Even though this was supposed to be a fake training mission, Wynonna and Rachel do end up finding a blood trail that leads them to a badly wounded but still alive Remy, who tells them about the BBD ambush, Doc being taken, and Waverly being lost in the fog.

Wynonna doesn’t have much left but Waverly and Peacemaker, and now they’re both gone.

A Black Badge agent who has a name that I miraculously remember but hasn’t earned me using it tells Doc and Dallas that they’re at a BBD waystation. He says he doesn’t know Jeremy and blows off Doc’s requests to contact him. Agent Jerky McJerkface is told by an agent that they “already have one” of whatever kind of demon Dallas is…so they FLAMETHROWER HIM TO DEATH. Seems excessive but okay. Being this close to danger sets off Doc’s vampface, delighting Agent McJerkface, who says they’ll keep the vampire.

Back at the quarantine cabin, Jolene has Waverly tied to a pole and she is playing with her food.

“Says she talks to angels. Said they call her out by her name.”

She’s pissed that Waverly tried to destroy her once, with silly things like “love” and “support” and mocks her newfound happiness. Also, as if we didn’t remember Jolene is a villain, she says she only feels medium about Waverly’s new, very cute haircut. Jolene continues to try to worm her way into Waverly’s head, crawl under her skin, burrow in her heart, but Waverly tries to stand her ground against this foe, tries to hold tight to the knowledge that she defeated Jolene once before.

“This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof.”

Jolene tells Waverly to consider that they are linked, more similar than Waverly has been willing to acknowledge. She says demons are just fallen angels. She says her and Waverly are kin.

“Sisters?” “…We’re close.”

Meanwhile, Wynonna, Rachel, and Nicole are posted up outside the border of the fog, jumping at the bit trying to figure out how to get their best girl back. Nicole gives Wynonna the police blotter Cliffs Notes — Cleo is the Clanton heir and can control the reapers, Jeremy is MIA — not to mention the stuff Wynonna already knows like Doc is in custody and Peacemaker is as missing as her sister. But Wynonna says that Waverly is their #1 priority, always. As a wise woman once said, “Peacemaker is just a gun. Waverly is Waverly.”

Melanie gets Wynonna to a place of such vulnerable desperation and worry for Waverly in this episode, it’s unreal.

Wynonna knows their best chance through the fog is with Casey’s help, so she calls her chili chum and they device a plan using his mind map and Nicole’s climbing gear. Wynonna is ready to strap on and head out but Nicole stops her. Wynonna went through the barrier to the garden, and Nicole had to sit back and stand down. Nicole had to stay strong and feel helpless and wait and worry. Nicole says it’s her turn to save Waverly.

Actually she said it’s her FUCKING turn because we’ve been blessed with a 10pm time slot.

At first it’s unclear whether Wynonna is convinced by this argument or knows they don’t have time for a back-and-forth about it, but either way Wynonna tosses Nicole the gear and doesn’t stand in her way.

In the Cabin in the Woods, Jolene finds Peacemaker and taunts Waverly with it.

Frankly? I ship it. #JoMaker

Before long though, Peacemaker burns her demon skin, and Waverly practically hisses at Jolene that it knows she’s not worthy to wield it. She says Jolene can’t scare her, not anymore, but that doesn’t stop Jolene from trying.

“Behind her was a vision, a painful apparition. Of a darker world that no one should know.”

Jolene runs her hands over some hash marks on the wall and Waverly asks if that’s how long Jolene has been in the cabin, but Jolene isn’t here to chat. She’s here to torture Waverly. She taps into their connection and speaks out loud the things Waverly barely dared to wonder. Is Waverly’s only contribution to Team Earp to be the damsel in distress? Is it because she doesn’t want the burden of being a hero? Waverly insists she’s plenty heroic, but her argument is watered down by the fact that she’s tied to a pole for the umpteenth time.

“What died didn’t stay dead. You’re alive, you’re alive, in my head.”

She taps into Waverly’s guilt over what Wynonna’s had to do to save her, time and time again. Asks if Waverly is still holding on to resentment because Wynonna was the one who was chosen. Waverly insists that isn’t the case, but Jolene is relentless. Says she hasn’t used her powers to help her sister, focusing instead on her impending nuptials. Waverly says she can be a hero and a wife. But Jolene will not back down. Jolene grabs Waverly’s face and points them toward the hash marks they were so curious about. They don’t mark days, but instead mark all the lives Wynonna had to take to save Waverly.

“Look! Look with your special eyes!”

She tells Waverly to think of the toll that might take on a person as if it’s not something that weighs on Waverly, too. Jolene whispers sweet nothings into Waverly’s ear, says she can help her be free of all this pain and sorrow. In response, Waverly headbutts Jolene, sending the demon into a fiery rage.

Almost ready to enter the fog, Nicole is gearing up when Wynonna helps Nicole secure her mask. She needs her sister back, but she wants her best friend to be careful while getting her.

“Remember, it has to cover your nose the whole time.”

