Previously on Wynonna Earp:
-Vamp Mercedes
-Doc became the Clanton Heir and had a shootout against Wynonna and was de-vamped when resurrected.
-Nicole became the Angels Shield
-Wynonna had to say goodbye to two of her favourite people in the world, only to have them returned to her.
I’m just going to jump right into this one because my tear-stained face and puffy eyes and headache from emotions are finding it tough right now.
We open to the view of a vintage car with a ‘Just Married’ sign outside of a cute countryside chapel in Purgatory, but it isn’t the wedding we think that we are all getting this episode. Forget your rose gold dresses, your waterfall braids, your light-up dance floors. This is the summer of 1968, and gruesome axe murder weddings are in season this year. Even though the groom isn’t as keyed up on this seasons trend, he still loses his head over it before the wife, dressed in a white lace dress with a glowing sapphire heart, finishes off the look by taking the axe to herself and slitting her throat. Weddings, am I right? I just feel bad for the caterer and the band. Who will pay them now?
Waverly is at the Homestead unwrapping a box containing the exact same dress back in whatever year we are in now (18 months, 3 weeks and 4 days kinds screws with the math in my brain). That must have been an expensive dry-cleaning bill as there is not a trace of blood anywhere on that dress. Either way, it is Waverly’s wedding and Wynonna is just as excited as she is for it to finally be here.
Nicole is placing a metric ton of flowers in the back of the truck while Wynonna is inspecting the wedding cake with a tiny pair of magnifying glasses. Detective Earp is on the case of the non-vegan wedding cake to make sure that EVERYTHING is perfect for her Waverly’s special day. Nicole knows that something unexpected will happen, but Wynonna refuses to let that be the case. Everything MUST be perfect! Have you ever been to a wedding? There’s always something that happens. Whether it be road works stopping people from arriving on time to being snowed in, or even a great-great-aunt getting totally sloshed and falling into a pool. I mean that happens, right? Well, what do we say to the God of Weddings? NOT TODAY! Sure the cake has buttercream icing, but Nicole and Waverly both know that is not the be-all and end-all of the wedding. That and Waverly made some cupcakes just in case. See, no problems! This wedding is going to go off without a hitch!
Nedley and Rachel are busy planning a little getaway of their own to go fishing on Nedley’s boat. Seriously, this one hit me right in the feels. They are coming early guys! My Papa used to take me fishing, so seeing Papa Nedley do the same for Rachel is a full-blown gut punch. I did say that this one would be emotional. While they finish packing up their lures, Wynonna is trying her hand at wood carving in the barn with Waverly’s dress hanging behind her. She has clearly been watching too many episodes of Friends, as she pulls it down off the vine that is hanging at the open door and places it up against her. The next thing we see is a boot-clad Wynonna in a long overcoat kicking down a door to leave the barn and heading off, leaving a trail of destruction and cake death behind her. Even the arbour doesn’t make it as it spontaneously combusts before the cake explosion. I guess she really didn’t want Waverly to have that buttercream. She rushes all the way to the trailer Doc has been staying in to reveal that she has put the dress on and needs help.
Stuck in the wedding dress, Doc pulls out some Chivas Regal for thinking juice. Doc has been working on writing something, but with the crumpled up sheets of paper on the grass Wynonna can tell he is struggling, but they have bigger and more important fish to fry. They need to get Wynonna out of the wedding dress…stat! But Doc finds no zips or buttons or clasps of any kind after completing a thorough inspection of the dress. The only option is to cut Wynonna out of the dress and then Doc sew it up lickity split! But even Doc’s knife can’t cut through the dress.
Interrupted by Wayhaught again, Wynonna hides in the trailer with Doc standing guard. Waverly is out running a few pre-wedding errands, one being presenting Doc with Wyatt Earp’s saddle as a Best Man gift and asks him to stand beside her while she marries the woman she loves. Rushing off, Doc just manages to catch her to ask where she bought the dress at Wynonna’s request.
Turning up at Cursey’s Vintage Boutique, Doc and Wynonna head inside to the interior of the house covered in cobwebs and filled with creepy mannequins wearing all forms of wedding dress. One of these mannequins is not like the others. Instead of it being a mannequin, it is Charlotte Sullivan, dressed in a 1920’s style flapper dress ready to creep us all the fuck out. Wynonna tries to get her to remove the dress with Doc holding her at gunpoint, but the dress will apparently do its work. Breaking out into the creepiest song I’ve ever heard, she explains that the slaughter will begin when the wedding bells chime at the hands of the person who wears the dress. Easy right? Wynonna seems to think so and they just won’t chime the bells, because who does that now anyway? Seems the only thing to stop it is a silkworm as not even killing the woman will do the trick of breaking the enchantment.
