Wynonna Earp – Jolene

By starrymag | August 23, 2018

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

 

 

Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) sends Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) back into the house and mercifully agrees to listen to her mother’s pleas for sanctuary. Michelle (Megan Follows) uses the time allotted to her to explain the demon had been following Waverly since her infanthood and how she bound the demon to herself that fateful night when the shed burned down. Wynonna isn’t convinced, but Mama Earp continues to plead her case.

 

Waverly meets Jolene (Zoie Palmer) in the kitchen to sample some sweet treats. Waverly is moved by the sweet gesture, but Jolene promises that the cupcakes will keep on comin’ as long as Waverly keeps on spilling the beans about everything happening with the gang, especially Mama Earp. Waverly wraps Jolene in a warm embrace. They’re family, right? But something is askew and it absolutely has NOTHING to do with the overcompensatingly large knife in Jolene’s hand.

 

Life goes on at the homestead with the happy little family unit. Wynonna dutifully scrubs some dishes while Jolene stuffs snickerdoodles into Doc’s (Tim Rozon) mouth the very moment he expresses confusion at her presence in the Earp’s home. Her baking skills are simply magical, and Doc loses any semblance of skepticism the moment he tastes her goodies. The warden and his hell-kissed guards are on their way to the homestead in search of Michelle. Jolene volunteers to keep watch. After all, she’s determined to protect, feed and serve the gang. Wynonna willfully passes the responsibility onto her friend.

 

Jolene leaves Wynonna and Doc to converse in peace. The moment she exits the home some of Doc’s mental faculties return and he mentions the third voice he heard on Michelle’s tapes. He suggests that the voice was the demon and that there is at the very least a modicum of truth in Michelle’s story. In this same exchange, he admits to Wynonna that he is privy to demonic activity after his vacation in hell. Wynonna is struck by this and for the first time shows some semblance of genuine emotion. Speaking of emotion, Waverly has plenty of it to spare as she questions her mother.

 

Michelle tells Waverly about the night she discovered a demonic entity over her crib and about the years long battle she fought against the demon, who had its mind set on possessing, consuming and destroying Waverly. Mama had no choice but to attempt the exorcism that ultimately bound her and the demon together. Waverly has a fragmented memory of this; of seeing something with rows of teeth approaching her in her kindergarten’s Storytime Mirror. Waverly believes her mother and they share a tender moment. If the demon is coming, they’ll defeat it. They have each other. They have Wynonna. They have Jolene. When Waverly mentions Jolene, Mama asks the question of the hour: Who the hell is Jolene?

 

Jolene is about to introduce herself a little more formally. When the Revenant Guard (Joel Jackshaw) that Wynonna decapitated in jail makes his way onto the homestead, Jolene brings him a piece of cake. She challenges him, providing him details of his own deplorable actions before claiming Waverly as her own, and then cuts his tongue out. The gang is none the wiser on her violent outburst when they reconvene in the barn to liberate Michelle from her twine-and-electrical-cord prison. Introductions are made all around. Doc meets Mama. Wynonna spills the beans about Waverly being with a cop named Nicole. It’s all very kind and good – the details must be spared until the demon is relinquished.

 

Jolene makes her grand entrance. Mama recognizes Jolene’s scent, but the speculative familiarity is replaced with one of warmth when Jolene plops a freshly-baked treat into her mouth. Mama promises to continue the conversation later. The longer they wait, the stronger the demon will become. She resolves to summon the demon at the Gibson Greenhouse, the place of Waverly’s birth, and bind it to herself once more. Jolene doesn’t look thrilled, but she’s got plans of her own. An agenda that begins with telling Doc that Wynonna doesn’t have time to pity him and that she most certainly shared his most intimate secret with her. Jolene stuffs another cookie into his mouth and he spits out an insult towards Waverly that even startles him. Where did that come from?

 

Wynonna, Waverly and Michelle make it to the greenhouse and assess the property. Waverly takes the Earp-heavy excursion as an opportunity to ask about her real father. Michelle stops dead in her tracks and reaches out to touch the hand of an ornate angel statue in the center of the greenhouse. Waverly’s father was named Julian and he was…someone better. He gave her sanctuary in times of trouble, but he went somewhere else (or did he?). At the same time, across town, Jolene orchestrates a meet-cute with Nicole (Katherine Barrell) where she feeds her lemon scones and tells her that the Earps have gone on another mission without taking her into consideration. The news of being yet another afterthought stings, but the scones dull the pain. The scones also push Nicole to neglect Jolene’s off-handed threats towards Waverly – and the hideous flash of her true face.

