Wynonna Earp Season 3: Episode 1 Recap

Kayla
16 Min Read

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Wynonna Earp Season 3, Episode 1!

 

On Monday night, the SyFy channel aired a special sneak peek preview of the first episode for season 3 of its hit show Wynonna Earp. The season officially premiers on Friday night at 9 pm, and the episode- Blood Red and Going Down- will also be airing with bonus content.

courtesy of SyFy

The show returned in a way that was true to form for our whiskey drinking, sharp tongued heroine. The episode opened with Wynonna astride a mechanical bull, drink in hand clearly having a good time. It doesn’t last long, though because a few moments later, we see Wynonna being tossed out of the bar via a back door and she is then surrounded by revenants. Though she’s clearly had more than a few drinks, she is up and fighting off her attackers-one of whom was actually Dolls in disguise. He hands Wynonna Peacemaker and she’s off and running chasing down the revenants who are trying to escape. Waverly and Nicole are also on scene providing support on a nearby rooftop. Jeremy and Doc emerge a few moments later, teaming up to incapacitate another revenant who Wynonna quickly disposes of.

courtesy of SyFy

And while this is usually run of the mill work for the Earp heir, something new is about to enter into the town of Purgatory…via a party bus. Sheriff Nedley and one of his officers are staking out the town limits setting up a speed trap when the bus pulls up. When Nedley exits his vehicle, the bus stops and the doors open, with several people spilling out amidst a cloud of purple smoke. One of them approaches the sheriff asking if this is the Ghost River Triangle. A suspicious Nedley says it depends on who’s asking. One of the men from the bus says “your master”. The woman approaches Nedley and touches his cheek and his demeanor instantly changes and he welcomes the group into the town.

“Its about time we had some vampires up in here.”

Back at the Earp homestead Nicole and Waverly share a tender moment in their room that is interrupted by strange noises coming from outside in the barn. Doc and Wynonna have been training and sparring in the barn. This has become a bit of a regular occurrence for them in the 19 weeks since the demon Bulshar rose and they had to send their daughter Alice away, and things seem to be a bit rocky between the two. Nicole tells the group a few moments later that they have a case that requires all hands on deck.

Courtesy of SyFy

Wynonna and Waveryly return to Pussy Willows- the bar from the night before- where Sheriff Nedley is already on scene. He greets the sisters outside and he tells them they shouldn’t be here, and that Nicole is already inside. He leaves and tells the girls he promises that “they didn’t do this.” It doesn’t take them long to notice something is off with the sheriff but head inside the bar. Inside, they are greeted by a grisly scene. Bodies and blood cover the floor. Nicole tells them that somehow they all died simultaneously and that the bodies were arranged in a pattern, and due to her researching Black Badge Division files, she believes the slayings were done by the Cult of Bulshar. While casing the scene, Nicoles sees a symbol carved into the back of one of the victims and becomes visibly shaken and leaves the scene with Waverly. Wynonna notices movement behind the bar, and she soon finds a man standing there. He slams a bloody hand down on to a poster on the wall and disappears. Meanwhile, Waverly and Nicole are in the bar’s restroom when the same vampire who approached Nedley at the start of the episode appears. She touches Waverly , effectively putting her under the same control she used on Nedley, and tells Waverly that she is needed as tribute. Nicole exits one of the stalls in the restroom, having also been glamoured by the vampire- Petra. Wynonna has returned to the bar, and we see what the strange figure had left the hand print on. It was a poster for ‘Michelle Gibson, Rodeo Queen.’ Taking one look at the poster, she tears it from the wall, yelling to Waverly that she has to leave on a “mother of an errand”.

Doc is back at Shorty’s, asleep on the bar. He starts awake, appearing to have been having a nightmare about being in Hell. Hearing strange noises coming from the bar’s basement, he descends the steps to find Jeremy. A few moments later, the room is engulfed in purple smoke. They climb the stairs back to the bar, to find that the vampires have taken over, killing the patrons. Disoriented by the haze in the room, Doc is captured and Jeremy is put under a glamour by one of the vampires.

courtesy of SyFy

The “errand” that Wynonna had to go on ends at the local jail- where her mother is. Wynonna confronts her mother about Bulshar and her connection to him. Her mother remains mostly silent throughout the exchange, but she tells her daughter that “the voice tells her things about him” and that Wynonna is going to get her sister killed. Things quickly escalate as her mother gets more and more agitated, and as she is escorted away she yells out that her daughters are off limits.

It seems the vampires brought Doc back to their bus, and have taken him prisoner with plans to turn the legendary gunslinger but he must prove he is in fact the Doc Holliday. He asks his captor how exactly he is supposed to accomplish that. She tells him “endure” and begins to torture him.

Back at the prison, Wynonna and Dolls have gotten their hands on her mother’s records- much of which have been redacted. During their conversation, we learn that Wynonna’s father had told her to tell Waverly that their mother up and left them when they were children, instead of telling her that she had been arrested. The two part ways, and as Dolls is returning to his vehicle, Petra appears.

Doc, still being held prisoner starts talking with the vampire who is holding him captive, and learns that the vampires have come to the Ghost River Triangle to observe when Bulshar returns. In talking more with the vampire, Doc realizes he knows her and her name is Countessa.

