Wynonna Earp Season 2, Episode 6
After a cliffhanger ending in last week’s episode, Wynonna Earp had a lot of questions to answer this weekend. After all, it’s one thing to do the big reveal; it another thing to explore the implications of that big reveal. In this way, cliffhangers are relatively easier to pull off. How did Wynonna Earp do? Splendidly, of course. We never doubted this show! The implications of the big pregnancy reveal are ostensibly about how everyone deals with Wynonna’s pregnancy. Under the influence of a time spell that has the people of Purgatory falling asleep for a month, Wynonna wakes up visibly pregnant. The time that she would have had both to process her pregnancy and to let the people in her life know about the pregnancy has been significantly truncated. Pregnancy is scary enough without the nine to six-month length of time to process the news and the major change in your life. Considering the terrifying part of this change, Wynonna handles the situation admirably. It helps that she has the mystery of the widows in black to stay focused on. It is them who have blackmailed a clockmaking demon into putting the town to sleep in order to have the townspeople out of the way whilst they find and break the second and third seals. It no doubt means a lot to her that the first person who finds out (aside from Waverly, who told Wynonna) is so chill and supportive. This show is filled with great relationships, but the tense, complicated dynamic between Wynonna and Nicole has been one of the most fascinating and well-developed of this second season. They don’t always see eye to eye, but they have a fair amount in common. Waverly, of course (and the moment when Nicole trusts Wynonna to save Waverly without her help demonstrates just how much these two have grown to trust one another), but also this town. Next up on the discovery docket is Dolls, who, bless him, was gearing up to try to win Wynonna back just as Wynonna was beginning to process her pregnancy. She already had one major life change going on and she is not in a place to be able to discuss becoming something more with Dolls. While Dolls doesn’t react super well when he first finds out about Wynonna’s pregnancy, he seems to recover relatively quickly. The two kiss at one point and Dolls calls her “amazing.” He qualifies it with an “agent” — “you are an amazing agent,” but we all know she thinks she is a straight-up amazing person. Finally, we have Doc — aka the probably father of Wynonna’s child. Early in the episode, he says to Waverly that he is not the type to settle down (though, notably, in relation to fuck buddy Rosita), but when he discovers Wynonna’s pregnancy, he not only doesn’t pressure her into talking about it, but gives her a note that simply says: “I am all in.” Be still, my beating heart. As sweet as Dolls is, I have to admit I lean towards Team Doc (not that we necessarily have to choose — maybe they can all date?). When these two look at one another, time stops. Or maybe it was that clockmaker demon again. It’s hard to say. Point is: Wynonna’s heart seems to lie with Doc. Or at least most of it. Hearts are complicated like that. Of course, the reaction that matters most is Wynonna’s and it’s the one that she manages to avoid the longest. It’s not until the end of the episode that she breaks down in Waverly’s arms. She’s mad about everything that is outside of her control, about all of the things in her life she hasn’t had a choice in. First, it was being the Earp heir. Now, it’s becoming a mother. And, in a reveal I wasn’t expecting, Wynonna implies that she became pregnant because she is the Earp heir. In other words: the curse insists that the Earp heir line must continue, and it made that happen, even working through Wynonna’s birth control. It’s a pretty horrifying thought: the idea that the Earp curse has not only taken away the choice of where Wynonna can live and what she can do with her life as an occupation, but it now also dictating that she become a mother. Motherhood is scary enough when you choose it for yourself, and I love that this show entertains the idea that motherhood isn’t for everyone. Too few pop culture stories do that, rather treating motherhood as the ultimate goal for every female character. One of my least favorite moments in the entire MCU, for example, it Black Widow’s worries that she is a monster because she cannot have her own biological child, even though 1) we have never previously seen her character express any interest in having kids and b) there are other ways to star a family. But, I digress. In conclusion? Wynonna is scared shitless, though Waverly and Doc’s gentle support no doubt goes a long way to making her feel just a little bit better. “I’m not saying it’s gonna to be OK,” Waverly tells her sister, truly listening to her sister’s fears rather than meeting them with unhelpful optimism, “I’m just saying I’m here.” Give Melissa Scrofano and Wynonna Earp all of the awards. This storyline continues to rock. In other news, the widows in black have been making some serious moves. They have broken the second seal, and there is no BBD to stop them. Only Team Wynonna now stands in there way, with a semi-reluctant Jeremy in tow. The evacuation of BBD from the Black River Triangle has obviously shaken Dolls, who orders Wynonna to shoot the clockmaker demon, even though he was blackmailed into helping the widows. Way harsh, Dolls.
