Wynonna Earp’s Finale Showcases the True Power of the Earp Sisters
Well, they did it. In true Wynonna Earp fashion, just when you think our heroes are down for the count and there’s no way they are going to be able to come back, Wynonna, Waverly and the whole team just kept fighting. In doing so, they defeated Bulshar and stopped the devil from taking power in an action-packed finale of back-to-back episodes. In true Emily Andras fashion, the second hour of the finale which she wrote, “War Paint,” closed the door and answered some of the series’ biggest mysteries, while also opening the world up to so many intriguing new ones. Wynonna Earp has no doubt gone and set the stage for quite an interesting Season 4.
There’s no other relationship on the show more important to me than the Earp sisters. What Waverly and Wynonna have is truly special and it’s the core love story of the entire series. That’s the way it’s always been and it was so great to see that at the end of the day, through everything happening in this finale, that it all came down to them. These two sisters, together. Wynonna and Waverly reminding each other how powerful they truly are, banding together, supporting each other and fighting back. It’s been one hell of a week here in the real world right now, especially for women, so seeing these two stand together to take down the evil, old white guy trying to spread evil felt especially gratifying and reiterated more than ever that this is how the war is won.
Wynonna and Waverly thought they each singularly had to fight this battle. Wynonna was the heir, the one who had been cursed. Meanwhile, Kevin arrived and told Waverly that she was the Chosen One, the one who needed to sacrifice herself to save the world. However, when all was said and done, it was these two women working together that took down Bulshar. It was a victory that felt extremely satisfying as a viewer who has watched everything these two have been through and everything they’ve given up.
Waverly: “Two sisters.”
Wynonna: “You and me, kid.”
Waverly: “Am I your backup?”
Wynonna: “I think we both know I’m yours, angel.”
Wynonna has always felt alone in the battle in some ways because of The Earp Curse. When she became the heir she all of the sudden had this huge responsibility and weight on her shoulders, but as her team got built up around her she realized she wasn’t alone, especially not when she had Waverly. The bond these two share is central to the series and the fact that they’d do anything, including sacrificing themselves, to save each other shows time again how much they mean to one another.
Bulshar made a grave mistake. He thought he could prey on Wynonna’s self doubts about not being worthy, not feeling like a true hero, but he didn’t realize that it didn’t matter what he thought. Wynonna’s favorite person in the world is Waverly and as long as she believed in her then that’s all that did and has mattered. When Waverly began ascending the stairs, reminding Wynonna that she is a true heroine, and then bestowing the chosen honor onto her, that was the final push that Wynonna needed to really take on Bulshar.
I’m still not quite sure about the rules of the stairs, who can go up and them and why, but I know what was in my heart in that moment. In that moment, the love and bond between those sisters had never been more powerful, as they gave each other the strength to move forward and to fight. But victory never seems to last long on Wynonna Earp because Waverly was soon being taken away by the Garden, and just like that, Wynonna has lost everything all over again.
It was an absolutely heartbreaking sequence all played perfectly by Melanie Scrofano and Dominique Provost-Chalkley. The screams of terror, tears and desperation in both of their voices was haunting. These two actresses have always brought such heart, strength, warmth and love to this relationship. It’s exactly what has helped make it so effective and so strong to witness as a viewer and this finale was no different. To have your character go from the high and power of being the Chosen One, the hero, the one who can wield the sword and then to quickly lose everything is not an easy task, but Scrofano and Provost-Chalkley sure make it seem that way. They allowed for these characters, this relationship and this show to tear our hearts right out when Waverly disappears.
Emily Andras and her team of writers know this too. Not only does losing Waverly absolutely devastate Wynonna in the biggest way possible, but it rips our hearts out in the audience as well. The Earp sisters and their relationship are the beating heart of this show. At the end of the day, take everything else away and if you have those two, sitting around the fire at the Homestead, then things are going to feel right in the world. By separating them and leaving that relationship in jeopardy, Andras is going right for the jugular in terms of all our feelings. It’s heartbreaking and tear worthy, but above all, it makes us feel and that’s exactly why we came to this party.
But where does it leave Wynonna? She’s lost the most important people in her world. She could roll over, pack it in and give up. That’d be easy. But when have we ever known Wynonna to make it easy on herself? Thankfully, by episode’s end there’s already a fire back in her eye as she says “let’s get them back” to Nedley. Nedley speaks for every Earper around who will be ready and already counting down the days to Season 4 where we hopefully figure out how that’s possible, when he says “Oh fuck yea!” Go bring home our baby girl, Wynonna. She believes in you. We all do.
What did you think of the Earp sisters in the Wynonna Earp finale? Add your thoughts below.
Wynonna Earp will return for Season 4 in 2019 on SYFY and Space Channel.
Related Posts
About The Author
Bridget Liszewski
Editor in Chief Bridget Liszewski comes from a long line of TV Junkies who fostered her love of television from a very young age. She's channeled that passion into covering both US and Canadian television shows, and is thankful everyday for the invention of the DVR. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, she loves college football and is a fan of sports in general. Bridget is always up for talking TV and you can follow her on twitter at @BridgetOnTV.
