Keeping Up With the Earps: 4×03

If you’ve never seen one of my deep dives before…well it’s a lot. I watch the episode several times to try to make sure I get as much out of it as possible. This post is split up into several sections, some highlighting the episode itself and some keeping track of the bigger picture. I hope you gain something from it.

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.

Brief recap of 4×03: For Freedom!

This episode was just too much, so instead of a real recap, here’s a few random thoughts I had:
The shit is bananas.
Who looks like that in a jumpsuit?!?!
It’s not really a monster, it’s just an pre-waxed Nedley.
I’m so #ProudofMel
I love these beautiful idiots.
Doc is a slut.
Oh no, sexy music. I’m not ready. … oh, no it’s fine, this is just angst.
Jeremy! Looking good…what are you doing?
And last but, not least, Nicole is not okay and how dare Kat and Dom

Potentially Important Takeaways:

There were several, but they all get covered further down looking at the characters. *Warning* Some of the stuff noted under “The Big Picture” can be considered kind of spoilery, so proceed with caution.
Also, there was a lot of new bird and tree imagery in this episode, so if you know me, you know my gears are turning.

Tarot Cards:
*Portion removed. Check 4×02 if you’re curious.

Gems You May Have Missed:

• The wall now says “Chez” (home of) over Valdez.
• There are signs inside and outside of the Glory Hole that say YOL♾[infinity symbol]. You Only Live Forever. Guys.

• Wynonna’s orange jumpsuit is number 6968. Which is at least the 3^rd time 69 has appeared this season (Page 69 in Valdez’s file and 169 miles to Monument) because the writers “get” us.
• Not only is it a vagina, it’s flanked by “legs” in fishnet.

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• Thank you closed captioning, one of the things Rachel yells while Nicole and Waverly are talking is “I just need your juice”.
• Waverly says she is issuing a “writ of habeas corpus” which is law speak for reporting unlawful imprisonment, but the literal translation of “habeas” from latin is along the lines of “we have”, corpus mean “body”. Which makes the next exchange between Waverly and Wynonna brilliant and funny. “These dickpickles are gonna have to show us a body”.
• Before the episode Mel and Kat were tweeting about Kat’s jaw taking one for the team. We saw why when Kat gets smacked in the face by a cutting board.

• Everyone heard Nicole say “and that is my mommy voice”, but many seemed to miss when she first sees Rachel and Rachel says “Don’t make it more painful by mommying me”.
• Nicole switched the picture of herself by Waverly’s bed for a picture of Waverly. Poor baby.

Answers to questions you may have:

• I know a lot of people were wondering what was in the satchel that Waverly took from Cleo, but I think it’s just an obvious answer. T-shirts, ammo for the t-shirt gun.

Questions that I don’t know the answer to:

• Robin…? Robin what?!?!?!
• Why is Waverly slipping so damn much? I didn’t notice how many times (at least 7 so far) it had happened until I saw this Tumblr post and given that I haven’t noticed anyone else slipping, I’m starting to wonder if it’s not an accident. Also, kudos to DPC for doing that so many times without falling.

Favorite Lines:

• You smell aggressively bad.
• Local nogoodnik, Wynonna Earp. – – AHHHHHHHHHH!!!
• I did faux fur, flirty florals, feminine flannels. (love a good alliteration)
• apparently I haven’t pooped in 18 months. I have a backlog.
• What a relief it is to see you. And a letdown to smell you.
• I tried my best to Meredith Grey that magnificent old bitch back to health.
• Is… Is this real life?
• Well she’d def got no panties.
• Who’s President Sa-tan? / Not today, seitan.
• You don’t have 20 bucks.
• Daddy Blue Eyes. / Dr. Mustache.
• For the record, I don’t believe in skank shaming, but you said it first.
• Fuck yeah.
• Always.

Under-appreciated (according to me) Lines:

• This is a Russian doll of suckage. (proceeded by an amazing directing moment)
• …with a lot more toots to follow. (get it, cause chili)
• left-swipes
• That tastes like peppermint butt.
• It dealt it. I simply smelt it.
• Maybe buff my muff if the mood strikes.
• Hello, chaps! (the accent though)

The Big Picture

My attempt at the timeline:

• Genesis 3 – A deceptive serpent in the Garden of Eden leads to The Fall of Man and two angels are placed at the entrance with a flaming sword to guard the Garden. (Biblical canon, not Wynonna Earp canon)
• October 26^th 1881: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
• Bulshar entombed: 1887
• Wynonna Born: 1988*
• Waverly Born / Julian is “pushed outside of the GRT: Sept 8 1994*
• 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 Four Credits Breakdown:

• The first of the new images is an old photo of two figures standing near a couple of trees. What appears to be a man in a hat and a smaller, likely female figure. As lightning flashes we see them in more, terrifying detail. Their eyes glow and they have marks on their faces. Scars? Lighting?

• The next image is of a female angel walking toward a threshold of light. Again, there is a flash and the image changes. The angel is gone.

• The next change is a little harder to catch. The card for Dom/Waverly has changed. Now on top of a map of the Ghost River Triangle, is an image of the “garden”/ icy Stonehenge.

• The last and most subtle addition is on Kat/Nicole’s card. On the right there is a tree that wasn’t there last season. And you may not have noticed (other than the obvious murder trees), but there is A LOT of tree imaginary throughout this show since the start.

• The most important image of the credits isn’t new, it’s been there since day one, it’s what this show is really all about, the damn birds.

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. I’ve taken out some stuff that seems obvious, but it’s still in previous versions.

The Garden:

• (Bible) Home to two very important trees, The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge [of Good and Evil].*
• There is some sort of living machine that requires blood.
• from Eve, “what kind of batshit playground experiment for creation was this?”
• Has been used as a prison for Eve. It seems that as long as there was a Guardian on the throne or the machine was being fed, Eve was kept from escaping.
• From Juan Carlo’s journal “We guarded the entrance to keep him in, to keep everything in, but we failed, Julian and I”. Which begs the question, were the angels supposed to keep the serpent IN the garden or OUT of it? J.C. talks about keeping “him” in, but the whole season is about keeping him out, including Julian saying that Bulshar can’t be allowed to enter. In the bible their job is to keep everyone out of the Garden of Eden and away from the Tree of Life after Adam and Eve are kicked out for eating from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil lest they end up with knowledge and immortality.  Maybe both things are correct and the Guardians were to keep Bulshar and apparently Eve IN their prison to keep them away from the Tree of Life.
• Waverly’s angel blood caused flowers and trees to pop up.

Eve:

• (Biblical) One of the first of two (or three depending where you stand on ‘Lilith’) created. Lived in relative paradise until she was tempted by The Serpent (our Bulshar) to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
• There has been mention in certain versions of her story that well…”the motif of Eve copulating with the primeval serpent takes priority over her other sexual transgressions.”
• From 3×10: Wynonna – “Don’t forget Eve.” Kevin – “Oh, I wish I could. Don’t even get me started on that girl”.
• Has been imprisoned in “The Garden”, potentially, but not surely since her creation.
• Has a long list of things she is “pissed about”, a list which she hopes to address once she is free.
• Her plan, or part of it includes getting to the Ghost River Triangle to get what she is “owed”
• Self-described “nightmare unto the world”.
• Seems to be a feminist… so at least there’s that.

Waverly:

• Fully grown half-angel and adult human lady.
• Happily taken Virgo with hair for days. 
• “Destined” to take her place on Julian’s throne as “The Guardian”. “I am trying to protect this place, just like my father did.”
• Has some angel powers, but the extent is not known. I’ll be interested to see what she can do outside of The Garden and without the ring (assuming it stays gone).

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.

• Participant of the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
• Totes doesn’t deny being Wyatt’s boyfriend.
• Went to hell when he died in the AU. Is super emo about it.
• Is a vampire.
• Was able to climb the stairs to “The Garden”. 
• Emotionally constipated.

Jeremy Chetri:

• Has a sort of empathetic connection to people (“now I can sense when my friends are super scared”) every since he was in a car crash with his mother and stuck with her body for three days. My poor child.
• Black Badge “did stuff” to him as well.
• Not “purely human”. I don’t really take this to mean anything more than what we already know as stated in the bullets above, but who knows, maybe he’s the werewolf. 

