“I’m A Demon Hunter, Not A Shakespeare” — Let’s Talk About ‘Wynonna Earp’ Season 4, Episode 1

It’s so good to have this show back.
Wynonna Earp has been off the air for far too long, and though the world is full of all-too-real horrors, the supernatural menaces Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) and her family encounter are manageable potions of terror they can fight, and, occasionally, quip at. And thankfully, that element of the show is here in spades with the season four debut; a premiere so delayed by our sad reality, that Nedley (Greg Dawson) had to make a joke about.
But for Wynonna, Nedley, Nicole (Katherine Barrell), Jeremy (Varun Saranga) and Kate (Chantel Riley), only a night has passed since Wynonna went to stop Bulshar from entering the Garden of Eden. She succeeded in stopping him, and ending the Earp Curse, but not before something reached out from the gates and grabbed Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley). Doc (Tim Rozon) went in after her and … well, we’ll come back to that.
For Wynonna and Nedley, the search for Waverly and Doc led them back to the Garden gates — a series of ominous stone stairs leading to a doorway. But as Wynonna soon saw, the doorway lead to nowhere. Although, considering Peacemaker was needed to open the gates last time, maybe it is still required as the key. Then again, Peacemaker turned into a sword and vanished, leaving Wynonna without her primary weapon and the simplest means to rescue the others.
And while she was off dealing with Bulshar, the Black Badge Division evacuated the town, tasered Jeremy and seemingly prepared to clean up the Ghost River Triangle in the most explosive way possible. But Jeremy left a message — “Valdez” — leading Wynonna on to her next objective: a BBD scientist who may understand the Garden. For fans of the more recent Wynonna Earp comics, Valdez means something. But that meaning may be different for the television series. Before we get there, though, let’s talk about Mercedes (Dani Kind).
Seeing the wonderfully self-centered real estate hustler back in action is the sort of thing we need right now. Sure, she always finds away to help out, but her question about her “bequeathment” from Bulshar filled us with glee. As did her plans for the clinic after agreeing to take care of the injured Nedley.
Oh, and speaking of Nedley’s injury, those critters came through the gate, so we have to wonder what his wounds really are and if they might give him a renewed vitality in the end. Sure, there might be messy side-effects, but we’d love to have Nedley at full strength again.
Meanwhile, in the snow-covered Garden, Doc managed to help Waverly out of some chains, but the creature tugging on them and the overall vibe of the realm left us wondering what sort of Eden this really is. To make matters worse, they find a BBD scientist in an underground lair keeping something fed with his own blood. Yipes! And considering he shows them the “only way” out of the Garden, we have to assume the BBD has been dropping people like him into the Garden for sometime to keep it fed. Does it mean they have a stable doorway in? It remains to be seen.
As do the long term effects of Waverly’s choice once the creature’s food supply ran out. Offering her hybrid blood already made one remarkable change to the Garden and, in return, it offered her a moment to “choose wisely.” We’ll leave you to decide if her choice was, indeed, wise.
All that said, we still love Wynonna Earp‘s mix of heartfelt emotions — like Wynonna trying to psych herself up on the way to Monument — jokiness about the supernatural, and the way it can use those tropes to top dramatic effect. We also love the way it builds characters so quickly that we rejoice every time Mercedes returns or anticipate Rachel Valdez’s (Martina Ortiz-Luis) regular contributions to the show. We also hope Kate and Jeremy somehow find each other and break free from whatever the BBD plans for them.
Wynonna Earp airs Sundays on Syfy.