Wynonna Earp S01 E02 – Believe her!

Previously: Wynonna has to hunt some demons. It’s a curse.
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Keep the Home Fires Burning

Marines: Club, people dancing. Wynonna walks in in slow motion, wearing a scowl and more of Faith’s Bad Girl Styling. Doll’s voice-over transitions us from the club to “earlier.” “Like it or not,” he says, “you are now a consultant in the Black Badge Division.” They are sitting in a car as Dolls goes on to say that she needs to be smart and discreet, especially when she’s hunting demons. Wynonna corrects him: revenants. Her daddy always called Wyatt Earp’s kills revenants. Dolls holds up a suspect sheet and asks if she’s sure this guy is one of them. We get a filtered flashback of the guy with the pointy teeth! From the end of last episode! This handy flashback was honestly v handy because I had not put together that the Pointy Tooth was one of the ones that killed her sister.

Wynonna confirms that this guy is def a revenant. She grabs Peacemaker, but Dolls stops her and hands over a government issue gun. Wy grabs it and accidentally turns on the light, blinding Dolls. She tells him that it’s definitely a fancy gun, but powerless. Only Peacemaker can send “revheads” back to Hades. Dolls says she doesn’t know that, and Wy wants to bet on it. But Dolls won’t buy. If she loses, she dies. Plus, he doesn’t gamble. She tells him that he’s sending in his best agent (“only agent”) with the wrong gun, which sounds like a gamble to her. Also, I would add, she obviously doesn’t know how to handle the gun he is sending her in with. Be better at this, my dude.

Dolls wishes her good luck, as he isn’t coming with her, because contrivance I guess, and tells her she should consider this her first solo job. His advice is not to blow it. “I never blow jobs without a please first,” Wynonna says, and Dolls just gives her a LOOK. She’s unamused that he is unamused. She climbs out of the car and he has to yell at her to conceal her weapon.

Inside, we pick back up with Wynonna scowling in the middle of partying people. She spots Pointy Tooth who has somehow attracted females, idk. He spots Wynonna and sulks that Earps are always ruining his fun. AND THEN HE BITES SOME RANDOM GIRL’S FINGER OFF. Wy tries to shout official stuff but as Pointy Tooth starts to get away, she resorts to more immediate methods:

  As people clear out, Wy tries to follow Pointy Tooth but gets tackled by someone else. That someone else gets on top of her and is disappointed to find that the gun she has isn’t Wyatt’s gun. Wynonna calls him ugly and dumb (“you sure we haven’t dated?”), punches him, wrestles him until she’s on top and then shoots him in the head with the government issue.

Outside, Dolls watches as people run out of the club. He grumbles as if he expected anything else to happen.

Inside, Wynonna finds Pointy Tooth and the epic music soars as she lifts her gun and tells him that this is payback for what he did to her family. Dolls arrives and yells at her to definitely not shoot someone so publicly, but she fills him with bullets anyway. Dolls asks her what happened to discreet, but Wy gave discreet up when Pointy Tooth started snacking on actual fingers. In the time that it takes them to have that little exchange, Pointy Tooth is up and gone. They run outside, but he’s nowhere to be found. Dolls says that Black Badge is all about flying under the radar. She just flew over the radar in a pink jet. Wy takes offense to PINK, but also reminds him that she won the bet. The regular gun didn’t work.

I feel like I still haven’t quite grasped or digested the tone of this show. Maybe it’s because Dolls is so intense that I keep trying to be and then the show is like lol jokes and puns.

Some sort of abandoned farm, maybe. A man with a flashlight walks in for reasons we don’t know, so I have to assume are to be murdered. It doesn’t take long. A shadowy creature in a hood appears. “What is the target?” it growls. “Very well. You are it.” And then we hear screaming.

Survival Tips from Wynonna Earp

1. You never have to pee so bad that peeing in the woods alone in the fog is a good idea.
2. If a farm is abandoned, abandon it some more! Just let it be!

I TOLD THAT DEVIL TO TAKE YOU BACK.

After the credits, Mystery Man gets out of his trailer to find that someone has spray painted “bitch” on the door. Out in the Revhead Quarters, Pointy Tooth and his pals are playing poker and wondering how long before “the boss” has her taken out. Mystery Man interrupts because he wants in on “five card brag.” One of the Rev Pals says that it’s called Texas Hold ‘Em and the rules have changed a lot since his day. Mystery Man still wants in, but Pointy Tooth is less than enthusiastic since he knows who Mystery Man is and who Mystery Man used to ride with. MM pushes though, and they let him play.