Nicole Rayleigh Haught:

• Is a Capricorn….This fucking show. They think of everything.
  

Peacemaker: This section is a bit complicated after the developments of 3×12.

• Missing.
• Is a flaming sword that used to be a Bluntline Special that used to be a flaming sword.
• Was originally The Flaming Sword meant to protect The Garden. Referred to as “the garden’s security system” by Julian.
• the sword can only be wielded by a Champion chosen by an Angel. As of now that is Wynonna who was chosen by Waverly.
• Disconcertingly referred to by Bulshar as “my sword?”, but that’s one of those things that makes me question if anyone or anything on this show is what we’ve been led to believe they are so I’m not going to think about it.
• As a gun glowed orange when aimed at a demon. As a gun 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. As Wynonna prepared to shoot the Stone Witch, which was presented more as putting her out of her misery, the barrel started to glow orange, but quickly switched to blue.
• When Wynonna pointed the gun at Bulshar it glowed white, both IRL and in her hallucination.

The ring:

• Belonged to Waverly’s father, Julian. Bulshar stole it.
• Kate tells Waverly not to “underestimate the power of this relic. It’s older than most things on earth.”
• When Waverly finally puts it on, not only can she not take it off, Arabic writing appears on the ring. The writing translates to Garden of Paradise.
• So far we’ve seen the ring: give Widow Mercedes a serious Glow-Up and enable Waverly to punch a zombie witch across the barn, melt a demon’s face, control Bulshar’s former arm (connected to a radioactive revenant), heal her friend’s face, raise Julian, it’s rightful owner, from the dead, and put an end to Bobo.
• Can’t say if this is on purpose or not, but Waverly yelling at the ring to get it to suddenly be useful is too similar to Wynonna yelling at Peacemaker in 2×12.

My original theory was that the flaming sword, the gun, the ring, and the plate from S2 were all made by the same source of metal. Now we know that the gun was the flaming sword, but I still think there is a connection. I also came across some stuff about a very old black stone that is related to biblical story of the Garden of Eden. 

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral:

• 30 second shootout between lawmen and a group of outlaws, the Cochise County Cowboys.
• Lawmen involved included Town Marshal Virgil Earp, Special Policemen Morgan and Wyatt Earp, and temporary policeman Doc Holliday.

Cochise County Cowboys present at the O.K. Corral:

• Billy Claiborne : ran from the fight.
• Ike Clanton: ran from the fight
• Billy Clanton: killed in the shootout (remember this name next ep)
• Tom and Frank McLaury: Killed in the shootout

New and Curious figures:

• Magistrate Cleo LNU. Has something against Earps, “this is hereditary, daughter of Earps”.
• Sheriff Holt Clayborn ? Clayborn Holt? His name-tag says Sheriff Holt, but Nicole and Cleo refer to him as “Sheriff Clayborn”. Had rumored advantages in the election for Sheriff.
• Amon. Demon.

Mel and Kat Tweets of the Week:

I feel like Mel and Kat are pretty consistently hilarious when it comes to live-tweeting, so let’s recap some of the best of the best.

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Thanks so much for reading. Feel free to leave theories and feedback in the comments or hit me up on twitter. If you really liked it feel free to head over to my Ko-Fi page and contribute to my Chipotle fund https://ko-fi.com/earpermarine.

Surprise:Too Big It Couldn’t Wait

This isn’t specific to this episode, but it’s good and couldn’t wait. When Wynonna, Waverly, and Doc “escaped” The Garden the thing that stood out to me was the symbol glowing at the top of the door. So image the sound I made when the exact same symbol is shown on the head of the creature that “knows” Wynonna in the preview for 4×04.

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Obviously it looks like a “C” but there is a small line on the left side that is definitely not an accident.

P. S. The monster is the same guy as the guy in the credits, 100% and the markings on the side of his face look very similar to Bulshar’s symbol. Shout out to @LauraMeetWorld on twitter for pointing me in the right direction.