I know this show doesn’t care about Wayhaught anymore. Keep ur WynDoc and ur earp sisters. You have ignored the one thing that got u up to season 4 aka Wayhaught and I will never forgive you for this Andras. Also, I wish Nicole was a part of another show cuz she deserves so much better that what she gets on this one both as character growth and in screentime.
I think you might have been watching the wrong show there, buddy. Clearly not the one that’s called ‘Wynonna Earp’ and had the Earp sisters and their relationship at its core since the very first episode. Long before WayHaught even happened. And what happened to characters not being defined by their romantic relationships any longer? Hey, I thought we were living in a post-Frozen world but guess I was mistaken.
Well, this show has jumped the shark hasn’t it?
Briefly…
: Wynonna sleeps with Waverlys dad, who on earth thought that could be a reasonable storyline?
: Nicole gets seriously injured yet again, lazy rehashed writing from the team.
: Lets tell the plot to new characters and get them involved, whereas main characters from S1-S3 can be kept out the loop shows disjointed writing.
: This ‘feminist’ show brings in more male characters for the female lead to fawn and lose her sh!t over and take away from other female characters because only the men seem to get anything done or need to know the plot/plans?
Quotes – ‘this season can only get gayer’, well – yes Emily, if you think that means introducing irrelevant gay male characters and giving more screen-time to a current male character (Jeremy) that is proving very unpopular with non-sychophantic fans. ‘This is a feminist show’, well – yes Emily if you think that feminist means it had a female lead character and nothing else (cast really need to look up definiation of feminism Emily, it helps)
Tbh, S3 is just a total mess with only ep 5 and 7 showing anything resembling S1 and what made this show watchable and the characters something to watch and care about. Lazy writing with garish plotholes that were just embarrassing. Lack of interest in main character development and story and involvement of unwanted and irrelevant characters that actual fans (as they are dropping away) wanted or watched.
I would suggest that Emily etc take the con-high from saccharine ‘super-fans’ down a notch or 3 and actually read the criticisms of this mess and take note from the real fans who enjoy(ed) watching. Playing up to toadying fans who only want you to mention their name in a tweet makes for a shit-show indeed and I doubt S4 will be a swansong for the show to end on, it will just an embarrassment for anyone and everyone involved.
CatB i love you so much for this post of yours because you couldn’t have said it better!!! i agree with every word! Apart from eps 5,7 and to some extent 10 because of possessed Nicole, the rest of this season has been an embarrassing mess! i hate that they always ignore Nicole during the finale episodes and giver her nothing to do…and that her storylines go nowhere after the initial hype.
I HATE what they have done to wayhaught this year. its like the writers don’t really love this relationship and write their scenes just because they know they have to. that half assed proposal at the end made me wanna cry because i expected such a monumental moment to be soooo much better. lets not even talk about those sex noises and other cheap stuff they gave wayhaught like some joke. nicole and waverly barely had 2-3 kisses during the entire season!!!! no sweet intimate scenes at all like in episodes 201, 201 and 206. i hated the cheating on nicole thing last year but except that, wayhaught had more depth specially when they also got a full episode dedicated to them in 211. nothing even close to that this year! i was dying for s3 the whole time after s2 ended but now there is no craving for s4 at all. with doc as the perpetual hero (despite being the biggest asshole ever who kills innocent ppl), saving even the female leads in this supposedly feminst show, i’v lost all the excitement for the show. but i also know that emily andras doesnt give a shit what ppl like u and me think because she has her own set of minions and groupies whose only job is to blindly praise her shit and follow her at cons just to get mentioned by her on twitter.
“In doing so, they defeated Bulshar and stopped the devil from taking power in an action-packed finale of back-to-back episodes.” – ok I might be the only one but I didn’t like the Garden of Eden plot, had it been a wink/nod to the garden in the theme of a western I might could have enjoyed it more but doing an actual plot about the Garden of Eden left me more going “Meh” than really getting excited about the scene. I like the sisters did it as a team versus Wynonna alone, which is probably why Wyatt and so many heirs before failed they went it alone versus with help, but I’m also left now confused as to what this means for the next season. I assume there’s going to be a rescue mission for half of it but then what…especially with Peacemaker gone, I know Emily and company could bring it back but what happens now that they broke the curse?
“Wynonna Earp has no doubt gone and set the stage for quite an interesting Season 4.” – that’s for sure, how does each fan define “interesting” will be interesting to see also. Ha.
“I’m still not quite sure about the rules of the stairs, who can go up and them and why” – same!
“In that moment, the love and bond between those sisters had never been more powerful, as they gave each other the strength to move forward and to fight.” – true!
“But where does it leave Wynonna?” – hopefully including Nicole in the hunt for Waverly because she knows what their relationship means to Nicole because she knows how much Waverly means to her herself! I feel this could be an awesome season four duo, it might not be the Earp sisters but it’s still the next best dynamic arguably.
“What did you think of the Earp sisters in the Wynonna Earp finale?” – the sisters were good, the finale itself was ok at best; again I’m not a fan of the garden story.