Looking over the carnage, Nicole and Jeremy are left with the job of trying to explain what happened to Waverly who arrives after completing her errands. Jeremy takes it upon himself to play detective and instantly suspects the one person on the Homestead that he has not seen before, Damon. The barn has been tossed and destroyed by Wynonna when she made her grand exit, and the wedding dress is gone, but Waverly didn’t even like it anyway. Wayhaught are more on the case than Jeremy is and they both instantly suspect that the wedding dress is haunted, because what else could it really be in Purgatory? Jeremy should really have followed them into the barn rather than perform an interrogation on Damon, who is just trying to do his job man. He doesn’t need you telling him about your crotch feelings Jeremy!
Going to a bog for some silkworms is next on the agenda for Doc and Wynonna. Unable to ruin Waverly’s dress, even if it is haunted, Doc is left to go diving in the mud to find the elusive insects. He tosses his jacket at Wynonna who rummages through his pockets to find a letter addressed to her. What is in the letter? Doc proclaiming his undying love for her and asking her to marry him? Well not exactly. With everything settled, and no longer being a vampire, people can leave the GRT, people like Doc.
Murder Boards are the perfect replacement for seating charts. Well, seating charts are pretty much murder boards anyway, aren’t they? Deciding where people will sit so family members who don’t get along won’t murder each other before the main course. Sounds normal for a wedding. This one is trying to track down the mystery of the haunted wedding dress. They figure out that every wedding that’s ended in bloodshed in Purgatory goes back to this one wedding dress designed by Miss Brigitte Hogback of Cursey’s who was left at the alter in 1922 and was the first person to host her own red wedding. Looks like it’s getting Wayhaught in the barn with all the wedding talk. Who knew murder weddings could be such a turn on?
After his swim in the bog, Doc needs to clean off and has just the rag for it in the trunk of his car. Wynonna though is a woman scorned and is on a rampage. Doc has a history of leaving his lovers according to Wynonna, what with him leaving both Wyatt and Kate. Wynonna thinks him to be a coward for running away when everyone loves him and depends on him, but Doc turns the tables on her. Sure, when she is fighting demons she is a true hero, but when it comes to love he calls her the coward. He asks her to prove him wrong and leave with him, but Wynonna brushes him off in favour of saving the wedding day.
Speaking of the wedding day, Waverly and Nicole for sure are not going with that old superstition of ‘Don’t see the bride before the wedding day’ and are going full circle to when they made out in the barn only to be interrupted by Willa. But this time it is Jeremy who is interrupting them. He was fully convinced that Damon was a Demon, but no dice today my friend, it’s a haunted wedding dress on the menu. That and the witches head on a plate. Waverly heads off to the tune of Angel with a Shotgun playing in my head only to slay a witch.
Taking the worms covered in nail paint to Brigitte, Wynonna and Doc try to trick her, but she has been around for almost as long as Doc by this stage. With no silkworms, she explains that it is too late to stop the slaughter, but when has Wynonna ever let that stop her before? Wynonna spits in failures face then takes it out for a drink to change its mind. But before Doc or Wynonna can do anything to force Brigitte’s hand, Waverly appears with a wedding banner and instantly rushes her.
One removal spell and the silk banner later and the dress is off and in a pile of burning lace in the middle of the shop floor with Brigitte tied up to a chair. Wynona wants to get her demon-killing on, but Waverly puts her foot down. They just avoided a murder wedding, so let’s not have some murder on the wedding day. Brigitte assumed that Wynonna was the one getting married, and how could she not when she is the one who came into her store demanding for the dress to be removed from her body, but with Waverly saying it’s her wedding day it leads her to assume that they are lesbians. This TOTALLY flips the whole ‘are you two sisters?’ thing that women who are married/dating get constantly in this heteronormative world. Shouting ‘Bisexual Rights!’ Waverly declares herself as bi while Wynonna explains that they are sisters. Still doesn’t explain why Wynonna was in Waverly’s dress though. 1 point to the silk witch.