Dolls has taken Wynonna out for target practice, though she tells him again that none of the guns he has laid out are going to work. I already hate this. I know that this is only episode 2 so Dolls ignoring Wynonna shouldn’t be as annoying as it is, BUT IT IS ANNOYING. It’s “ignoring the vampire slayer is a plot device” all over again. He literally brought her on for her expertise. HE SAW THE REVENANT GET SHOT UP AND STILL WALK AWAY. Freakin’ Dolls.

As they get ready to shoot, Dolls exposits the history of Black Badge and how it was founded in the 1900s by Roosevelt. Probably my favorite thing to date happens:

The exposition keeps on as Wy tells us that her grandfather was the heir for less than a year but came real close to taking down all 77 of Wyatt’s kills. Her father killed… not enough. Now, the revenants have to deal with Wynonna. Dolls says actually Wynonna has to deal with all the paperwork she generated last night. Wy doesn’t get the under the radar thing. She thinks people should know demons are in their town. Dolls has a handy photo of a crater, aka the last town to find out they had a demon problem. It was decimated. Wynonna sobers, but also tells Dolls that normal people carry baby photos in their wallet.

Champ and Waverly ride by and wave. Wynonna asks Dolls, Mr. Know-It-All, what Waverly sees in Champ. Dolls says he definitely doesn’t know that. He doesn’t do relationships. Wy asks if ever smiles. Dolls just whips out his gun and hits the target in one. We get another brilliant expression from Wynonna in a scene that was full of them:

   Revhead Quarters. Everyone has gathered around the game, laughing as Mystery Man tells a story about a woman with a tail. Rev Pal (Levi), who was apparently knocked out of the game, is back with a message that the “boss man” wants to see Mystery Man. Everyone looks very worried. Mystery Man collects his winnings and leaves.

Cut to him falling to the ground after being punched IN THE FACE. He tries to be sassy, but Boss Man shuts him up with a boot to the head. Boss Man thought he had an understanding with Mystery Man (Hank, I think he calls him?). He was supposed to stay on the outskirts of his park. Hank says that he loves attention and then whips out a gun and points it at Boss Man, which feels like a strange strategy when someone has a boot on your face. Boss Man tells Hank that he isn’t one of them, and then lets him up. Hank says he could be. Better the revheads than modern day people. And far as the Earps? It’s just a matter of time before they find out who he is and what he did to their great-great-grandaddy. Boss Man ups the ante: if Hank gets some info on what the Earps are up to, he’ll give Hank what he wants. Revenge. Hank looks at him v seriously.

Shorty’s. Gus is drinking and Wynonna asks if that’s really okay on account of just having been in the hospital. Gus says it’s medicinal and turns the tables on Wy, grabbing Peacemaker and telling her no weapons at the table. She takes the gun off to somewhere, I don’t know. I’m sure this will not in any way be relevant later wink.

Waverly joins them and smacks Wy on the butt, a very sisterly thing to do. Wy calls Waverly Frida Khalo and shows her a bunch of crayon drawings she found at the homestead. They laugh over the one with Waverly’s imaginary friend.

When Gus is out of earshot, Wy asks her sister if she recognized the revenants that kidnapped her from her research. Waverly says she was kind of focusing on trying to breathe. But! If they let her join Black Badge, she could bring all her research with her. Wy says no. She’s all bruised from last night’s club adventure, and she didn’t even put the revenant down. Waverly notices that someone walks in and is like NO KIDDING.

It’s Pointy Tooth! He says that if Wynonna gives him the gun, he’ll kill Waverly fast.

Gus comes back with a knife and threatens Pointy Tooth. She also tells Wy to grab the gun. Pointy Tooth is like, “yes! Gun! That!” Wynonna can’t help but to look over to where it is on the bar. Pointy Tooth notices and he goes all red eyed. Boss Man told him that he’d never get the gun, but Pointy Tooth can’t wait to prove him wrong. Wynonna and Pointy both run at the gun, but he grabs it first. Unfortunately for him, the gun starts burning him until he crumbles. Wynonna grabs the gun back and points it at him. There is this cool thing that as soon as Wy points the gun at a revenant, they start to burn up and the gun glows. Pointy Tooth says they are going to get her. Wy replies that maybe they will. Him though? It’s not looking great. He sits up, but Wynonna shoots him. He’s sucked into hell and all that’s left is a blood splatter. Gus offers to get some cleaning supplies.

At the door, someone has watched all of this go down. I’m not sure who. Levi maybe? Listen, I realized THIS EPISODE that Mystery Man/Hank was the guy who climbed out of the well after Wynonna when she grabbed Peacemaker. I’m doing my best.