Casey and Nicole head into the fog while Wynonna and Rachel listen through the walkie as they hear nothing at first, then Waverly in the background, then fighting and screaming and silence. Wynonna calls and calls for anyone, any proof that she didn’t just lose more people, until finally she hears Nicole’s voice. Nicole says technically she found Waverly, but she doesn’t have her yet. Jolene does.

Wynonna saying “it can’t be Jolene” and “we can’t leave Waverly alone with Jolene” in practically the same breath is important to me.

Wynonna is ready to sprint into the fog like it’s Target on Black Friday but Rachel stops her. Wynonna says, in an almost desperate voice, “We can’t leave Waverly alone with Jolene.” The rope gets tugged so they start to pull the duo back in but when Casey returns to them, he’s already gone. Nicole isn’t with Casey’s body but she radios back to say the fog spit her out somewhere random and that she’ll find her way back to them eventually. In a horrible turning of tables, Wynonna screams Waverly’s name into the fog.

When we cut back to the cabin, it’s in the aftermath of the unwanted guests, and Waverly is screaming Nicole’s name out the open door. It is interesting that Casey’s neck got snapped but Nicole’s didn’t. It’s possible it’s because Casey entered the cabin and Nicole didn’t, and Jolene can’t leave the cabin. But it’s also possible that, knowing Jolene can’t kill Waverly, she can’t, by extension, kill Nicole, since Nicole is so much a part of Waverly.

With a burst of fear for her loved ones and maybe hope that they’re close to saving her, Waverly bursts out of her bindings and scrambles for Peacemaker, wielding it for the second time today.

I didn’t know I could be mad at a sentient gun but HERE WE ARE.

But this time…she can’t hold it. As she drops it, Jolene laughs with delight. She’s finally breaking through to Waverly, convincing her she’s not worthy. But Waverly isn’t done fighting so she shoves Jolene into the wall, sending a coat hook through her shoulderblade. But as soon as she does that, Waverly feels pain in her back, too, and starts bleeding right where Jolene was impaled. Jolene sees this as an opportunity and says she’s tired of waiting and pins Waverly to the ground and uses her knife to dig out a small, black feather from the wound in Waverly’s back.

Listen, Waverly, I want to join Harley Quinn and her Birds of Prey too but this is a little extreme.

Outside the fog, Wynonna is borderline frantic. Jolene has been trying to get Waverly since she was born, they can’t be alone together, she can’t lose her baby sister to this monster. Rachel calms Wynonna down a little and Wynonna admits that part of the reason she sounds so desperate is because the last thing she said to Waverly was mean. This can’t be the end.

Rachel wants to give Casey a proper burial but Wynonna tells her they don’t have time. But she offers a comforting hand to the teen, telling her to protect Casey while she goes to find Jeremy.

Being a big sister comes naturally to Wynonna but I bet Rachel taps into some of her maternal instincts which can’t! feel! good! for a woman who had to give up her baby to save her.

It’s the first time we’ve seen Wynonna treat Rachel like she was as young as she is, because it’s the first time she realized Rachel needed it. It’s very sweet.

Wynonna goes to the BBD waystation and tells McJerkface (honestly this could be a different man from earlier, I have male pattern blindness) and demands answers. About the fog, how to get hre sister back, etc. But BBD is bailing. They’re calling Purgatory not worth saving. But Wynonna remembers what her sister said the last time they fought Jolene and tells him, “We stay and we fight.” Realizing he’s not going to convince her to come with them, and since she’s their best agent, he agrees to give her “severance pay” in the form of one freed prisoner. He takes her to what they had been referring to as the “feed pen” they will use to feed the demons on the Ark they’re prepping.

As Wynonna does her best to stay sexy and not get murdered by McJerkface, he offers her a safe house one more time, but she’s not going anywhere without Waverly. She’s told she can only pick one person to save, so first she apologizes to Doc, “for so many things” and giving him eyes that are practically begging for him to hear all that she means by that one little phrase.

“She finally drank her pain away a little at a time, but she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind.”

And then she surprises everyone by choosing Cleo Clanton.

The speed with which she got up and skipped off without questioning why delights me to no end.

Wynonna storms out of the waystation after Cleo, promising Doc and Jeremy she’ll be back for them.

At the Cabin of Chaos, Jolene is holding a bleeding Waverly, who is experienced a new level of pain, and begging Jolene to make it stop. She’ll do just about anything to stop this pain.

“Hush little Waverly, don’t say a word, Jolene’s gonna make you a mocking bird.”

Jolene is trying to push her just a bit further, to get her to ascend to her final form, but Waverly doesn’t want to be an angel or a demon. She just wants to go home. Jolene hisses at her again to let it go and not hold it back anymore, and Waverly screams.

When Wynonna finds Rachel again, she’s still sitting next to Casey’s body, but she has built a little protective hut around it out of sticks.

Li’l Valdez is not a girl, not yet a woman. All she needs is time.

