“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” –Alexander Pope
“Yeah I know that I let you down.
Is it too late to say I’m sorry now?” –Justin Bieber
When is an apology too late? Can withholding forgiveness be harmful? This week’s Wynonna Earp explores this by introducing us to a particularly creepy Revenant of the Week—one who punishes people for their lack of ability to receive forgiveness. Talk about a nightmare. But first, let’s get our Doc Holliday on.
Now that the Doc’s out of the bag, he takes Wynonna out to prove he’s still the fastest gun in the West. He also tells a little tale about his last chat with his old bestie, Wyatt Earp. Wyatt wanted Doc to join him in Purgatory, but Doc was kind of busy dying of consumption.
So if Doc’s not a Revenant, what is he? Well, he made a deal with something shady for “eternal longevity,” which is not the same as eternal life. He can still die if he’s shot, stabbed, or otherwise maimed. Wynonna can’t help but be charmed by him, even as she tries to hide it.
We then meet up with two unfamiliar women, one of whom is hysterically crying and begging to be forgiven while the other coldly brushes her away and leaves. A terrifying voice calls out, “Tick Tock, tick tock. Forgiven or not?” as the crying woman, Megan, begs for help and covers up her mirrors. This fella doesn’t give a fig about her pleading or corporeal states and slashes her throat from within the mirror.
Dolls and Wynonna show up to investigate, and they find “Repent Sinners” written in blood on Megan’s mirror and a pretty savage scene. We find out that Dolls spent time in Afghanistan, but he’s not going to give Wynonna any details. When Wynonna sees the body, she recognizes her as a former classmate and bully from high school.
They bring their clues to Waverly, who thinks she might have a Revenant to look into. Father Malik is a particularly sinister character that was a notorious murderer (and hater) of women. After getting shot down by Dolls on her request to join the mission, Waverly shares her recent close call with Doc Holliday. Big sis is not pleased.
After roughing Doc up a little, he pleads his case. He was only trying to protect Waverly from the other unsavory characters at the trailer park—that and he’s only working for BoBo because he’s in debt from gambling. You’d think that, after 130 years, he’d have started a savings account. Doc does steer Wynonna towards the trailer park and Father Malik. Dolls and Wynonna head over there, where they come face to face with BoBo and his many minions. BoBo toys with Wynonna’s emotions, and brings up her past stint in a psychiatric hospital. Dolls steps in before Wynonna can get too heated up, but BoBo isn’t too intimidated. He grants them permission to enter the property and search out Father Malik. Apparently the stench will lead you right to him. True to his word, Wynonna and Dolls find a filthy Malik, who proves not to be the Rev they are after, in between shouting “whore” in Wynonna’s general direction. He does warn Wynonna that the Rev with the blade is after her now. Wynonna knows he’s telling the truth when she sees an image of the man with a blade in a car mirror. She recognizes him as one of the Seven.
Dolls gets an ID on the woman what Megan was begging forgiveness from and it’s another one of Wynonna’s old enemies from high school, Samantha “Perky Tits” Baker. (Frankly, it’s better than my high school nickname, but I digress.) Samantha hadn’t seen Megan in years, and was shocked to see her the day before. It turns out that the night of a big end of year bash, Megan accidentally killed Samantha’s father in a hit and run. Samantha didn’t grant Megan forgiveness, and now Megan is dead.
Doc struts into Shorty’s to find that Gus and Waverly are freezing him out. Can’t an immortal (possible) villain get a drink in this town?! Doc sits down next to this sad sack of a guy who is drowning his sorrows in a bottle of whiskey. Doc partakes as the man explains that he asked forgiveness from his wife, but she wouldn’t grant it. Doc goes on about his own “mission of vengeance” but the man just gets up and walks to the bathroom. It’s there he meets his fate, and Doc stumbles upon his body.
