Wynonna and Doc are sharing a shower together - it’s part of an ongoing theme it seems now to tease what Doc and Wynonna’s relationship actually is. They had a fling last season when Wynonna seemed to move on to Dolls and now all is a bit up in the air.
And this show is just to decontaminate after being all gooed by various demonic gribblies as insisted by their new boss - Agent Lucado. She doesn’t want to be there. They don’t want her to be there. I think Eliza would be much more fun there but alas they killed her off, Jeremy’s still around but not doing a whole lot other than try to make sense of the random chaos they do like
Wynonna is especially not here for paperwork and all the official procedures Lucado brings along with regular threats as to what will happen if they don’t present Black Badge with some big shiny dead demonic things
The tension with Wynonna and Doc continues through the episode with Wynonna making overtures towards Doc but Doc clearly feeling kind of hurt and used by her, not just as a lover, but as a friend, especially with her not having an answer when Lucado asked what Doc’s role was with the gang. A couple of times, especially when Wynonna is drunk and vulnerable, she tries to rekindle things with Doc but he backs off sharply: clearly being her lover when Dolls isn’t in the picture isn’t on the cards.
It further pushes a rift between them that Doc is keeping a secret from Wynonna which means lots of disappearing. The sheriff has offered him the bar (now the old owners are dead). He wants it reopening because the riff-raff tends to gather there and he does like all his riff-raff to all gather in one place.
Doc gets the money with some careful blackmail of Lucado (she sent some mercenaries to kill Dolls - who can’t be here precisely for that reason - which the bosses will be most displeased about). She does note that Doc asked for money - not for her to stop hunting Dolls and not for her to go easy on Waverley and Wynonna. This could be selfishness - or it could simply be that Doc thinks all the others are more than capable of taking care of himself.
He also recruits Rosita - I think she’s a revenant but I’m not sure. She’s not exactly willing to work with him but eventually joins him when he rather ominously offers her “protection” which feels vaguely threatening. He needs her to produce… something. Something chemical? I think I’ve ruled out drugs and booze. So I suspect woo-woo. Whatever it is, he’s hiding it from Wynonna.
Another conflict is Waverley and Nicole. Nicole is still very put out about not being coerced into being Black Badge. And though that sounds silly, you can see it when Waverley comes see her at work, As a deputy of a small rural town, Nicole feels her own job rather pales next to what Waverley does - you can see she feels not only excluded from Waverley’s life, but also kind of relegated and unimportant in her own town, with her own mission and her own job. It’s a nice dynamic between them as they slowly build up emotions and rebuild those bonds until the end of the episode when they reconciled and have sex
And I’m totally very very very happy to see Waverley and Nicole be so open and happy and passionate with each other - but at the same time there’s an edge of denial of reality here in the writing. They live in a small rural town. Waverley has, apparently, only herself realised she is a lesbian or bisexual last season. From what we can see, it wasn’t especially well known that Nicole was a lesbian until last season. But now Waverley’s comfortable flirting with Nicole at the Sheriff’s office? Sure Nicole shut it down with a PROFESSIONAL “I’m at work” but not a “um, we’re in public”. These two newly out or apparently newly out women are astonishingly comfortable with PDAs
To the main plot we have an old friend of Wynonna’s back in town - Mercedes. She’s the second most unpopular girl from school. And, I have to say, I rather love her. She is one of those characters who is kind of terrible (she’s a rich property developer and thanks Wynonna for the mass poisoning of last season - which was the sheriff’s cover story - since to lowers property prices). It may be a character flaw, but I do kind of like a terrible person who fully embraces her terribleness.
With Lucado pushing them to find a beastie they go investigate a missing construction worker - and find some scary demonic spiders. Or spiderlings. This involves capturing a cocoon, having Waverley being super enthusiastic about autopsies while Wynonna heavily nopes any kind of slime. Jeremy gets involved to confirm that the spider they have is a baby and there are many more
While in the building not only did they find a cocoon but also Earl, a relatively harmless Revenant: and she realises that black Badge’s promise to break the curse means that maybe she doesn’t have to hunt the less objectionable Revenants any more.She laments on the curse that forces her to hunt them. He points out being endlessly sent to hell and slowly being driven insane is sliiiiiightly worse than her curse.
Wynonna is als being stalked by a black shade that smells like Willa’s perfume. She assumes, along with ALL THE GUILT she’s carrying around after shooting her that this must be Willa’s ghost. Waverley suggests burning all Willa’s things to exorcise here
There’s a lot of posibles here - Waverley has found Willa’s diary that basically rejected her from babyhood as not an Earp. Coupled with the revelations of Bobo that she may be adopted (hence why she can’t use the Peacemaker) is preying on some of her insecurities. Burning Willa’s things may be her own form of revenge or dealing with that rejection
Or it may be because of the whole black eyed possession thing - the same thing that causes her to eat one of the dead spider babies. Ew ew ew ew ew. There are not enough ews in the world.
When Mercedes calls Wynonna because she’s also being tormented by the whispy black ghosts and the legion of spiders, she and Willa go into action. With sledgehammers (one of which taken from an ineffective Earl who talks about having to protect something). They squish a whole legion of egg sacks in the old school chapel, save Mercedes and emerge triumphant
Even Lucado seems happy though also distracted- possibly because of Doc.
More denouement, apparently Mercedes’s siblings have caused chaos with the finances so she’s moving to town for a while - and she should be definitely fun.
Jeremy may have a thing for Doc - or it may be hero worship. If the former, this show really needs to sit down and think about how LGBT people are waaaaay more subtle than this in completely unknown locations among unknown people with absolutely no support net.
Finally Wynonna realises something - a revenant, ghostly thing and a pack of spiders? In one place? That’s not a coincidence.
I think they may have also remembered Earl rambling about having to protect something?
They hurry to the chapel - and find a glowing yellow crack in the floor and Earl dead - looking like a sacrifice. Something has been taken? Something escaping?
Either way, Wynonna beats herself up about missing this and missing Dolls (she’s already had an awesome moment where she looks at how she sees herself - and it’s not as a leader. It’s the rebel who challenges the leader. She doesn’t lead, it’s not her thing) and feeling she let everyone down before having a resurgence afterwards
Part of me agrees - she did kind of miss the obvious in an almost convoluted way. But I also think it ties into her comments about not being a leader: planning, contingencies, ramifications: that’s what Dolls is for.
