Wynonna Earp season 3, episode 3 recap: ‘Colder Weather’

Last week, after what seemed like a pretty standard episode of Wynonna Earp, fans were hit with an out-of-the-blue tragedy — the death of Shamier Anderson’s Agent Dolls.

While people have a habit of coming back from the dead on Wynonna Earp, it looks like Dolls won’t be one of them. What will the team do without him? He was the voice of reason and often acted as the angel on Wynonna’s shoulder.

As this week’s episode, “Colder Weather,” begins, Wynonna isn’t handling the loss so well. She’s staggering drunk by the woods with Peacemaker and calling for Bulshar to come face her. Waverly and Nicole wait by a fire at a distance. They figure maybe it’s good for Wynonna to get this out of her system.

Bulshar doesn’t come to confront her, but a revenant does. Wynonna is too drunk to aim Peacemaker at him but Nicole and Waverly are there to chase the demon away with a shotgun.

Then the credits roll. In tribute to Dolls, this week’s credits feature a mournful acoustic version of the theme song from Wynonna Earp.

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At his bar, the vampire who Doc let live from this season’s first episode has returned, and she’s wearing much more normal clothes this time. It’s unclear what she really wants but Doc, who calls her the Contessa, tells her to get out and eventually she does.

At the Earp homestead, a funeral director is showing Waverly and Nicole options for Dolls’ coffin, but Wynonna won’t deal with it. Instead, she goes outside to drink and shoot at stuff. