Wynonna Earp – Walking After Midnight

By starrymag | May 17, 2016

By: Caitlin Walsh

 

The First Rule of Fight Club…

 

I mean, what would you prefer: Bobo Del Ray’s trailer park of misfits and revenants, or camping in the freezing cold with a sad tent by your lonesome? I’m not even sure the tent is less glamorous, so I can’t blame Doc for his new digs–but it the open forest isn’t exactly the most secure and one revenant almost gets the best of him one night.

 

Luckily, Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) has impeccable timing and a better shot and takes him out before he gets Doc (Tim Rozon). Not that the shows much gratitude, of course, instead snapping at Wynonna who had come in the first place for help identifying the last of the seven in the photo. (Gratitude isn’t one of his strong suits.) But Doc is drunk and ornery, and he snaps at Wynonna–he won’t be much help tonight.

 

Meanwhile, my new favorite badass lady Blacksmith (Rachael Ancheril) is waiting for her inevitable run in with Constance, who is on the hunt for her skull son. The Blacksmith isn’t giving up its whereabouts easily. Constance offers youth and even the chance to cure her of the tumor in her breast–but no dice. She’s not gambling with the dark side.

 

Dolls (Shamier Anderson) and Wynonna have plans to be working the entire weekend, mostly because with one of the seven left to go, Wynonna isn’t keen on slowing down. IDing the seventh is still a bit of an issue, but with a lot of squinting she at least notices a spade playing card in his hand–it’s something.

 

Cut back to Constance (Rayisa Kondracki) and the Blacksmith showdown for some bloody tears and torture methods. The Blacksmith is down for the count, giving up Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) when she just can’t take it anymore. I can’t hold it against her–she fought hard and Constance does seem just a hair over the crazy line.

 

That’s Mrs. Skull To You

 

With the house to herself, Waverly decides to throw an engagement party for one of friends and just act…normal, something she rarely gets anymore. Doc walks in on her setting up for the festivities and admits he was wrong for what he said to Wynonna, acting much more pleasant (*sober) with Waverly. She tells him to scat as it it’s a girls night and the only invitation he’s getting for is “to move onto our land.” Waverly “Heart of Gold” Earp isn’t one to let her friends live in dingy tents out in the woods alone, after all.

 

Dolls, who is supposed to be out picking up Chinese food for him and Wynonna, calls her oh so cryptically to let her know that he’s going to head out of town for a few days. That means she needs to look after things and stand by for instructions. Waverly’s “friends” (apparently we need to use that term loosely here) Steph (Siobhan Williams) and Chrissy (Dana Hollenbach) show up for Steph’s engagement party, which everyone else bailed on because they’re freaked out by the “murder house.”

 

They left her out of bridesmaid dress shopping because she’s been so busy with

long nights at the office and no invites to Waverly’s party calls for a shared bottle of whiskey, am I right or am I right? Wynonna and Nicole get a chance to bond over, well, Wynonna’s “top shelf” behind and, of course, Waverly. They end up looking through a few recent murder cases from Haught’s (Katherine Barrell) pile and Wynonna gets a feeling that this is something Dolls should really be here for. And the blood dripping from her nose seems like something to maybe question.

 

Back at party central, Steph, Chrissy, Waverly and Doc have a lackluster game of poker going (that Steph tries to turn into strip poker which is just classic Steph) until Doc hears a noise from the barn and steps out to check on it. Turns out, the Blacksmith dragged herself over to warn them that Constance was coming and she will kill Waverly. She wants the skull of her boy, and with it, she’ll complete the process of letting the revenants of Wyatt Earp free of their entrapment.

 

The Blacksmith tries to warn Doc that Constance is too strong for them to fight, that he needs to take Waverly and get out of here. But he’s not quite ready to give in. He’s waited too long, too selfishly, to let her get away apparently even if it comes at the cost of Waverly’s life. The Blacksmith tries to make him promise to get Waverly out in exchange for information on how to take down Constance and he agrees. Moments later, she’s dead. Gone too soon, Blacksmith, we hardly knew you but hell I was still a big fan. Oh and apparently, Doc’s word isn’t much–he has no intention of keeping that promise to whisk Waverly away. Surprise, surprise, Doc lied. Color me shocked!

 

What’s A Party Without Some Dead Bodies?

 

Wynonna and Haught check out the bodies from Haught’s cases down in the morgue, where they run into a mostly incompetent and fairly socially awkward doctor who contributes…Well, not much aside from details of their deaths. Turns out, they’d been cut open, their organs taken out and then put back in – while they were still alive. Their killer kept them alive with IV’s and drugs, and weirdly enough, their wounds were cauterized almost immediately. So, they were being cut open with some hot. “Hellfire hot.” Wynonna’s catching on. And more than that, she spotted a welt on the neck of one of the girls–suspiciously in the shape of a spade, like on a deck of cards. Like all good creepy horror flicks, they’re not alone in the building. Someone gets in and out quickly, leaving a playing card in the mouth of the dead girl they were inspecting-and Wynonna’s nosebleed is back, again.

 

Back at casa de Earp, what they presume to be a stripper comes to the door and Chrissy and Steph proceed to mostly do his stripping for him. He goes along with it for a minute (Waverly suspicious and all knowing all along) before the clock strikes midnight–the witching hour. He ain’t a stripper, ladies. He’s just a henchman for Constance and her and her friends have come to join the party. He grabs Waverly by the neck, lifting off the ground and, at this point, Chrissy and Steph piece together that he is not a stripper–that or he’s the worst one ever. He’s looking for the skull, but Waverly Earp doesn’t go down without a fight. With Doc preoccupied outside and no Wynonna in sight, she takes matters into her own hands. Well, literally, she takes scissors into her hands and jams them into his head.

