Keeping Up With the Earps: 3×07

There is A LOT going on in this show and it’s very easy to miss something that could be important. Since I have little else to do besides rewatch and think about Wynonna Earp, I thought I would offer up this kind of “cheat sheet”. It’s broken down into two main sections, first a look at the specific episode, the second part is kind of a deep dive into mysteries and clues surrounding all the main characters and entities.

Disclaimer: Nothing included in this post should be taken as absolute fact. Even information that I took directly from the show is stated as I see it and is in no way endorsed by anyone officially linked to the show.

Brief recap of  3×07: Monique!

Wynhaught continues to be comedy gold and we were once again blessed with Drunk Haught . This episode was, for the most part, a fucking hoot and a half. I’m not going to get to far into the plot-of-the-week stuff because I’m feeling lazy and I’ve already read Valerie Anne‘s recap and I can’t match her cleverness on my best day (which today is not).
However, there were some important points mixed in with the topical fun. We learned that after getting herself down river from the massacre as a child, Nicole was found and cared for by one Deputy Randy Nedley! Guys! Nedley has been looking out for Nicole since she was a kid and when he heard that she became a cop, he made it a point to recruit her to work with him in Purgatory. I can’t help but wonder if the kind treatment she received in the midst of the most traumatic experience of her life had anything to do with her decision to become a cop. Nicole emotionally credits Nedley with her return to the Purgatory saying “Everything good that I have in my life is because I came back to the Ghost River Triangle.” and a lot Earpers can relate.
With some help from Doc, Michelle takes off on a mission to find Julian, who was “pushed” out of the GRT and has been lost ever since (more on that in Part 2).
Before Michelle left she wrote each of her daughters a note which included a warning against trusting Johnny Hank, who isn’t what he says. When Doc stops by the Homestead to give Wynonna Bulshar’s ring she confronts him and demands the truth. She’s devastated by the fact that Doc sold his soul and declares that he is no longer welcome in her home. Since a vampire can’t enter a place without being invited, Wynonna’s words carry extra weight, Doc can’t enter the Homestead even if he tries.

A note on taking responsibility for your actions and my response to some of the discourse I’ve seen since Friday:
I don’t hate Doc, I feel for him, it’s impossible not to the way that Tim portrays him, but I have some feelings about the women in his life being blamed for his actions. Doc is the position that he is in because of his decisions and nothing else. Doc has some great qualities, but he has also shown consistently for over 100 years that he is selfish and this isn’t the first, or second, or third time he’s hurt people he claimed to care about to obtain or protect his immortality. So no it’s not Wynonna’s fault that his reaction to getting his feelings hurt was to offer up his soul to Kate. And it sure as shit is not Kate’s fault. Kate, who loves him and who he is using to feel needed and for sex even though he knows that he would rather be with Wynonna, Kate tried to give him an out, but he insisted.

Random avocado pun story this episode made me think of:
– The “Guac-a-cuse me” line reminded me of a story about another avocado pun and me being awkward at ATX. Tim, Mel, and Kat were at a panel Emily was on and afterwards Earpers were hanging around to talk to them, I was a hungover mess. So I’m standing there, probably looking like I’m dying, and I notice that Kat has an avocado on her shirt with words under it. It’s pretty small and I have not-great-eye-sight, but still refuse to wear my glasses in public. So I’m straining trying to read what it says for a weird amount of time before it occurs to me what I might look like to everyone around since the avocado and words are right on a boob. My way of clarifying the situation was just to loudly say “Kat! What does your shirt say?”. It said “Let’s avo-cuddle”. You’re welcome.

Gems You May Have Missed:

• Vampires (or maybe just folks over a century old) are kinky. There appears to be a dog collar, a whip, and a wooden paddle on the floor near where Doc and Kate are laying.
• Doc’s reflection starts to fade when he’s looking at himself in the mirror.
• Looks like our team has scored it’s second bus of the season. That seems like not-a-coincidence.
• When Nicole is trying to prepare for Bunny she hides a blue bra in her bookshelf. I think we can all agree it’s Waverly’s bra.
• Do people in Purgatory just barge into other people’s homes? I mean it just seems on brand for Wynonna, but why did Bunny just appear in Nicole’s house? Even Widow Mercedes knocked before she almost killed Nicole.
• Wynonna went to Nicole’s to tell her about Nedley rescuing Nicole when she was a kid, but get’s distracted by the bickering.
• If you didn’t notice Nicole slapping the pill bottle out of Wynonna’s hand when Bunny is passed out, go rewatch the whole episode right now.
• Did Nicole’s lips really need to be touching the door to see in the window of the biker bar? That’s not a “gem”, but it was a little gross.
• The weird hand signals between Nicole and Wynonna when they are trying to sneak into the bar. I’m pretty sure Nicole signs “lesbian” at one point and Wynonna tells her to “eat a dick”.
• Dom had very little screen time, but still managed to use it to somehow make me more gay when she squats down to look at the mirror while wearing gray skinny jeans and a fucking blazer.
• Mama tells Doc that Julian made her feel like she didn’t have to break her spirit to be happy. This comes back around when Kate and Doc are arguing about Wynonna, Kate tells him “Wynonna is breaking your spirit”.
• Nicole flings her fucking gun into the woods when Wynonna slings her around, which if why she later draws her radio on the gnome. I cannot.
• 
• No one missed it, but I still don’t think we’re giving our Brave Little Toaster enough credit for running right up the the scary giant to try protect her best girls.

Bonus: Kat and Mel are not only comedy gold on-screen, but on twitter too.

Answers to questions you may have:

• Look, I know we all thought that Nicole shared a house with the cannibals from Season 1 out in the middle of nowhere, but it turns out that she lives in a nice blue house in a nice neighborhood. I’m not sure if the pictures of the outside of the house last season were even canon or just BTS, but regardless, sometimes things on tv just change and there is no explanation (like the Homestead exterior) and you just have to let it go and enjoy the tv show.

Questions that I don’t know the answer to:

• Does Mama know about Willa’s return? I can’t imagine that it’s come up since she got out, but I wonder if Gus told her when they found Willa. Hm.

Favorite Lines:

• Push with your legs! – Shut-up with your mouth.
• Nedley, are you looking at my ass? – No. *Bonus points because Melanie improv’d this and Greg just rolled with it perfectly*
• What on God’s flat earth is that?!
• Oh, stop being a wiener!
• Guac-a-cuse me? *Because only Melanie Scrofano could say that line without making me turn of the tv.*
• ISIS! *I can’t explain it, but Jann Arden as Bigot Bunny yelling “ISIS” as she fancy-faints is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever seen*
• Balls! Bunny’s dead.
• Bunny Nut Cheerios!
• Golden Girls Trivia – Drinking.
• I feel college.
• Stop quipping and run!
• Get your ass out of your head, Wynonna!
• You be Scott. – You be Tessa.
• I miss Macaulay Culkin! – Tell Waverly I love her! – Sure make me look like an asshole.
• I know she’s great in bed because my house has very thin walls. *hey-o!*
• Oh, and she’s super fertile! – That was one time.
• I think this would be a really good time to tell you that I am a LESBIAN. – Oh, like you never went through and experimental phase. – Not with gnomes!
• Monique!
• The cat made a bed in your ass crack.
• Everything good that I have in my life is because I came back to the Ghost River Triangle.
• You’re like a daughter to me. *my heart!*

Under-appreciated jokes: Just shit I feel like didn’t get enough attention

• Next thing you know she’s gonna be chopping people up with an axe like that dude in the hotel. – Dave at the Motor Inn? – Him too. *Gots to love Purgatory.*
• Wynonna saying “They’ll never let us sheriffs live it down” after Nicole suggests calling the fire department.
• Get your ass out of your head, Wynonna! *Yes, I’m mentioning this line twice because I think it was awesome and not enough people caught it*.
• Oh God, I really wish we had a gnome bra.

Bonus: Things Wynonna called Nicole this ep.

Deputy Dipshit.
Ginger Spice
Deputy Tator-Haught
Not-Sheriff
Deputy Haught to Trot
Naughty Haughty.

Bonus Bonus: Because few things bring me as much joy as Kat Barrell’s face when she is playing drunk.

