Wynonna Earp – I Fall To Pieces

By starrymag | September 6, 2018

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

 

 

Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) and her newest distraction, Charlie (Sebastian Pigott), noisily relieve their tension inside of a rig within Purgatory’s Firehouse, making a spectacle of themselves while Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and Nicole (Katherine Barrell) do their best to earn the support of the town’s new fire department. Nicole should be a shoe-in for Sheriff, but there are still a few people she needs backing her before the job is officially hers. Haught makes a promise to purchase the station’s calendar in bulk – which seems to light their fire for her just fine. Nicole and Waverly quickly accompany Wynonna on her walk of shame out of the fire station and give her a ride home. Meanwhile, Doc’s (Tim Rozon) been getting some nocturnal action himself – and drags his assless chap-wearing self to the mirror where his reflection begins to fade away. His vampirism is setting in, the final shred of his humanity wasting away into nothing. Bulshar’s ring burns Doc’s newly-immortal fingers – rejecting his tainted flesh.

 

Back at the Sheriff station, Nedley (Greg Lawson) introduces the gang to the newest floaters in the Drunk Tank; a group of boisterous fraternity brothers. Waverly strays away from the group and wakes a sleeping Jeremy (Varun Saranga) up. Jeremy’s been pulling all-nighters in search of Bulshar’s newest lair and Waverly is determined to make sure he doesn’t burn out. Nicole and Wynonna follow Nedley into his office to sift through his closet of acquired Supernatural artifacts. The locker contains all pieces of evidence that Nedley retrieved from the more peculiar cases. Nicole and Wynonna begin exhibiting signs of a quarrel as they embark on their next mission. Nicole is already frustrated by Bunny Loblaw (Jann Arden), an evasive townsperson who will not return Nicole’s phone calls in her campaign for Sheriff-dom. Wynonna’s constant jabs and snarky-remarks do nothing to diffuse Nicole’s tension.

 

Nedley warns Nicole that Bunny is a bully and recommends that Nicole confront the issue head-on by bringing Bunny to her turf and appealing to Bunny’s senses. Nicole briefly leaves to schedule the meeting with Bunny, leaving Nedley alone with Wynonna. When Nicole returns from her phone call she immediately begins sorting through Nedley’s closet while Wynonna looks on, sipping her coffee and looking at an old photograph of Nedley with a small red-headed child. Nicole is visibly done with Wynonna’s lackadaisical attitude towards work that doesn’t involve using a magic gun and they quickly devolve into catty middle-schoolers…who also behave a little like bickering sisters. In their petty fury, they manage to break some old pottery, a mirror and an adorable little garden gnome. Wynonna congratulates Nicole on her newly-earned seven years of bad luck, but she doesn’t know the half of it. Somewhere in Purgatory, amongst the snow-covered hills, a very large, very angry demon is making himself known.

 

Doc sneaks onto the Earp homestead in search of a sufficient hiding place for Bulshar’s ring when Mama Earp (Megan Follows) tiptoes behind him with a shotgun. Michelle gives Doc and earful for leaving during Christmas dinner and devises a plan on how he can repay her for his indiscretion. She needs him to either drive her somewhere or loan her his car. He decides to oblige her little request and they roll out. Their first stop is the cemetery where Michelle has a heart-to-heart with what’s left of Willa. Rotten as she was she was still Michelle’s baby girl. For their next adventure, the two discuss Michelle’s affair with Julian, Doc’s demon-diddling and Ward Earp’s offenses (including pushing Julian outside the Ghost River Triangle). Michelle reveals that she freed Bobo from the well. Doc snaps and Michelle knows she’s accomplished what she set out to do – making deals with Doc and devils.

 

Once the busy work is done, Wynonna finds Nedley at Shorty’s and spikes his ginger ale with some liquor in exchange for story time. She presents him with the photograph she found before her scuffle with Nicole. Nedley recognizes the image and by the looks of it Wynonna does, too. They don’t discuss it overly, but instead direct the conversation back to Wynonna and Nicole’s progress with the evidence locker. Wynonna has a problem with Nicole’s by-the-book demeanor. Nedley defends Nicole and her disposition, but then points to the young-girl in the photograph. He repeats himself and tells Wynonna to give Nicole some slack. They have more in common than just their love for Waverly. Wynonna seems to understand, but that won’t stop her from giving Nicole a hard time.

 

Speaking of Nicole, she struggles to tidy her home before Bunny Loblaw arrives for the meeting they had scheduled a few hours prior. Bunny materializes in Nicole’s living room and immediately orders Nicole to remove Calamity Jane from the premises, on account of her extreme allergy. While Nicole brings her voluptuous kitty upstairs, Bunny makes up her mind that Nicole is not the right woman for the job. It is not Nicole’s lesbianism that urges Bunny to reject Nicole’s plea for support, but rather Bunny’s rampant homophobia. The meeting ends before it ever has the chance to begin when Wynonna crashes the party. As Bunny reams Nicole for the town’s discretion is discussing supernatural occurrences with the townsfolk, everything goes to hell in a handbasket. Bunny informs Nicole that she’s considering backing Wynonna as Sheriff of Purgatory.

 

Nicole and Wynonna excuse themselves and take to the kitchen. Wynonna showed up to talk to Nicole about Nedley, but the opportunity for competition distracts them both. Nicole and Wynonna resort to highlighting each other’s flaws, growing cattier and cattier until…Bunny Loblaw is rendered unconscious at the sight of a demon peering in through Nicole’s window. The two women run to Bunny after hearing her final shriek, only to find Calamity Jane sitting on the bully’s backside. They work together to medicate Bunny and throw her in the back of the squad car once she regains consciousness. Before either of them can get into the car, it is high jacked by a pair of drunken frat brothers. Nicole watches in despair as the car disappears and Wynonna watches with pleasure at Nicole’s defeat. After basking for a minute, they hotwire Bunny’s car, call Waverly and begin the hunt for Bunny.

 

Jeremy and Waverly track the vehicle and find that it’s parked at the local Revanent waterhole. The two then begin trying to figure out why the two women are having such an obscenely unlucky day. Wynonna and Nicole approach the squad car. Bunny is still inside, screaming obscenities and cursing Nicole’s name. In typical Wynonna fashion, she manages to volunteer herself and Nicole to play a drinking game against a pair of Revenants in exchange for the captured frat boys and the keys to Haught’s police car. Now handcuffed to one another, the women go shot-for-shot with the demons until one of them grows suspicious of Wynonna’s sobriety. He sniffs the bottle Wynonna had been drinking from to “chase” her shots, only to discover that she’d been spitting them out into the bottle. The Revenants set out to punish Wynonna for her Coyote Ugly move and the two women begin running through the snow to escape.

 

Nicole and Wynonna take a break from running for their lives to throw proverbial jabs at each other…again. They stop just long enough for some baddies to catch up to them. As luck would have it, Peacemaker is jammed. A trio of Revenants close in on the women, but they tag-team the demons with a feat of athleticism. It is the first demonstration of their ability to successfully work together, but it’s still not enough. Another Revenant grabs the women, but is killed when a large demon shoves his giant shears into the Revenant’s abdomen. “You owe me a wife,” he tells “WynHaught” and they once again sprint for their lives.

 

Michelle’s deal with Doc involved him creating an identity for her outside the town of Purgatory, so that she’s free to roam and locate Julian without catching the attention of law enforcement. Doc, infuriated that she freed Bobo, is more than willing to help Mama Earp get out of town. Kate (Chantel Riley) catches him rummaging through the mementos of her victims in search of an identity and the two argue over Doc’s relentless love for Wynonna. Kate’s gift of sight allows her to say everything Doc wants to hear, but he might be catching onto her game. He leaves and returns to Michelle with her getaway bag and a stolen car. Michelle is leaving to find Julian or to keep her girls safe…her motive isn’t sure. Doc doesn’t care one way or the other. He does; however; warn her about Wynonna’s anger. Michelle dismisses him – she won’t listen to a vampire.

