'Wynonna Earp' Season 4 Premiere Recap: "On the Road Again"

After a longer than expected delay, Wynonna Earp is finally back with its fourth season premiere! Based on a comic book series of the same name and premiering in April 2016, Wynonna Earp follows Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano), the heir of the legendary Wyatt Earp as she protects her hometown of Purgatory from revenants who possess human hosts to enact revenge for their untimely deaths.

Using Wyatt’s gun, Peacemaker, she sends these revenants back to hell so they don’t disturb her town and those around her. Her sister Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), Waverly’s girlfriend Sheriff Haught (Katherine Barrell) and Wyatt Earp’s former partner, who cannot die, Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon) all help Wynonna with her efforts to protect everyone. Wynonna worked for the Black Badge Division, a secret government organization tasked with handling supernatural occurrences, with Dolls (Shamier Anderson) but after the events of previous seasons, is no longer affiliated. The series has soft linear ratings on Syfy, but it has a strong and passionate online following that keeps the show going.

The series was renewed for a fourth season back in 2018 but due to budgetary issues, the fourth season was delayed, with many fans initially fearing that the series could be cancelled. The season three finale aired way back in September 2018, but two years later we finally have more episodes. Unfortunately, another bump in the road hit the series. Due to the current pandemic, Wynonna Earp was only able to film half of its twelve-episode order. Syfy announced they would air those first six episodes with the rest to come at a later date once they finish filming and editing it. Syfy knew delaying the series more would be hard for fans and boy are we thankful we’re getting some episodes!

Season 4 kicks off strong with an episode titled “On The Road Again.” Picking up where we left off, Wynonna declares that she was going to rescue her sister Waverly who was dragged through the door of the Garden of Eden at the end of season 3. No longer having her gun, Peacemaker, due to breaking the curse last season, Wynonna stocks up on weapons along with former Sheriff Nedley (Greg Lawson), who retired last season. While gathering her weapons Nedley says “You almost done?I feel like I’ve been standing here for two years” in a cute meta moment pointing out how long it has been since the previous season finale. The two head back to the staircase where Waverly was taken, but Wynonna is unable to enter the portal door and falls off the staircase. On the other side of the door, we see Waverly tied up calling for Wynonna to come rescue her.

Tiny creatures appear out of the ground around Wynonna and Nedley. They begin to fight them, shooting at them. Nedley gets injured and the two retreat back to Wynonna’s house. Wynonna finds the name Valdez carved into the wall of the stairs and tries to think about what it could mean. We see a small flashback to earlier in the night where Wynonna had drugged all of her friends and allies to prevent them from stopping her going off on her own because she felt it wasn’t their fight. We see that Jeremy Chetri (Varun Saranga), a former Black Badge lab technician who helps alongside Wynonna and her friends, having woken up out of his drug haze caused by Wynonna, was the one who carved the name into the wall right before soldiers show up at the house and tase him, taking him and the rest of the group still passed out. We come back to the present and Wynonna finds a ring on the floor, which we know was the ring Waverly used to propose to Haught.

Meanwhile, Haught wakes up on a train, locked inside, and finds that Kate (Chantel Riley) is also on board. Kate, Doc’s former wife and current vampire, tells her what happened and that the entire town of Purgatory had been taken and evacuated against their will. Kate doesnt know where everyone else is. Panicked, Haught asks Kate to try and find Waverly and finally agrees to help by looking at her cards.

Back at Wynonna’s house, she hears a noise from the kitchen, Mercedes (Dani Kind) throws a knife nearly missing Wynonna. Wynonna tells her that Bulshar is dead, the curse is lifted and about Waverly being taken. Wynonna, Nedley and Mercedes head to the police station to find Dolls’ information he left behind from Black Badge Division. In his files, Wynonna finds a folder with information about a woman named Gloria Valdez, a former Black Badge college of Dolls. She was a scientist and that must be why Jeremy carved the name into the wall. She also noticed that in the file it says garden. She decides to go find out more at the location listed in the file, but Nedley is too hurt to continue with Wynonna. Mercedes tells Wynonna, “I am happy to stay with him. I was a slutty nurse once for halloween.” Mercedes has been hilarious in every scene she appeared in. Leaving them behind, Wynonna sets off on her own.

Back on the train, Kate opens the electrified train door long enough for Haught to escape, and Haught jumps off the train. Hearing the commotion, a soldier comes in asking where she went. Kate’s eyes light up, having survived due to being a vampire, and attacks him. I’m sure we will see her again soon.

