Wynonna Earp’s Tamara Duarte On The Truth About Rosita
We’ve had to wait a while, but Rosita’s secret is finally out in the open on Wynonna Earp. Not only is Doc’s friend adjusting to life as the new kid, but it turns out that she’s also a revenant. As if her relationship with Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) wasn’t tenuous enough, it becomes even more complicated now that we know she’s the only one who can kill Rosita (Tamara Duarte). Elsewhere, Rosita got a lot closer to Wynonna’s sister Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), as Shorty’s new bartender helped her through a fight with Nicole (Katherine Barrell).
During a trip to the spa, Waverly and Rosita got closer, leading Waverly to even kiss Rosita at one point. But before WayHaught fans could get too upset, Rosita and Waverly talked things out and Rosita sent Waverly on her way to end the fight and make up with Nicole. In part two of our interview with Duarte, she gives us some insight into what Waverly may have been feeling, as well as what that revenant reveal may mean for Rosita.
The TV Junkies: Rosita is actually a revenant! What does that mean and were you surprised to learn that about her?
Tamara Duarte: Emily didn’t say anything so I had so many questions. I had an email, if you put it in a Word document it was almost three pages, but I never sent it to Emily. I thought she’d think I was crazy because I had question after question. As an artist, some of those questions don’t need to be answered right away, and Emily is really good about knowing when to answer questions that will help and when not to. I didn’t send the email, although I was so tempted, but I didn’t know if she was a revenant or dragon or some other creature that came in through the Ghost River Triangle last season. She just came in this season so was she always in Purgatory? Did she come in through the Ghost River Triangle? Is she a revenant? How long has she known Doc? What is their relationship? How many lifetimes have they lived? If he’s 150 years old, what has happened in the past? There’s just so many questions!
TTVJ: You sound exactly how we all feel after watching an episode of Wynonna Earp.
TD: I think that’s what a really good writer does, she just has you hooked!
TTVJ: Rosita being a revenant will obviously tie into the protection that Doc is giving her, right?
TD: Yes, because Wynonna is the only person that can kill her. The only person that can kill her.
TTVJ: As if they didn’t have enough relationship issues.
TD: I know, and now they have this! Rosita is just another hurdle that Wynonna needs to get over. It’s just another thing.
TTVJ: Doc seemed to be right in that everybody does love Waverly, and she and Rosita have this friendship building, especially after the spa. What happens now after that kiss and now that those two know each other’s big secrets?
TD: I think secrets bring people together. What happens now? There’s a lot. [laughs] There’s a really great chemistry between them, and Emily does a really great job of hitting so many different points. You don’t have to be 100 per cent gay or 100 per cent straight. I know people who have been in relationships for seven years with a woman, and then married a man and had two kids. I don’t know if she did that on purpose, but love is love. You can feel it in so many different capacities and with so many different people. Rosita is very open, and although Waverly kisses her, she knows what the boundaries are there. She knows she’s with Doc, and there’s so many different dynamics happening at the same time.
TTVJ: I actually liked how it played out and Rosita’s reaction to it. You still see that these two will be really good friends, and I don’t think we get enough really good depictions of female friendships on TV. I really like the idea of Waverly and Rosita building this friendship, but I’m just nervous that she knows she’s not an Earp and Waverly knows she’s a revenant.
TD: Love comes in so many different capacities and sometimes people mix it up. You can love someone or like someone and be like ‘what is this? Is it romantic?’ Then you do something and are like ‘nope, definitely not romantic.’ It is about feeling it out, and they are just finding their relationship and what that is. It’s all really new for Waverly, and she’s not going to like every girl that she’s friends with. She can have friends that are girls and not be attracted to them. It’s another thing Emily hits and there’s so many different dynamics. I can see them being good friends, but I don’t know how it’ll play out when she resolves that with Nicole. Is she going to come clean at some point? There’s so many unanswered questions, right?
TTVJ: WayHaught fans are going to be so nervous!
TD: Oh my god, just don’t throw food at me please. I have nightmares about it.
Nothing in life is perfect and we’re going to have temptations, and we’re going to have all these different things that are real. WayHaught is strong, but there’s things that come in and throw people for a loop, and that’s what life is. It happens all the time because if everything was perfect all the time, then what?
TTVJ: The other thing I noticed about Rosita, and now it makes more sense knowing she’s been around awhile, is that she’s super wise and gives great advice. Does she have a number I can reach her at because I feel like she’d be really useful to have around?
