“You Tasted The Murder Tree?” — Let’s Talk About Wynonna Earp Season 3, Episode 4

Typically, the fourth episode of a show’s third season will be a standalone story or more laying of the season’s groundwork. But for Wynonna Earp, it means walking trees, demonic deals, baked goods and a new ship setting sail.
Let’s start with the ship. As far as we can tell, the pairing of Jeremy (Varun Saranga) and Robin (Justin Kelly) doesn’t have a name yet. But considering the relationship revolves around a murder tree and the weirdness in the forest, maybe it should be vegetation related. There’s also that odd moment in which Robin coughed up dirt. Though Robin is a new element, the show went out of its way to make him feel like he was always just out of frame. Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) introduces him as a old friend and Robin subsequently tells Jeremy that she was the only person in Purgatory who didn’t make his life a living hell growing up.
That’s our Waves.
Almost immediately, the two are shockingly cute together, but their informal date to the shifting forest and the murder tree suggests their ship may be imperiled before it has a change to find its name. Which, oddly enough, brings us to the forest, where things are extra weird. The trees are moving Huorn style, which means they move fast enough to confuse a forest ranger like Robin. But we still have to wonder if they are moving out of Bulshar’s (Jean Marchand) way or at his direction.
Muddying the waters further was the demon’s appearance in this episode. Appealing to Doc’s (Tim Rozon) sense of self-preservation, he appeared to offer Doc a way out of his fate in Hell. Or did Doc just hallucinate the whole thing because of what is happening the forest? His ability to hear a demon in the room with Michelle (Megan Follows) on the twenty-year-old therapy session tape suggests Doc is attuned to Bulshar’s wavelength. Did he offer Michelle a similar deal all those years ago?
It might explain why she is always of two minds in regard to Waverly. One moment, you can hear in her voice how much she loves her, but then something strikes her and the need to kill her baby girl rises. As Nedly (Greg Lawson) finally admits, Michelle was put away for trying to burn Waves in the homestead barn. At the same time, he is convinced whatever means Waverly ill is not a real part of Michelle. As he put it, “there’s not an evil bone in her body.”
Also, can we give Lawson some credit for this week’s episode? He nailed the compassion, resignation, warmth and gruffness of Nedly in all of his scenes. As executive producer Emily Andras mentioned at Comic-Con, we won’t see too much of him this year, but man does he bring his all to every moment.
So Michelle managed to finally escape custody, but the facility holding her was infiltrated by Revenants, so it is kind of a moot point. But it gave the show an excuse for Wynonna to pull off a spectacular action scene while handcuffed. It also gave an already intense episode some more intensity as the warden made it very clear that Michelle only has one idea in her head: kill Waverly.
And it seemed like she might succeed except for the intervention of Jolene (Zoie Palmer). We definitely like Jolene. She stopped Michelle and baked a lot of snacks for the gang. Wasn’t that nice of Jolene? I can’t wait to see what else she’ll cook up.
Spread across the episode was also the growing maturity between Waves and Nicole (Katherine Barrell). The two are trying to be way more honest and Waverly is certainly trying to make Nicole and her sister good friends. It’s sweet. It also foreshadows something Nedly mentions about Michelle being as popular way back when as Waverly is now. That’s curious considering Waverly is not her daughter. But back with WayHaught, it is nice to see them trying to comfort one another with bad news and encouraging each other to face their baggage. Even if it meant a sucky afternoon for Waverly, it still reflects something truly touching about how they are becoming more of united pair.
Which, of course, makes me wonder what Nicole’s parents will be like. And while we’re asking questions, what will happen with the BBD office now that Black Badge isn’t paying the rent? How will Nedly smooth this one over with the town management? Maybe Jolene can help. I bet she’s as good at city planning as she is with an oven.
Wynonna Earp airs Fridays on Syfy.