'Wynonna Earp' 4.10 Review: Personal Demons

This post contains spoilers for Wynonna Earp.
Check out our last review here.

Wynonna's (Melanie Scrofano) dulling and deflecting of pain through alcohol, humor, and demon-killing has been an ever-present through line in Wynonna Earp. But these destructive coping mechanisms are at long last given the close examination they deserve in "Life Turned Her That Way," which begins with Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and Nicole (Katherine Barrell) staging an intervention for Wynonna.

Worried about how Wynonna's kill-demons-and-drink-whiskey-till-she-passes-out lifestyle has left her increasingly isolated, Waverly tries to get Wynonna to address her loneliness and unhealthy dependence on hunting. But Wynonna has no interest in listening to what Waverly says, insisting that she has no choice but to continue on as she is, because if she stops killing then everyone she loves will die. Waverly retorts that this is just what Wynonna tells herself to justify her actions. With barbs flying, the sisters’ conversation soon turns nasty, with Waverly even comparing Wynonna to their drunken, abusive father before Wynonna storms off.

After the disastrous intervention, Waverly secretly meets with Doc (Tim Rozon) by the stairs to the Garden, where we finally learn what’s inside the book Waverly took in the season premiere. The answer: nothing. Waverly is understandably confused by this fact, but we’re more concerned about the things Waverly says next. As she explains to Doc, she wonders if she should have stayed in the Garden, noting how when she sat on the throne, it took all her cares away. Doc says that this sounds like hell, but to Waverly it was heaven. Waverly has always wanted to be special, and so it makes sense that she’d romanticize her own supernatural legacy. But after the intervention, which crystallized the burden and trap that a birthright can be, this cryptic conversation feels like a glaring warning sign of bad things to come.

Before our worries can fester too much, Dallas (Samuel Hoeksema) and Remy (Ben Wong) interrupt Doc and Waverly, revealing that BBD raided the Glory Hole and took all their supplies. Starving and trapped in the Triangle, they ignore Doc’s orders to leave Waverly alone and reveal their intentions to hunt her. Waverly makes a run for it, only to rush right into the magic fog, which has spread even further into the Triangle. However, neither demon is able to give chase since just after Waverly disappears into the mist, BBD agents arrive on the scene. They make quick work of tranquilizing and abducting Doc and Dallas, though they leave an injured Remy behind.

Meanwhile, Wynonna is training Rachel (Martina Ortiz-Luis) in the woods when they stumble upon a trail of blood that leads them to Remy. While Wynonna is ready to put Remy down, Rachel tends to his wounds and insists they help because Remy isn’t just a demon — he’s also the bass player in a Halsey tribute band. (Very unfair for Wynonna Earp to drop this tidbit and not include a hilarious Halsey cover band name.) Upon learning  everything that happened, Wynonna insists they prioritize saving Waverly from the fog before rescuing Doc from BBD.

But it isn’t just the fog Wynonna has to worry about. While Waverly is running for safety, she discovers a remote cabin that's able to keep the face-ripping fog out. Unfortunately, inside the cabin isn’t her salvation; it’s Jolene (Zoie Palmer), who was freed from her vine prison after Bulshar (Jean Marchand) was killed. In a classic villain monologue, Jolene updates Waves on her new evil agenda: force Waverly to embrace her true nature, since demons are just fallen angels and it's time Waverly stop fighting who she is.

When Jolene first abducted Waverly, she spewed lies in the hopes of convincing Waverly to take her own life. But this time, Jolene doesn't need lies to manipulate her better half. Instead, Jolene weaponizes the Earp sisters' now-strained relationship, pointing out the harsh truths about the burden Wynonna has carried as the Earp heir, and the ways Waverly allowed Wynonna to shoulder that weight on her own. To hammer in her point, Jolene says that the scores of tally marks on the walls are for the number of lives, both demon and human, that Wynonna has taken to keep Waverly safe, musing about what it must be like to have that much blood on one's hands. And though Waverly continues to resist Jolene’s attempt to bring out her dark side, we know it’s starting to work since Peacemaker rejects Waverly when she tries to use it against Jolene.

Meanwhile, the Save Waverly Rescue Mission is officially on. Wynonna and Rachel loop in Nicole and recruit KC (Andrew Phung) to guide them through the fog. However, KC insists he can only bring one person into the fog with him. Though Wynonna automatically assumes she'll be the one to play hero, Nicole insists that it's her turn after being sidelined during the last Save Waverly Rescue Mission. (There sure are a lot of Save Waverly missions, aren't there?). In an important recognition of the changing place she now holds in her sister's life, a reluctant Wynonna agrees to be the one who stays behind.

