Synopsis of 2×04: This episode sure is a doozy. We find out what happened to Mercedes, what’s going on with Dolls, what’s going on with Waverly, and a whole lot more. Plus someone loses a hand! (Temporarily.)
The episode starts with a black-eyed Waverly ‘sleepwalking’ her way across the homestead in a nightgown while everything is covered in snow with a knife in her hand. Creepy? Yeah. This actually turns out to be a wake up call for Wynonna, who hadn’t previously been willing to admit to herself that something was seriously wrong with her little sister. She ultimately ends up apologizing to Haught and the two of them discuss the changes for a bit before Wynonna has to rush off.
Where is she rushing off to, you ask?
So, in the opening scene Waverly picks up Dolls’ dogtags, which happen to be left out in the yard from whenever he crawled his way into their barn. Black-eyed Waverly doesn’t want Wynonna to know about him so she hides them in the jacket the Wynonna brings out to her. But later Wynonna puts on that same jacket and finds them.
Realizing that Dolls is back on the Homestead, Wynonna goes to find him. He’s not really in any better shape that he was in the last episode. He’s weak and he can’t really control his mysterious, possibly demonic side very well. Luckily Wynonna knows that Doc and his friend have been cooking up some anti-demon meth in the basement so she hand delivers Dolls to them. With a little help from Jeremy (who Wynonna is finally starting to trust) they seem to get the serum figured out and Doc and Dolls share some seriously bromantic moments.
Dolls also warns Wynonna that something is up with Waverly.
Unfortunately, coming to Waverly’s aid isn’t nearly as easy as knocking out Dolls and dragging him to a bar. Waverly – as a newly minted and magically coerced member of Black Badge – is on her first solo mission! With Lucado working as surveillance, she’s infiltrating a club that caters to supernatural mobsters in order to retrieve a briefcase that was stolen from a Black Badge agent. I’m sure that eventually the briefcase and it’s contents will be important but, honestly, they aren’t in this episode.
Still, the stolen briefcase subplot helps take the story where it needs to go. Black-eyed Waverly does a good job of sneaking into the place and it almost seemed like maybe she was starting to control the more useful aspects of her demonic possession. It’s something that I would have liked to have seen more of in future episodes. Unfortunately, we won’t get that chance. (But more on that later.) Black-eyed Waverly may be a great spy but regular Waverly isn’t necessarily, so obviously things fall apart and Wynonna rushes into the rescue.
… if by rescue, we mean she gets captured in a pretty lame trap alongside Waverly.
The demonic mobster folks really want inside the briefcase, which apparently was owned by Edwin Earp – a previous Earp heir from a while back. When they can’t open it, the main bad guy threatens to cut off Waverly’s hand with some freaky bone sword he can shoot out of his wrist. And when Wynonna doesn’t give him what he wants he ACTUALLY CUTS HER DAMN HAND OFF. LIKE SERIOUSLY. ALL THE WAY OFF.
In the end, though, the demon possessing Waverly regrows the hand after Doc comes to the rescue and takes care of all the other possibly demonic mobster guys. Also, he gets himself a new hat after four episodes without one. When confronted about the suddenly regrown limb, Waverly claims to never have seen her hand get cut off and Doc just tells Wynonna she probably only thought the guy made good on his threats.
When they get back to Shorty’s they find out that Dolls has doped himself up with way more of his special anti-demon serum than he should have and is now out of control in the basement. This turns out to be a good thing, though, because when the mobster bad guy shows up, Dolls basically turns into a man-dragon-thing and burns the guy near-to-death. And then they all have a good laugh because Dolls saves the day and everything is back to normal!
Except, you know, now Wynonna knows for sure something is wrong with Waverly.
That evening, Wynonna decides to confront whatever is in her sister. She threatens it with Peacemaker but they both know that Wynonna isn’t going to shoot the only family she has left. And it turns out the demon hates living inside of Waverly.
Apparently Waverly has a very strong will and she’s not about to give up easily. As the demon says, Waverly is no fun. But the demon thinks that Wynonna is and after kissing her it transfers from Waverly to Wynonna – easily taking over Wynonna’s troubled mind. The whole transition happens quickly and you can tell she’s really gone by the way Peacemaker falls from her hand.
And, of course, that leaves Waverly unconscious and at the mercy of this thing that’s not completely taken over her sister. I’m sure Haught will be on the way to rescue her soon, though. But here’s the real question: will Waverly have to pick up the slack for Wynonna? And can she do it without Peacemaker? Since she’s not really an Earp and she can’t use the gun that means Purgatory is basically defenseless…
Pretty crazy ending, right?
But wait! There’s more. What happened to Mercedes!?
It turns out that Mercedes is probably dead – but not really. Not yet anyway. When Tucker comes to confront her the following morning he finds her marveling over bacon, which is a textbook sign that someone has been possessed by an ancient spectre/ghost/demon/etc. He’s not at all thrilled with the way possessed Mercedes treats him and not only tries (and fails) to report things to Haught, but also threatens to move out. Not that he does in the end because both Mercedes and Beth are now possessed by some pretty dark spirits who tell Tucker they want to nurture the budding serial killer inside of him. When faced with the process of torturing and murdering some hapless victims they bring him he only asks for one other thing: that they bring him a girl.
So, yeah, Tucker is probably going to be murdering women here pretty soon. I mean, even without the intervention of these demonic things taking over his sisters he probably would have been doing that soon anyway.
I’d like to say there’s hope for Mercedes yet but most likely she really is dead and Wynonna is going to be forced to shoot her dead. Because Wynonna ultimately ends up shooting everyone she cares for dead at some point or another. For now, though, we’re going to get to enjoy possessed Wynonna being crazy, burning bridges, probably breaking hearts (the whole Doc/Dolls/Wynonna love triangle is going to get so bent out of shape), and all kinds of shenanigans.
Let’s see how this all goes!
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