TD: I feel like that’s very much who I am in real life. Dom calls me her “little guru” and off camera she’ll ask me for advice. It’s a constant thing in my life, and I think that’s one thing that was pulled out into the character that is very much like me. I can totally get a 1-800 number…[laughs]
Were you surprised to learn Rosita’s secret? What do you think will happen? Add your thoughts below!
Wynonna Earp airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Syfy and Space.
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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 love how excited Tamara is in the opening and how she’s just like fans wanting to know everything; when actors are involved like that fans get involved watching their stuff.
I don’t think Rosita will tell Nicole about the kiss, but I hope Waverly will otherwise she’s a hypocrite because she kept something from Nicole except her staying quite on the kiss protects her more than it’s a benefit to protect Nicole’s feelings where Nicole’s was about protecting Waverly’s. I definitely don’t want to see this plot dropped but I don’t want a quick fix either – Nicole has a right to be angry with Waverly when it comes out and if they break up for a bit then okay…they can always talk it out when both are calm and come back together. While I’m upset about the kiss for me that’d be a bigger mistake if it goes unaddressed/doesn’t show effects on Waverly because she chose to keep the secret and how does it affect her because while the moment might not define her her actions post it will.
I think we all knew Rosita was supernatural but I didn’t see Revenant coming; Tamara definitely had some great questions on it in how did she stay so hidden if she’s always been there and if she came from outside how as Revenants are suppose to be trapped inside.
A good interview!
i’m really concerned that all those reviewers associated with this show and emily, are just brushing off that kiss like it was hardly anything! when nicole hid the dna results,every review called it a disaster. now waverly has done something which is a 1000 times worse and u want the fans to almost appreciate it because it will ‘strengthen’ the rosita-waverly friendship?! are you kidding me??? how is cheating, when u are in a committed relationship, not that big a deal? u honestly think that fans care more about their friendship than the loss of wayhaught…yes it’s a loss now because it has been tainted forever….and for what??? it can never go back to what it was. that sweetness,that innocence has been ripped away from wayhaught because the writers thought that fans would want this kind of ‘angst’? seriously? are they that deluded and tone-deaf? also,why does this show keep hurting the most amazing character ever to grace our screens aka nicole haught…both physically and mentally? waverly was a downright bitch to nicole and no review mentions that! how do u root for wayhaught when u can’t stand one half of it now? why this betrayal of ur fans’ trust? i know these questions will fall on deaf ears but what the hell! it feels good to finally rant!
There is a very “wait and see” vibe about the kiss getting covered in reviews everywhere which is fair – we don’t know how Emily’s going to handle it, but I also understand how it’s extremely frustrating because fans want ideas on why it happened; as of now there’s no real motive that justifies it beyond being a plot to tick off Tucker so he’ll kil Rosita so they can reveal she has powers as one fan proposed on another site. Personally I’ve tried to understand why Waverly did it and I can’t because we don’t know her frame of mind at the moment – was it a “Thank you for the advice I could kiss you right now!” kiss that went too long, was it Waverly being just selfish in that moment wanting to be intimate with someone who was making her feel better emotionally, or did she picture Nicole saying the words to her and kissed “Nicole” in her mind only to remember it’s really Rosita? We don’t know so it’s hard to appropriately gage our true level of anger about it. It’s a bad thing Waverly did regardless but is it so bad each fan can’t forgive her – that’s up to them based on full information.
Thinking about it now I’m wondering why Rosita didn’t stop the kiss; I can fully understand if it was someone in a not committed relationship because she herself isn’t really in an exclusive one because she knows Doc is emotionally with Wynonna so they’re not exclusive thus I can’t fault her for allowing the kiss in that regard but she just spent a good minute telling Waverly to get back with Nicole yet she also let’s the kiss happen, why? I get not racing to judgement when Waverly mover closer but the second her lips went longer than a second on hers why not push her away?
“yes it’s a loss now because it has been tainted forever” – I get how one might feel this way as I had this happen for me with the “Pretty Little Liars” pairing of Hanna and Caleb, when they kissed thus making it Caleb cheating on Spencer I could never get excited about Haleb scenes again; I felt this way because 1) they made it very clear in previous seasons Hanna hated cheating in relationships because of what happened with her parents so it felt out of character in a big way to her (we don’t know Waverly’s thoughts yet on cheating or if this has happened in the past with Champ and she just never told anyone so I cant say it’s OOC for her) and 2) while Hanna told Spencer about the kiss they did quick fix it by having Spencer basically go “It’s okay, I know he always loved you the most so you can have him” thus it was extremely unfullfilling from a viewer stand point…again we don’t know what’s going to happen with Nicole and Waverly so for me I can’t say they’re tainted forever.
