Previously on Wynonna Earp, Wynonna, Doc and Waverly returned from The Garden to find a whole new Purgatory complete with a new Sheriff and Magistrate, Jeremy is Black Badge now, and Nicole is happy to have her girlfriend back but definitely distracted and traumatized because it turns out they’d been gone for 18 months, 3 weeks and 4 days.

At the end of the last episode, Wynonna got nabbed from the Earp barn, pjs and all, and we pick up this week right where we left off, Wynonna being dragged through a compound until she’s in an interrogation room of sorts with a school marm of a woman called Naomi. Wynonna realizes she’s in a definitely-active Black Badge facility and as she helps the woman remove her own handcuffs, she realizes she’s not exactly being held hostage, despite how she was brought in. Still… she’s displeased.

This woman clearly doesn’t actually know who she is, and pronounces her name like strangers at the airport trying to read my t-shirts when I’m on the way to cons. Just then, Jeremy walks in and Wynonna is so happy to see him that she leaps up and hugs him. Jeremy brushes her off and pretends like they were just old colleagues, also mispronounces “Earp” and plays down her demon-slaying skills. Wynonna plays along and reluctantly smiles at a very nervous Naomi, claiming she’s never killed a demon, nope, not even one.

Meanwhile, setting the tone for what will be an increasingly creepy episode, someone bleeds upon what looks like an old, candid picture of Wynonna and an eerie pile of rocks elsewhere in Purgatory. The sound of chains and screams follow, a demonic creature pulling on its shackles until finally… it’s free.

Back at the Homestead, unaware of the dangers that lurk, Waverly has set up the kitchen for their first Team Earp planning session in a while, complete with new notebooks and a powerpoint; she can’t wait.

No one is here yet, but Nicole is here early and jazzed for the presentation… or at least, pretending to be. They still have a lot of things they don’t know: About Cleo and Holt, about the BBD border, about the influx of demons, about where Peacemaker is… all they know for sure is that they’re having tacos for dinner, and tacos are tasty.

Rachel walks in on them making out, and I have some stupid commentary to make about the beat that follows. (But that’s what you’re here for, right? My randomness?) When they get interrupted, Rachel is a little like “these two again” but Waverly and Nicole just smile at her. They don’t pull away from each other, they just turn toward Rachel, Nicole draping her arm around her smol girlfriend’s shoulder. They weren’t “caught,” they were just interrupted. (Something they’re very used to by now.) It was such a small seemingly insignificant moment, and I shouldn’t have been surprised by it on this of all shows, but it stuck out to me so I felt I had to mention it. It was pure and sweet and GAY and I love it.

Nicole and Waverly notice Rachel is wearing Wynonna’s jacket, which Rachel says looks better on her, horrifying the duo with a lack of the healthy fear of Wynonna they have both developed.

Nicole instinctively starts to fill Rachel in on the plans for the day, including plotting how to find Peacemaker, and Waverly looks at her, shocked.

Waverly spent her whole life being taught that the Earp curse and the supernatural were taboo topics. It wasn’t until Wynonna’s 27th birthday she was able to speak it aloud. And now Nicole is just blurting it to this teenager Waverly just met? Because it’s still taking Waverly a little bit of time to adjust to what it all means. To really wrap her head around the fact that Nicole lived a year and a half without her. Because she only lived 18 hours without Nicole. But Nicole has been telling demons to get off her lawn with Rachel all this time. And hell, she MET Rachel in a zombie factory. So of course she didn’t think twice before looping Valdez in.

But Waverly sees that Nicole trusts Rachel, so she quickly adjusts. When Nicole offers her a notebook, Waverly corrects her and says Rachel’s is the blue one, and Nicole doesn’t flinch or tell Waverly that the notebooks are all empty so it’s a little silly to care who gets which; they’re still in sync in the ways that matter.

It doesn’t matter though because Rachel has important teen things to do somewhere that is not here. When their only potential meeting member is gone, Nicole apologizes that no one but her showed up. But Waverly isn’t really all that upset about her girlfriend being the only one around.

In fact, she doesn’t mind at all.

Wynonna is still getting the lowdown at BBD, and Noami is telling Wynonna that the Ghost River Triangle is now a sort of demon/human fishbowl experiment. Their mandate is to observe, not interfere. The Juan Carlo Treatment, if you will. Naomi wasn’t really trained for this life—she used to be in the fishery department—but BBD was desperate when they were trying to phoenix out of their own wreckage. She’s a little shaken by the 12 deaths she’s seen since working here, and Wynonna has sympathy; she’s dealt with more than her fair share of death, and all of them much closer than just coworkers.