After leaving Dolls, Wynonna has returned to the homestead, when the mysterious purple fog returns, spilling out of the barn. Entering into the “sexy fog”, Wynonna wishes for a suprise Rihanna concert, but instead finds a vampire waiting for her. Moments later, Wynonna enters the house to rally the troops- presumably covered in vampire guts. Nicole, Waverly, and Jeremy all greet her, but Wynonna quickly notices something amiss in their behavior and the way they’re dressed, noting that it’s a bit formal for Taco Tuesday. Realizing that Wynonna hasn’t fallen prey to the vampire’s glamour, Nicole knocks her out cold. The trio discusses what to do with her, and because Petra has instructed them not to kill her, they decide that they will deliver Wynonna to the vampires…in a coffin. Wynonna is the guest of honor at a formal house party that the vamps are throwing. At the party, the humans that the vampires have glamoured are discussing turning or being eaten. Waverly and Nicole begin to talk about what will happen to them, and Waverly tells Nicole she doesn’t think she can watch her be eaten. Nicole agrees, saying she’s never been a victim, she’s a survivor and for a brief moment it seems that glamour may have been wavering. That is until one of the vampires begins his speech at the party. He tells the crowd the Ghost River Triangle has been wasted on the people living there, but that ‘he’-presumably Bulshar- is coming to save it and that they are here to watch.

In the basement of the house, Dolls – who managed to elude the vampires – has found Wynonna. He frees her from the coffin and presents her with some stakes courtesy of Black Badge Division. The two learn that if the vampire is killed, whoever they glamoured will return to their senses. Back at the party, the vampires have begun to split the guests into groups: the descendants of the old families of Purgatory will be offered as tribute to Bulshar, everyone else is “for them to eat.” Suddenly, Wynonna makes her grand entrance as the guest of honor, smashing through a window, telling the vampire “I’ll tell you what you can eat. A dick.”

courtesy of SyFY

Turning to Waverly, Wynonna asks her who her favorite vampire is, and Waverly rushes to Petra’s side. With a signal to Dolls, he shoots the vampire with a stake effectively breaking the glamour’s effect on Waverly, Nicole, and Nedley. No longer under Petra’s spell, Nicole slides Peacemaker to Wynonna and a fight breaks out with the group shooting and staking the vampires. During the fight, Nicole is briefly glamoured by aother vampire, before Waverly plunges a stake into the offending vampire, yelling “that’s my girlfriend you bloodsucking, bitch!”

Still stuck on the party bus, we see Doc trying to escape. “Greatest gunslinger in who ever lived will not get ate while tied to a stripper pole. Hopefully.” He finally manages to break free just as the vampire Countessa returns. She tells him he’s free because their plan has gone sideways, when she notices that Doc is bleeding. He affirms that he does know her and asks what they’ve done to her. She tells him “what I don’t want them to do to you” before leaving and telling him to stay put on the bus, no matter what happens. Doc climbs out of the bus through an emergency exit in the roof and chases the vampire through the snow. After a brief and heated exchange, Doc lets her go. It’s clear these two have a history that dates back to Doc’s time with Wyatt Earp.

The others are still inside the house, having taken care of the vampires. As one remaining vampire is about to bite Dolls, Doc rushes in and stakes it. There is still one more vampire left, and the group tries to interrogate him about Bulshar’s whereabouts. The vampire tells them that while Bulshar’s curse on the Earps was elegant, his wrath won’t be, and that he has returned to finish what he started. Rather than put the vampire down, she leaves him for Bulshar to deal with, with the warning that she is coming for him. And like she knew he would, the vampire returns to Bulshar, explaining how their plan failed. However, Bulshar does not kill him because it seems he has other plans for him, saying that he will be the one to show others the path.

Doc and Wynonna return to Shorty’s to share a drink at the bar. The two toast to another day, another victory, and to Alice. The episode closes with Wynonna taking Waverly back to the homestead, and Nicole has returned to Pussy Willows, where she is soon joined by Dolls. It’s clear she is still very shaken up about the slaughter that took place there. Dolls tells her it’s tough with cases where there are no survivors. She tells him that she thinks there was a survivor of the Cult of Bulshar once. And that it was her.

On their drive home, it seems Wynonna is finally about to tell Waverly what really happened to their mother when suddenly, the two get into an accident. We see the tuck flip upside down and someone pulling Waverly from the wreckage as she screams for them to save Wynonna, too.

After the roller coaster that was season 2, its no surprise that season 3 has hit the ground running, and its clear our heroes aren’t going to have much time to catch their breath.  They’re dealing with revenants, vampires and ancient demons and its only the first episode!

Be sure to tune in again Friday July 20th at 9 pm on the SyFy channel when the season officially premiers! 

 

 

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By Kayla
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Kayla has been with Nerds and Beyond since 2016 when she decided to combine her love of fandoms and writing. She enjoys all things Marvel, gaming, reading, traveling, going to conventions and concerts. When not writing, she can usually be found in front of the TV enjoying her favorite shows and trying to make a dent in her every growing 'to watch list', behind a camera lens, or on Twitter yelling about her love for Bucky Barnes.
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