It’s been a long time coming (about two years, to be exact, thanks to some ridiculous issues with SyFy’s deal with the production), but season four of Wynonna Earp is here. And, after watching the two episodes made available for critics, it’s off to a hell of a start. For those of you who might have stumbled across this review without having watched the first three seasons of the series (all available to stream on Netflix, so you have no excuse not to watch it), a bit of a primer for you before you save this review and begin your binge. Wynonna Earp follows the titular character (played by the spectacular Melanie Scrofano, who is able to handle everything thrown her way – and boy, is a lot thrown her way over the course of the series – with the skill of the finest of actors), who happens to be the great-great-grandaughter of the famous gunslinger Wyatt Earp, as she attempts to end the curse placed on her family by a vengeful demon decades ago. It’s an adult Buffy the Vampire Slayer with more diversity, more adult content, and, to be frank, more heart. I genuinely can’t find fault with it (ok, maybe season two was a tad scattered, but it’s still pretty great).
As for season four, well, when we last left our heroes, Doc and Waverly had entered the Garden of Eden (all of your questions about how the show would stage that particular location up in the frozen tundra of Calgary are answered almost immediately), Jeremy, Nicole, and Robin had disappeared, and Wynonna and Nedley were prepping to storm the gate to the Garden to save the day. Oh, and the name Valdez had been carved into the wall of the Earp homestead. A great cliffhanger. And a hard one to sit with for two years (confession: I only just finished season three over the weekend, as I got super behind watching it live, then figured I’d wait until it was closer to season four…and then waited two years). I won’t spoil anything about how the gang does or doesn’t get out of the pickle they each find themselves in during the aftermath of the battle for the Garden, but I remain amazed at how the show’s writing staff (led by Wynonna Earp‘s stellar showrunner Emily Andras) manage to solve the major lingering questions from the cliffhanger while also advancing the story to introduce a new big bad that appears to be more vicious than anything the gang has fought before.
The greatest joy of the initial two episodes of season four for me was getting to chance to spend time with some unlikely character pairings. Waverly and Doc don’t get to spend a whole lot of time together, one-on-one, in normal situations, but getting to see Tim Rozon and Dominique Provost-Chalkley bounce off each other for a significant chunk of time was great. Unsurprisingly, the duo have a really lovely chemistry together, and I hope the show pairs them up for more adventures in the future. Likewise with Nedley and Wynonna. Greg Lawson and Scrofano are comedy gold together, and, let’s face it, the gang would be nothing without their retired sheriff to play the father of the group. There’s another stellar pairing in the episodes that might just be my favorite of them all, but I don’t want to spoil it – save to say it had me laughing and tearing up at various points. And while I haven’t mentioned her quite yet, Katherine Barrell is, far and away, the MVP of the initial two episodes of season four. She is able to show her incredible acting range through a hell of a mini-arc.
After four seasons, it’s clear the writers know the strengths of both their characters and actors and are able to play to them with ease. Wynonna Earp has always been one of the smartest, most fun, and plain great shows on television, but now it feels completely at ease with itself. The quips are still flying fast and furious and the emotional beats remain fully satisfying. And, with so few new (non-Netflix) shows on the horizon, it feels great to settle back in and spend some time with our favorite supernatural beings and hunters in Purgatory. If things are headed where I think they are, it’s going to be quite the wild ride.
Wynonna Earp returns on Sunday, July 26th on SyFy. We will be running weekly episode reviews here at Pop Culture Maniacs.
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