Naomi takes one more stab at recruiting Wynonna, pitching Fleabag-esque jumpsuits, but it seems Wynonna hasn’t been inducted to the church of Phoebe Waller-Bridge yet.

Before Wynonna can tell this nervous nelly to get stuffed like a sardine can, Jeremy asks to give Wynonna a tour of the facility, and Naomi reluctantly agrees. Wynonna finds a rock in her pocket and assumes it’s a weird tracking device and shoves it in a security guard’s hand.

Across the border, Doc goes to The Glory Hole to do some business with Amon. Amon calls over the hot bartender and the three hot people flirt hotly and if Doc is joining a monster sex cult I am here! for! it! Amon mentions Wynonna and Doc gets defensive about Wynonna being her own woman, but Amon stays cool, simply wondering why Doc isn’t using his vampire skills to their fullest potential. Amon has the bartender give Doc a shot of blood and says there can be more where that came from if Doc can get more booze for the bar. Amon flirt-threatens Doc all while saying he’s welcome here, where he can be himself.

Meanwhile outside BBD, things take a turn for the deadly when the security guard tosses down the rock Wynonna gave him and immediately gets his head lopped off. I’m sure that’s fine.

You know what teens do for fun in the post-apocalyptic Ghost River Triangle these days? They forage for junk to trade. Rachel is meeting her buddy Billy, who has a Bunny Loblaw for PTA mug, which I obviously want immediately. Billy gives her a vest, and goes in for a kiss, and she awkwardly deflects with a hubcap. If I had a nickel.

Back at the BBD facility, Jeremy “Still Gay” Chetri is giving Wynonna the tour when he pulls her into a blind spot he’s found. He says this new hodgepodge version of Black Badge is in over their heads, they really need someone with a demon-killing gun. She starts to tell him about Peacemaker’s absence but Naomi interrupts them.

Rachel and Billy are walking down a majestic Canadian road, and Rachel tries to invite herself over for chipmunk dinner since they eat vegan for most meals at the Homestead. Which makes me wonder… was Nicole still having them eat vegan a lot while Waverly was gone? Was she still stocking mostly vegan food, in case she was hungry when she finally got back?

Anyway, Rachel likes to act tough, but she loves having a full house of Earps, because she spent a long time alone. She tries again to invite herself over to Billy’s, but Billy says his mom is a hoarder and that maybe someday he can have her over but he looks squirrely. No rodent puns intended.

Also there’s a strange pile of rocks that we’ve never seen before that is probably just for funsies and not at all ominous.

Back at the Homestead, Waverly and Nicole have moved from the table to the floor.

Notebooks below, tablecloths above, they’re tangled in household objects and smiles. Waverly is ready to talk business/finding Peacemaker, and Nicole makes an off-hand comment about this being another thing she failed at finding for 18 months. Waverly is fully prepared to make her girlfriend a Haught Topics powerpoint about all the awesome things about her.

But Nicole just looks blankly at her, not understanding why she would need that. Which… makes me nervous? Because this means either Nicole’s trauma is so deep that she barely even hears herself making these comments about her self-described failures… or there’s something supernatural going on here, which doesn’t usually lead to hugs and puppies.

While on the subject of why she loves Nicole Rayleigh Haught, Waverly tries to also bring up the proposal. Because sure the looming apocalypse may have inspired her timing, but Waverly meant every word of what she said. But in lieu of an answer, Nicole hastily kisses her, a real change in tune from what she told Waverly 18 months ago, though clearly her feelings haven’t changed.

Rachel comes in and honestly at this point is almost annoyed that she keeps having to cover her eyes before entering ANY space in the house. She tells them she has an idea of where they call look for their missing magic GunSword and that they have to go to the junkyard… preferably, clothed. Waverly and Nicole laugh, embarrassed but happy.

At BBD, Wynonna once again dodges having to tell Jeremy about Peacemaker being currently unavailable because Jeremy wants to show off a new weapon he helped invent called Antoni, a Queer Eye reference that sailed right over my head, and it accessorizes perfectly with Wynonna’s new jumpsuit.

Wynonna is ready for her first mission, and if it’s saving Robin, she’s ALL in. Jeremy says that her first task is much simpler than that…it’s accompanying a supply run to Purgatory. They keep getting hijacked and they need to keep the people fed or they keep having these awful events FOR FREEDOM that make the townspeople run amuk.