As Dolls and Wynonna head back from meeting with Samantha, Wynonna confesses that the night of the big party, she slept with Megan’s boyfriend to hurt her. Megan caught them and ran off all drunk and upset. Now Wynonna feels responsible, but Dolls actually tells her not to judge her 16 year old self so harshly. They arrive at Shorty’s to check out the scene and Wynonna recognizes the dead man as her old probation officer.
They know that it’s not possible for Doc to have had anything to do with it, but Dolls wants to question him anyway. It’s what you do when you are about to enter into a possible love triangle situation. The pissing contest gets off to a grand start, even causing the stone faced doll to burst into maniacal laughter. Dolls quickly figures out that Henry is Doc Holliday. He’s not too happy that Wynonna didn’t tell him first though.
The probation officer’s wife calls the station to request a meeting with Wynonna. She and Dolls head over there, and the wife is being haunted by the same Revenant. The wife confesses that she and her husband set Wynonna up to take a fall for them and landed her in juvie. Wynonna is furious and before she can genuinely forgive the woman for this injustice, the Rev finds her in a reflection and slits her throat right in front of Wynonna. The Rev tells Wynonna she has two hours to receive forgiveness from those she’s wronged.
Wynonna starts to freak out because how to you stop an apparition who can move through reflective surfaces and can’t be harmed? Dolls comes up with the idea to find a way to make the Rev solid, but it’s going to be tricky and scary as hell. First, they need his name. WAVERLY HALP! Wynonna makes a mad dash to ask for forgiveness from those she’s wronged, but she manages to just make things worse.
Since Doc has seen the Rev’s face, Waverly turns to him for help. He does his best to mend fences with her, complimenting her detective skills and commitment to her family name. He picks out the right picture for her, and in turn, she lets him out of jail. Everyone is happy but Dolls. At least we have a name: August Hamilton, former barber and current mirror-demon. Back in Wyatt’s time, August was going to testify against some bad guys, but he disappeared before he could go to trial. So while he might not have been a bad guy originally like the others, Wyatt is responsible for his death, and thusly, now he’s a Revenant.
Time is ticking away, so Dolls prepares a ritual he hopes will help Wynonna. It involves an obsidian mirror, sexy candles, and some Latin (read by Waverly). Almost instantly, Dolls is possessed. It takes a taser jolt to snap him out of it, some CPR to revive him, and the damn ritual doesn’t even work.
Dolls does cough up some water, which gives the gang a clue to where August’s body might be. Dolls finally admits that he was responsible for August’s demise, and he sunk him to the bottom of a lake. They head over there, where they come face to face with August. He asks Wynonna whom she has hurt the most, and it’s none other than little sis Waverly. Waverly couldn’t forgive Wynonna for doing nothing and being the heir, while Waverly has dedicated her life to learning all she can. Waverly forgives her, but August tries to take Wynonna’s life anyway. She gets the best of him, though, knocking the blade from his hand and sending him back to hell with a shot between the eyes. She’s had about enough of alive and dead dudes taking away her autonomy. Take that, patriarchy.
Without the threat of demonic throat slitting, Wynonna and Waverly hash it out at home over bubblegum sake. Waverly admits to spending years of study and research trying to break the curse, but it was only when her sister came back to town that she realized that she was never going to be the chosen one. Because they are the Earp sisters, they find a way to forgive and move on.
Speaking of moving on, we go back to Doc, who is still stuck in the past in more than a few ways. We flash back to the day that Wyatt comes back and finds Doc mysteriously healed and very much alive. Wyatt realizes that Doc has been granted something that no man is meant to have. It’s the day their bromance ends, and you can see Doc is still haunted by it.
Dana Piccoli is a pop culture critic and entertainment writer who lives recently relocated from New York to Greenville, SC. She’s a current writer and former Staff Editor of AfterEllen and covers The 100 for Alloy Entertainment. She’s also written for Curve Magazine, Go Magazine, PopWrapped, and Gaygamer.net. She’s currently writing a lesbian romance novel she’s hoping you will read one day soon. You can follow her on Twitter and Tumblr.
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