So, we have had the Silk Witch, The Iron Witch, The Blacksmith, Constance Clootie and Maeve Perley, so five witches total now in this show. I must do some further pondering on what this all means. Wynonna tries to explain it away with the dress being magical, but this is not a ‘The wand chooses the wizard’ situation. This is a free will situation, and as long as the chooser is in love then they can freely choose to wear the dress. Do you hear that Doc? Wynonna is in love. And all she wanted was to feel normal. Of course, Waverly tells Brigitte it wasn’t her fault because she is a literal angel, and they leave for the Homestead to find something else that’s old and borrowed. In the barn, we get another throwback. This time to the penultimate episode of season 2 where Waverly was marrying Perry and wore Mama Earp’s wedding dress. Wynonna gets as emotional as I did when my little sister was getting married and I saw her in her dress for the first time. Yes, I did choke back tears, but Wynonna plays off her emotion as just this and not the fact that she is in love with Doc who is leaving her.
Nervously pacing in the Homestead is Nicole with her Burgundy wedding suit on all ready to go. But she’s missing one thing. In comes one Randy Nedley. Just the man she is looking for. Rambling while nervous is Nicole’s speciality but Nedley comes in with a boutonniere in its own little plastic box just for Nicole. She needs just one more thing though. She needs Nedley to be her dad once more and walk her down the aisle and stand next to her on one of the most important days of her life, in exactly the same way that he has already been standing beside her most of her life. Excuse me. I just gotta open a new box of Kleenex.
Banner re-hung, it is time for those nuptials already! With Rachel standing at the aisle with a short dress and trainers, and Jeremy all suited for his officiating duties, Nedley walks Nicole down the aisle lined with empty chairs. Then comes Doc in a stunning blue suit, open collar and no tie. Seriously. How do I get these suits? They are all breathtaking. Everyone is now there except for Wynonna and the other bride-to-be, Waverly. Our angel comes walking down the aisle looking like a vision accompanied by Wynonna who is ready to give away her baby girl. No one can take their eyes off her, especially Nicole who stands utterly transfixed. One forehead boop later and the two breakaway ready for Jeremy to begin.
I am at a loss for how I can write about this ceremony and the vows without destroying my laptop with my tears, but I’m gonna try. Surely there should be some kind of catch-all I can get for them? And I took so many screencaps that I feel like a wedding photographer. out of 120, I narrowed it down to 42 and most are of the wedding so wedding slideshow anyone? They are most likely out of order because of the way they are on my laptop, but c’est la vie!
Jeremy’s words for his ceremony cycle back to a small town cop walking into a bar where a waitress was working and something magic happened. Yeah I know we all know it was those damn beer taps that Shorty refused to fix, but aren’t we glad that he didn’t? Performing a hand fastening while the vows are read aloud, Jeremy asks Nicole to go first.
Nicole promises to be by Waverly’s side through all their adventures that will come next for them in their life as they start it together, safety harness included, and that her love for Waverly will never dim. Waverly brings us right back to season one, and back to a very dark time in 2016, with her thanks for the bulletproof vest Nicole was wearing when Willa shot her. Without that vest, and really with Willa shooting her (thanks I guess for that one Willa!) Waverly wouldn’t have known what love is. Well, she was stuck with Champ Hardy before Nicole came to town, who was never her equal in any capacity, but Nicole is.
And with that, I burst into tears as we pan across all the empty chairs which have the names of all the loved ones they have lost due to their fight, or who couldn’t be there. Mama, Mercedes, Julian, Perry, Robin, Chrissy, Dolls, Aunt Gus (and I imagine one for little baby Alice because if it wasn’t there then headcanon that shit out!) Hand fastening complete with their ‘I Do’s, Wayhaught are now finally married. A season ago with a proposal filled with baby carrots, I could not see this wedding being so beautiful.
The champagne is chilled and ready for the toasts, but it is orange juice for Rachel and Billy (because papa Nedley is on the case). Rachel is first to step up with a toast/gift for the pair in the form of Martina singing the Wayhaught anthem ‘Wildwood’ by Fleurie. Talk about a callback! Wedding montages are my favourite. Dancing and toasts and cake and just all of the wedding things. I’ve been to a couple of weddings in my time but none seem as fun and carefree as this one. Even the bouquet toss with Jeremy catching it is perfection.
Wedding speeches are always so funny. I remember the father of the bride one my grandad did at my aunts’ wedding where he pulled out a toilet roll and said my uncle talks a load of shit anyway and threw it to the side. It was definitely funnier than that but you get the idea. Calling Nicole out for her middle name, Wynonna steps up for her best woman speech and calls Nicole her best friend. The friendship that has developed between Nicole and Wynonna over the past four seasons is beautiful. It is top shelf, but we all knew it was something special right from our vest first episode 7. What is even more beautiful is that it is a relationship that is shared off-camera between Melanie and Kat as well.
