This review contains spoilers.
2.5 Let’s Pretend We’re Strangers
Has this season’s possession storyline all been one big foreshadow-y metaphor for Wynonna’s pregnancy? If so: well-played, show. (Given that Melissa Scrofano told the Wynonna Earp team that she was pregnant after they wrote that Season 1 finale and began writing Season 2, they probably didn’t know.)
If not: still well-played, show. There are so many underrepresented subjects and identities Wynonna Earp revels in, but pregnancy might be the one I am most excited for yet. It’s a life event that happens all the freaking time in real life, but one that rarely gets any play in genre television — unless it’s a supporting character or guest star who gets knocked up by some supernatural entity for one episode or something.
In these scenarios, the pregnancy and birth are usually treated like horrors. Save for some exceptions, like Aeryn Sun’s pregnancy in the excellent Farscape, pregnancy is treated like an illness, not a natural part of life that is only one aspect of a pregnant woman’s identity.
Wynonna’s pregnancy already doesn’t feel like one of those stereotypical situations — for one, Wynonna is not in a relationship — and I am eager to see how the Wynonna Earp team explores this story and what it will mean for the evolution of Wynonna’s character in particular. No drinking! Perhaps no putting herself in between a gun and her sister.
Wynonna Earp has always done female relationships and female issues so well, I trust this show to explore it here in interesting ways without it letting it take over Wynonna’s entire identity. And if you need any real-life evidence of what a female-supported work environment looks like, read this entire Variety interview with Scrofano and Wynonna Earp showrunner Emily Andras about the process of incorporatiing Scrofano’s real-life pregnancy into the show.
Here’s one of my favorite excerpts:
I also am a woman in this industry, I have kids in my own, I’ve been through it. And one of the things I’m most proud of about “Wynonna” is it’s such a female-friendly, feminist show. I was like, if any show is going to deal with this, it’s going to be us. And that’s how I have to sell it to the network. I knew we were going have to work it out, because of course we would.
Anyway, back to the review, which got a bit sidetracked with this unique, fascinating, and exciting cliffhanger development. #BabyEarp
In many ways, Let’s Pretend We’re Strangers was the end of season two’s first major arc, wrapping up the #Gooverly storyline, as well as the Black Badge tensions (at least for now), with some relatively definitive moments. Wynonna shoots the goo demon. Lucado’s head explodes. (I was a little sad about that.) And Black Badge up and mysteriously disappears.
While the back-and-forth between Wynonna and Waverly as vessels for the demon goo felt a bit like treading narrative water, it was delightful to watch a possessed Wynonna make her way through the day. It highlights just how devilish and unpredictable Wynonna’s sense of humour can be because there were moments when I thought ‘Wynonna might actually say that.’ Of course, Doc could see through #Goononna’s charade, giving Wynonna’s family a chance to save her.
Everyone did their part. Dolls chopped off Wynonna’s pinky (that grew back, right?), going into full-on Scientist!Dolls mode (a thing that should happen 100% more of the time). Waverly sacrificed herself to get the demon out of Wynonna. And Doc stepped in when The Union, the newly introduced fraterity of firefighters/demon fighters was ready to sacrifice Waverly, with a clever deal.
The final vanquishing of the demon relied on Nicole and Wynonna putting aside their prejudices against one another, which was a nice character-driven touch. Their tense relationship has been a slow burning part of this season (and last), and it was nice to see it get a high-stakes resolution. These two might never be best friends, but they both love Waverly and that is more than enough to get along.
Ultimately, however, it was that sisterly relationship between Wynonna and Waverly that is the backbone of this episode and the instalment’s final scene. It is Waverly who gently breaks it to Wynonna that she is probably pregnant, and who sits on the other side of the bathroom door as Wynonna learns that her life is about to change. “I’m here for you now and forever,” Waverly tells Wynonna. It’s going to take a lot more than a goo demon to tear these two apart. Their love, and the love that this entire found family has for one another, is the true Peacemaker.