WYNONNA EARP – Season 3 Episode 5 – SPOILERS

Jolene (Zoie Palmer) is a demon in disguise. Her charmed (or possibly drugged) baked goods make those who eat them see her as a trusted, long-time friend. (She is the opposite of that.) “I was born at the exact same time as you,” she tells Waverly. “The universe craves balance, and you came and arrived out of the light. And I, I crawled out of the muck. Everything good was given to you. Freedom, flaxen hair, family. And what did I get? Shunned, starved, reviled.” (Note the use of the word “born”, which might indicate that she did not just magically appear.) Waverly asks if they were twins, and Jolene responds: “Yes, In a sick sense.”

Waverly’s dad was someone named Julian. Michelle (Megan Follows) hasn’t yet had time to tell anyone much about him, but Bobo (Michael Eklund) says he was an angel, “an honest-to-god, heavens-above angel”. Waverly’s celestial lineage seems intended as a direct rebuke to the anti-LGBT stance of fundamentalist religious folk. On twitter, @GraceKayAuthor said it better, and more emphatically: “Waverly being Angelic and queer and having the love and support of everyone she loves is the most delicious slap in the fucking face to all the people who’ve ever told us we’re wrong and sinners and going to hell.”

Jolene can’t harm Waverly directly. (The same restriction applied to Juan Carlos, the priest from Wyatt’s time who helped entomb Bulshar and died in “No Future In The Past“. He wasn’t allowed to interfere, except by persuasion.)

To get what she wants (which is apparently Waverly’s demise) Jolene must cause Waverly to harm herself. (Remember Inari, the Kitsune who assumed Kenzi’s form for two episodes of LOST GIRL? Like Inari, Jolene plays on each person’s worst fears about the other, in order to isolate and drive them apart.)

Palmer’s character is a wonderfully cruel and devious demon, but the best scene of the episode involves Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) and her mother Michelle waking up in jail after a drunken brawl instigated by Jolene at Shorty’s. Wynonna tells her mother about Alice Michelle, and explains that she sent the child away to protect her from the curse. Michelle is pleased about the name, and supportive of Wynonna’s decision. “Hey, she’s lucky,” says Michelle. “Can you imagine, you and me, toasted on schnapps, at the back of the school nativity play, going ‘Woo-hoo! Hey, you’re one hot Virgin Mary, Earp.'” (Then the two of them figure out that the demon is not, as they had previously thought, dead, and call for Sheriff Nedley, who helps them realize that the demon is Jolene. Then we get the best line of the episode (from Wynonna and Michelle together): “Put down that tart, Randy!”

Bulshar’s ring finds it’s way back to Nicole, adding to the mystery of why Nicole survived the massacre in 1995. Jolene, apparently, owed fealty to Bulshar (we are not told why), and did not have his permission to go after Waverly. She is snagged by what looks like a tree root, and absorbed into a tree. This is similar to what happened to Jeremy’s new boyfriend Robin, except (one hopes) for the being absorbed into a tree part. What is it with Bulshar and trees?

The loss of his immortality had caused Doc (Tim Rozon) to be plagued with uncertainty and self-doubt. (His hot and cold relationship with Wynonna might have had something to do with it as well.) Now that Kate (Chantel Riley) is back in town, Doc is his old confident self. (Despite her vampirism, and preoccupation with the Tarot, Kate seems to be very good for Doc.)

Doc stands in what appears to be a circle of protection in the forest, puts Bulshar’s ring on his finger, and says, clearly and forcefully: “I am Doc Holliday. I do not fear the void. I spit into the void. So it seems, Bulshar, we do have an accord. I may be going to hell, but I will drag you with me.”

NOTES

Siobhán Williams (Steph in “Walking After Midnight) will guest star as Brandy Lynn in the pilot episode of DEADLY CLASS, based on Wes Craig’s graphic novels of the same name. The TV series is set in 1987 San Francisco, and follows a homeless teen named Marcus (Benjamin Wadsworth) who gets recruited to join a mysterious private school where the world’s top crime families send their sons and daughters. Ryan Robbins also appears in the pilot. Filmed in Vancouver, DEADLY CLASS will premiere on SyFy (US) sometime in 2019. A trailer is available on YouTube.

Williams is also Elsa in the fantasy drama WELCOME TO MARWEN (formerly THE WOMEN OF MARWEN), based on Jeff Malmberg’s documentary about Mark Hogancamp. who in 2010 had been violently assaulted outside of a local bar and was left with permanent brain damage and almost complete memory loss. Unable to afford conventional rehabilitation, his family used a different kind of therapy that included the creation of Marwencol, a 1/6 scale World War II-era Belgian town which Hogancamp began populating with characters from his own life. WELCOME TO MARWEN will be released in the US on 21 December and in the UK on 11 January .

Michael Eklund (Bobo Del Rey) is a helpful gas station attendant in THE PACKAGE (formerly EGGPLANT EMOJI), a black (and gross) comedy about five friends on a spring break camping trip. The film stars Daniel Doheny, Sadie Calvano, Luke Spencer Roberts, Eduardo Franco, and Geraldine Viswanathan and can be streamed on Netflix.

Eklund will be a guest at Island Con, 20-21 October at Cowes Enterprise College on the Isle of Wight.