 

The Big Picture

My attempt at the timeline:

• Bulshar entomed: approx 130 years ago
• Wyatt died: 1929
• Willa Born: 1987
• Wynonna Born: 1988*
• Waverly Born: Sept 8 1994*
• Nicole survives Cult of Bulshar Massacre in the GRT: 1996
• Mama left: 1999**
• Attack on the homestead: May 2000
• Wynonna comes of age: 2015*
  *What we know for sure is that the attack was in 2000 and that Wynonna was 12 and Waverly was 6 when it happened. Keep in mind when doing the math, that Emily wrote the pilot in 2015. It all falls apart if you try to use the air date for the math. Also, because the month someone is born can mess up the math, this is all kind of give or take a year.
  **The original line was that Waverly was 4 when Mama Earp left, making me think it was two-ish years before the attack, but in 3×01 Wynonna says that Mama had only been gone six months when the Homestead was attacked.

Season Three Credits Breakdown:

• Angel with one wing in an old cemetery. Surrounded by several dead looking trees. When we zoom in the the angel is wrapped up by a large snake.
  – BOOM! It’s finally confirmed (if you consider Bobo trustworthy), Waverly’s father was an angel. The angel in the credits has one wing. Could this be because Waverly is only HALF angel? Also, my theory is that the snake wrapped around the angel signifies “Jolene”, the demon that was born out of a need for balance.
• More ugly trees, the biggest one in the forefront has half a face
  – It’s because Bulshar is turning people (and Vampires) into murder trees.

Main players: What we know about what we don’t know

Most of this will be things that were shown or stated in the show, however I am including theories that I feel strongly about, those theories with be in italics. Anything that was added since the last post will be in bold.

Mama Earp aka Michelle Gibson:

• Planned to join the rodeo circuit and leave Purgatory behind, but got pregnant with Willa when she was in town and ended up married to Ward.
• Spent nearly 20 years in prison, accused of trying to kill Waverly when she burned down the barn with Waverly in it.
• Was never trying to kill Waverly, she was trying to exorcise a demon that was after Waverly. She ended up binding the demon to herself and lived with it tormenting her the entire time.
• The demon talked to her about Bulshar.
• Used to run to the Gibson’s greenhouse to escape Ward, she was often met there by Julian, who is Waverly’s father.
• Is not happy that Bobo told Waverly about the night she was born. I take this to mean she is keeping some secrets that she doesn’t want her girls to know. I wonder if she let Bobo out so that Waverly wouldn’t know where to find him to get more answers.
• I STILL (yes still!) refuse to believe that it’s a coincidence that Mama Earp and the Widows wore the same perfume (I don’t know how to spell it…Shalotel?).

Wynonna Earp:
– Most of the mystery surrounding Wynonna has to do with the years she was away from Purgatory and doesn’t seem like it’s going to have much of an implication on the show (I’ve heard it’s explored more in the comics).

• Earp heir
• Great hair
• Mama specifically wanted to make sure Wynonna could survive by herself.

Waverly Earp-ish:

• Was born in the greenhouse on the Gibson farm.
• Her father’s name was Julian and per Michelle he was “someone better”.  According to Bobo, Julian was a literal angel, making Waverly half ANGEL!
• I’m going to quote exactly what Kate said about the tarot card she pulled for Waverly: “Temperance. The angel card, balance and moderation, but it’s upside down. Lack of long-term vision.”… “She’s something alright.”
• Bobo referred to her as “kin”.
• Promised to Bulshar by Bobo.

Julian:

• Alleged Angel. Still only have Bobo’s word to go on regarding WHAT he was/is, as Mama neither confirms nor denies it.
• Bobo refers to him as “missing for some“.
• Per Mama “Ward pushed Julian outside” the GRT the night Waverly was born. And he’s been lost ever since. This raises so many questions. Did Ward physically push Julian? How did Ward make an angel do anything? Why is Julian “lost” being outside the GRT? Remember we’ve heard the GRT triangle referred to as a prison and a sanctuary.

John Henry Doc Holliday:
There are plenty of questions, but I’m not going to dig TOO deep unless I think it’s going to have an impact on the show in the near (this season) future.

• Has a wife named Kate dating back to his pre-well days. Regardless he still talks about Wyatt as if they were soulmates
• Went to hell when he died in the AU. Is super emo about it.
• Is a vampire now.

Jeremy Chetri:

• Black Badge “did stuff” to him as well.
• has some kind of psychic* abilities, likely stemming from an accident he and his mother were in when he was a kid.
  *maybe not the right word, but they shown times where he knew things that it didn’t make sense for him to know, like that “Wayhaught” needed Doc to meet the baby or when his groin told him Doc was alive.

