Jolene continues her
campaign of mind controlling baked goods (she’s also played by Zoie Palmer so
you know no-one has a chance against such concentrated awesomeness) that
convinces everyone that she is the best person ever
They does mean the
gang is happy to tie up Michelle in the barn and suspect her, with Jolene
excellently twisting the knife (Jolene uses passive aggression and incitement
as an ART form here. I am in AWE of her ability to turn people on each other
with just a nice little passive aggressive dig) all convinced that Michelle is
the worst and wants to kill Waverley
Michelle insists that she doesn’t - but a demon is stalking her all her life until Michelle managed to bind the demon to her in her failed exorcism… which then broke when Waverley touched her.
Waverley has some
vague memories of being stalked by something toothy and awful… and Doc tells
Wynonna about the demonic voice he heard on Michelle’s taped therapy notes
(adding that he’s been to hell which is why he can hear it. They put a pin in
that for later).
But between them they
realise that maybe Michelle is right and there is a demon - so they let her go.
But before she can ask “who the hell is Jolene?” Jolene is quick to stuff baked
goods in her mouth and Michelle joins them all in the happy Jolene fantasy
world. It’s clear if you go some time without eating Jolene’s baking, the mind
control wears off and Jolene is constantly feeding them more tasty mind bending
treats
We all have that
friend who is a feeder (actually I think I may be that friend…)
Michelle is also
introduced to Wynonna’s sorta-boyfriend Doc (and undead relic from the old
west) which she seems far more able to deal with than Waverley dating a female
cop - but she puts a pin in that as well.
At this point Jolene
is running around throwing cakes at people and really really turning the gang
against each other - and especially Waverley. She wants Waverley dead but
cannot kill her herself… so she needs to set up her death in other ways
She pokes Nicole
about how the Earps don’t keep her in the loop and kind of treat her as an
afterthought
She pokes Doc with
the idea that, as a human bartender with a probably personality disorder, just
what real use is he to the gang, really? Her kiss also seems to work like baked
goods for turning people against Waverley.
The gang set up to
try and trap the demon but Jolene is ahead of them - she takes the Revenant
warder Wynonna beheaded last episode (decapitation doesn’t kill Revenants), an
apparent abusive rapist, cuts out his tongue and sends him in to be killed by
the Earps - well he will not be missed but the Earps do mistake him for the
demon they were hunting. Which is… not really sensible and nags at them but
hey, victory
Waverley also asks
about her real dad and Michelle calls him a good man called “Julian”.
Jolene also lures
Waverley outside and going all demonic provokes Waverley into hitting her just
as the other arrive - Jolene gets all the sympathy while Waverley is mocked and
condemned - the cakes making them all go far further than they normally would.
Time to the bar to
celebrate and everything is going Jolene’s way. She’s got everyone down on
Waverley. She has Wynonna super furious at Doc because she just dropped the
bombshell that Kate is Doc’s wife. And she’s there. And Waverley knew. And this
makes Michelle pissed at Doc
But Michelle and
Wynonna (who are very alike and great fun) are drinking too much whiskey to eat
all the baked goods. Still Jolene continues to ramp up the tension until we
have an all out bar fight with everyone punching everyone else (Wynonna and
Michelle between them just punch, well, everyone and Michelle loves it and I
kind of really hope she hangs around but I think she and Wynonna would
seriously encourage each other to spiral.)
This ends up with
Wynonna and Michelle in the cells. And Nicole is furious - and won’t even give
them Jolene’s baking she sent over
Waverley is all alone
and in tears since everyone has read her the riot act, especially Nicole. And
Doc even thinks she may be a demon - thanks to Jolene’s baking
We do have some
supernatural shenanigans: Doc visits Bobo who is still stuck down the well and
reveals that Bulshar will really want his ring back - the one Nicole has. Bobo
wants Waverley to visit
And Kate, with her
cards, can see through at least some of Jolene and gives her a
not-entirely-friendly warning that she owes someone debts and she better be
wary of that… to which Jolene responds with some awesome anti-vampire insults,
Then it all starts
falling apart for Jolene. Sure she gets Waverley alone and starts working on
her head that she’s evil and dark and awful but everyone else is waking up
She comes on to
Nicole - which goes nowhere because even pissed at Waverley, she loves her. And
then Bulshar’s ring - which has magically returned to Nicole, burns Jolene and
Nicole realises something is up. Jolene has to lock her in the closet
After spending all
night in the cells with no Jolene cake, Michelle and Wynonna are out of
Jolene’s spell and know something is up - especially when Nedry arrives to talk
to them. He doesn’t know who Jolene is and when they insist they’ve known her
all their lives he asks them clever questions - what’s her last name? What
family is she from? What’s her phone number? If she’s a life long friend she’d
have this information, they would know it, but demons don’t
Riding to the rescue
time! Jolene is trying to convince Waverley to kill herself while revealing
she’s the opposite of Waverley: Waverley was born in light and goodness so for
the sake of balance, Jolene was also born. Not of light and goodness but with a
whole lot of envy for Waverley.
Wynonna shoots her -
she protests that Wynonna loves her. Yes - but she loves Weaverley more. Jolene
flees but is taken by Bulshar’s scary magic foliage… protesting she meant
Waverley for him. This would be the debt/fealty she owes that Kate mentioned I
think
It’s a cutsey
wonderful epilogue with Waverley and Nicole being so cute and loving and
wonderful together though they do wonder about the ring
And Doc decides to
call out Bulshar - he has the ring which Bulshar wants - but he doesn’t care
about hell he’s going to fight Bulshar and fight for the Earps until his dying
breath
And Wynonna speaks to
Bobo to let him know that Waverley will never visit him - and he reveals that
Waverley’s dad was an angel
Which i don’t exactly
find shocking? I suspected something similar. What I do like about this episode
is how it so excellently focuses on the bonds between these characters. They
love and care for each other - and even when they’re angry with each other,
even when there’s something supernaturally driving them to hate each other,
that love, those bonds, still shines through
Which does kind of make Jeremy’s absence all the more blatant