Previously: The demon barber of fleet street.
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Digging Up Bones
Marines: In a dream, Wynonna is wandering around in a brightly lit homestead as she hears someone yelling for Willa, followed by screaming. She finds Waverly on the stairs. “Willa?” she asks.
Above her heard, there is a big hole in the roof and a storm is brewing. Even the camera man is doing some shaky “iSn’t THis WEirD?” work. I appreciate it. Someone yells at Wynonna to get them, and she says she has. She gesture the floor and we see a bunch of bones and skeletons. “I killed them so hard.” The echoing voice says “not all of them.” Wynonna turns to see Willa standing in the doorway. “Daddy couldn’t save us. How the hell will you? They’ll eat you alive.” Wynonna screams.
Karina: As someone who suffers from vey weird dreams often involving dead people or people trying to kill me, I feel ya, Wy. Also, Hi friends! *waves* I pestered Mari on Twitter about her letting me comment on her recaps because I’ve seen the show multiple times and I absolutely love its campiness. Plus queer women. That’d be a way to summon me if I were a demon/ghost/weird creature. Just click your heels three times and whisper queer women and I’ll appear. Anyway, back to Mari.
Mari: Waverly runs into the room and quickly closes a window that has blown open. She grabs a cup of water and brings it over to Wynonna, who was sleeping on the couch. Wynonna pushes it away and asks if it’s beer o’clock. Waverly points out that it sounds an awful lot like what their dad used to do. Wav tells her sister that she can’t keep killing people and pretending like it doesn’t affect her. Sure, she’s half way through the Seven, but there are 77 others included in the curse.
During the nightmare, I briefly had a thought that Willa might be a revenant now. I don’t know on what technicality that would play out on BUT this show plays fast and loose with rules anyway. I hope I’m wrong. DON’T MAKE WYNONNA KILL WILLA. Thank you for entertaining my theories.
Karina: I don’t even know if I should comment on this and I’m not confirming or denying anything BUT I admire your instincts when it comes to TV, Mari.
Mari: Always expect the worst!
Waverly heard Wy call out Willa’s name. Wav misses her too, even though she can’t quite remember a few details, like her pierced ears. “One piece at a time,” Wy notes. “That’s how people slip away.” Their dad use to say that revenge was a balm for the soul. If she can kill the evil that took him and their sister, then she can dream and it won’t have to be sad. Waverly tells her to try and get sleep. Tracking down revenants can wait until morning.
We cut to Levi still chained outside the line and I DO NOT WANT THIS. Oh dear god, we come in closer and see his burned skin and he throws up innards? No, he’s got innards in his mouth because HE BIT HIS ENTIRE FOOT OFF in order to get free of his chain and starts crawling back toward the Purgatory line.
Karina: *vomits* this shit is gross, yo.
Mari: I TOLD THAT DEVIL TO TAKE YOU BACK.
Sheriff’s Doll’s office. He’s working out without a shirt on and is all sweaty because the AC is broken. Wynonna and I both have the same admiring face on.
City Manager. Wynonna is bouncing her legs, and you can just feel the uncomfortable coming off of her. Cryderman says he’s been meaning to call these two in, but they’ve had some unfortunate issues with the town planner. Dolls asks if that’s the one who lost his arm in a biking accident. (Am I supposed to remember this?) (K: IDK? Maybe? Though I have no recollection of it either.)
Dolls sucks up about what a terrific town Purgatory is. He’s just trying to keep it that way with the help of his partner. Cryderman asks what the hell they are doing exactly. He’s heard all the stuff about the US Marshals, joint task force, special assignment. Cryderman says that Crydermans have been in Purgatory for over 140 years and they like to keep tabs. It’s a small town thing. Wy asks if criminals, drug dealers and gangbangers are a small town thing, too. Cryderman replies that the bad seeds often end up back in his office. Wynonna, still bouncing her leg, asks where Bobo Del Rey will end up. Cryderman gives a non-answer about how Bobo is no moron. Dolls is less concerned with his IQ and more concerned with his criminal activity. He pulls out a photo he took himself of some mysterious crates being delivered to Bobo and guarded by men with guns. Cryderman is like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ until Dolls talks about duck hunting with him. And then Cryderman is like let me give you a warrant! Wynonna is clearly annoyed.
Back at Sheriff’s Doll’s office, Wy offers Dolls some gum to get the taste of judge anus out of his mouth. I can’t believe she saved that zinger the entire drive here. Dolls knows that she has history with the judge, but they hit the jackpot here with a search warrant. She doesn’t get why they have to bother with search warrants when could just Peacemaker the crap out of him. Dolls lays out a hypothetical where someone in that trailer park gets Bobo getting sucked into hell on video, it goes viral, the government murders an entire town, etc. Wynonna says fine, they’ll do things by the book. (K: I mean, they’re both right, I guess.)