Wynonna is FURIOUS. She equates this to casting Cate Blanchette as a background character instead of CAROL. She’s Carol!! But Jeremy says that BBD is wary of all things supernatural, and they both qualify, so they have to keep their heads down for now.

Not getting the ‘keep your heads down’ memo, Rachel, Nicole, and Waverly pile into the Jeep and head to the junkyard, Magpie Ranch.

This reminded me of the time I thought that Mictian was a magpie demon because he was having Gooverly steal shiny things. I spent a whole paragraph in a recap about it. This is why theorizing about Wynonna Earp is pointless; they ALWAYS zig when you think they’re going to zag. And just when you think you’ve outsmarted them by preparing for a zag when you think they’re going to zig… they zoink instead.

Anyway, Waverly thinks this is a good place to look if Nicole hadn’t already, and Nicole nervously says she mostly just stuck to the forest. Waverly thinks that’s smart, and Nicole looks over at her girlfriend with a surprised smile. Not once since Waverly came back has she judged a single decision Nicole has made in the past 18 months. She’s always supportive and forgiving of the things Nicole has been kicking herself for.

Rachel still hasn’t told the girls exactly why she wanted to come here, so she hops out of the Jeep and takes off, and Waverly jokes about her not wanting to be seen with her sexy gay aunts.

They start poking around to try to find someone, and Waverly finds herself face to face with a monster… but she doesn’t jump. Nicole calls her back, but Nicole doesn’t seem to see the monster either. And frankly the monsters you can’t see always scare me more than the monsters you can.

A woman comes out and scolds them for being nosy, instead inviting them inside so she can help them find what they need. Waverly asks, in the cutest roundabout way, if they have any swords, Nicole playing it off like she needs it for She-Ra cosplay, a concept that makes Waverly (and me) go full Catra heart-eyes.

Waverly pops out to check more stuff out when the woman turns on Nicole and it quickly becomes obvious they’ve met before. Nicole calls her Margo and Margo teases her, saying they have rings if she needs one now that her love is back. She then says, “It’s time for you to deliver,” and Nicole hisses, “You stay away from us.” Margo says, “Love wins after all” with a sick grin on her face, which leads me to my first installment of: NICOLE, WYD?!

As Wynonna heads off on her truck detail with a man named Simon, she calls Waverly to ask about her pocket rock because Jeremy said it wasn’t BBD tech. Waverly is excited to have research to do but since she’s at the junkyard, she’ll have to call Wynonna back.

And on her way back to her girlfriend, she fails to notice the same symbol burned into some wood nearby amongst the junk.

Wynonna and Simon’s truck runs over a strip of nails and gets flat tires, and Simon is convinced it’s “demon shit” and runs away, but Wynonna has developed a sense of town pride after two years of saving it and a confusing amount of time away, so she pulls out her guac gun and goes to face the intruder. Instead of a People Eater, though, she finds a good ol’ fashioned bandit by the name of John Henry Holliday.

They’re both surprised to find each other on the job and clearly have some catching up to do.

Rachel runs around the junk yard until she finds Billy, but he’s not as happy to see her as she’d hoped. Rachel tries to tell him that she thinks he doesn’t suck which is such an angsty teen way of expressing your feelings that I LOVE IT.

But he can’t talk about that, not now, not here. She assumes this means he doesn’t like her back after all and runs away, but that’s not what Billy means at all.

Rachel finds her Sexy Gay Aunts and asks if they can go, and Nicole can sense something is wrong and immediately agrees. Nicole gives Margo a death stare as they go, and Waverly can sense the weird vibe but doesn’t know what’s going on so she just forces a smile and follows Nicole and Rachel.

After catching each other up on their very busy few hours, Doc and Wynonna can’t say they approve of each other’s choices. But Doc realizes he pushed this quarrel too far when he mentions her losing Peacemaker and Wynonna’s face falls. So Doc gets back to the business of thievery instead, and Wynonna gets back to defending her haul, going so far as to handcuff herself to the crates. She tries to distract Doc with the promise of sexytimes, but Doc really wants that booze so he’s going to get some tools first. Though sexytimes are not off the table.

Back at Magpie Ranch, Billy goes to talk to his mother, who is furious he brought Earp lovers to their land. He promises to make it right, and she threatens to “reap” Rachel, and things have taken a turn for the yikes.

As Wynonna waits for Doc in the truck, it starts to get cold and creepy. She finds another rock in her pocket, and now taking time to really sit with it, she senses the evil in it. She tells it she respects it but that she would like it to kindly go away now, which honestly isn’t the worst tactic.