 

Jolene, having de-tongued the demon prison guard, was so kind as to stuff him in the trunk and drop him off at the Gibson Greenhouse. He barges in, somehow more irritated than when we last saw him, and attacks Waverly. Michelle lassos him to the ground and Wynonna gives him the ol’ Peacemaker special. The Earp women, somehow devoid of their usual intellect, are convinced that this revenant was the demon chasing Waverly all her life. They rejoice in their victory. Mama cries, relieved to have finally ended the fight. Waverly can’t celebrate though as someone is calling to her from outside. They’re whispering her name in a way that only she can hear, and she follows the siren’s song.

 

Waverly goes outside to find that it was Jolene calling to her. Jolene is stuck within the trap Michelle had laid out for “the demon.” Waverly grabs Jolene’s hand and she pulls the small Earp closer to her, grabbing her by the neck and threatening her. Waverly responds to the assault by hitting Jolene with the butt of her shotgun. Jolene cries out for help and Wynonna and Mama come running to her aid. The others are mad at Waverly for attacking Jolene and they make their disdain for her known even back at the homestead. Waverly can’t quite articulate why she attacked Jolene – she can only acknowledge the shame she feels for attacking the woman, especially when her own family has condemned her for it.

 

Jolene isn’t mad at Waverly, though. She understands and explains that Nicole told her Waverly was always a little impulsive. Waverly is stunned that Nicole would say such a thing about her, but Jolene isn’t – and proceeds to call Nicole her best friend. With Waverly good and beaten down, Jolene hands her another cupcake for the long journey down to Shorty’s Saloon. When they arrive at their usual watering hole, everyone in town is there for a karaoke party and to taste Jolene’s sweets. The moment Mama questions the likelihood of a revenant being the one living inside her head, Jolene shows up with a tray full of goodies. Wynonna and Mama pass this time, their craving for whiskey stronger than their desire for baked goods.

 

Jolene’s meddling is coming out full force. Unable to stuff her cookies down their throats, she uses a more human approach by appealing to everyone’s emotions, anger, sadness and jealousy. She reveals to Wynonna that Kate is Doc’s wife and follows her into the bathroom to add fuel to the fire. When Waverly joins them in the bathroom, Jolene tells Wynonna that Waverly was aware of Kate’s identity – then shoves another cookie into Wynonna’s mouth. As soon as Wynonna swallows, she spits out vile insults at Waverly until she leaves the room. Wynonna has a moment of clarity, questioning how and why she attacked her sister, but Jolene defends the outburst.

 

Doc makes a pitstop by the ever-elusive well to drop some Banana Liqueur down to Bobo (Michael Eklund) in exchange for information on Bulshar. Bobo speaks in his usual riddles and requests to see Waverly before he indulges Doc’s requests. It’s not wise to make deals with devils, but both men have trouble heeding that warning. Bobo sends Doc off with one piece of information – Bulshar’s ring is with one of his friends, they just haven’t told him about it.  Doc covers the well back up and makes his way to Shorty’s. Michelle is quick to pour him a drink and lecture him on having a secret wife. Doc takes another step at digging his own grave when he calls Jolene the prettiest girl in Purgatory. Michelle slaps him and some sense falls into him. He doesn’t know why he said what he said either.

 

Jolene ensures that Doc picks up another cookie before her interacts with the Earp sisters. Jolene has been spreading rumors throughout the group. Waverly tries to mediate and they promptly tell her to shut up and focus on her own business. Across the bar, Jolene is cheaply imitating her initial meeting with Nicole by undressing at the bar tap. When Nicole plays into the charade, Waverly detonates. Her hand connects with Jolene’s face. Nicole moves to break up the fight, but it’s too late. The entire bar erupts into fisticuffs. Chaos fills the room and Jolene takes to the stage to sing a charming rendition of “Cheater, Cheater.” It’s Earp against Earp, Earp against Holliday, Earp against Haught and…everyone against Waverly. The only person with any agency is Kate (Chantel Riley), who knows that Jolene is not what she appears…and she knows that Jolene has a debt that she’s due to pay.

 

With the physical fight resolved, Nicole throws Michelle and Wynonna into the drunk tank to dry out. Waverly enters, but Nicole is unreceptive. She unleashes her frustrations on Waverly as she’s tired of the secrets, of being left out and of not being taken into consideration. Most of all, she’s tired of hearing about it from Jolene. Waverly’s bottom lip begins to quiver, but Nicole is finished. Waverly flees in tears and bumps into Doc, who has no interest in her woes. During their exchange, she tells him that Nicole knows where Bulshar’s ring is – but he doesn’t return the kind gesture of comfort or information. Instead, he pulls a cookie out and convinces Waverly that she is the demon.

