Wynonna Earp – House of Memories

By starrymag | June 21, 2016

By: Caitlin Walsh

The episode kicks off with Wynonna and Willa tag teaming a (still) captive Whiskey Jim, getting in a few good hits while trying to get some desperately sought information about how the heck Bobo (Micheal Eklund) is connected to the attack on the homestead and, more importantly, Willa (Natalie Krill) and her memories. Who took them? Just how does Bobo know her? But with not a whole lot of information to give aside from a power surge they all felt a few years before Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) came back to town, Willa’s more-than-Earp temper gets the better of her and she snaps, shooting Jim (Joris Jarsky) right in the head and sending him back to Hell. She’s a girl with a score to settle and answers to find and no one is standing in her way–or controlling her.

 

Later on, Dolls (Shamier Anderson) tries talking her through her memories, jogging them, if possible. Through flashbacks, we see a brief moment of her in a treehouse, holding a small origami swan, before she flashes to the night of the homestead attack to being abducted, told not to scream or they’ll go back for her sisters. It’s a lot to handle.

 

She goes home and snaps at Nicole (Katherine Barrell) for how she’s treating Waverly’s wound, telling her she’s been doing it wrong all week and Willa has had to redo it every time with coconut oil, a solve-all from the cult she’d been living with. Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), trying to keep the peace, tells Nicole to pop out when Willa says she doesn’t always need to be around. Willa seems to quickly register she was rude, in retrospect, and Waverly reassures her that she’s there for her while she navigates the whole “dealing with people” terrain she’s unused to. It seems Waverly has turned over a new leaf for her long-lost sister, and gained some new found patience and sympathy for her.

 

Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

 

Wynonna, meanwhile, finally addresses the elephant in the room with Dolls–a.k.a who the hell tried to kill him at the homestead last episode. Wynonna brings Doc (Tim Rozon) up as a suspect, but even Dolls won’t buy that and he sees it for what it is–Wynonna is hurt. But she’s insistent she doesn’t care, she doesn’t want to know where he is. Yeah, we all see right through that.

 

When they do some brainstorming and Dolls shows her a logo that he found on the homestead afterward, she realizes it’s a militant group with a chapter nearby and they’re at least a step closer to an answer. Dolls, with a smirk, tells her they make a good team. (Cue the middle school, “Ooooh, Dolls likes Wynonna!” chants, now.)

 

At Shorty’s, Bobo is getting himself all spruced up for his banger of a party later, with a full service shave for him and Cryderman (David LeReaney) right in the middle of the saloon. (Sidenote: where are all the human patrons we were so conscientious of last week when Willa shot someone?) Cryderman seems shaky and for once, scared and victimized, a puppet to Bobo–but, well, who isn’t? And all the while, a woman is drinking some sort of vialed mix that kills her, with Bubba–a Buffalo Bill looking revenant–feeding it to her, apparently the master mixologist. Bobo tells him to go work on it a little more.

 

Back at the homestead, Waverly and Nicole finally get a moment alone in the barn, seemingly the only place they’ll be able to find that. These two are sweet and steamy all in the span of a couple of minutes, but more importantly, there’s a distinct and loving comfort they have with each other.

On top of Willa’s poor people skills, she also has poor timing, and bursts in on them, and the word vomit spews–she didn’t know Waverly was “a gay” and puts together that Wynonna doesn’t know. Wynonna would be upset that she doesn’t know. Nicole leaves and Waverly snaps at Willa.

 

Wynonna and Dolls break into the attack group’s base, finding one human and one revenant, who they handle pretty easily. That is until Peacemaker won’t work for Wynonna, who is no longer the true heir and suddenly, she has a smidge of an existential crisis on her hands. Being the heir may not have been a choice, but it gave her purpose, defined her identity. She suddenly knew who she was and what she needed to do. Without that, Wynonna’s back at square one. But Dolls won’t let her forget just who she is to him, heart eyes coming through. “Girl, when I first met you, you were a mess…now I wouldn’t want to fight with anyone else by my side.”

 

Praying For The End of Time

 

Unfortunately, Dolls also thought that to be a good time to deliver the news that they’d found Doc’s car. It was burned to a crisp at the edge of the Ghost River Triangle with no sign of Doc, breaking Wynonna’s heart and all hope she may have had.

 

Out in the fields, Willa finds another origami swan by the posts–and Bobo is right there waiting, not attacking. There’s something there and Willa doesn’t remember quite yet, but Waverly isn’t far behind with a shotgun, running Bobo off and making up with her older sister. Through whatever thick and thin between them, they’re Earps. That means something.