 

Jeremy and Waverly have diagnosed and treated the source of Wynonna and Nicole’s bad luck…or so they think. After taping the broken mirror back together, Wynonna, Nicole and their new friend charge the Sheriff station. The demon throws Waverly across the room, intimidates Jeremy and demands that either Nicole or Wynonna become his new wife. This revelation pulls a recovered Waverly away from the scene to locate the true source of the demon’s wrath. Biding their time, Wynonna and Nicole both make a case for why the other would make a great wife. Despite the fact that they’re throwing each other under the bus, they are speaking truthfully about what they admire in the other. Nicole is noble, beautiful and good in bed. Wynonna is strong, funny and self-sacrificing. As they attempt to reason with the demon, Waverly and Jeremy discover the source of the problem – the broken garden gnome.

 

The demon is actually a grieving gnome husband. Jeremy and Waverly work to reassemble Mrs. Gnome just as Mr. Gnome grabs both women by the throat. Waverly affixes Mrs. Gnome’s boobs back to her ceramic chest and catches the attention of Mr. Gnome. He addresses her as “Monique,” picks her up in his homicidal arms and lovingly carries her out of the station. And they say romance is dead. Even though the Gnome is gone, Wynonna and Nicole aren’t safe yet. They’ve made an enemy on this day far more terrifying than drunk Revenants and widowed Gnomes. They’ve pissed off Bunny Loblaw. In that creepy way that she does, Bunny appears in the Sheriff’s station and startles Wynonna. Bunny notifies Wynonna that despite (or because of) the day’s events, she will not be support Nicole’s desire to become Purgatory sheriff.

 

Wynonna’s had enough. The only person allowed to talk badly about Nicole is her and she won’t stand for a xenophobic, homophobic townie infringing on her Haught territory. Wynonna flips the script and makes the case for Nicole as Sheriff. Nicole’s bravery, methodology and morality qualify her for the job like no other. Wynonna threatens Bunny with Purgatory’s underbelly, promising her that unless she backs Nicole as Sheriff she’ll send the demons, the gnomes and the forces of darkness Bunny’s way. A frightened bully, Bunny takes Wynonna’s message to heart and flees. When Wynonna turns around, she finds Nicole standing in the doorway with two beers holding onto every word. Thrown together, this time by choice, Nicole and Wynonna treat their hangovers and squash their beef. Nicole tells Wynonna that she loves her, and in turn, Wynonna offers Nicole a piece of her past: the photograph.

 

Nicole enters Nedley’s office and shows him the photograph Wynonna surrendered to her. “You were so damn scared…still so damn tough,” he tells her – referring to the night he found her in the canoe she used to save herself from Bulshar’s massacre all those years ago. Nicole had no memory of who had saved her, but you can see the pieces coming together in her fragmented mind. Nedley tells her that he tried to keep tabs on her, as her parents were too selfish to do so. Nicole tells him that she knew Purgatory was where she was meant to serve. “Everything good that I have in my life is because I came back to the Ghost River Triangle,” she tells him. And he knows. He feels it, as he watches his surrogate daughter stand before him. They embrace, a promise that they’ll keep saving each other for the rest of their lives.

 

Michelle Gibson may have left town, but she didn’t leave without saying goodbye. When Wynonna returns home, she finds Waverly sobbing over a goodbye letter. Wynonna pulls her sister into a hug and catches a glimpse of another letter addressed to her. The letter tells Wynonna to stop trusting Doc Holliday. This is something she remembers as he stands on her front porch and hands her Bulshar’s ring. Doc can’t remember how he got it from Nicole, but he can’t keep it. He tells her that he spent the day chauffeuring Michelle around and Wynonna reads the letter to him. Doc’s defenses instantly raise, he’s terrified of what Michelle revealed to Wynonna. “Just tell me what you did,” Wynonna begs of him. The tension between the two escalates and they reach their boiling point. Wynonna slaps Doc until he comes clean about what he did, and he loses all control. With a snarl, he reveals to Wynonna his true form – a vampire.

 

Wynonna cries for the loss of Doc’s soul, for her, for him and for Alice. Doc cries, full of sorrow for himself, for Wynonna and for Alice. He begs Wynonna not to do what he knows she needs to do – but it does nothing to dissuade her. Wynonna sends him off with one searing sentence:

 

“John Henry Holliday, you’re not welcome in my home anymore.”