This review contains spoilers.
3.4 No Cure For Crazy
Wynonna Earp has always been pretty deft when it comes to genre. Sometimes, it’s a horror. Sometimes, it skews more supernatural. In this episode, it leans heavy on the fairy tale formula. The trees literally have eyes, at least in new character Robin’s hallucinations, one of many hallucinatory experiences the characters on Wynonna Earp have throughout the episode, seemingly brought about by the impending arrival of a demon set to kill Waverly.
Like all good hallucination episodes, Wynonna Earp uses the frightening visions to let us know what our beloved characters are all worried about. Interestingly, for Jeremy, it is a generic creepy staircase in the woods—could this be related to an as-yet unknown part of the character’s backstory? Perhaps. The vision brings about another reference to Jeremy’s mysterious power as he tells Robin that he has a bad feeling about the staircase. (Good instincts, kid.)
Of course, not even the creepiness of the murder woods could diminish the delight of Jeremy and Robin’s flirtatious banter. Jeremy could use a win right about now, and seeing him find such a sweet, hilarious, local love interest in Robin is god damn cathartic after all of the death, cult massacres, and potential child murder elsewhere on the show. Don’t get me wrong: I love Wynonna Earp‘s drama, but, sometimes, you just want to see two souls fall in like, you know? And Jeremy deserves some sweet things in his life. Please don’t die, Robin.
Poor Doc has so many things to be haunted by. There’s Alice, of course, but also Bulshar, hell, and, most disturbingly to Doc, a combination of the two. It’s unclear, at this point, if Doc hallucinated Bulshar or if he was really there, but, when it comes to Doc’s state of mind, it doesn’t really matter. Is he willing to sell out his family for a chance at avoiding hell? Maybe, and that scares the crap out of the man trying to live up to the example Dolls laid out for him in their last conversation.
While Doc and Jeremy may have been living out hallucinatory nightmares, Waverly was living a real-life horror. After decades of not seeing her mother, she visited Michelle in the mental institution. To say it is a disaster would be an understatement. An unbalanced, frightened, and frustrated Michelle tried to communicate to Waverly that she needs to run before the demon can get her. What was protection is read as murderous intent by Waverly and the guards. Waverly leaves the institution in tears, thinking that her mother wants to kill her. Michelle is tased into submission… for now.
The incident leads Waverly to properly learn the truth about her mother’s history. It’s an emotional Nedley who tells her the story. Michelle was locked up after she burnt the Earp barn to the ground with Waverly inside. Ward, who was sheriff at the time, convinced Nedley to go along with sending Michelle away for good, an action that an ashamed Nedley has never truly forgiven himself for and one that set Wynonna, Waverly, and Michelle’s lives on a vastly different path.
Inevitably, of course, it turns out that Michelle was not trying to kill Waverly, but rather the demon who is after her. Is it Bulshar? Is it Jolene, a creepily cheery creature who, by episode’s end, she holds some kind of sway over Waverly, Nicole, Doc, and Wynonna as they happily east baked goods and wait for the demon to get Waverly? It’s unclear, but pretty darn unsettling none the less. The only thing worse than seeing these characters in honest pain is seeing them in what feels like drug-induced denial.
Badass mother Michelle is nowhere to be seen, which means she might still be able to save her daughters and co. from the clutches of the demon that has seemingly been haunting her for years. If we’ve learned anything from the few episodes Michelle Gibson has been back on the scene for, it’s to never count on Wynonna and Waverly’s mother—especially when her daughters’ lives are on the line.
Read Kayti’s review of the previous episode, Colder Weather, here.