Later at the bar, Waverly is wiping down the taps when she accidentally starts one and can’t turn it off immediately. A female officer sees the whole thing go down and jokes about Shorty’s having a wet t-shirt content. Waverly says she’s just a bit jumpy after a crazy night. The officer introduces herself as Nicole Haught and knows exactly who Waverly is.

  Nicole orders a cappaccino, but the bar isn’t actually open. Nicole apologizes and says a very suggestive thing about seeing what she likes and going for it. Her flirtation confidence is everything. Waverly awkwardly references the fact that the taps are real broken and asks Nicole to turn around so she can change out of her wet shirt. And then she promptly gets stuck in her shirt as she’s taking it off so she has to ask for Nicole’s help. Things get more awkward as Waverly says how weird it would be if Nicole were a guy. She covers herself up with her hands and says that she owes Nicole one. Nicole asks her out for a coffee that night, but Waverly says she can’t. She’s got plans. And likes to plan in advance. And is in a relationship with a boy. Man. Nicole’s all, “a boy-man, huh? Been there.” Nicole says maybe some other time and leaves her card. Waverly looks at it as she leaves. Someone looks intrigued by Officer Haught.

Sheriff’s office. Dolls is commandeering space for himself, and Nedley doesn’t like it, especially since his own funds have been slashed and he only has one rookie officer on staff.

Shorty’s. Hank is at the bar trying to pay with old-timey money and Shorty is having none of it. Waverly, now changed, comes down and tells Shorty to let her handle it. She knows this guy. Hank flirtatiously says that they do not in fact know each other, because he would remember her face. Waverly warns him off with mention of her big, burly boyfriend, but keeps chatting with him. She thinks he’s in town as a Wyatt Earp fan, to drink where Wyatt Earp drank and all that. Hank says that Wyatt Earp didn’t drink. He preferred ice cream. Waverly chuckles at that and says that she’s an Earp… Earper, she means. She’s a fan. She found all the memorabilia herself. She’s even got Wyatt’s original hostler in her apartment upstairs. Not that she’s inviting Hank up there, no siree. Hank seems more intrigued by knowing where she lives. She stops her awkward babble by paying for Hank’s drinks out of her tips. He says she needn’t do that, but she insists. She has a good feeling about him, and she’s an excellent judge of character. When she walks away, Hank says to himself that she really ain’t.

Sheriff’s Doll’s Office. Wy is again explaining that only Peacemaker can do revenants in, with a bullet between the eyes. Revenants can’t even touch it without vibrating faster than a… She leaves that unfinished but at a look from Dolls tells him that he has his toys and she has hers. The point is that only Peacemaker works and only she can handle Peacemaker.

Wynonna has been attacked 4 times in the last 3 days, and she just wants to regroup and sleep. Dolls tells her that’s cool as long as she doesn’t leave town.

There’s a knock on the door and the person doesn’t wait for an answer to enter. It’s Nicole. She’s got a delivery from SCIS, a quick introduction, and some questions about what they’ve got going on here. Dolls tells Nicole that if she ever enters his office without knocking again, he’ll have her arrested for treason. Nicole leaves. Wy thinks that was way harsh, considering she did knock. Kind of, Wy.

Revhead Quarters. Levi saw what happened to Pointy Tooth and is reporting back to Boss Man. Boss Man gets real upset about the fact that they tried to get Peacemaker, even though he told them they can’t touch it. He punches Levi a bunch and then asks if he wants to escape the triangle and then feast on everything and everyone. Levi says yep. Boss Man thinks they need to bring in professional help them. Levi says they’ll need a mortal’s blood willingly given for payment. Boss Man is like aka A SUCKER. Good think he has one lined up who is mighty keen to impress.

Hank is raiding Waverly’s apartment, looking for something he can bring back to Boss Man. He finds Waverly’s box of research and in it, a picture of himself. I rewound, paused, and HELLO DOC HOLLIDAY. It says it right on the picture. It’s a good time to admit that I knew nothing about Wyatt Earp, his associates or wtf the O.K. Corral even was. Sorry, America wild wild west is not my forte. Still, during my brief Google search after the O.K. Corral was mentioned last episode, I did see Doc Holliday’s name come up. I can stop calling him Mystery Man and Hank now.

Doc grabs the Waverly’s journal with all the revenant names in it. Wynonna walks in on him and tells him robbing this place was a bad move. She assumes it’s a revenant, though. She gets off a shot, but Doc is faster and shoots the damn gun right out of her hands. Wy can only stand aside as Doc runs away. We’ve seen Wy do spin kicks and punchy things so I’m curious how/when that works. And why not now. PUNCH HIM, GIRL.

