Dolls died this
episode and one thing the show is making a major point of this episode is
emphasising just how much he meant and how devastating this was. Which, as we’vesaid before, is very very important when actually valuing the death of acharacter, especially a marginalised character. Even the theme tune was changed
to make it sadder. I approve.
Though I’m still not
happy with him being dead at all
So Wynonna is raging
and drunk and drunk and raging and everyone’s kind of trying to manage her,
give her time and space and generally hope she doesn’t explode or commit
suicide by Revenant or do something else equally unwise.
We also have a really
awesome moment with Doc and Wynonna which is full of grief and Doc’s voice
cracking just perfectly with unshed tears and I applaud. I applaud.
That leaves Waverley
and Nicole to be both awesome together (as always) and make practical
arrangements. Like the funeral (and poking the funeral director who asks after
their husbands and, yes, that’s EXACTLY what i would have done) and learning
that a) Nicole wants to have a sky funeral and be eaten by vultures. She also
learns that there’s no plot for her in the family graveyard which obviously
gets Waverley’s feels all up there
They also do
practical things like check out Doll’s hotel room for appropriate funeral
clothing for personal effects etc - in which Waverley finds a letter from Dolls
to Wynonna and Nicole talks about her own connection with Dolls. How she was a
survivor of the cult of Bulshar as a child, a massacre Black Badge covered up
and she only recently remembered though she had traumatic memories all her life
and nightmares. Dolls was helping her with that and I like this in that it’s
building the idea that Dolls had other relationships.
Doc is visiting Kate
- yes the vampire. She’s still around, playing with tarot cards and getting
under Doc’s skin and mentioning their big big history. Which is complex. Kate
makes things further complex by stealing Waverley’s bag - with the letter to
Wynonna in it which, of course, causes ISSUES., (Though Nicole and Waverley
agree on their hotness)
When Wynonna hears
Jeremy may be autopsying Dolls she goes raging to stop him - but he isn’t
because he knows what killed Dolls: the drugs Black Badge gave him to control
his dragon-ness were unstable and killed him. His death was inevitable. Wynonna
is mega pissed by this because Jeremy didn’t tell her (respecting Doll’s
wishes) and Wynonna has a full rage moment and decides to kick Jeremy out of
the scooby gang.
Doc has other issues
causing him to lash out - namley his whole “we’re going to hell” speech he gave
Dolls like hours before his death which is the sort of thing that gives you
like ALL THE GUILT.
We also have the
introduction of Roman. Roman Quinn. He arrives at the bar and he and Doc have a
Mexican standoff with guns. Then Roman gets tied up with twinkly lights (I love
how bemused Wynonna is) and they drink whiskey talking about Dolls
Ok, info dump! Roman
was part of Black Badge. He was part of a unit with Dolls and all his fellow
dragon people all of them have died and died and died and died giving Roman a
big case of the Sads. Roman and his Sads have come to the Wake for Dolls and I
do not care because Wynonna and Waverley and Doc and Nicole all have plenty of
perfectly awesome Sads for this scene; I do not need New Guy Sads to add
pathos. We have pathos. I also don’t need New Guy Sads to explain that Dolls
was experimented on by Black Badge and how Black Badge was evil
I have been paying
attention to the last 2 seasons. I am aware. Also Dolls was taking drugs and
breathing fire - you didn’t actually have to sit down and have New Guy declare
he was experimented on. We can extrapolate
Well Sads Guy as the
Sole Survivor also has all the Guilts (again, Doc and Wynonna have already sewn
up the Guilts, we do not need new Guilts. Get out of here with your Sads and
your Guilts) and wants to bring down Blackbadge in a blaze of glory. I mean,
assuming Black Badge even exists any more. That’s all kind of shaky. So he
wants the drugs that Jeremy has synthesised so he can become his own dying
dragon man
Oh we know the drugs
are around because some revenants steal them, drink them, crash the wake and
are duly massacred by Wynonna who is just soooo calm about all this.
Wynonna intervenes
while Roman is torturing Jeremy to basically… well not really care about Jeremy
- but give Roman an epic speech about pain and loss and grief and the guilt of
surviving when others died but how going all kamikaze doesn’t actually bring them
back. It’s a good speech and Roman may be here just so Wynonna has someone to
tell it to
Another good speech
is Nicole interventional Wynonna and her rage grief to firmly but kindly remind
her that she doesn’t have a monopoly on grief here and they’re all grieving so
make some damn mourning room already. And also that she’s using anger to mask
what she’s really feeling because anger is easier - which comes with an
admission that maybe she was kind of a dick to Jeremy. She goes to make amends
(and he insists that he never did the evil science thing) and they decide they
need to cremate Dolls so his body doesn’t become fodder for Evil Science.
While this is
happening, Waverley and Doc go to see Kate and we learn - surprise - Kate is
Doc’s wife. And she’s been doing these shenanigans since she wants in on the
group. Despite her vampireness Waverley is kind of open to that (though she
does think “liking selfies and sliding into my DMs” would have been more
polite). Which is a bit weird. I mean wasn’t Kate part of the whole Bulshar
massacre cult? Or at least hitching a ride? The same cult that had members who
nearly killed and deeply traumatised Nicole? Shouldn’t there be issues here?
Also since Doc and
Kate rekindle their romance I can’t help but think someone on the writer’s team
suddenly realised “ZOMG THERE ARE NO LOVE TRIANGLES?! WE MUST HAVE LOVE
TRIANGLES PRECIOUS!!!!!!!!!!”
Still Kate is snarky
so I think even if her introduction is clumsy she will be interesting.
We drop Roman on a
bus and get him out of there
And the envelope to
Wynonna is a nice picture of the whole group reminding her they need to go on
and stick together. Also she and Waverley talk funerals and it’s cute.
When Roman appeared I
admit my hackles went up because this had “replacement Dolls” written all over
it which I’m very glad we’re not going with. Instead Kate looks like she’s
going to be the new series regular. I could call T-Dog chain but the characters
have been developed in their own ways and fill very different niche and
characters (beyond being supernatural beings which is a stretch).
I did like that they
established Nicole and Dolls has a relationship. Too many shows take your
protagonist as the hub and everyone else is spokes on their wheel - they don’t
always connect well with each other unless that other is an addition to them
(so Waverly and Nicole connect because Nicole is a +1 on Waverley as a love
interest rather than part of the central group). But with scenes like this, and
Nicole reaching out to Wynonna there’s a clear attempt to make those
connections in the group, across the wheel rather than just all being connected
to Wynonna.
