What to Watch Verdict
The Syfy drama delivers a practically perfect series finale.
Pros
- +
🤠 Everyone gets the happy ending they deserve.
- +
🤠 A fun monster of the week never upstages the heartwarming WayHaught and WyDoc moments.
- +
🤠 The finale is completely satisfying, while still setting up interesting threads for a potential fifth season.
Cons
- -
🤠 Just because a wedding dress is cursed, doesn't mean it has to be that ugly.
This post contains spoilers for Wynonna Earp.
Check out our last review here.
It’s been two and a half years since Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) first proposed to Nicole (Katherine Barrell) on Wynonna Earp, and the time has finally come for the WayHaught wedding! We only wish it wasn’t under such bittersweet circumstances. As of writing this, the supernatural western has yet to find a new home, making the probability of this episode serving as the series finale disappointingly high. But if this is the last time we get to visit Purgatory, we couldn’t have asked for a lovelier goodbye.
“Old Souls” starts off the morning of the big day, with everyone preparing the homestead to host the magical event. Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) is stressing more than anyone else though, wanting to make sure her sister’s wedding is everything she deserves (and to make up for the fact that Waves is getting married at the site of both of her dads’ deaths). But Wynonna’s attempt to be the pillar of responsibility hits a snag when she sees Waverly’s (completely heinous) wedding dress and gives in to temptation to try it on.
Now, we know that Waves’ fashion sense can be pretty out there, but upon seeing the dress — particularly the blue rhinestone heart emblazoned on the front — we know that there is no way she looked at that dress and thought “mine.” This gets explained away pretty quickly, seeing that as soon as Wynonna puts the dress on, she discovers she's unable to take it off because it's most definitely haunted.
Wynonna rushes over to Doc’s (Tim Rozon) trailer, causing all the wedding decorations to explode in her wake as a result of the dress’ dark magic. Doc reminds Wynonna that he's is an expert at getting her out of her clothes, but his attempt to cut her out of the cursed fabric fails. Before they can wrap their heads around the situation (and before we can process the near-stifling amount of sexual tension between these two), Wynonna is forced to hide inside the trailer when Waverly shows up with a sweet surprise for the gunslinger.
After gifting Doc Wyatt Earp’s saddle, Waverly tells Doc what he's so worked so hard to hear: that he’s a good person. “Not perfect, but trying every day to be better. And that makes you the best man I have ever known," Waverly says. And since Wynonna is standing up for her best friend Nicole, Waverly asks Doc to do her the honor of being her best man. Of course Doc says yes, and seeing the tears in his eyes is only the first of many, many times “Old Souls” has us weeping too.
After Waverly leaves, Doc and Wynonna set off together to visit the shop the dress was purchased from — which is named, of course, Cursey’s Vintage. The owner of Cursey’s and her weird Moira Rose voice explain to Doc and Wynonna that the haunted dress will cause Wynonna to kill everyone at the wedding, even if the shop owner is killed. To avoid the massacre, they're instructed to bring the witch silk worms in exchange for her helping Wynonna out of the murderous gown.
So, the pair set off on a worm-finding mission in the woods. But while Doc dives in a creek searching for the wigglers, Wynonna discovers a letter in his jacket pocket that Doc had written revealing his plans to leave the Ghost River Triangle after the nuptials. Wynonna, understandably, is furious at Doc for seemingly abandoning her the same way he did Kate (Chantel Riley) and Wyatt. Doc explains that she has it all wrong. He’s just ready to let go of the past and start living his life again, and he was never going to just leave a letter — he was only trying to find the right words to tell this to her. Doc adds that, while Wynonna is the truest hero he’s fought beside, she’s a coward when it comes to love. And so he asks Wynonna to prove him wrong and come with him. Wynonna avoids answering him by shifting focus back to the dress, which in its own way is answer enough.
Back at the homestead, Waverly, Nicole, and Jeremy are still trying to figure out how all the wedding decorations got ruined. Jeremy suspects the hot caterer Damon is a demon who’s sabotaging the wedding. He's hilariously off-base on this, but Jeremy's odd interrogation of Damon does somehow lead to them making plans to go on a date. Good for them!
Nicole and Waverly are much quicker on deducing the real culprit, going hilariously fast from seeing the destroyed barn to realizing a haunted wedding dress is the most obvious answer. Then again, after all the wackiness they’ve been through, it weirdly makes sense that their brains would connect the dots in this way. The pair start putting together a murder board, tracking all the deadly weddings in Purgatory’s history until they find the original one. In 1922, Bridgette Hogback was left at the altar and slaughtered all of her guests. Ever since, Bridgette, revealed to be the Cursey's proprietor, and her haunted dress have been turning what should have been couples’ special days into bloodbaths.
