Wynonna Earp Moment of Goodness: A Major Reveal in “She Wouldn’t Be Gone” 

[Warning: Do not read until you’ve seen tonight’s episode]

I’m a pretty smug TV viewer who usually sees X or Y plot twist from way on up the road, so I love when a show surprises me, especially when it’s with something that I not only didn’t see coming, but didn’t even know was in the realm of possibility. Wynonna Earp did that tonight with “She Wouldn’t Be Gone.”

The accepted Earp family history, as presented to us on day one of the series, and reiterated several times this season, is that Wynonna and Waverly were the sole survivors of a Revenant massacre that claimed their dad, and eldest sister, Willa. We’ve seen the photographic proof of Dad’s demise, at the end of a gun fired by Wynonna, and there was mention in passing of Willa’s pre-murder torture by one of the Seven that Wynonna put down with Peacemaker.

Well, tonight, we found out all of that was bullshit, and while normally that would make me eleventy seven shades of angry, here it was sort of a magical revelation, because it was sneaky, and well-crafted, and because Melanie Scrofano KILLED the delivery when Wynonna realized what was going on.

The set up was about as far off the beaten path as you could get for such a reveal–Wynonna and Dolls ended up the guests of a particularly creepy Revenant who has a history with Bobo, and who turns out to be a shapeshifter who vacillates between man and wolf. Awesome.

He also maintains a cultish harem of young women who he periodically marks, casts out, and kills when he senses a betrayal. The first such victim we meet identifies herself as a runaway who made a bad decision. Double awesome.

When Wynonna meets the women, she’s befriended by one of them, Eve, who senses a kinship with her, and Wynonna’s all keep it glib, make no connections, per usual, until she returns to help the women and kill Lou and in a pique of hysteria as they’re chased by a bear, she loses Peacemaker in the snow and tells Eve to fire it at Lou. Eve does, and down, down, down goes Lou, and Wynonna is speechless that the gun worked. She’s not the only one.

Cut to the precinct and Dolls is trying to rationalize through the fog in Wynonna’s mind as she mantras to herself that they never looked for her, she was dead, that there could be a ton of reasons why the gun worked, and Wynonna responds simply, “Or there’s one.”

She watches Eve, tearful as she takes her in, and is guilty, and sad, and ashamed and a thousand other things that only compound the childhood baggage that she’s carried since that day.

Wynonna drives Eve to the homestead and Waverly bounds out the door, ready to talk about Doc baling town, when Gus follows her out to the porch, takes one look at Eve and drops her drink. There’s no question for her. “Willa!” And…credits. Well played, show.

My brain legitimately slowed down in the scene with Dolls. Scrofano does exquisite work making Wynonna suddenly very, very small. I was mostly fixated on Eve throughout the episode because I recognized the actress (Natalie Krill–a fantastic pairing with Scrofano and Dominique Provost-Chalkley, BTW), so that may be one reason why I missed it, but I also didn’t think there’d be any twists on the lore. I accepted that Willa and Dad were dead. The end. There’s been no mention of Mama Earp, so I’m assuming she’s still alive and ready to pop in at any moment, but I do not know. Y’all know I don’t traffic in spoilers.

So, what now? Willa is alive and seemingly unaware of her lineage. What does Waverly do with another sister in her life? Does Willa resume the title of heir? Did Bobo know all this time or was that another Lou betrayal? How does this affect the curse? Can there be two active heirs? Is Waverly going to react with something akin to, “Oh come ON?” because again, it’s not her? Does Wynonna spiral again, only this time instead turn to Dolls?

In general, I’m not super keen on mind wipe scenarios with a heavily implied rape component (see: Haven) but if it’s resolved reasonably quickly and with a minimal amount of Ew Ew Ew, I can deal with it. Family lore betrayals aside (I kid), I trust this show.

Only three episodes left this season. We really need a second season. Syfy is taking it to Comic-Con next month, so that bodes well.

If you missed the premiere of the episode at 10/9c, it repeats at 2 am/1 c tonight on Syfy and will be online at syfy.com beginning tomorrow.