Dolls lays out the plan: he’ll go in with a bunch of local cops, Waverly will stake out and photograph anyone leaving the trailer park, Doc can identify the Revenants. Wy asks if Cryderman knows about any of this and Dolls does an Aria:
Revhead Quarters. Waverly is in place EATING CANDY because she is precious.
Mari: Dolls and Wynonna toss Bobo’s trailer while he calmly sits by and antagonizes them, until Dolls kicks him out. Wynonna knows something is wrong.
Nearby, Levi is struggle busing. He’s dragging his body and he says “Doc, die.” I think he’s taking his anger out on the wrong person.
Dolls has switched up his tactic and is now questioning Bobo about the wooden crate he saw in photos. Of course, Bobo says he has no idea what Dolls is talking about. Wynonna tells Dolls this won’t work, like right in front of Bobo. Be cool, Wy.
She can’t. After another comment from Bobo, she literally jumps on top of a car and fires Peacemaker. (K: Like the mothereffing badass she is.) She announces that what she wants are the scumbags who came for Ward Earp. Two of them are still alive. She gives them the options of helping her or not helping her and dying. Dolls calls for her to stand down, but she won’t. Bobo signals his men to attack, and Wy fights them off one by one. They have been real inconsistent about whether or not Wy can fight, but I think maybe we are finally landing on yes, very good at the punchy kicky.
Dolls arrests Bobo who goes all red-eyed and threatening. As Dolls walks Bobo out, he spots Waverly taking photos of the scene. She ducks down as quick as she can. Dolls and Wy exchange looks as they get into their respective cars. One of the Revenants climbs underneath her truck and holds on.
Sheriff’s Doll’s office. All they’ve got on Bobo is resisting arrest and a pot brownie. Wy jokes about the brownie, but Dolls yells at her that this is what happens when she decides to go cowboy. They’ve got nothing, and he has to cover for her. Wynonna reminds him that she isn’t a cop. She wants to do things her way. Dolls points out, again, that her way isn’t working. He’s off to visit Cryderman. Wy gives him the parting news that Waverly reported a super empty trailer park, almost like Bobo was tipped off.
Karina: I want to set up a mediation session for Dolls and Wynonna because they seem to have some unresolved tension *cough* sexual tension *cough* and I need them to get along.
Mari: Kiss!
Bobo is in the interrogation room, and Waverly sneaks in like a scared mouse. Her body language is so far from the way she demands to know who tipped Bobo off to her location. Nobody knew where she was. Bobo kicks out a chair and invites her to sit in the most murdery way possible. Wav wants to know why Bobo chose her to manipulate. I am reminded that he was her “imaginary friend” or whatever. (K: Yep, that’s what he was. Thank god I never had imaginary friends.) Bobo tells her (in the most murdery way possible) that he chose her because she was angry. Waverly insists she wasn’t/isn’t, but Bobo tells her she’s #deep and has anger way on the inside.
Wynonna walks in and sternly tells Waverly to get out. Wy turns off the camera and covers the one-way glass. Bobo makes some crass jokes about private time and lap dances, so Wy pulls out Peacemaker. She takes a little too long with the threats and such. Bobo somehow telekinesises the gun away from her and growls that he can’t die. His hand is burning, but he ignores the pain as he continues to threaten Wynonna, right up until he hears footsteps approaching.
Karina: Bobo is some kind of Über-Revenant, such a special snowflake. As if the fur coat didn’t tip us off.
Mari: No one wearing that coat can die in episode 5, true.
A woman waltzes in and tells Bobo not to say another word. An officer releases Bobo, but neither the lawyer or Bobo will say anything else.
Outside, Doc is smoking a cigarette. Wynonna doesn’t want to hear a word from him and ignores him when he asks for a lift. In her truck, the guy who bummed a ride puts a knife to Wy’s throat and tells her they are going to pay Bobo another visit. (K: Oh I hoped it was this episode!) Doc watches Wynonna peel out of the parking lot, and doesn’t seem to see anything? Waverly is there though and maybe looks suspicious? I don’t know. Wav and Doc both get into her car, but it is unclear what exactly they know.
Dolls is at Cryderman’s office. He wants Dolls to draft an apology letter and personally deliver it with Wynonna. And there will be no more search warrants unless they know they actually have something. Dolls says that something was there, but Bobo was tipped off. Dolls asks if he needs to move up the chain of command. Cryderman says please. Dolls’ superiors having been calling him, asking if given Dolls’ lack of results, he should continue in his position. Dolls looks unconvinced, but Cryderman pushes over a paper with the name of who he’s talking about. Dolls looks serious.