Waverly heads to Cursey’s to confront Bridgette, who has just finished laughing off Wynonna and Doc’s attempt to pass off regular worms painted with nail polish as the silkworms she sought. But apparently no worms are needed at all to save Wynonna from committing mass murder. Waverly manages to tie up Bridgette and perform a standard removal spell to get Wynonna out of the haunted wedding dress. Now that they have avoided a potential wedding massacre, Wynonna finally has to explain why she put on the dress in the first place. She sheepishly admits it's because she wanted to pretend that she was that kind of normal and had that kind of love. Meanwhile, Doc is standing RIGHT THERE.
But this day isn’t about Wynonna and Doc. It’s about Waverly and Nicole, and the time has finally come for them to get married. Back at the homestead, Nicole has changed into her sleek burgundy suit and is looking absolutely breathtaking when Nedley (Greg Lawson) comes in to give her a wildflower boutonnière. A touched Nicole asks Nedley to walk her down the aisle since he’s been walking beside her for most of her life already — a request which once again starts up our waterworks.
The ceremony begins with Jeremy officiating and Rachel (Martina Ortiz-Luis) as the only other guest. Though the wedding is small, there are chairs set up for each person whom Wavelry and Nicole wish could be there, but aren’t able to join for one reason or another. There are chairs for Mama Earp (Megan Follows), Mercedes (Dani Kind), Robin (Justin Kelly), and Gus (Natascha Girgis), but the one that has us literally weeping is the chair for Dolls (Shamier Anderson). Often when a character is killed, the series eventually moves on and it’s like the other characters forget all about their lost friend. But Wynonna Earp has always done an exceptional job at finding ways to honor Dolls’ memory and show how the loss of him still hangs over the Earps. And it's beautiful details like this that makes this finale that much more special.
The heartwarming wedding continues with Waverly and Nicole’s vows, which are as sweet and emotional as we could have expected. But before we know it, the ceremony is over and it’s time for the reception. There’s drinking, dancing, a random singing performance by Rachel, and even Jeremy catching the bouquet, which prompts Doc to pick him up and spin him around in an adorable celebration. Soon enough, though, Doc is jumping in Charlene and driving off to pack up his things to leave the Triangle.
Wynonna catches up to him at his trailer, but not to tell him she’s going with him; she just wants him to stay. Doc explains again that he has to move forward — plus, he wants to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! He adds that he lied to Wynonna when they first met, and that vengeance wasn’t the only thing that kept him going when he was stuck in the well — he mostly thought about love. But Wynonna continues to insist that she can’t leave Waverly, so Doc kisses her on the cheek and drives off alone.
When she returns to the homestead, Jeremy is as flummoxed as we are about how she could have said no to Doc Holliday ("Was he not wearing his hat?”). But instead of telling Wynonna she made a mistake, Jeremy, Nedley, and Nicole start to rationalize her decision until Waverly arrives on the scene and stops these shenanigans. Waverly sternly lectures everyone for allowing Wynonna to mess up her life for them again, before delivering a perfect Half Baked-inspired round of f--- you’s to all those involved. Waverly then literally drags Wynonna by the ear into the barn, where she begins packing her sister's things.
Wynonna continues to insist that she can’t leave since she has to protect Waverly. But Waverly retorts that there’s no way Wynonna is going to put this decision on her, and that she needs to stop acting that she’s the only one who can handle the Triangle. With Nicole as the sheriff/angel’s shield and Jeremy as the new deputy director of Black Badge after feeding the last one to a werewolf, Waverly insists that things be fine without Wynonna. Plus, Waverly shares her and Nicole's plans to do things differently moving forward, with humans and demons finding a way to live in peace together. So maybe it's time for Wynonna to try something new too.
“That cowboy became a cow-man for you. He’s tried. Now it’s your turn, Wynonna,” Waverly urges her sister. And though Waverly's biggest fear used to be that Wynonna would never return to the Triangle and get to know the real her, now she knows Wynonna always will.
It’s one hell of a pep talk, and thank god it works. With Doc nearing the Triangle’s border, Wynonna jumps on her old motorcycle and races after him. Just as Doc approaches the border, Wynonna gets Charlene in her sight and shoots out the tires. The two meet on foot in the middle of the road where Wynonna, at long last, tells Doc that she loves him — and his butt —“in the bottom of a deep dark well way.” At this, the pair share the kind of passionate kiss we have been waiting ages for. They’re crying, we’re crying, you’re crying — it’s a perfect moment. But the Wynonna Earp finale isn’t done pulling on our heartstrings yet.
Doc hops on the back of Wynonna’s motorcycle and the two race off into the great unknown. But before they can begin following Doc’s lengthy itinerary (which we’d pay good money to read), Wynonna suggests they make a detour to Miracles, Montana to find their daughter Alice. The joy in Doc and Wynonna’s eyes when they realize they can see Alice again is so genuine and tender that it makes it even harder to accept that we most likely won’t get to see this reunion play out onscreen.
Seeing Wynonna ready to forge her own path outside of the burden of her birthright is thrilling, and watching her wrestle with how to define her new identity with Doc and Alice by her side would make for a moving fifth season. But if this really is the end, we couldn’t have asked for a better way to say goodbye to Wynonna Earp. This is a series finale we won't hesitate to revisit time and time again.