With Wynonna’s speech over, Rachel and Billy jump scare Nedley and convince him to let Billy go fishing with them. The way that Nedley has adopted these two teens into his heart kinda reminds me of another character that Greg Lawson plays in another show that films in Calgary and is also produced by Seven24 Films. Yes, I am speaking about Heartland where Greg Lawson plays Clint Riley who is the person who brought Ty to the Heartland Ranch way back in season one and continues to play a part in their lives. Yes, I may be a little obsessed with Canadian TV OK? Anyway, he allows Billy to tag along with them on their fishing trip, as long as there is no teenage shenanigans from the loved up pair.
It is now time for the sads again. Doc must make his way on his road trip and it is time for him to say goodbye to his family. He stops and smiles at Wynonna standing on the porch before heading off to his car to leave without Wynonna. My heart breaks each time because Wynonna does not want him in any way to leave, but if you love something you have to let it go, right? Or you could just run towards it and never let go.
Jeremy is left to apologise to Damon and help him clear up the catering after the celebrations end with Doc’s departure. Thankfully Damon, who is Bunny Loblaws nephew, has a very good sense of humour and accepts his apology with grace, but cue the dick jokes with Jeremy trying to dig his way out of the hole he built earlier when he told Damon he had a feeling in his crotch but turns out it was just a regular crotch feeling. Before Jeremy can disaster flirt his way to accepting a date any further, he is interrupted with a phone call from none other than showrunner Emily Andras making her series cameo telling him that he is now Deputy Chief of BBD. Sure he can’t start on the designated day because he has a date of his own for then, but Tuesday is free.
Wynonna follows Doc on foot to his trailer, that he is busy packing up and putting the essentials in the back of his car. Doc is ready to rock out and see the world, but Wynonna doesn’t want him to leave. Doc is such a romantic. He is not scared of love and has actively sought it out his whole life. It fuels him and keeps him going. And he found that. With this family. Wynonna can’t leave Waverly, but she also can’t leave Doc. It is an impossible position for her, wanting to stay and protect the ones she loves, or follow the one she loves, except she can’t say the word love to Doc. With that, Doc calls her the best Earp he has ever been friends with, takes off his hat, kisses her one last time on the cheek before getting into his car to drive off. Sure Wynonna apologises for all the hurt she has caused him, but he hurt her too in his way so even? Driving off into the sunset, Doc leaves Wynonna alone on the hill in her best woman dress in tears. Hello? My name is heartbreak.
Making her way back, Wynonna is left to face the music. Nicole, Jeremy, Rachel, Nedley and even Billy try to talk her out of it, not so successfully on Nicole’s part. It is not until Wynonna starts spouting about being the heir and not being able to leave the GRT that Waverly storms out with all the fucks to give, drags Wynonna up by the ear and into the barn to get her shit together in a plastic bag. Wynonna has given up everything time and time again for this family. It is time she takes something for herself! Waverly sees right through Wynonna’s bullshit and excuses to stay to protect Waverly, but there is more than just Wynonna. Nicole is the Sheriff of this town for humans and demons alike, and with Jeremy at her side as the Deputy Director of BBD Purgatory and the family will be okay. Finally able to admit that she loves Doc, Wynonna takes a seat to get a healthy dose of wisdom from Waverly. In another tear-filled watch for me, Waverly admits that her biggest fear used to be that Wynonna would never come back to her, but now she knows that she always will. Her words convince Wynonna to quickly change and head out to the getaway truck filled with flowers, but Bonnie doesn’t have any more to give. A wreck will do that for ya! Panic mode is engaged with Nicole running to grab the leather jacket, Nedley, Rachel and Billy running to get jumper cables while Jeremy tracks his phone NSA style.
Screw the truck, it is time to jump on the back of Uncle Curtis’ motorbike and head down the highway with wind blowing in her hair. A cowgirl at home on a saddle. Coming up on the ‘Leaving Purgatory’ sign (you’ll be back), Wynonna shoots and blows one of Doc’s tyres out and pulls up behind him. Meeting halfway, Wynonna finally declares her love for Doc. She says the word love four times, big huge major character development from someone who only said it to Waverly and Alice before. Agreeing to go with Doc, the pair finally make out on the middle of the road before jumping on the back of the bike to head off with Wynonna declaring ‘It’s been a long time since I travelled light’. My heart exploded in happiness here. Wynonna has had the weight of the world on her shoulders since she was 11 years old and accidentally murdered her father and became the heir in one fell swoop. Now that she is no longer the heir, she has accepted love and has a home to come back to, she is finally free to do whatever she needs and wants to do.
