Wynonna Earp Season 4 Episode 8 Review: Hell Raisin’ Good Time

Happy Halloween… five months later.

Time is weird in Purgatory, to say the least, so it should come as no surprise that Wynonna Earp Season 4 Episode 8 aired a Halloween special in mid-March.

But hey, with everything crazy going on globally, celebrating All Hallows’ Eve just days before spring is probably one of the least weird things to have happened over the past year.

Though this is somewhat contradictory from my last review where I criticized the series for incorporating random ‘monster of the week’ subplots when there’s only a handful of episodes left before the series signs off for good, this installment’s inclusion of Rotten Jack was pretty awesome.

Part of that was due to the introduction of the mind-altering fog at the end of the Ghost River Triangle, which provided endless fun as Wynonna and Waverly stumbled around without any idea who they were and set up a larger story arc connected to the Garden.

Waverly: I’m getting married.
Wynonna: Yeah, you are.
Waverly: And Nicole’s my person.
Wynonna: She’s a good one.
Waverly: But you’re my sister. Nothing will ever change that, Wynonna. You are and have always been my hero.
Wynonna: It’s easy when you know exactly what you’re fighting for.

The sisters were in desperate need of some sibling bonding, and though this isn’t what either of them had in mind, it sure made for some entertaining television, even before the mind-altering fog kicked in.

Wynonna dressed in Britney Spears’ iconic schoolgirl outfit was the crossover I didn’t know I needed, and Waverly was cute as a button in her ladybug getup too.

However, the best “costumes” of the night go to Wynonna as a bartending Waverly and Waverly as a feisty cop named Wynonna.

It was such fun as they created these fictitious personas from clues around the Homestead and reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Season 6 Episode 8, where everyone’s magicked into forgetting who they are, and wonderful fun and chaos ensue.

Though the sisters got many details wrong, it was still super sweet that they were so supportive and loyal to each other even without remembering who they were.

I mean, who didn’t get a little emotional as a tied-up Wynonna and Waverly said what could have been their final words to each other at the Glory Hole? Just me?

It just further underscored their love and bond and showed that some things are so ingrained that even when your mind is wiped clean, you still somehow know certain things to be true.

And while Wynonna and Waverly were just fine by the end of the hour, we also were shown firsthand just how dangerous this hallucinogenic fog could be during prolonged exposure with the return of Robin.

However, it wasn’t the Robin we last saw on Wynonna Earp Season 3 Episode 12; no, it was an amnesiac Robin with a different face and new boyfriend.

Jeremy: At the Homestead, during the evacuation, we were taken by soldiers. They put us in the back of their truck and headed out of the Ghost River Triangle. They tasered me, tied me up, but I was so worried about you being stuck in the Garden that I asked Robin to find you, to help you, to jump. And he did right into that mind-altering fog that suddenly surrounded the Triangle. He was in it for weeks. When they finally pulled him out, he had torn his own face off. I’ve been going to these meetings every Tuesday just so I can slip small doses of serum into his coffee, hoping that it’ll build up in his system over time.
Wynonna: I can’t believe you’ve been carrying all this on your own.
Jeremy: I just want him to be happy even if it’s with a new face or in the arms of someone else.
Wynonna: You’ll figure it out. We will help you any way we can.
Jeremy: No, no, that’s just it, Wynonna. This mind fog, it’s spreading.

It’s unclear why Robin was recast, but this change, whether intentional or circumstantial, reinforces Jeremy’s point about the perilous fog.

Spend a few seconds in the fog; you temporarily lose your memory. Spend weeks in there; you rip your face off.

This fog is sure to play into the final four episodes in a big way, but its role is, or the kind of trouble it presents besides the obvious, remains unclear.

The best part about this storyline is that the fog somehow connects back to the Garden, which hopefully means the not-quite-as-imagined biblical paradise will come back into play.

The Garden is always preferable over the Clantons, and there are still some dangling plot threads from Wynonna, Waverly, and Doc’s time there, such as the book Waverly chose and whatever happened to Eve. 

