginning morning scene of the episode is met with glee from Wynonna, she opens the barn door and …
Awakens back on the floor of Shorty’s basements, as she realizes Doc is once again inprisoned in the walls, Wynonna truly breaks down, sobbing into the floor – utterly broken.
Outside of Bulshar’s Edge of Tomorrow-esq torture show, Waverly, Haught, and Jeremy enter the forest. They first find Bobo, entombed in a sea of branches, freeing him he awakens. Revealing that Wynonna and Doc were also captured and trapped as he was, Jeremy theorizing the dust we’ve seen are some kind of spores or fungus, he sends the trio on their way after mentioning to Waverly that Bulshar’s ring is actually Julian’s, stating ‘Your father’s ring, you found it, or it you.’ Leaving more and more questions surrounding Waverly, Julian, Bulshar, Bobo, and how all of this fits in with the Earp curse.
Our trio find Wynonna and Doc encased in branches near the stairs, presumably the stairs leading to the Garden of Eden. As they begin tearing away branches working to free them, back in the fungus dream, Bulshar confronts Wynonna outside the Homestead. A detail I noticed was that on his collar, Bulshar still wears a Sherrif Badge, carrying the identity he bore when he initiated the curse, but also an insult to Wynonna’s kin, the Lawman Wyatt Earp’s memory, a bastardization of law and Order with the symbol of justice and protection on a demon who is trying to bring about the end of the world. As he stands before Wynonna, the Heir clearly broken, exhausted, thinking she had won only to have the rug ripped out from under her, he presents her another demand for Peacemaker. When she refuses again he reveals the grounds of the Homestead, containing graves for Waverly no Doc, which the dirt on Wynonna’s hands gives the impressions he made her dig them.
Waverly screams for Wynonna in the real world, Bulshar twists the sound to come from the grave, same with Doc’s voice echoing in agony. You can see the pain and anguish on Melanie’s face as Wynonna begins to break and lose her mind, as Bulshar insists that surrender is the only way to prevent the ones she loves from torture. Bulshar gives his word, insisting he keeps his word like he keeps his curses. As Wynonna sobbingly apologies, we see that the trio has freed Wynonna in Doc in the real world.
Doc’s voice, a desperate plea, begs to Wynonna ‘say you didn’t give up Wyatt Earp’s gun’.
Wynonna and Waverly attempt to comfort one another, ultimately laughing at their horrendous odds and misfortune, still planning to take the fight to Bulshar, knowing where he will be. The fact remains though, Wynonna Earp, the Heir, has surrendered the Peacemaker gun of Wyatt Earp, the tower that is required to enter the Garden of Eden to Bulshar.
The stakes have never been higher going into next week, the cards horribly stacked against our heroes. How will Wynonna adapt to being without Peacemaker? What else will we come to learn about the ring, apparently belonging to Waverly’s father, infusing her body with compulsive actions of incredible power? How will the return of Bobo and Mercedes impact the coming battles? What more will we uncover about Nicole’s enigmatic past?
I cannot go on enough about how wonderful a job Brendon Yorke and April Mullen did, writing and directing the episode respectively. Creating this whirlwind event, delicately balancing the humor with the despair, the rage, the pain, and the dire stakes. Building the most beautifully terrifying scenes that I’ve ever seen on television, rivaling the most renowned films in cinematic history. Each moment on screen telling a story a mile long with as little as a light change, a small sentence, or a single tear. The pain and torment Tim Rozen’s eyes embodied – projected on a wall, truly forcing both Tim and Melanie to act these heart wrenching moments alone, super imposing them together in post, adding even more respect to the intensity they were capable of delivering. I know each week I gush about how exceptional the writing, directing, acting, chemistry, and the cast as a whole are. I continue to do that because it continues to be true, and they continue to raise the bar and deliver blockbuster episode after block buster episode.
I can’t begin to imagine what kind of trouble Team Earp will find themselves in next week, with as high as the stakes are on the heels of this episode, my advice would be to prepare for every single emotion you’re capable of to be twisted and torn and utterly destroyed. Jumping from gasps of shock go squeals of excitement, from screams of anger, to sobs, ab-inducing laughter. There is never a flat moment in Wynonna Earp, and we will discect the blenderized shit show that we all know and love, same Earp time, same Earp channel.