WYNONNA EARP — “On the Road Again” Episode 401 — Pictured: (l-r) Tim Rozon as Doc Holliday, Dominique Provost-Chalkley as Waverly Earp — (Photo by: Michelle Faye/Wynonna Earp Productions, Inc./SYFY)

On the other side of the door to the Garden of Eden, Doc Holliday appears, not expecting to see a snowy landscape and begins searching for Waverly. He hears her screams, runs over and tries to get her out of the chains successfully. The two then try to find the door out of the Garden of Eden.

Wynonna gets a flat tire, and gets into her own head, feeling the weight of the entire situation. She eventually finds the strength within herself to keep going. Haught suddenly appears and she punches Wynonna. Haught fixes Wynonna’s flat tire while yelling at her for drugging her and the rest of their friends. Wynonna tells Haught that she thinks the Valdez information will eventually lead to another door where they can rescue Waverly. Haught agrees to join her mission. This interaction between the two was a great look at their complicated history but in the end, their mutual shared love for Waverly always unites them.

Back in the Garden of Eden, Doc and Waverly come upon Julian’s throne. He was Waverly’s biological father and ruled over the Garden of Eden. She finds herself drawn to the throne (which we should probably be worried about) but Doc holds her back from sitting on it sensing it could cause trouble. Doc and Waverly suddenly realize they’re not alone. They find a room with a Black Badge employee who is scraped up and bloody. He tells them they need to give an offering of blood down a shaft. Before they can get more information including how to get home, he cuts his own head off. Before the two can react, alarms begin to go off and they decide to use the dead guy’s blood to feed the open shaft, buying them time. Doc’s vampire instincts kick in with all of the blood.

Wynonna and Haught arrive at the location in Doll’s files, and Haught tells Wynonna that Waverly proposed to her. Suddenly, a sniper fires on them. Haught asks where Peacemaker is, not knowing the gun is gone. While saying “Clear eyes, full bra, can’t lose” in a nod to the classic Friday Night Lights saying, Wynonna runs out of their hiding spot as a distraction to reveal the sniper’s location to Haught. She catches the sniper. After trying to find out more information from the sniper, Haught calls Wynonna her best friend in a cute, touching moment. They notice the sniper has an ID card with Gloria Valdez’s name on it. The sniper, we find out is named Rachel, tells them that Gloria is her mother who she is unable to locate. Rachel and Wynonna bond over their shared desire of keeping their family safe. Rachel agrees to lead them to Gloria’s office. We find out Rachel knows Dolls because he saved her from a gas Black Badge released that went wrong. The group comes upon dead scientists and realize that Black Badge gassed their own people. Wynonna tosses a bomb trying to enter a locked room, and suddenly, all the previously believed dead scientists wake up as mutant zombies and chase after them. Fighting their way through the mutant zombies, they get split up. Wynonna catches up with Haught but Haught sees Wynonna is in trouble and pushes her out of the way and falls down a giant hole in the floor to Wynonna’s dismay

Meanwhile, Waverly and Doc talk around a fire they built and agree that they will leave all the wrongs of the past in the past in order to get home. Doc drifts asleep, and Waverly seems to struggle to remember things she should be remembering. She then is drawn back to the room with alarms. There she cuts herself, using her own blood to get the alarms to go off. Instantly the room silences, and she hears someone calling her name. Waverly walks into a room with a bag on the floor and four books laid out on a stone table. Inscribed in the table are the words “Choose one. Choose wisely” and we see that each book has a name on it. Nicole Haught, Waverly Gibson, Doc Holliday and Wynonna Earp. The camera pans up to Waverly’s face, she picks up one of the books, not letting the viewers see which one she chose, puts it in the bag and walks into the next room. Doc wakes up outside and sees trees blossoming. Instantly he knows that Waverly has used her own blood despite him telling her not to. He runs back to the room, and as he walks inside, he sees a completely naked sheriff Haught to his surprise, standing in the middle of the room. Whaaaaaat?

Despite myself forgetting a few details from the past season due to the length between seasons, they did a good job reminding the viewers where everyone is currently at in the whole story. The premiere was a surprisingly fun and very enjoyable episode that set up a solid path that we will all go down with these characters. I was afraid after some questionable storylines in the previous season, especially in regard to Dolls and his demise, that I wouldn’t like the episode as much as I did. I still enjoyed season 3 a lot, but it wasn’t my favorite. This premiere episode has me very excited to see where the story goes in the next five episodes that are currently scheduled. Having episodes airing again makes me extremely happy. I missed all of these great characters and the crazy that they often find themselves getting caught up in. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, what are you waiting for!? If you’ve watched, what are your theories for the coming episodes?

Here’s a promo teaser at what’s to come next week. It looks like things are only going to get crazier from here!