If it’s never touched on so there’s this knowledge of there always being a secret between them that will taint it or if it’s addressed but Nicole quickly shrugs it off as “I get I made you do bad” then it’ll be tainted but until then I’d say there’s still hope that while it won’t be an innocent relationship it’ll still be one people could enjoy; after all people enjoy Doc/Wynonna and they are far from innocent.
To be fair no relationship stays innocent in a drama, you can argue it’s lazy writing because of some the plots that cause tension in every kind of relationship on a drama but even if it was the most crafty plot it would still equal tension so I can’t say I’m upset the relationship is no longer perfect but I don’t think imperfection ruins a relationship. A series of issues would do it as that makes you say it’s a bad match, but one mess up isn’t the end of the world necessarily. WayHaught could still be sweet, maybe it’s more dark chocolate now than milk chocolate but their sweet moments could still be enjoyed if the kiss fallout is dealt with in a satisfying manner.
While rude I can actually accept Waverly’s “Dear control freak…” text more than the kiss because she’s been in a controlling relationship before with Champ and she was hoping for better from Nicole so when Nicole did this it upset her and again yes the text was rude but I can understand her sending it more than her kissing Rosita.
I understand “let’s wait and see” isn’t a feel great response Skip, but it’s all I have at the moment; I still feel fans have a right to be angry and express that in a civil manner but to say the story is complete crap right now when we’ve only seen part of it feels kind of harsh. It might be crap depending on how the follow up is handled, but it also might be ok at the least or good because WayHaught worked through it and became stronger or because while they’re not together they are happy with others who are arguably better with them we just have to see. If after half a season in S3 you still feel it’s horrible than say so, say now how you feel too, but give them a few episodes to see what happens because this could get addressed in the season finale and be a cliffhanger that’s further addressed in the next season; again it could be the end of WayHaught for some or it could be flawed yet still watchable like Doc/Wynonna for some.
I’m mad at them both, but I’m giving the writers a chance because the team has a tendency to make fans think something is done then bring it pops up again later and gets an emotional moment or full episode which is great continuity wise where as on other series you may never see the plot again or it’s another quick touch on it and it’s gone for seasons again until writers remember it was a good drama creator.
thank for replying! i appreciate and respect everything that you said. i’ll just add another of my two cents to it. and everything i say is directed towards the show. so the things that makes this kiss unforgivable for me….firstly,the goddamn arrogance of this show and ppl running it who just wouldn’t accept that this has hurt so many people so much! u can be a little humble about it and accept that it was not the most brilliant idea. then all these rosita interviews that want u to cheer for her and waverly’s friendship,ignoring the fact that that means nicole would have to keep seeing waverly spend time and giggle with someone she actually frikkin kissed! so nicole is just supposed to accept that? otherwise precious little waverly would again call her a control freak? about that,wow! i mean if nicole haught is a control freak, then i’m the frikkin pope! it’s always been waverly who has led the direction of their relationship….always!!! btw,this is the same woman who was ready to shoot someone for a bf who she knew was cheating on her, and then she goes ahead and cheats on the one person who has been the most loyal to her, has been her rock through all the tough times barring one mistake which had no malicious intent! can we talk about what a bratty asshole waverly was towards nicole in this particular episode? she publicly dissed nicole,mocked her,called her a devil, defended a rapist like tucker, half-flirted with beth with all those heart eyes,again gave heart eyes to rosita, sent the nastiest ever text to her gf, and then went ahead and kissed rosita who btw, happily kissed her back! then waverly’s ‘i’m with nicole’ looked more like something she regretted than the kiss itself. the next day, she again seeks rosita,stares at her and then talks about nicole like an afterthought! she literally looks totally unashamed about that kiss. this is the nicest gal in purgatory? wow! she has the nerve to be upset with nicole for hiding those results while she (1)will hide the fact that rosita is a revenant,from wynonna (2)knew she was possessed during the whole gooverly phase and hid it from nicole for weeks, only telling wynonna! give me a bigger hypocrite and control-freak than waverly earp, dear show,i dare you! i always always felt that nicole loves wavelry much more than waverly loves her back. this episode just solidified it for me. till a week back,i was the biggest wayhaught shipper despite waverly’s assholery….but this kiss just changed everything on its head for me. i know it won;t happen but now i want nicole to permanently break up with waverly, go back to the big city away from the earp sisters and all their toxic shit,find herself a girl who loves her as much as she would love her,if not more and have a happily ever after. this show anyways gives the likes of rosita and jeremy more screen time than her, so there. also, nothing can justify cheating on ur paertner if they haven’t done the same to u. i’m so done with the disrespect shown towards nicole by emily, her writers, her characters like dolls,wynonna and waverly. waverly has an army of supporters and nicole basically just has her cat. wow!this show amazes me. it creates the most perfect character ever like nicole, and then goes ahead and shits on her episode after episode after episode! my excitement for season 3 has totally evaporated and i just hope if and when nicole haught exits this dumbass show, she does it like the hero she has always been. rant over!
