Saturday, June 4, 2016

Wynonna Earp, Season 1, Episode 10: She Wouldn't Be Gone



Last week Shorty’s bar was sold, the Stone Witch, Constance was imprisoned, Waverley and Nicole began their relationship and it feels almost like a reboot now we’ve moved away from the 7.

On the minor plot line we have a lot of poking at Doc and Wynonna’s relationship. She gives him Constance’s car (which he declares perfect and manly since it is pink – reminding us how utterly artificial and changeable “gendered” colours are since pink was considered masculine not that long ago – and blue all delicate and feminine. A nice touch, kudos Wynonna Earp). This is the episode where everyone learns that Doc and Wynonna are having sex. There’s a general lack of “oh you jezebel!” slutshaming (except Bobo uses it to insult Wynonna) but there is a lot of concern from Waverley in particular about whether this relationship is good for her sister and whether Doc’s going to break her heart

It actually looks like more the opposite. Despite Doc repeatedly telling Waverley that sex isn’t a relationship he seems to be pining after Wynonna and even looks like he’s going to leave town rather than deal with Wynonna not returning his affections

Unlike what Waverley has with Nicole – which was really cute and nice this episode.

Does Doc have a reason to fear? Well I was definitely picking up a whole lot more chemistry between her and Dolls’ this episode. She even uses an almost kiss to trick him into being handcuffed so she can discover the Revenant he’s holding prisoner (and using him to try and find the Black Badge mole as well as provide samples to keep his bosses happy). When she tortures more information out of him Dolls is also disturbed. He’s worried about what it does to her and how she will be changed by it, becoming hard and cold. There’s definite chemistry building there between the quips

I also really like that he clearly tells her that torture is not effective or useful tool because so often shows, especially with figures like Dolls, will have characters declare they simply have to resort to torture as a last resort when, in reality, it’s simply ineffective.

On to the plot, we have a new revenant called Lou who is apparently so big and bad even Bobo is afraid of him. He also has a habit of hunting down women with animals which then torture them brutally to death. That’s not a good sign.

When Wynonna and Dolls go looking for him (in the woods much to Dolls’ horror since he’s from Arizona and this is definitely not his normal habitat), are split up by woo-woo and discover Lou – or Yiska (a Navajo name) as calls himself is running a cult full of young female run away who worship him with no forms of electronic communication – or get kicked out and murdered by said savage animals

Wynonna and Dolls get imprisoned, giving Wynonna chance to be terrible at undercover, connect with a fellow inmate called Eve before they’re both discovered and kicked out with murder-by-monster.


They’re thrown out, briefly separated but manage to reunite so quickly (and with Peacemaker) that I wonder why they were thrown out in the first place – or separated from the gun – before having a big confrontation in the compound where they find Lou is preparing to kill everyone with his pet killer animals. Dolls keeps the crowd of female cultists quiet while Wynonna and Eve chase after Lou/Yiska

And find he has an enslaved Skinwalker. Yes, a Navajo Skinwalker, capable of changing into animals who is then mauling and killing his marked victims. Faced with a bear Wynonna is all helpless but thankfully former-cultist Eve grabs up Peacemaker, shoots Lou and when he dies the Skinwalker is saved.

Big revelation – the Peacemaker only works for the Earp heir… Eve is the long lost big sister, Willa. She’s not dead.

Wait wait wait – that means there is no “heir” surely? Because the gun does work for Wynonna AND Willa. So “heir” should probably be better be considered “descendent” and it also means that Waverley, who has major issues with the fact she isn’t the heir despite she worked so hard it – may have as much heir-based woo-woo as Wynonna or Willa.

I’m going to have to look at this “Navajo” storyline and the complete non-character that is the skinwalker (did she even get a name?). This whole revelation of another source of supernatural should really really really have been more show breaking than this. And there is a major, terrible ongoing issue of raiding different cultures for supernatural elements with no real development. This Navajo Skinwalker is just a random monster. Lou could have had a pet medusa, an enslaved jorogumo or any supernatural at all for the way she was portrayed. It’s completely dismissive and appropriative. If you’re going to put this much effort into the use of a culture’s supernatural, why not just say “werewolf” and be done with it?