Wynonna is out by the Welcome to Purgatory sign when suddenly Waverly backs up in front of her. Wy slams the brakes and it allows her to jump out of the truck, pull out her gun, and train it on Bum a Ride. He tells her not to shoot. He knows who the Seven are. He doesn’t have their names, but he has a picture of them standing by Ward’s dead body. Things are very serious until Doc makes it to the car and recognizes Bum a Ride. They hug and laugh and what a reunion. The Earp girls do not look amused. (K: Awwwwwwwww.)
Barn, somewhere. The lawyer lady (Ms. Stone) tells Bobo that he shouldn’t call her for his petty affairs. It’s all tense and sexual. She kisses him, than pushes him, and then goes off on a Drusilla-lite mini-ramble about how she hears these voices crying out and can’t make them stop. Bobo tells her (Constance is her first name) that they are close. “Or should I call you by your alias, Ms. Stone.” Constance throws her hand up and whatever her power is, it causes Bobo a ton of pain. Her eyes go icy blue as she corrects him: it’s Mrs. Clootie. Bobo falls on his back as Constance asks what his deal with the Earp girls is. She stabs him in the chest with her pointy heel and tells him to “suck it up.” He sucks his own blood off her heel as she tells him that if he wants to know power he has to suck it up. This was one weird ass scene.
Karina: Can I just go on a mini-tangent here about how amazingly female-centric this show is? Because not only do we get Wy and Wav as main characters, we also get some hella complicated, sometimes evil female characters and that is such a good thing and still something that needs pointing out. And Constance Clootie is one of Purgatory’s finest when it comes to evil yet fascinating and complicated female characters.
Mari: Shorty’s. Doc and Fish are catching up but Wynonna is #overit. She sends Doc to go grab a drink and asks Fish wtf his deal is. Fish tells the story of how he fell in love with a man, a photographer. (K: *sobs* because of queer Wild Wild West dudes.) They made a deal that if they ever got struck down my Peacemaker, they would meet up again, same time, same place, after regenerating. Except Photographer didn’t show up. All people around the trailer park said was that Photographer struck some kind of deal with Bobo that went bad. Fish wants Wy to help him find out if Photographer is okay, and he’ll give her the picture of the Seven. Fish sends her to a man named Vinnie.
Wy starts to leave, but Doc stops her for an update. She shrugs that she’s visiting some guy named Vinnie, and Doc is like “VINNIE THE VULTURE?” Yeah, visiting someone named Vinnie and someone named Vinnie the Vulture are certainly two different things. Doc doesn’t think she’s got it in her to get information out of Vinnie, but Wy plays it cool. She leaves Doc behind to keep an eye on Fish and gut him should she die.
Cabin. Wynonna busts in and Vinnie is standing in a tub, wearing tightie whities with his hand down a dead fish’s mouth. I don’t even want to know. (K: NOPE!) We cut to Vinnie tied to a chair. Wynonna threatens a bit, but then suddenly, Vinnie starts talking in her father’s voice, telling her to have fun with her vengeance. Wy grabs fish hooks and brings one through Vinnie’s nails. Vinnie with Ward Voice tells her to go for the neck, to kill him to make herself feel better for a while. Wynonna yells and ramps up her torture threats with a hook poised over Vinnie’s eye. He gives in and provides the info she wants. The Photographer? Levi. And Bobo had Doc take Levi over the line at Hell’s Gate so he’d fry. Vinnie seals his own fate when he tells Wy not to stop now. They aren’t going to stop until she’s in pieces like her big sister Willa. Bad move there, Vinnie. Wy shoots him with Peacemaker.
Shorty’s. Wynonna takes a shot, of alcohol this time. She tells Fish that she knows where Levi is, but doesn’t reveal Doc’s part in it. Wy wants her photo first, but Fish says they actually have to break and enter into the police building basement to get it. Doc thinks they should blow the place up, but Wy says she’ll just use her boobs.
Basement.
Mari: We cut to Doc doing his own version of this, unbuttoning his vest as the women smile at him. I laughed pretty loud.
Karina: Who can fault them? I’m 94/100 on a scale of “how gay is she” and IDK if it’s the accent or the hat but it’s working for me despite the awful moustache. Maybe it’s just his old-timey vibe.
Mari: It’s probably all of it together.
Cryderman’s office. Dolls is apologizing to Constance, but it takes a turn when he refuses to throw Wynonna under the bus and calls her a vital asset to his team. He also insinuates Cryderman is a child abuser.
An alarm sounds. They are evacuating the office because of carbon monoxide. Cryderman threatens to call Dolls’ bosses, but Dolls don’t care and insults his bourbon on the way out. With a finger gun and everything.