if waverly can cheat on nicole that easily, can we now have nicole going into full casanova mode and make out with every hot female she comes across…specially in front of waverly? cuz that would be really satisfying for all the fans feeling betrayed on nicole’s behalf. 🙂 (although knowing the angel that nicole is, she’d blame herself for waverly’s assholery)
I would pay to see that happen! Nicole Haught all leather clad from head to toe on a Harley swaggering into bars and making the female population go weak in the knees. *swoooooooooon*. Waverly can have hot tub baths with Rosita for all i care. They both deserve each other anyway.
“although knowing the angel that Nicole is, she’d blame herself for Waverly’s actions” – this is definitely a fear I have and something I’d deem a quick fix thus I don’t want to see it.
Quick fixes can work sometimes depending on how invested in a plot you are, but in this instance I really want to see them talking.
I hope this is a moment of showing Nicole isn’t perfect as well because she in turn will be a bit selfish in not forgiving Waverly instantly; Nicole’s actions don’t give Waverly a free pass to hers and again what Nicole did was mainly for Waverly but what Waverly did was mainly for herself and if she keeps the secret instead of being honest with Nicole it’s even more selfish and hypocritical. Nicole has been trying to get Waverly to talk to her for days but Waverly hasn’t agreed so if Nicole says she needs time before she can rationally talk about the kiss than I’m fine with that!
If WayHaught breaks up for awhile I am okay with that too because cheating is not okay, but I do hope they come together again and talk everything out because they can be good together. They both did wrong but one’s wrong doesn’t excuse the other’s. Nicole definitely has an overall sweet appearance to her so I can’t say it’d be out of character for her if she did take the blame but if ever Emily wanted to show Nicole can be imperfect too I’d pick now by having her question why Waverly did what she did and suggesting they split for a bit because she needs to heal herself before she can heal WayHaught as it’s hard to work on the relationship when you’re freshly angry at the person…they can work on WayHaught via texts/calls/meeting at the same scene but it wasn’t a scheduled talk but Nicole deserves to vent as well.
This would be a great time to bring back the Dolls-Nicole friendship because Nicole needs to be shown venting as well; Rosita knows about being a Revenant and about trying to hurt someone because you hurt too (Waverly sending mean texts) so that works for Waverly, Dolls knows about letting relationships go without a fight and hurting because of it (see Wynonna) so he could help Nicole see being angry is fine but if you want the relationship you need to fight for it because if you don’t you only have yourself to blame if the person moves on. It would give us a chance to see Dolls the person instead of the agent. Maybe he doesn’t talk about Wynonna and instead discusses a past relationship.
Actually I already calmed down and was like “I don´t know the whole pic so let´s see what comes next”..but reading/listening (to) most of the recaps etc… I´m going with @Skip that “(almost) everyone brushes off the kiss but stresses the DNA-Test betray”???
The explaination is unisono: nobody wants a perfect (TV)relationship…but I actually see no perfection when it comes to #Wayhaught.. Nicole got kidnapped, then shot by Waverly´s sister. Wave touched the goo and first aggro kissed (homecoming) and then beat her (barn) as Gooverly. She left Nicole out of BBD for safety and Nicole did it with Wave´s DNA-Test. They have stress stress stress..and yet they need another stressor?
And .. to ease it a bit ..they always get interrupted 😉
But now I´m not sure what the purpose was to write this into the season. Maybe to test the (fan)waters? Or maybe…fun thing..for no particular reason, just so happend?