Julie, did you see the season four announcement from SYFY they definitely included WayHaught in their tags for the show before saying they renewed it. I get being frustrated by some of the handling with the pairing and certainly the frustration of Nicole’s backstory not getting revealed this season, how did she get to the canoe, but it might get better in S4; they can’t rewrite S3 now so we have to look forward to S4 which is wide open plot wise beyond the rescue so really anything is possible. I get walking away if you really feel it’s not coming back to the level you want but maybe check out s me online clips when the season starts before you drop it completely?
“And what happened to characters not being defined by their romantic relationships any longer?” – you can shoot for this Shisan but it doesn’t mean you have to drop the romance completely; I did like domestic WayHaught at times I have to say but I did also miss the kisses and would have liked to have heard Nicole say yes or no to the proposal. You can like a show for more than just the main character, in fact some people are fans of series for everyone but the main character, and you can be happy for one pairing while still wanting your favorite to have some time too. I get Jeremy/Robin is new so they want to play with it but I also get fans who want to see more WayHaught moments also because they’re their OTP for the series where as Jeremy/Robin is cute but not their go to pair.
CatB, I wasn’t a fan of the Charlie/Julian plot either; I get it saves them money on casting but it also felt kind of cliche and then he dies only to come back and then die again it’s like “what’s the point?” because had Doc not killed him originally it would go a longer way in promoting as the good guy they say he supposedly is but now it’s all just this mash up of stuff and at the end again I wish they either hadn’t done Julian as Charlie or left him dead and kept the ring plots to Waverly in the finale episodes. Again not a fan of the garden connections. “Tbh, S3 is just a total mess” – I don’t know if I’d go that fair but I have to agree this season wasn’t my personal favorite because 1) the Garden Of Eden plot just did not get me excited, 2) the set up with Nicole didn’t pay off (we’re still wondering how she got to the canoe being just a human six year old), 3) we lost Dolls, and 4) there’s still a push of Doc is a good guy when to me he’s clearly better when they embrace his anti hero nature; it wasn’t a complete mess because I did like moments of the season but I wouldn’t say it was my favorite by far.
“and that her storylines go nowhere after the initial hype.” – this is my biggest issue with a lot of Nicole plots Jaime, we have this big build up like it’s going to come to this huge head and then nothing; taking just the ring this season it keeps coming to Nicole all season even though it could easily go to Waverly whenever it wanted if it can jump around like it does yet when we get close to season end suddenly the ring becomes Julian’s and Waverly pays off that build up. We hear about how Nicole has this Bulshar connection and to be fair we do learn Nedly saved her from the canoe which gave us an amazing scene but we still don’t know how she got to the canoe when everyone else didn’t escape and that’s annoying. Even her Tucker plot last year only lasted a few episodes so I agree as a Nicole fan it is frustrating how her season arcs go at times; maybe in season four she’ll get her hero moment like others have gotten already and survive it or maybe she’ll get a great backstory reveal and survive it (I’m leaving no chances so I’m added “survive it to everything with her”) or a new season plot that doesn’t seeming get taken from her near the end and survive it, but I’m very much in the “need to see it to believe it” camp as this is the third year where we get a lot of hype with her and no real payoff and no history unlike others who we’re learning things on left and right. True we know she doesn’t talk to her parents but we knew that in S2, we got the added factor of it’s because of her job not her orientation which is great but still it feels like a throw away line more than hearing her talk about her family like Waverly got this season with Julian. I know some will argue Waverly is a main character but I feel Nicole is as much a main as she is given they’ve both been there since S1, you can argue call sheet wise Waverly is ahead of Nicole which I’d believe but it doesn’t mean Nicole shouldn’t be treated like less of a main because she’s further on the list…you can get some great characters from down the list that are arguably more interesting that the leads of a series and even guest characters can be the most interesting of a roster so I don’t feel anyone is more important the others. It’s a balancing act with ensembles and often what you see isn’t one fan saying X is better than Y because they think X should be the lead it’s just that they really like X and want them to have the same treatment as other characters in terms of screen time and I can’t say anyone is wrong for that; if you don’t like X then you can say you don’t like the plot but to say they shouldn’t have equal screen time I personally don’t feel is fair. There’s multiple shows where I don’t like a certain main character and would rather not sit through their stuff to see a full episode but I don’t spite them the air time if everyone else is getting a balanced season progression, it’s when there’s an imbalance that I feel fans of another character are fair to speak up because again you want equality on that base level at least.
“its like the writers don’t really love this relationship and write their scenes just because they know they have to.” – I personally wouldn’t go this far because I think they do still care they just like doing the angst currently; I would love to see happy WayHaught in a season without drama being a part of their specific element and they’re communicating well and it’s all good but I also know Emily likes doing drama so based on that I feel this is probably as happy as we’ll see them until the final season when they might be that “annoyingly perfect and happy couple”. 🙂 The proposal worked for me until the end – just let Nicole say yes or no especially since the end kind of voided them being together for at least maybe half a season; imagine the extra excitement that would have gone into picturing the reunion over hiatus if she said yes (it’s assumed we would say yes but it’s best to hear it) or the drama of why she said no if she said that because she hates the ring.