Obviously, Wy and co are behind the alarm. Doc takes the opportunity to break into the Doll’s office and look at the research they have amassed. Constance is also there, and it’s clear that Doc also knows her. Purgatory really is a small town. Constance asks how it was “down there.” He replies that one burning thought kept him warm. He makes a threatening move toward Constance, but she uses her powers to immobilize him. She says a spell and when she’s done, she disappears and Doc is left woozy and wobbly. (K: I sense some more history there.)
Wy and Fish are gathering boxes. He’s having fun, but then they run into Dolls. It’s a tense second, but he lowers his gun after Wy gives him a sheepish smile.
Waverly is still taking photos at the Revhead Quarters.
Wynonna and Fish are going through the boxes they stole. He’s had enough of that, though, and wants to get taken to Levi ASAP. Wy agrees, but Doc finally realizes who Fish is looking for. Doc doesn’t try to play stupid, but he does connect the dots for Wy: Levi is that Shadow Assassin guy. It’s complicated for everyone.
Hell’s Gate. Fish waits outside of it as Wy and Doc walk beyond. Doc wants Wynonna to tell Fish they found nothing, no matter what they find. Wy’s not so sure, even after they find his chewed off foot. Wy gives Doc a kind of holier-than-thou talking to, which feels a little false since this is a revenant they are talking about. Doc explains that he basically had to do what Bobo said.
We cut to Fish, Wy and Doc looking for Levi in some woods. They finally hear him sobbing and find his badly burned body. Fish holds Levi and makes peace with Doc. Wy asks if he’s really okay with the whole getting shot thing. Fish says he is. Waiting around for Wynonna to just shoot them later is no life. Besides, Fish is confident that Wy will be the one to break the curse for them all. Wy lifts Peacemaker and says she’ll count to three. “One,” she counts and shoots Fish and Levi. Both she and Doc look emotional as they watch them get sucked into hell.
Constance is singing to bones, telling them that “Uncle Bobo” has almost found them all. Constance wants to take the bones with her, but needs to ask Bobo for permission, for some undisclosed reason? The power dynamics keep shifting between these two. Bobo tells her to calm down. He wants the info he needs to get out of Purgatory. He assembled these bones here, as asked. Constance changes the subject, wondering when Bobo was going to share that Doc Holliday was alive again. Bobo flips this, and asks when Constance was gonna tell him that Doc scares the shit out of her.
Woods. Doc is upset but Wynonna thinks she did the right thing. I’m not really following the argument here, but we do get the information that Doc spent over 100 years at the bottom of a dried up old well, thinking about revenge on Constance Clootie, presumably the witch who made him immortal. Wy says she needs a moral code or else she’ll end up just like Doc. He thinks they are already exactly alike. And then he angry kisses her while jaunty music plays. And then just starts undressing her and rolling in the woods. Like no thank you leaves, dirt, twigs and bugs, but to each their own.
Karina: It kinda fits them if you ask me though I’m with you on the nope, not my cup of tea.
Mari: We cut abruptly. Dolls is developing the film they recovered. Wynonna asks if they are good and gives another speech about how good it felt to give Fish the chance to make peace. She can’t fill up on revenge, and knows that not all Revenants will be like Fish, but wants to offer them the chance. She wants to keep doing this her way. Dolls says that’s fine, as long as they are both pulling in roughly the same direction. (K: IDK if forest sex with Doc released some of this tension but I like seeing her and Dolls trying to work together more than against each other.) One of the pictures he developed is of the Earp girls. Wy asks to keep it.
After she’s gone, Dolls finds a picture of the Seven with Ward Earp’s dead body. Dolls feels like he’s seen this before. We cut to a copy of the same picture… in Cryderman’s office.
I really liked that they gave us the softer side of Revenants in this episode, not gonna lie. Even in the places that I feel like they are slowly revealing information to me, a Snow, there is still a touch of clunky storytelling. It keeps getting better every episode, though, and I’m really optimistic.
Karina: Fish is a reminder to Wy that this Revenant business isn’t all black and white. They’re not all 100% pure evil because that would be much too easy. It’s the same with “normal” not demon-adjacent people like us. We exist in all shades of grey (pun not entirely unintended) and not just black and white. If Fish hadn’t sought out Wynonna to help him locate his boyfriend, he could have easily lived without crossing paths with Wy despite his Revenant status. And I know these days we are all quick to put people into boxes based on our personal beliefs and whatnot, but that isn’t always healthy. It’s convenient for sure but I’m not sure how much we all as society will gain from that in the end. I think we can all benefit from treating each other with some respect and empathy despite our obvious differences. And yes, I know that’s hella difficult, and I am not always succeeding at that myself. Sorry not sorry this got away from me a bit.
Mari: It happens. Thanks, TV.
Next time on Wynonna Earp: Dolls has a secret in S01 E06 – Constant Cravings.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
I'm a 30-something safety engineer dreaming of finding someone to support my habit of shipping badass women in media with each other. Love running and singing and also self-depricating humour.