Nicole Haught:

• Feels like she is “supposed” to be in Purgatory. Feels like she has been in Purgatory before.
• Dolls picked her to keep Bulshar’s ring safe. She did a terrible job.
• Only survivor of an attack linked to the Cult of Bulshar. During the attack she “somehow” got down to the river. She was in the GRT with her aunt and uncle for a music festival. The incident was covered up by Black Badge and officially ruled a forest fire.
• After getting herself down to the river and in a canoe to get away from the massacre, she was found by Nedley! He “kept an eye” on her after that and offered her the job after finding out she was in the academy.
• Apparently her parents don’t like that she’s a cop.

Bobo Del Rey aka Robert Svane:

• Was a good guy and close friend to Wyatt before he became a revenant.
• Was part of Black Badge.
• Can telepathically move metal objects, including Peacemaker.
• Was there the night Waverly was born. Took the baby to Ward and threatened his life if he didn’t care for the child, his angel.

Kate aka Katalin aka Countessa:

• Has been a Vampire since the day she and Doc met.
• Doc’s wife dating back to his pre-well days, told about his immortality by Wyatt. Says that when she heard he had “arisen” she knew she had to do “whatever it takes” to find him.
• Had her friend Sally pose as the outlaw Big Nose Kate because Vampires can’t be captured on film.

Charlie Fire-services:

• Fireman
• Really interested in Team Wynonna.
• Is aware of the supernatural presence in Purgatory AND knows that Peacemaker can ID demons.
• Seemed like the rescue mission wasn’t his first time killing stuff.
• When Wynonna thanks him for the help he says “No problem, it’s what I do”. Wynonna takes this to mean saving people in general, but it seems a little specific to killing demonic things and saving people from becoming trees…ok maybe not that last part, but I don’t think this was his first Demon Rodeo. 
• Not a homophobe. Way to be, Chuck. 

Peacemaker:

• Bluntline Special that Wyatt Earp used to put down 77 “outlaws”.
• Only weapon that will send the revenants back to hell.
• Can only be fired by the current Earp Heir.
• Cannot be handled by  a demon without burning the shit out of them.
• Glows orange when aimed at a demon. My theory about it glowing orange in 2×12 when Wynonna pointed it at Doc is that it knew the bullet was meant for the widows. Another possibility is that Doc’s time spent in hell was enough to make Peacemaker see him as a demon/Rev.
• Glowed blue for the first time when Wynonna used it to kill Willa.
• Glowed blue for the second time when Waverly pointed it at Rosita and Wynonna ordered it to fire, grazing Rosita.

Bulshar/ Cult of Bulshar:

• Entombed for over 130 years ( I know I should know the exact time, but I can’t find it).
• Turns people (and vampires) into creepy trees.
• Specifically wants decedents of the Original Families of Purgatory because he’s mad at them for letting him be defeated by Wyatt.
• There have been massacres linked to the Cult of Bulshar every 7 years since at least the 1920s. BBD file started in 1926, but the massacres were likely happening before that. It appears that Beret Demon was carrying out massacres on Bulshar’s behalf, but the possibility exists that he wasn’t the only one. 
• Wants his ring back. The ring that healed a rotting Widow Mercedes and gave her a fancy make-over. The ring also burned demon Jolene in a way that seems similar to Peacemakers reaction when touched by a demon. It also also burned Doc after he turned into a Vampire. Hmmmm

Black Badge Division:

• Supposedly a highly classified branch of the U.S. Marshalls, but as we according to Agent Moody BBD “isn’t a government agency, never was.”
• They disappeared from the Ghost River Triangle
• Early members include Robert Svane aka Bobo Del Rey.
• All the main characters except for Nicole have signed a contract in blood.
• Inconclusive as to what extent they still exist. Quinn, a friend of Dolls’ and fellow Black Badge agent wanted to take revenge on whatever is left of BBD HQ. Wynonna tells Quinn that if he ever returns to Purgatory that it better be because he recovered the blood contract her team signed. Quinn seems to agree to the mission mentioning paying “Mr. Moody” a visit.

Ok, friends, that’s all I have for this week.  Feel free to discuss theories in the comments. If you think I got something totally wrong from the show that I should correct, please offer proof. The format for this is still a work in progress, if there is something you think should be taken out or something you think should be added, please let me know.

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