 

Nicole, sobered up from a Jolene-induced sugar high finds herself sitting on Waverly’s bed, is waiting to apologize for their argument at the police station. Jolene enters the room instead and flirts with Nicole. The noble cop rejects Jolene’s advances, her love for Waverly once again stronger than any glamouring. Jolene attacks Nicole and the cop bumps into a shelf. Bulshar’s ring (literally) jumps into Nicole’s hand. Jolene grabs it, but it burns her. Nicole tells her that it’s Bulshar’s ring and Jolene is frightened by the mention of the demon. She also stuffs Nicole into a closet.

 

Speaking of sober, Michelle and Wynonna are beginning to dry out. Their heads are foggy – and it’s not just the dehydration. It’s not until Nedley enters the room with a plate full of baked goods that they realize they’d been more drunk on Jolene’s catering than they had been on whiskey. Jolene is the demon and she’d been using a whole lot of sugar to mask the cyanide she’d been feeding them. Nedley releases the women from their cell.

 

Waverly is alone, or as alone as you can be as someone with a literal dark cloud hovering overhead, in the Gibson Greenhouse. Jolene’s knife flies past her head, followed by the demon, herself. Jolene stands in front of Waverly and forces her to listen to the negative thoughts she’d been planting in her head with every single cupcake. Without a tray of cupcakes, it’s easy to recognize that Jolene’s confections only served her abusive, gaslighting agenda. Now that they’re not wrapped in a pretty frosted bow, the words are insidious, stealing the color from the room and the light from Waverly’s eyes.

 

Waverly feebly attempts to contest Jolene’s accusations, but the demon’s darkness is expanding like a black hole. Waverly slinks to the ground, nearly defeated. But Jolene can’t physically harm Waverly as she needs Waverly to harm herself – to end it. To take their pain away. Jolene at last explains their symbiotic relationship – their simultaneous birth. Jolene was created at Waverly’s birth – a manifestation of Newton’s Third Law – an equal but opposite force of nature. The dark to Waverly’s light. Jolene tells Waverly that nobody loves her anymore as they have both become the dark thing.

 

Jolene, like the depression she had immersed Waverly in, wove herself into the tapestry of Waverly’s life, convincing the Earp that she was all she’d ever known. And again, like the familiarity that depression can impose upon those afflicted by it, convinced Waverly (if only momentarily) that she wouldn’t be whole without her.

 

Waverly holds Jolene’s knife in her trembling hands, the blade pointed at her own sternum. Jolene whispers vile nothings in Waverly’s ear, coercing her into stabbing herself. But Waverly realizes that Jolene is a liar. The loves of Waverly’s life, Wynonna, Nicole, Mama, Jeremy, Doc…they love her as she loves them. It’s enough to get her to fight. It’s enough for her to recognize her own brilliant presence. It’s enough to get her to stay. It’s enough for her to never give up on them, the way they won’t on her.

 

It’s enough to get her to drop the knife. This enrages Jolene, who throws Waverly across the greenhouse. Waverly fights Jolene off with a shovel until Wynonna and Mama arrive just in time to shoot her. “I’m your friend. You love me,” Jolene pleads. “I love her more,” Wynonna responds – never giving up on her sister. Jolene is wounded and flees only to find herself trapped within another one of Mama’s devil’s traps. As Wynonna prepares to shoot her, the trees come alive and swallow Jolene whole. Fealty.

 

After reuniting with her family, Waverly joins Nicole for one of their famous “Sorry Parties.” Nicole has spared no expense, the room is decorated with unicorn balloons, cards, teddy bears and the cutest couple Purgatory has ever seen. Nicole reiterates (embellishing only slightly) on her last interaction with Jolene – reassuring Waverly that even under a spell, she’s the only one who truly enchants her. They gloss-over the boomerang effect Bulshar’s ring exercised with Nicole…but that’s one for another day, another time. They’ve got making up to do.

 

Doc and Wynonna have some things of their own to take care. Doc has acquired Bulshar’s ring and attempts to summon the demon. The gunslinger is newly resolute in his fight against the demon. He will not give in to the temptation of reprieve. If he is destined for hell, Bulshar is coming with him. Meanwhile, Wynonna pays a visit to Bobo. She tells him that in order to protect her family she must keep them all, especially Waverly, away from him.  In a desperate attempt to appease her, Bobo tells her that Waverly’s father is an “honest to god, heavens above angel.”