Rachel looks from her dead friend up to Wynonna and asks if this is what Wynonna has been carrying, this times a million, and Wynonna says yeah. No wonder she was trying to keep Rachel from it. Wynonna takes some blonde hair out of Casey’s fist and leads Rachel back to Cleo, who is prepping a reaper ritual. Cleo is having the time of her life and goes along with it when Wynonna decides Lil Valdez has been through enough for one day and lies about the reaper they’re calling being Billy. Wynonna is going to have Cleo mark Jolene, then follow the reaper through the fog since they are basically undead tracking devices.

I just feel like even the back of the hand would hurt less while it’s healing AND YET this is the go-to blood sacrifice spot.

Cleo is delighted when summoning the reaper works, and off Wynonna goes, reaper leash in hand. When they get to the cabin, Wynonna finds Waverly on the ground, writhing in pain. While Jolene is distracted by Billy, Waverly doesn’t waste any time, telling Wynonna what she needs to know: Peacemaker is in the cabin, she has to stop Jolene. And, Waverly adds, “If it comes to it, stop me, too.”

Waverly doesn’t know what’s coming, doesn’t know what she’s becoming, but she knows she has to give Wynonna this permission, this preemptive forgiveness. To stop her, by any means necessary. Before it’s too late.

“Willa and I will finally have something in common.”

Jolene kills Billy the Kid, and yeets Wynonna out of the cabin and into the fog without her mask, causing Waverly to unleash one more of her patented bloodcurdling screams for her sister.

If she keeps this up she’s going to sound like Cathy Moriarty by the time she’s 30.

Jolene finds this whole situation delicious, and uses it to her advantage, telling Waverly that Wynonna died hating her baby sister. Waverly screams again, but this time it’s not in agony but in anger. Her face changes. Darkens.

Ge smak daun, gyon op nodotaim.

And then she turns on Jolene. She taps into her new powers and screeches, using unseen force to grab Jolene by the throat. Jolene wants Waverly to be free, to use this darkness, to destroy the world. And maybe Waverly will. But she won’t give Jolene the satisfaction of watching it.

“Shatter every window ’til it’s all blown away. Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away. ‘Til there’s nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday. Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away.”

The last time Waverly overcame Jolene, it was with hope. She pulled on the strength of the love she had for her family, and their love for her. She used light to banish the darkness. But this time hope was too hard. Love was too far. So instead, Waverly detached herself from the pain and the fear. She released the rage. This time, she decided that one way to overcome darkness is to succumb to it and let your eyes adjust.

Back at BBD, Doc and Jeremy are trying to puzzle their way out of their predicament when a ray of sunshine finds its way through the dingy walls of their cell.

“Did anyone order a moment of levity in this endless sea of pain?”

Mercedes Fucking Gardner is back, and better than ever. She holds up a mirror to let Jeremy hotwire the panel that gets them out, but they’re barely out of their cage before McJerkface reappears. Mercedes gets in his face, trying to tap into her old days as a rich socialite to get her way, but all it gets her is shot. Right in the gut. Solidifying him as my mortal enemy.

It turns out Jolene lied to Waverly (shocking, I know) and Wynonna isn’t actually dead, but was just yeeted into the woods. She holds her breath and crawls, desperately trying to find the end of the fog, when suddenly the fog dissipates. She looks back toward where the fog got sucked up and sees a familiar face with an unfamiliar look. The person she sees is shaped like Waverly, but it sure doesn’t seem like her baby girl. Especially not when she spreads her wings.

“Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone, in a world that she can’t rise above. But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place where she’s loved. Concrete angel.”

As Wynonna looks up at this creature that is somehow both heavenly and hellish all at once, Dark Waverly says that Wynonna’s journey is over. And that hers has just begun.

Peyton Sawer’s Angel of Death ran so Waverly’s Dark Angel could fly.

This all seems very chill and fine and not at all terrifying. There’s a sound that’s popular on my TikTok FYP right now that is like a distressed voice singing discordantly, “I think this is affecting me mentally, like long-term shit it’s gonna fuck with me.” And that’s how I feel about the end of this episode, for both Waverly and quite honestly for me.

I know I talk literally non-stop about how much I love this show, but I just really, really do. What other show can have an episode one week revolve around a cursed trivia night and then have the very next week deal with the trauma of responsibility, loss, and demons you thought you conquered rearing their ugly heads again. (Ugly only in metaphor; I WISH my personal demons looked like Zoie Palmer.) And it all still feels very much like the same show! I think it all comes down to how well these characters are written. Every individual moment feels so personal. These characters have so much depth to them that it doesn’t feel like the show went, “It would be hilarious if someone kicked a chicken, who should do it,” but instead, “Nicole got drunk and did something embarrassing, what should it be.” Which is a subtle but important difference. No matter how it actually shakes out in the writers’ room, the fact is that these writers established these characters so well that that’s how it feels is what’s important.

Okay okay I’m done being sappy. There’s still plenty of time for that in the next two recaps. (The last two recaps? Oh gods.) See you on the other side of the fog, fam.

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