If the shot of Wynonna and Doc on the back of the bike with Doc’s arms around Wynonna’s was the final shot of the series, I’d be happy with that, but there is more.
Stopping for gas and beer, Wynonna has a chance to look over Doc’s plans for the road trip, but there is one stop that’s missing. Miracles, Montana. Home of one Alice Michelle and Gus Gibson. Wynonna declares that she is all in, echoing Doc’s note to her when he found out she was pregnant and they head off to see their daughter.
Back at the Homestead, Waverly Earp smiles at Nicole from the front porch. Waverly asks Nicole if she wishes it were them heading off on a road trip instead of spending the rest of their days in the Ghost River Triangle, but this is all that Nicole wants. All she’s wanted is to be at home with her wife.
We pan out from the pair on the porch, still in their wedding clothes with the Homestead set up for the wedding to the barn, and then out to the mailbox which reads ‘Earp. And Haught. Sometimes Holliday. Everyone Welcome.’ And cue the tears.
I told myself I was going to write about what this show means to me in a separate post, but I couldn’t bring myself to split this from the finale. Why? Well, this finale is everything. It has everything, and it heals all the wounds that previous shows have left on me with ‘Bury Your Gays.’ So what does this show mean to me?
Let’s go back to September 2016. I was pretty much fresh off the boat after moving to Toronto from Scotland just three months prior. I did not know anyone. I was sleeping on a camp bed in a family members house that I had not met before I moving to Canada. I was alone. But, I decided to go to FanExpo because I’d always wanted to go to a convention, and the cast of Carmilla was attending that year and I thought `Why Not?’ I was standing in line, and as you do at a convention, you get to speak with people. The older man I was speaking with was telling me about his daughter, who loved Carmilla, and then started to tell me about this new show ‘Wynonna Earp’ that had started airing that April. Being from Scotland, it hadn’t made its way over there yet and I didn’t have cable, so I had to wait until the following April when I was scrolling through Netflix one Friday night trying to find something new to watch and up popped Wynonna Earp. From the second ‘Tell That Devil’ played for the very first time, I was hooked.
I started creating my very first ever cosplay that year for the following FanExpo. Even though the cast would not be there because DragonCon is the same weekend, I still wanted to represent. In my Nicole Haught cosplay, I travelled to Artists Alley and found a Wynonna Earp print by TaraDraws (which hangs in my room to this day). Later that year, I met one of my best friends through Carmilla, but then we started talking about Wynonna Earp over hot chocolate with Peppermint Schnapps (it really does taste like Christmas btw) and our friendship was sealed.
I was alone in my fangirling of the show in my own little world in my apartment doing constant rewatches, watching all the fanvids and reading all the fanfics that I could, until I came across mention of the Toronto Earpers, and we all planned a meet up to play Cards Against Purgatory. This was where I met my family who accepted me fully and wholly. I may not have gotten to spend as much time having out with them as I possibly could, because immigration and visas kinda suck, but they were there for me every step of the way, through all the tears in the back of the taxi heading to the airport to move back to Scotland, and sending me care packages from Canada when I was in my darkest days.
Cut to just now, with me writing all of this and covering this amazing show on this website that I created back in 2018. I would not have created this website if it were not for Earpers. I love reading the creativity that comes out of recappers, and those recappers inspired me to want to write my own. But where was I supposed to do that? I don’t know anyone. But I did what I do best. If there’s something I want, I make sure that it happens. So I made this site and started recapping shows and covering fanfics, making sure to include and credit fan artists and their work. I started off writing about Wynonna Earp with Season 3 fan predictions, because even though I wanted to write recaps, I thought I could not do this show justice and that recapping was best left to the professionals, so I tried to carve out my own little niche. That was fun for season 3, but for season four I was all in and jumped right into the recapping world heart first.
If it wasn’t for this show, I would not have met my family. I would not have been introduced to D&D met my D&D group, a group filled entirely with Earpers that I probably would never have met if it wasn’t for this show, and has kept me going this pandemic (Hi guys! DM talking. Please make sure you have your party name sorted for the next time we play. Ok thanks byeeeee!). I would not have been able to navigate my way through some of the darkest days that I had when my entire life was upended and I had to move back to Scotland and lost my then best friend all within a few months of each other. (She is alive and well as far as I am aware but we both used to watch the show together and live message each other as we watched and it was something that I used to try and keep a connection going while we lived in different time zones). Earpers have and always will hold my heart, my loyalty, my love, my respect. You have all made this four-year ride that I have been on truly magical. You have kept me sane. You have kept me going. You brought me home.
Thank You.
-Written by Christine
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