‘I Think You Have Brain On Your Chin’ — Let’s Talk About ‘Wynonna Earp’ Season 4, Episode 9

One interesting element of these final Wynonna Earp episodes is their breezy, episodic feel. Instead of the more serialized ends to the Bulshar story and the even the Clanton arc from earlier this season, the program has found this wonderful grove where the continuing story — the feud between Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) and Doc (Tim Rozon) sits within monster-of-the-week tales and an appealing amount of world building.

Hopefully, the show can hit this sweet spot again when it eventually returns some day.

That said, while the brain-eating wishmaker (Ennis Esmer) and his genie (Nikki Duvall) are one time villains, they speak to the sorts of stories this show can do. In fact, we want to say there was a welcome Season 2 familiarity to it.

But like the way Bulshar’s brides invaded that season, the threads all those ongoing plots are right their on the margins. Nicole (Katherin Barrell) knows Rachel (Martina Ortiz-Luis) let Billy go. Billy is, presumably, back at the Clanton compound with Cleo (Savannah Basley). Doc is apparently running Amon’s (Noam Jenkins) whole operation now. He also can’t hide his clear love for Wynonna or his more general desire to part of the Earp family. Nevertheless, his anger over Wynonna shooting Holt (Ty Olsson) in the back is a stronger adversary than anyone could have expected. And it’s clear these issues will come together as we head into the final three episodes.

First though, the series had to get Nicole back into her best destiny: the sheriff of Purgatory. With all of the hiatuses, it’s easy to forget that she lost the election during those lost 18 months. And as we learned this week, it led to her making a drunken display that the town would not let her live down. Although, we have to say kicking a roast chicken is small potatoes on the Purgatory shame scale. Of course, Nicole’s embarrassment is totally in line with her need to display composure at all times. Hopefully, she can get back to that demeanor now that she’ll be in uniform again.

Will she wear the khakis or the darker one?

The looser pace of Season 4’s back half means you can have an episode like this, where the real advancement is more of a natural thing like Nicole getting her job back and the town becoming more of a community. In fact, isn’t it interesting to see Shorty’s transformed into the local watering hole? Sure, that transformation happened during the break, but that trajectory still feels major in light of the bar’s former status as the Revenant hangout, its slightly seedy quality when Doc ran it, or even the way it seemed neglected by the community back when it was Gus’s (Natascha Girgis) bar. If we had more time in Purgatory, we’d love to see this notion continue.

Sadly, things cannot continue. Those threads at the margins will being to pull soon and even the genie’s attempt to win her life by offering to change “what’s coming” speaks to that end.

No, we don’t want to think about that. Instead, let’s focus on how easily Doc forgave Nicole. Although, what did the Clantons want with him? Is that why he started to doubt parts of his friendship with Wyatt and why he so readily parted ways with Wynonna? And while we’re asking questions, was Doc really in Deadwood the night Wild Bill Hickock died?

Also, we have to admit, this episode made us wistful for our own lost trivia nights.

Its strange that this episode, for all of its fun — and make no mistake, it was a fun and funny episode — keeps making us think about how we’re about to lose this show for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, next week will put us in less of an elegiac mood.

Wynonna Earp airs Fridays on Syfy.