She does not punch him.

Doc heads back the Revhead Quaters, and Boss Man is waiting for him outside of his trailer. He wants to know if Doc found anything useful, but Doc says he’s still working on it. Boss Man says that’s good because Doc is gonna get someone to take care of the heir and bring the gun to him. The OR ELSE is implied. Doc is in. I can’t tell if they are going for a two-timer storyline here or a “I was hurt so I’m trying to be evil but I’m not” storyline with Doc.

And another cut to Doc walking with Levi, asking for some backstory on a particular revenant. Levi fills us in: his name is Jim Miller, he killed his grandparents, brother-in-law and a bunch of other people. He’s called Killer Miller. Rumors say he was the once who actually killed Jesse James. Now Miller is a shadow assassin who can only be activated by a blood sacrifice. Doc calls this dramatic, and I have to agree. That’s some demonic commitment to doing the most.

Homestead. There is a shit ton of exposition that boils down to the fact that something was keeping the Earps safe here… until it wasn’t. Dolls thinks it may be a naturally occurring mineral called ammonite. He tasks Wy with looking around the homestead for anything that looks occultish.

Abandoned farm from the cold open. Doc and Levi are here to find the shadow assassin and pay him blood, since Doc is supposedly still human. Doc cuts his hand and smears the blood on the entrance to a creepy pit. The pit starts trying to suck him in, and Levi chooses now to reveal that Doc needs to give the shadow assassin something that belongs to the mark. All Doc has is Waverly’s journal, so in mostly an effort to not get swallowed, he tosses that into the pit. The shadow assassin emerges and heads on his murdering way. Doc tells Levi that he just loosed that thing on Waverly and even Levi is like, “damn. How could you?” Everyone loves Waverly. Doc looks upset.

Wynonna and Waverly are, like, lightly looking around the house but also bantering about bad dating choices. The lights flicker and the generator powers down. Wy startles when her cell phone rings, but it’s just Dolls. He tells her that the mineral he mentioned earlier is not ammonite, it’s ammolite. The homestead is on a bedrock of it and it wards off evil. The occult stuff she’s supposed to be looking for? It’s a talisman made from vertebrae and bound by iron twine buried in the ground. Wynonna says the homestead is 10 acres. They can’t just start digging.

As they talk, the sky goes dark at the homestead. Things still look normal at the Sheriff’s Doll’s office, so Dolls tells her to stay by a light source and wait. He’s on his way.

Waverly is struggling to turn on a flashlight and for some reason, Wynonna doesn’t just tell her it’s demon stuff and also Waverly doesn’t pick up on it either. Wy suggests going outside and lighting a fire so they can stay warm, and Waverly is literally like “wow how weird, it’s dark, huh.” These inconsistencies are going to drive me nuts. Waverly BELIEVES. LET HER.

Anyhow. Wy tells Waverly that the talisman they are looking for is buried. Waverly has a flashback. Someone we can’t see is instructing her to bury something so that her family can all get what they deserve. Out of the flashback, Waverly says that her imaginary friend’s name was Bobo, and she’s starting to think he wasn’t so imaginary.

The wind howls and their fire goes out. Wynonna is going to go check the generator and sends Waverly inside without a way to protect herself and because splitting up is always a good idea.

Wynonna gets a lantern on and is looking at the generator when the shadow assassin shows up to cut the lights again and knock the gun out of Wy’s hand.

She comes face to face with the shadow assassin and freaks accordingly. She runs back in the house to tell Waverly a few things: there is a shadow assassin; she should hide; this is the shadow assassin that took their father all those years ago. Waverly is like: wtf; hiding does not HELP; let me get my gun. She also calls the assassin  “shit ticket,” which sounds like an insult we could’ve invented to level at Christian Grey.

Wy goes back to the barn to find Peacemaker. And in the meantime, the shadow assassin gets inside the house. Waverly sisters runs out of the house, and they both run to the car, but it won’t start. As the shadow assassin creeps closer (thank god that thing is slow as molasses), Waverly gets an idea. She knows where the talisman is buried, because she is the one who buried it.

After a not!break, the Earp Girls run in the direction of the pet cemetery, where Bobo told baby Waverly to bury the thing. Dolls arrives and gets the quick and dirty update. The shadow assassin is creeping towards them still as Waverly digs as fast as she can. Wy fires off a shot, but the bullet hits something metallic. Waverly immediate guesses that they are dealing with Killer Miller, who used to wear an old timey metallic bulletproof plate. Dolls is impressed by her research. That seemed a little too easy to me.