And if the mind-altering fog started surrounding the Ghost River Triangle once the Garden was opened, then it’s plausible that for the fog to be reversed or contained, the Garden once again needs to be closed.

How that happens — or if it’s even possible without someone staying behind — is just something we’ll have to wait and see.

Elsewhere, it seems a WyDoc reunion isn’t as improbable as it seemed after Wynonna and Amon’s brief tryst.

Like predicted, Doc found out rather quickly about Wynonna and Amon’s hookup, but surprisingly, he didn’t seem that fazed by it, or if he did, Doc didn’t let it show.

Doc: I should get back to my party.
Amon: Your party? In my bar? Holliday, you haven’t bought me booze in weeks, yet you sit there drinking my wares.
Doc: As a once proprietor myself may I offer this, employees will work harder for honey.
Amon: Well, speaking of honey, can you give this to your friend Wynonna. It’s funny. I thought she would taste sweeter.
Doc: Oh you poor fool. The only think Wynonna detests more than demons is her exes.
Amon: Oh I think I bought immunity since I helped her find her gun.
Doc: She will happily turn on you, front or back.
Amon: She was happy when I turned her front and back.

Instead, he found the whole thing rather comical, as he pointed out to Amon that Wynonna hates demons almost as much as her exes.

However, he might not have been as cool with it as he first seemed, as letting the demons have their way with Amon at the end of the episode didn’t exactly scream happy and fuzzy feelings.

Yes, Doc’s actions can be chopped up to Amon trying to auction Wynonna and Waverly to a bunch of demons and then looking them all in the Glory Hole with Rotten Jack, but it’s nice to believe that at least a little part of Doc was ticked off by Amon sleeping with Wynonna.

After all, Amon did put the love of his life – Wynonna the Earp sisters — in danger and had to be punished accordingly. That’s the story that Doc’s sticking with, so we should back him on that, right?

So it now stands as it did before: The only thing standing in the way of Wynonna and Doc getting back together is themselves.

They have some hard conversations ahead of them, but things are no longer as bleak as they looked at the start of the hour.

For even after all they’ve been through, Doc couldn’t just stand idly by and let Wynonna die. 

They may barely be on speaking terms, but as they say, actions speak louder than words, and Doc’s certainly did this time.

Some stray thoughts:

• Poor Jeremy. From shouldering the secret of Robin and the mind-altering fog to fighting against the bureaucratic idiocy that is the new BBD, he’s more than excused from missing WayHaught’s two engagement parties. He has enough on his plate right now and should not be faulted for failing to attend.

  However, if he misses the wedding, it better be because the world is on fire or he’s lying dead in a ditch somewhere. Those are the only acceptable excuses.

• There was not enough Nicole. Her presence was sorely lacking, and I get it was written that way to give Wynonna and Waverly some quality time together, but there were still other ways for having her not being at Waverly’s side than going into the city to go dress shopping with Rachel.

  Speaking of, how did Nicole even get into the city if BBD strictly guards access into and out of the Ghost River Triangle? 

• Amon is a disgusting pig. Holding a deadpool for Rotten Jack’s victims was one thing, but taking advantage of a memory-less Wynonna and Waverly was another. Amon has always been an entrepreneur, so I guess auctioning off the Earp sisters to demons is just an extension of that, but it still crossed a line.

  I can’t imagine Wynonna letting him live if his fellow demons don’t kill him first. Whatever immunity he bought himself from helping Wynonna retrieve Peacemaker and sleeping with her is long gone. So goodbye Amon. You won’t be missed.

• Speaking of missing people, it was great to see Casey again. Here’s an example of a demon I want to see more of in the future. He’s pretty much the only side character at this point whose presence on our screens I wouldn’t object to. I’m talking to you, Cleo, who has better stay gone.

So what did you think, Earpers?

Did you enjoy the ‘monster of the week’ element or find it a waste of time?

What’s the deal with the mind-altering fog, and can it be stopped?

How close are we to a WyDoc reunion?

Hit the comments below to let me know your thoughts. If you missed the latest episode, remember you can watch Wynonna Earp online at TV Fanatic.

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Jessica Lerner is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.