Wynonna Earp – Friends in Low Places

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Much to Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) and Rachel’s (Martina Ortiz-Luis) chagrin, Nicole (Katherine Barrell) is free fallin’ her way down the Monument Black Badge base until…she arrives – naked – in the Garden of Eden. Doc (Tim Rozon) stumbles upon Nicole, but something feels amiss. Nevertheless, he tries to supply her with his coat to preserve her modesty, but there is a forcefield keeping her in – and them out. Doc runs out to find Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), leaving Nicole alone with a cherry blossom tree. Waverly is thumbing through the pages of the mysterious book she selected when Doc runs upon her. Waverly’s hand is cut – evidence of her feeding the Garden’s blood-thirsty machine. Waverly babbles on about her destiny to protect the Garden, but her attention is pulled away from celestial duties at the mention of Nicole. They reunite in the Garden’s underground bunker. Waverly says, “God it’s really you!” Nicole replies, “Waverly, who else would I be?”…a statement that confirms suspicions that something is awry. This Nicole should now be named Not!Haught.

Back at Monument we see Rachel and Wynonna fight their way through the lower levels of the base in an attempt to locate Nicole. Rachel explains to Wynonna that the zombie scientists used to be assigned to finding a gateway between dimensions for the purpose of BBD weaponizing it, but once the gate opened they abandoned hope and gassed their own. Rachel hopes to find her mom downstairs – dead or alive – and Wynonna bites her tongue at the possibility. Once they arrive at the proper corridor, they suit up in hazmat suits and find keycards to access the desired control room. Wynonna, afflicted with hypoxia, somehow manages to get the job done. She and Rachel find the real Nicole writhing in pain with a broken leg that’s about to be chewed off by a zombie scientist. Wynonna examines Nicole’s leg and begins tending to her wounds while Rachel scours the room for signs of her mom. It doesn’t take long for her to find her, dead with her hand on the Garden switch. Rachel decides that her mother’s sacrifice must mean something and resolves to stop anyone from going through the portal to the other world – including Wynonna. Nicole convinces Wynonna to tell the truth about knowing Rachel’s mom was dead and they convince Rachel to stand down (but not without first confusing Rachel into thinking they’re polygamists).

In the Garden things are getting wild. The blood machine is hungry again, so Doc leaves Waverly with Not!Haught. As he is preparing to feed the hungry urn, he finds himself in a different room that is displaying Nicole’s face on a monolith. On the other side of it is the face of a reptilian looking demon. This is the moment he realizes that Not!Haught is not Haught and he runs to find Waverly and warn her of the snake in the Garden. Waverly comes to her senses and the demon introduces herself as Eve. Yup, that one. Ever chides Waverly and tells her that Julian died before she could tell her how to save the world from Eve’s wrath. Before the monologue can go on for too long, Doc decks Eve in the face – who begins shapeshifting to appear first like Jeremy (Varun Saranga) and then Wynonna. While Doc and Eve duke it out, Waverly decides to once again fulfill her destiny as guardian of the throne, and regresses into monosyllabic angel mode.

Things may be heating up in the Garden, but Wynonna and Rachel finally comes to terms with what needs to be done to save Waverly and Doc and use their BBD keycards to open the portal. Wynonna begs Nicole to follow her there, but Nicole’s leg is no shape for cross-dimensional travel. Nicole promises to see Wynonna, Waverly and Doc back home – and Wynonna enters the Garden alone. The heir is greeted by the sight of Eve wearing her likeness, pinned to a wall with a pair of large garden shears. Not at all phased by this discovery, she bumps into Doc. Before they can have a happy reunion, Wynonna must prove to Doc that she is the real Wynonna. It takes some convincing, but a reference to their…extracurricular activities does the trick. They share a smooch, but then split up. Doc goes to continue fighting Eve while Wynonna needs to remove her sister from the stone throne before it’s too late. In typical Wynonna fashion, she reaches her sister with just seconds to spare and reminds her that the Earp curse has been broken. They have better things to live for than an old dead guy’s idea of what they should be doing. Plus, Nicole is back on the earthly plane waiting to accept Waverly’s proposal. This is all the encouragement the little half-angel needs to resign from her role as guardian.

Doc, still struggling to fight off Eve, decides to toss her through a random doorway into another dimension. Before she goes she warns him that she’s owed something in the Ghost River Triangle. Speaking of doorways in other dimensions…Nicole and Rachel are still stuck in Monument. In a tender moment of distraction for both women facing imminent danger, Rachel tells Nicole about her family’s Mayan heritage and a warrior princess in her bloodline who was given a kingdom to rule and an eternity to do so. This warrior princess is more than likely the fabled Valdez. The story injects the women with just enough spunk to fight their way out of Monument – blasting beavers and killing zombie scientists.

Back in the Garden, now revealed to be a prison we see Doc, Wynonna, and Waverly are trying to identify the door that will lead them back to their dimension. When they find the right door, Doc and Waverly toss Wynonna through before jumping in themselves. They all wake up in different parts of Purgatory. Wynonna by the stairs. Doc by the well with Waverly’s bag and mystery book. Waverly at the Homestead. Waverly wakes up to a gunshot aimed at her – only to realize that it’s one riled up Nicole. When Nicole realizes that she shot at none other than Waverly, they reunite in the snow for an extended embrace that turns into a different kind of embrace inside the Earp home. On the stairs. On the floor. Wayhaught indeed. When they’ve thoroughly inspected one another to confirm their respective realness, Nicole reveals that everyone has been gone for 18 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days. In that time, Nicole admits that she’s done everything in her power to keep the Homestead safe for their return. Not at all a troubling or foreboding statement.

Doc and Wynonna make their way into main street Purgatory, knowing that Waverly and Nicole would probably want some alone time. Wynonna is about to lay one on Doc when they spot four men hanging in the middle of the street, plain as day. There’s no explanation for the public lynching but it goes to suggest that some sinister forces are at play in the town of Purgatory without the Earps or Peacemaker keeping the peace.