“Wynonna Earp” is Back, Baby!
Spoilers!
Finally after two years, Wynonna Earp and her crew are back on the small screen. Earpers everywhere are rejoicing at the return of actress Melanie Scrofano’s face. Like everything in 2020 though, Covid-19 found a way to ruin season 4 for the show’s fans by cutting it short. Earpers will only get a six episode season, but considering they have been waiting two years for the show’s return, I’m sure they’ll take what they can get — and boy what a doozy of an episode they got!
If you aren’t familiar with Wynonna Earp, here’s a bit of a rundown: As the descendant of famous gunslinger Wyatt Earp, Wynonna must break what is known as the Earp curse. The curse brings every outlaw Wyatt ever killed back to life as demon revenants. Wynonna must kill them all with her magical gun. Only once every revenant is killed will the curse be broken, but if the heir dies first then the revenants resurrect once again.
Wynonna, along with her sister, Waverly, are recruited by Agent Dolls of the Black Badge Division to help keep the knowledge of revenants under wraps. Along the way, they gain some allies in their fight, including Wyatt Earp’s immortal best friend Doc Holliday, cop Nicole Haught, and Black Badge scientist Jeremy Chetri. Together they battle revenants, witches, vampires, and even zombies in the season four premiere.
After (spoilers) breaking the curse in season three, Wynonna is fated with a new task: saving her sister. After finding out her father is an actual angel, Waverly is pulled into the garden of Eden, quickly followed by Doc, who enters the garden to try and save her.
In the season four opener, Wynonna has lost her magical gun (which turned into a sword in the season three finale) and is struggling with her sense of self. She and retired Sheriff Nedley attempt to get into the garden to save their loved ones. It is then revealed that before Waverly and Doc were taken into the garden, their town had been evacuated, but not before Jeremy is able to carve the name “Valdez” into Wynonna’s wall. Wynonna decides to find Valdez’s last known whereabouts in hopes that it will help lead her to the garden of Eden.
Meanwhile, with the help of Doc’s vampire ex-wife, Kate, Nicole escapes the custody of whomever evacuated the town, and joins Wynonna on her quest. Together they find Valdez’s lab, along with her daughter Rachel. The lab has been infected with some type of noxious gas, leaving the people in it frozen. However, when Wynonna blasts the lab open with a beaver buster (used for busting beaver dams, this is Canada after all) a deadly horde of zombies burst out. But as Wynonna, Nicole and Rachel fight off the zombies, Nicole falls through a floor grate.
The garden of Eden is definitely not what we would expect. Instead of paradise, Eden is presented as a snowy wasteland which only begins to show signs of beauty when Waverly feeds it her angel blood. Being in the garden also seems to affect both Doc and Waverly’s memory as they spend the second half of the episode struggling to remember their loved ones.
Wynonna Earp has always been a fun mix of action, humor, supernatural, and even tender moments; and based on the season four premiere, this season will continue to provide all that and more! Between the funny one liners, the sweet moment of Wynonna and Nicole realizing that they are best friends, to the awesome action packed fight scenes, season four is gearing up to be the show’s best season yet!
Wynonna Earp is not only action packed, but also packed with lots of diversity. It is full of complex, strong female characters, many LGBTQIA+ characters, and quite a few people of color. However, in the first season, Dolls, portrayed by Black actor Shamier Anderson, was actually the only character of color. The show quickly changed that by season two and added Tamil-Canadian actor Varun Saranga to portray Jeremy, Portuguese and Brazilian actress Tamara Duarte to portray Rosita, Black actress Chantel Riley as Kate in season three, and Filipina actress Martina Ortiz-Luis as Rachel Valdez in season four.
LGBTQIA+ characters are also at the center of this show, starting in season one when Waverly discovers that she is bisexual after starting to have feelings for lesbian Nicole.
These two have even been referred to as the heart of the show by the show’s creator, Emily Andras, and quickly became a fan favorite couple among Earpers. Jeremy has also been confirmed as a gay character and these three are often referred to as the “unkillable gay squad” by fans — seeing as they often end up in life or death situations, but always manage to survive. This name is a direct response to the “Bury Your Gays” trope often found in TV shows and movies.
And let’s not forget about all of the badass women of Wynonna Earp! Every character is fully fledged and complex, but it is especially awesome to see so many strong and unique female characters all on one show.
If someone told me that a TV show starring a white protagonist named Wynonna of all names, would be one of the most diverse shows I would ever watch, I definitely would not have believed them. But Wynonna Earp always finds a way to defy the odds.
