[Warning: this contains major spoilers for Season 4 Episode 4 of Wynonna Earp, “Afraid”]
Wynonna Earp delivers a horror-filled new episode with an unbeatable demon and the true villain behind Cleo and Holt revealed. But, even with these revelations there are still a lot of questions left unanswered.
Wynonna has been snatched up by the new and incompetent Black Badge Division that is being run by Deputy Assistant Director Naomi Hycha (Reagan Pasternak) who is woefully under-qualified to be running a supernatural government operation, her last job was in the Department of Fishery. Jeremy appears to try and help out Wynonna and make it clear that BBD may not be evil, but they probably won’t be any help, either.
We meet a few more new characters with Billy (Billy Byrk), a friend of Rachel’s, and Margot aka Ma’am (Paula Boudreau) Clanton making their first appearance and revealing the true villainous master mind who has taken over Purgatory. The monster this week is a Reaper controlled by the Clantons enemies of not only Wynonna Earp, but all Earps.
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A bit more of Nicole’s time alone is revealed as well, as she made a deal with the Clanton matriarch, without knowing her true identity, to get her family back. And it looks like Ma’am intends to collect no matter what. I’m sure that won’t have any major repercussions next week.
The new BBD is run by a bunch of incompetent government employees who seem like they were dropped into this supernatural demon infested shit show with no real warning of what they were getting into. Part of this is likely so that they will follow the new directive to observe, but not interfere with Purgatory as it has become a sort of social experiment to see how a town of demons and humans cohabitating works.
Naomi could become an ally of sorts, as she showed clear distress at having lost agents to Purgatory and is oddly kind to Wynonna throughout their interactions. But this is still Black Badge, so it’s not all good as Naomi mentions being more afraid of upper management than she is of the demons in Purgatory.
One of the great parts of this Wynonna Earp episode is the friendship between Wynonna and Jeremy. This is not a relationship that usually gets a lot of attention with the pair not sharing as much screen time one on one. However, their love for each other is never more evident than when Jeremy is working to protect Wynonna from Black Badge, or when Wynonna begs Jeremy to return at the end of the episode. Wynonna is ecstatic to see Jeremy at BBD and Jeremy is quick to check that she is alright after she tells them about being attacked by the Reaper. And now the whole team is finally back together.
Speaking of the Reaper, what was probably most terrifying about the hate-fueled Clanton creature was the fact that our heroes didn’t actually stop it. Melanie Scrofano’s performance was amazing, conveying true terror and witty quips when the Reaper is pursuing her.