When KC and Nicole venture into the fog, the camera stays with Wynonna, who's forced to listen helplessly on the radio as she hears them discover the cabin, find Waverly, and fight with Jolene. After KC and Nicole signal Rachel and Wynonna to pull them back to safety, all the duo reel in is KC’s dead body. (We understand that showing these events from Wynonna’s perspective was important to her arc, but KC deserved better than an off-screen death!)

As for Nicole, she soon radios in to reveal she’s safe and out of the fog. She talks Wynonna out of rushing in on her own and convinces her to get Jeremy's (Varun Saranga) help. And so Wynonna heads to BBD, where Doc and Jeremy are currently being held in a “feed pen.” “Wait, what?” you're probably asking right now. Well, you see, BBD upper management determined that since they can’t fight or contain the fog, they are going to abandon the Triangle — but not without taking their most valuable “assets” with them. The assets in this instance being demons, which somewhat makes sense in BBD logic, we guess??? Since BBD wants the demons kept alive, they also have rounded up some innocent humans and anyone who poses a threat to their plan, such as Jeremy and Doc, where they’ll be imprisoned until becoming demon chow.

Upon arriving at BBD, Wynonna meets the new head honcho, General Graham, who wants her to come with them when they leave the Triangle. When she insists on staying behind, he shockingly respects her wishes and offers her “severance pay,” which means she can take one person with her. At first, Wynonna chooses Jeremy over Doc, since she wants his fog antidote. But then she changes her mind when she spots Cleo Clanton (Savannah Basley) in the cell, and chooses her instead. She promises Jeremy and Doc that she’ll come back for them, but they’re understandably devastated by this betrayal.

Doc and Jeremy do find an unexpected ally in Mercedes (Dani Kind), of all people. After BBD raided the Glory Hole, she somehow got into the BBD air vents and has been hiding there with a key card waiting to escape. She tries to break Jeremy and Doc out, but before she can get succeed Graham and a team of agents arrive. Mercedes, bless her twisted heart, attempts to talk her way out of the situation, but Graham isn’t interested and promptly shoots her in the gut. Now, we’re not the world's biggest Mercedes fans — though we do enjoy her in small doses — but there is no way Mercedes is dead. At least not yet. After they unceremoniously killed off KC, we refuse to believe they also would snuff out Mercedes in such an abrupt fashion. 

Back in the woods, we learn the reason why Wynonna chose Cleo over her friends. Wynonna wants Cleo to use her powers as the Clanton heir to set a reaper on Jolene, allowing Wynonna to easily follow the reaper through the fog to find where Waverly is held captive. Cleo agrees to play her part in the plan, although she lies to Rachel about not using Billy (Billy Bryk) as the chosen reaper. But that is far from the only shady thing Cleo does here. She also adds in a few of Wynonna’s hairs while doing the spell, allegedly so that Wynonna can see Billy to make him easier to follow. There’s obviously no friggin' way that’s true, though, so we’re betting it’s only a matter of time before Wynonna finds her leashed reaper turning on her.

As Wynonna is following Billy to the cabin, Jolene continues to torture Waverly mentally and physically, at one point even stabbing her in the back and carving out a black feather. Yet despite all of Jolene’s best attempts, Waverly remains firmly Waverly. That is until Wynonna finally arrives, only to be blasted into the fog by Jolene, who claims Wynonna will now die thinking Waverly hates her. Overcome by her fear and rage, Waverly can’t keep her dark side at bay any longer and transforms — but not into a heavenly angel like we saw with Julian (Sebastian Pigott). Instead, she becomes a dark angel, complete with spooky (but kind of stylish?) black-rimmed eyes. Now with access to her full power, Waverly easily kills Jolene and makes it out of the fog, where she goes right to Wynonna, who is perfectly safe (thank god). As her new black wings unfurl, Waverly ominously tells her sister that while Wynonna’s journey is over, hers has just begun.

Now that is what we call a cliffhanger, people! And though we still have a ton of questions about what the heck is going on in Wynonna Earp right now, it was great to see some of the storylines that previously seemed unconnected, like the Clantons and the Garden, intersect in such a surprising way. And if anything is going to force Wynonna to overcome her own darkness, it will be the need to save Waverly from hers. That is… if Waverly even wants to be saved.

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