Alas the damage is done, and the creepy sounds get creepier, and the footsteps get closer, and a Reaper from the Magpie Ranch appears. Wynonna can sense something about it, that they know each other on some level, and she also knows she is in DANGER.

She calls for Doc and screams and the Reaper eventually claws her out of her handcuffs (yay!) and claws her gun in half (boo!) and sends Wynonna running through the woods, right into those spooky rock piles, more scared than we’ve ever seen her by a long shot.

Billy runs from the ranch and heads right to Rachel in the Homestead barn, and while he’s trying to explain why they can’t hang out anymore, he sees Rachel pull an evil rock from the jacket she’s wearing and he panics.

Inside the Homestead, Waverly is researching the symbol, cozy and back in her natural nerdy habitat.

She realizes that the symbol is a cattle brand for the Clantons, an old enemy of the Earps from back in the days of the OK Corral. Waverly hears a scream and runs out to the barn to find Nicole already there, armed and ready to protect Rachel from her still-panicked pal.

Billy is looking around frantically, asking where the Reaper is, saying only the marked can see it, and that once you’re marked it won’t stop until you’re shredded, but no one in the barn seems to be able to see anything that looks anything like a Reaper.

Because the Reaper is currently occupied with Wynonna, who has been trapped in a circle of rock piles, no magic gun to protect her, not even Antoni.

That is, until Doc comes to help. He’s a little confused at first; he’s never seen Wynonna this helpless, not really. And he can’t see the thing she’s most afraid of. But he doesn’t understand what Wynonna is going through to help, so he has her tell her how he can best support her. She takes one of his guns and guides him—he IS the weapon, after all—and they shoot the Reaper, Wynonna crumpling into Doc’s arms.

But, since we’re playing the horror movie game, of course the bad guy isn’t really down the first time, so when the Reaper sits up again, Doc kicks over a rock pile and the two take off running.

Nicole and Waverly are ready to take down this teenage boy in their barn, but Rachel stops them, promising he’s not usually like this. Waverly realizes that Billy is a Clanton, and Billy says that the Clantons were cursed, generations ago. And in that moment I almost felt silly for how long I went just thinking the Earps were the only ones cursed. Of course there are more cursed lines in this universe. Of course! Brilliant.

This time it’s Nicole and Waverly’s turn to hold RACHEL back though, because Billy takes pliers and shoves them into his mouth. The girls watch in horror as Billy pulls out a too-long tooth and starts chanting words about being enemies in kin but severing the root.

The evil rock starts to suck the life out of him, and not too far away, the Reaper is called off, and leaves Wynonna alone. She tells Doc that the Reaper hated her, so much, and maybe something in her was naturally opposed to this Clanton Reaper, maybe the two of them being so close amplified her fear, like two magnets of opposite charges getting too close.

Rachel runs to Billy, who is fine now, and says that he had one “covenant” and he used it on her. He says the Reaper is the black sheep of a family he doesn’t want to be part of anymore, aka the Clanton family. Know who else is a Clanton? Sheriff Holt and Magistrate Cleo. Also, of course, Mam Margo. He says Mam is the worst of them, and that the Clantons will never stop coming for the Earps and all who associate with them.

Billy tells Rachel that she opposite of sucks, kisses her on the cheek, and says goodbye in a way that felt so final it broke my heart.

It broke Rachel’s heart too, and she instinctively leaned into Nicole, as if perhaps this isn’t the first time the teen has gone to her for comfort. Waverly sees this and immediately wraps around her two traumatized girls, trying to protect them from any more hurt with her angel wings. (Metaphorically…I realize in this case that might be important to clarify)

Waverly finally gets her war room regroup, though it’s a bit more tense than she’d hoped.

They realize now that the Clantons seemed to have infiltrated Purgatory while the Earp sisters were away and that if they have these Reapers at their beck and call, they’re hella dangerous.

When they realize it was after Wynonna, and that probably Rachel only got a rock because she was wearing Wynonna’s stolen jacket, she is PISSED that Billy sacrificed himself and it wasn’t even for her. (If it makes her feel better, that security guard got real dead just for having a rock so probably she WAS still in SOME danger.)

Rachel wants to go save Billy RIGHT NOW but Nicole tries to explain that now that their whole team is back they can’t just rush headlong into every dangerous situation. They have to wait and plan.

