Wynonna Earp Season 3, Episode 3
In some ways, death is simple. It’s final; as Wynonna spits out in this episode, it’s forever; it is maybe the only things in existence that resists shades of grey. But the way those who are left behind deal with death? That‘s complicated. It’s messy and unpredictable. Sometimes, it’s silly and awkward, sometimes it’s sober and precise. Always, it’s heavy, all-encompassing, impossible to see past. Grief is a filter that coats all things, saturating the world and everything in it with its own, unique, terrible color. “Colder Weather” takes it time in checking in with all of its characters, post-death, and, while Dolls might not be there, his presence is felt in every frame of this episode. We learn about Dolls from others’ reactions to his absence. Their grief is as much about who he was as it is about who they are. Like Alice before him, though in a completely different way, there is now a Dolls-shaped hole in these characters’ lives. Waverly’s grief takes the form of planning—she makes sandwiches and picks out coffins because, yes, she is a planner, but also because Dolls asked her to take care of Wynonna before he died. Waverly is honoring Dolls’ wish, and, in her caretaking, she is honoring the man he was. As we saw so clearly in the Season 3 premiere, Dolls was somehow, despite his trauma, the emotionally-stable adult here. He was the person Wynonna leaned on to be there, regardless of what was going on in her life. It’s Jeremy who gets the brunt of Wynonna’s anger following Dolls’ death. Wynonna can’t get Bulshar, she can’t slay death, so she’ll punish Jeremy instead, angry at him for keeping Dolls’ secret when he didn’t trust Wynonna with it, too. (Dolls knew she already had so many burdens. He didn’t want to put another weight on her already tired shoulders.) In Dolls’ death, we learn how much he trusted Jeremy. He trusted Jeremy not just with his life, but with his secrets. In losing Dolls, Jeremy lost his best friend, too. When Wynonna puts her arm around Jeremy at the funeral, she is acknowledging that. And then there is Doc, who is plagued with the memory that the last thing he told Dolls was that they were all going to hell. We know from his conversation with Kate that he doesn’t believe that—he claims to know where Dolls ended up, and it isn’t hell—but his statement tastes of hope more than certainty. Death was never cheap, Doc tells Wynonna. He knows the weight of living and dying better than anyone. It’s a habit by now: mourning the dead. That doesn’t make it any easier, though. Just more familiar. He can use that familiarity to comfort Wynonna. It’s the thing he and Dolls shared, after all: loving this woman more than anything else in the world. “They were or are all dead.” “Isn’t that convenient?” “It’s not convenient. It sucks.” In the end, Dolls’ family—the family he chose—celebrate his life as well as mourn it. They burn his body to ensure it will never again be used as currency, as Wynonna puts it. They say goodbye with one last message from their friend: Keep going. Keep fighting. Dolls doesn’t leave Wynonna a note, but photos he took, and it’s the perfect goodbye. The saddest photos aren’t the ones of your missing loved one. They are the ones your missing loved ones took because the thing you miss the most is not their memory, you still have that, it’s how they saw the world and how they saw you. In Wynonna, Dolls saw a fierce, complicated, beautiful woman. That’s the person he wants her to continue to be. Read the latest Den of Geek Special Edition Magazine Here! “So what are we supposed to do?” Waverly asks her big sister. “Live,” Wynonna tells her. It’s the only choice we have in the face of death and, if we’re lucky like Dolls was, we’ll see that choice and that life as a blessing. “Not the prick I was looking for, but a prick nonetheless.” “That’s what my first wife said.” “I’m too tired to kill you.” Grief is exhausting, y’all. Wynonna is sick of grieving people: her father, Shorty, Willa. “I’m sorry.” “That is not for you to apologize for.” Doc doesn’t want Kate’s apologies for the death of someone she never knew. “You might as well stop chasing that girl. You’ll competing with a ghost for the rest of your days. It never ends well.” Is Contessa speaking from experience? Later, she tells Doc: “He also never stopped looking for you. Spent thousands. Hired trackers. Ultimately, it broke his heart.” What exactly went on between Wyatt and Doc? This is one of my most burning, lingering questions for this show. The funeral director assuming Nicole and Waverly have husbands and them just going all in on the lesbian reveal. Waverly doesn’t have a spot in the family plot. Her dad didn’t purchase one for her. He was such a dick. “Love, sometimes you get and sometimes you get got.” — Doc “Is that enough feeling for you?” You know things are tense when anyone snaps at Waverly. Nicole drops the secret of her own traumatic past! She attended a music festival in the Ghost River Triangle with aunt and uncle when she was younger. She was the only survivor of the brutal Cult of Bulshar massacre. “For years, my parents told me everyone had died in a forest fire and, somehow, I escaped…” Bless you, Nicole. “Do you think this was easy for me?” “I don’t care.” Someone hug Jeremy! “I will never forgive you for this.” “I get it. It’s easier to blame me than the dead dragon, right?” “I kind of thought you were normal.” — Waverly, saying what we are all thinking to Nicole. “Which means none of us has free will over any of our lives and we’re all gonna die anyway, so what’s the point?” “The point is I love you and, if that’s my destiny, then I am pretty damn stoked.” <3 “You know, I used to think Deputy Marshall Dolls was [an asshole], too, but, more and more I see, protecting the world maybe that requires a bit of selfishness.” Nedley was so wise. Is Waverly part angel? Is that a thing? “I just wanted an invitation.” “Well then like a few selfies and slide into my DMs like a normal person.” “If we’re all destined to be here and we’re all gonna die here, then we need to learn how to be here together.” — Waverly “[Black Badge] did stuff to me too, you know.” Dude, what are Jeremy’s powers? He has powers, right? If it is 20 below out, Waverly and Wynonna should be wearing hats. “You’re my favorite person in the whole wide world, baby girl, and once we’ve defeated Bulshar you’re stuck with me forever.” “No teeth, Kate.” Doc finally gives the Contessa (aka his wife?!) what she wanted: he calls her by her name.