 

Finally, we get a glimpse of Doc Holliday, who is very much not burnt to a crisp, but is, unfortunately, being held captive by none other than creepy Bubba under orders from Bobo. Doc is appeasing him, just trying to stay alive. For how long? “Until they’re gone.” The forecast in Purgatory is shaping up to be a little bloody, me thinks.

 

Dolls and Wynonna burst into Shorty’s, out for blood, but only find Cryderman trying to kill himself as he is sick of being Bobo’s puppet and having been ruined by him. Even the hit he put out on Dolls, asking the militant group to whack him–it was Bobo’s orders. He doesn’t know much, not even the illusive “lead” Bobo is hunting after. They’ll have to attend Bobo’s black tie party later that night if they have any hopes of figuring this out. But not the Judge as Cryderman shoots himself in the head, right in the middle of Shorty’s.

 

And whatever chemicals Big Bubba’s been working on, he finally shows off for Doc. He is filling a box, encasing a grown man, with the chemicals, essentially turning the man rabid until he takes a knife and kills himself brutally. Yikes.

 

Waverly, the smart whip she is, took the origami swan as a clue to check out Swan Reservoir where her and Willa find a treehouse that jogs Willa’s memories. It was, as they said, the perfect cage for a little bird and where Willa had been kept all those years. Inside they find more little swans and Willa’s memories come flooding back–flashbacks to when she was freed by none other than Constance Clootie (Rayisa Kondracki), who may have freed her, but took her memories, as well. Willa’s finally got them all back, though, and with a bright smile and newfound confidence apparently she’s set to go, telling Waverly that there’s “so much to do.”

 

Back at Black Badge, they fill Dolls and Wynonna in and they’re all in agreement (mostly)–they’re going to the party, hunting down Bobo’s lead. And elsewhere, Doc finally gets his moment of escape, throwing a knife through Bubba’s head.

 

You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party

 

While Willa, Dolls and Waverly show up to the party dressed in their very finest, all looking sleek and beautiful. Wynonna is taking her sweet time back at the homestead, having jogged the same memory as Willa had earlier–a letter she’d hid like her father had asked, in the barn, which she found again and clued her in on the lead.

 

Waverly walks down the stairs, an absolute vision to Nicole Haught (also stunning in regal purple). Waverly lets it slip that if they make it out of here, they should dress up more often. Champ (Dylan Koroll) finds it a good time when Waverly slinks off to find Willa to approach Nicole and let her know, drunkenly, just how disgusting he thinks they are together. The frat boy wannabe, in a tuxedo tee shirt, fulfills the jerk role perfectly. Gross.

 

Wynonna, always knowing how to make an entrance, stuns in a red dress and Dolls can’t seem to pick his jaw up off the ground. Flirting will have to wait, as we finally learn some of what was in the letter, thanks to Wynonna filling everyone in. They were letters from Wyatt Earp to someone named Robert and they detail everything–about the curse, the Ghost River Triangle, how to break it all. The Earp heir needs to go willingly with Robert, whoever that is, and they piece it together. The attack on the homestead all those years ago–they were trying to take Ward, not Willa. Willa just ended up being taken as insurance and Constance freeing her and erasing her memories was something they didn’t see coming. Bobo had his lead and lost it. Willa, the heir, was the lead.

 

Champ, meanwhile, keeps at it by berating Nicole and Waverly–who calls him out on being both drunk and a homophobe and even after he tells Nedley they’re together, Nedley (Greg Lawson) takes it in stride. It’s their personal business and he knows that. Why would he care? (I knew I liked him.) Champ starts foaming a little and looking like he’s about to lunge violently until Nicole throws a jab his way and handcuffs him, the badass she is.

 

Wynonna has a little moment with Dolls, opening up to him about how Peacemaker didn’t work for her earlier in the day and how, without being the heir, (which she didn’t even want in the first place) doesn’t know who she is. She’s nothing special–just a girl. “Hey. You were never just anything.” He doesn’t care if she’s the heir–she’s something to him and he’ll always want her on Black Badge. He needs her. And after weeks, months of some sort of build up, Wynonna kisses him–just in time for Doc Holliday to make his entrance. Awkward.

 

But there’s no time for any of that as Doc sniffs the champagne and smells peaches–much like Bubba had been making. But Doc is too late and Bobo finally makes his entrance and a grand announcement. Everyone who has drank the champagne will slowly go “bat shit crazy” like Champ Hardy and only one antidote exists. Whoever brings him Wynonna Earp, dead or alive, can have it.

 

While Dolls and Doc stick by Wynonna, Waverly grabs Willa to get her out–but loses her once Waverly stops to talk to Nicole. It’s because Willa stepped outside to meet Bobo or, rather, Robert.

 

“Hey, baby. Do you remember me now?” Off they walk hand in hand and I have a hard time believing everything isn’t going to Hell now.

Note: Still waiting to get a normal heart rate going.