Wynonna grabs Dolls’ car keys and runs in to the car. She lights a flare in order to catch shadow assassin’s attention, which works for a hot second, until he remembers (?) that Waverly is his actual target. Shadow Assassin heads back toward Waverly, but then Wynonna shoots him and this time it works? I’m assuming because she’s shooting him from behind and maybe he only wore a metal plate on his chest? This whole thing was sloppy, whatever.

The shots slow Shadow Assassin down enough that Wynonna can walk up to him and shoot him between the eyes. Shadow Assassin is taken to hell.

Waverly keeps digging.

Levi is again on hand and this time he has an axe. He decides to charge at Wynonna, but Dolls sees him coming and warns her in time to let her get out of the way. Dolls fights Levi off as Waverly yells for Wynonna to finish him. She’s got other plans, though. She wants Levi to carry back a message to Boss Man: she’s coming for him. She’s coming for all the revenants who took Willa. “The seven?” Levi asks super helpfully. Those guys have already killed 3 heirs and she’s just a girl. Wynonna badasses that she’s the girl with the big ass gun and one by one, she’s going to kill them all.

Waverly finds the talismen, winds it up and chucks it. As soon as she does, Levi is ejected from their grounds. Waverly finds this hilarious. Wynonna and Dolls do not.

I am wondering if maybe it would’ve been better to destroy the talisman. Or if unburying it should’ve broken the magic? Or if maybe they should track down the talisman and destroy it? I want some talisman follow-up.

After our final cut to black, Wynonna and Dolls walk and talk. She asks how he knew about the ammolite. Dolls vagues that he’s been battling demons for a while now after he was recruited from the military. Wynonna wants to know if he would really nuke Purgatory like that other city, Maldito, from his wallet picture. I think the real issue here is naming your cities things like PURGATORY and CURSED. Anyway, Dolls says that he did everything he could to stop Maldito from being leveled. Wynonna wants to talk more, but Dolls tells her to go home.

Homestead. Waverly and Wynonna are in front of a fire again. Waverly’s now a Black Badge consultant, on the condition that she moves back to the homestead. Waverly can’t wait to start making it nice again and they watch as “Henry” (Doc) puts up a new mailbox for them. This is weird. This is also weird because Waverly knows it was him who stole her stuff on account of him now wearing Champ’s jeans. She’s just like “it’s fiiiiine.” Wynonna is more interested in him being cute. All of this is weird.

Waverly says that she was blaming Wynonna for what happened to Willa and their dad. We have seen no evidence of this whatsoever and in fact Waverly was like “it was a mistake!!” last episode. But okay. Her point is that it was actually her fault because she planted the talisman. Wynonna blames Bobo and plans to make him pay. Waverly wants her to be careful, but that isn’t Wy’s style. Plus, she wonders how scary a guy named Bobo could be.

Doc meets Boss Man (Bobo) and tells him that Wynonna is more than they bargained for. Bobo is at last moderately impressed with Doc’s work. Levi, on the other hand, was supposed to bring Wynonna’s head and instead leaked some sensitive information. He also has had a lot to say about Doc. Doc gets worried and reaches for his gun, but Bobo adds that Doc has proven himself loyal. And now, he’ll get to see what happens when you aren’t loyal. In fact, if Doc wants to be in with the revenants, he’s going to have to chain Levi up and drag him across the line that keeps them in Purgatory.

Doc apologizes to Levi, but drags him out anyway. Levi starts to sizzle and writhe in pain.

Back in the tiki torch circle, Bobo is giving a Villain Speech. He said that a few of them went astray, thinking it would serve them to steal the gun. That was a stupid plan, though. Only the heir can have the gun. And the 7 will deal with the heir. And the rest of them will stick to the dig and their plan for freedom. Doc listens to the speech and then turns back to watch Levi suffer. Bobo creeps up behind Doc and whisper-threatens that he’s a man of his word. He can deliver the woman that changed Doc to him. They shake on it and Levi keeps dying slowly and painfully.

  I won’t add too many more words here, but this is still feeling uneven for me. It isn’t only trope things that I’m being picky about, but internal lore and tone things that haven’t quite landed. Yes, it’s episode 2 and early yet, and I’m optimistic since so many people have found things to love here, but it’s got some room for improvement. And as campy and funny as it wants to be, there are some areas where it needs to follow-through. I mean, Wynonna killed two of the people who took her father and sister. I wish that mattered a little more to the story than it did here.

 

Next time on Wynonna Earp: Waverly might figure out Doc’s secret in S01 E03 – Leavin’ on Your Mind.