 

Quick cut to Dolls, who was brought to some warehouse office to talk with his boss, Agent Lucado (Kate Drummond). She’s sure not happy. Hell, we knew the higher ups weren’t. But he can’t seem to talk his way out of it and him having his paperwork done all well and right only goes so far. He’s going to be taken out of Purgatory and reassigned. One word: crap.

 

Back at the station, Wynonna and Haught start fighting as anxiety rises and my new favorite friendship is already hitting some rocky waters. Haught is demanding to know what’s going on as she’s not stupid and it’s far past time for them to just let her in on what’s going on. I mean, come on, now.

 

Wynonna, unfortunately, isn’t exactly the nicest when confronted and isn’t quite ready to spill Black Badge secrets. She’d rather just, I don’t know, insult Haught and then get paranoid and start questioning her all together, wondering if Haught’s somehow the enemy. (This is probably the first time I’ve been good and truly mad at Wynonna but damn, harsh much?) I’ll forgive her, only because it is a little stressful, I suppose, fighting demons and all.

 

Waverly, upset about having just killed someone, is none too happy with the fact that Constance Clootie found them and is currently outside trying to kill them. She’s looking at Doc. He fills Waverly in, finally, on what Constance did to him. Waverly is a little frantic, but she knows what to do–years of research and classes tells her to at least put down salt so that Constance can’t get in the house, which is a first step. In the meantime, Steph is being classically insufferable Steph and thinks it’s a good time to scream and yell at Waverly about how much of a freak she is. And Waverly snaps back with fire in her eyes, telling her yes she might be a freak, but she’s a damn smart freak who is going to save their asses! And, by the way, her ring is ugly and she needs to shut up. That drag was more brutal than her stabbing a guy with scissors and I cheered the whole damn time.

 

Of course, Stephanie does not take Waverly’s advice and instead storms outside where she is promptly killed. So long, honey! But I can’t say I’m that broken up to see you go. Just being honest, here!

 

Constance, meanwhile, is making zombies with her powers and Doc and Waverly need to figure something out sooner rather than later. Waverly finally calls Wynonna and her and Doc start barricading the house and trying to do whatever the hell they can to fend off Constance and her zombies. Waverly runs upstairs, looking for ammo, and ends up finding Chrissy hiding in Willa’s room, which looks like it hasn’t been touched.

 

They have a touching moment, where Chrissy tells Waverly she trusts her, always has ever since Waverly defended her against bully boys when they were younger. (Champ. Ugh.) “You never stayed out of a fight, Wav. You were the one who always knew how to win it, by any means necessary. Willa would be really proud of her little sister. I know Wynonna is,” Chrissy says.

 

Waverly, inspired, decides the Stone Witch is just another bully and she’s facing her head on, like she’s always taken on bullies. She grabs the skull and runs outside, confronting her, asking her why she did what she did to Doc. Doc was loved by Wyatt Earp and Wyatt killed her sons. They’re not revenants, they’re “something more.” (Great!) “There is an evil in this world far greater than revenants. It’s coming, Waverly Earp.” Oh. Goody, this is stellar news. I’m sure the Earps didn’t already have their hands full or anything.

 

But my sweet Waverly is never deterred, confidently telling Constance that the heroes always win. She won’t be bullied or scared by her. And then she smashes the skull against the barn (not entirely sure what she thought would happen after that) and gets herself tossed against the wall before Wynonna (finally!) and Doc take shots at Constance and she disappears into the night. That was a close one, team.

 

Later on, Waverly goes off on Doc, having put it together that the Blacksmith tried to warn him and he didn’t listen. Instead, he lied to her (again) like he always does. He knew if he told Waverly about Constance coming, Waverly would take the skull and get away. So, instead, he kept her in the dark to use her and the skull as bait, which is true. He lets her know that, more or less, his one and only priority has been getting revenge for so long that he “forgot about the other stuff. The living stuff.” Waverly’s just sick of him lying and tells him as much.

 

Outside, Haught is wrapping up talking to Chrissy and helping at the scene and her and Wynonna start to hash things out. Wynonna has decided to finally let Haught in on everything over breakfast, whether Dolls likes it or not. The world is screaming and cheering! All seems well and on the upswing for about a minute.

 

Cut back to Dolls, who is being told that his division is about to be shut down. His associates (Wynonna and Waverly, mostly) will be dealt with before he makes one last ditch attempt: the promise of evidence of not a revenant, but something else – something undocumented. He’s got Agent Lucado’s attention and the scene cuts out. I’m not nervous, are you? (I swear, if he gives up Doc, I will fight him!)

 

Doc goes out to the snow where he’d shot at Constance and finds at least a few splatters of her blood in the snow, which he collects. After all, the Blacksmith told him to gather some of it earlier, as one of the steps to getting her. He’s not done fighting, yet. Far from it.

 

The cop car that Haught and Wynonna had just left in rolls by with blood marks on the doors, driving itself, with no sign of Wynonna or Haught in it. Cue Doc getting real nervous, and cue my heart stopping.

Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to figure out how to breathe again before Friday.