Oooor there is an compelling evidence coming …and if, I absolutely will come her again and kowtow and say mea culpa. Promised!
PS: I flinched a bit from …”don´t have to be 100% straight/gay” and “7 yrs with a woman and now married to a man+2 children” and “Love is love”…
PPS: Sorry, ESL
To Skip…
“u can be a little humble about it and accept that it was not the most brilliant idea.” – I get this, but I can also see how you have to realize it may take a moment to get there…to be fair if you thought up a plot and thought it was amazing only to have someone say it wasn’t it could take you a bit to admit that because you don’t see the faults others might thus you need time to hear the counter points and decide if you disagree with them because you still feel you’re right or do you see the person’s point and express your side then? Social media is pretty instant but when you’re in a conversation with thousands at the same time like writers get hit with messages it’s a lot to take in so they might come to admit they see why people are upset but it will take a bit. If they say nothing after days then I get calling them not humble but I’m willing to give them a bit to understand why some people felt it was part of a bad trope due to the amount of comments they have to sort through and the various levels of dislike that might be in each.
Also you have to remember as people not in the writing room we don’t know what’s coming so while we think a plot is bad there may be something that happens later which improves it, or makes it worse; writers aren’t going to give out spoilers most time so they may be a little extra defensive because they know how it pays off and have seen fans change opinions thus they hold off on serious responses until the end of the plot.
It’s all part of the “wait and see”. Again ask what’s going and explain in a civil manner how this upsets you, but don’t label something as horrible until you’ve seen it all or at least more than one episode. Plots could stay bad or they could go from bad to ok or even great depending on post handling.
“then all these Rosita interviews that want u to cheer for her and Waverly’s friendship, ignoring the fact that that means Nicole would have to keep seeing Waverly spend time and giggle with someone she actually frikkin kissed!” – I agree with this; I enjoy the fun questions as much as the next fan and I know you have a lot to pack in a short time depending on what happens each episode and how long the interview is schedule for but just because a moment is small screen time wise doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal. Waverly cheated on Nicole, yes she admitted afterwards it was wrong but she still did it so how is that going to affect things going forward is a question fans would be interested in hearing I think. There are heavy moments in the show so I’m all for heavy questions at times.
That said it depends on who’s being interviewed which questions get asked – if you’re interviewing Emily then as a showrunner/writer all questions are fair since she knows the motivation for characters in the episode and everything coming but if you’re interviewing Tamara who plays Rosita then she’s not going to be able to answer how Waverly feels about things as that’s not her character; you can ask her “Why didn’t Rosita stop the kiss given she’d been championing WayHaught that scene?” and she could provide some motivation for Rosita but she can’t speak for the whole scene as she’s not the only person in it/only one committing an act. “How might the kiss affect how Rosita interacts with Nicole?” is another question to ask, but what’s asked depends on who’s being interviewed. Also not everyone sees things the same at the same time so maybe some reviewers didn’t think about the possible trope connection in order to ask or they didn’t see it as cheating given people define it with varying degrees (technically lusting is cheating and there’s emotional cheating not just physical so it’s a personal response)…it’s annoying to see it tackled so little currently but for me I need to know the circumstances of the interview before I judge too much as you also have times where interviews are done pre large audiences seeing it (sometimes interviewers get advanced looks) so they ask questions before disagreements arise thus you have a conflict due to timing.
If this interview was done today and posted later this week versus possibly being done before even Friday would it still be the same or would the kiss be touched on more given it was hot topic with fans, only the interviewer knows.
“(2)knew she was possessed during the whole gooverly phase and hid it from Nicole for weeks, only telling Wynonna!” – I will totally give you the hiding the fact Rosita is a Revenant from Wynonna one is hypocritical, but in regards to gooverly it’s been established that Waverly didn’t always know what was happening to her so to be fair she didn’t know she was possessed at times. Telling Wynonna when they were tied up was one of the few, possibly only, moments Waverly broke free so again it’s not like she intentionally didn’t tell Nicole…also Nicole knew something was up so it wasn’t completely surprising to her.
I would love to see more Nicole and definitely more of her mixing with the others because we haven’t seen her beyond an Earp in awhile…not alone anyways, but I know Kat does other shows at times during filming too so they have to decide do they want a little of Nicole in every episode or a lot of her in a few episodes.