Rachel wants to work alone, but Wynonna reminds her that she’s only 17 so she doesn’t have to work at all. She storms off, feeling ignored and misunderstood, and Nicole and Waverly instinctively want to follow but Wynonna is being haunted by the ghost of Wynonnas past so she knows that it’s better to let Rachel blow off some steam before they go after her.

For now, they have to get Jeremy back. Even if they have to beg for it.

Back the junkyard, Billy is tied to the Reaper chain, Mam tsk tsking her favorite son. He begs her to let the old ways die; just because it’s how we’ve always done it doesn’t mean it’s how we always have to do it, yaknow? But Mam says not to worry, she’s not going to kill anyone. Billy will. And then a Reaper comes out and starts spitting in Billy’s mouth and I haven’t seen Disobedience yet but I imagine this is significantly less sexy than that.

Inside, Holt watches in horror but takes his hat off when Mam comes in. Cleo is there too, and they’re both begging Mam to give Billy the Kid a break. They want to help put him on the right path but Mam puts her foot down about it and these two big shots we saw running the town with glee quickly demure to Mam.

It suddenly seems that maybe Holt and Cleo aren’t power hungry for power’s sake, but instead exerting control where they can since they clearly aren’t in control at home. Hurt people hurt people, and as Mam digs her finger into Cleo’s hand, it’s clear she’s no stranger to hurting her children. Mam knows by this cut that Cleo is the one who used her blood on that old high school photo of Wynonna to sic the Reaper on her.

Mam says the Reapers are not attack dogs, but their ancestors, and only she will decide when they “unleash hell” on the Earps. Then, as if she did nothing out of the ordinary at all, she sits down to dinner and says it’s time to say their version of grace. And as someone who used to get in screaming matches with my mother only to have her turn around and ask what I wanted for dinner as if I wasn’t still so mad I wanted to move to Mars…I felt their pain. Cleo easily reaches for her brother’s hand but is reluctant to hold Mam’s as they recite a horrifying “prayer” about vengeance and never forgiving, never forgetting.

Off to get her nerd as promised, Wynonna storms into the BBD facility, finds Jeremy and Naomi, and refuses to play along anymore. She’s Wynonna Fucking Earp and she’s the best demon hunter this shady-ass organization has ever seen and she’s done playing errand boy. She got beat by something scary, and she’s not too proud to admit she needs her team—her WHOLE team. And that means Jeremy. (And Robin, but Jeremy says he’s safe and would rather keep his boyfriend-who-almost-became-a-murder-tree-that-one-time out of this.) She gets down on her knees and lets him see the genuine tears she’s wiping away and she begs: Please come home.

Jeremy agrees, so she takes him back to join her “posse of dipshits” and restart the Purgatory department of Black Badge.

Across town, Nicole goes back to the Clantons with a jar in hand, shoving it into Mam’s hand and saying the deal is off, she owes her nothing.

She says, “Doc and Waverly got themselves out of the Garden,” and Mam scoffs like she’s not so sure about that. (Which makes me wonder…this “deal” Nicole seems to have struck…did she strike it approximately around the time a very convenient door started to glow??) Nicole tries to say “it’s over” but Mam inspects what seems to be a jar of twigs and maybe Nicole’s own hair? And evil leaves pour out and fly into Nicole’s mouth. And no matter what this deal was, I can’t imagine Nicole knew she was signing up for A MOUTH OF LEAVES.

Which…I’m sure…is fine? That’s probably fine. Surely having a spooky cloud of evil leaves pour into your mouth from an enemy of the Earps and then going home to a house full of Earp and Earp-adjacent people will be fine. Juuuust fine. IT’S FINE. :screams:

Thanks again for joining me for another fun episode of Wynonna Earp—and while I have you here, could I perhaps ask you a favor? If you enjoy these recaps (if they make you laugh, make you think, make you happy someone cares as much about WayHaught as you do) would you consider supporting Autostraddle’s ongoing fundraiser? The thing is, there’s nothing Earpers can’t do, I’ve seen it with my own eyes time and time again, and we’re SO close to reaching our goal. I love writing recaps for this website so much, and I don’t want to have to stop any time soon.

And I know everyone always says “every little bit helps” but the math doesn’t lie: Based on the average number of people who have clicked on these Season 4 recaps so far, if HALF of you donated $8, we’d be at our goal. Round it up to $10, and we’d get there even faster. Just something to consider!

Thank you as always for going on this journey with me. And if you have Sexy Gay Aunts (or ARE Sexy Gay Aunts…)—wash your tablecloths!

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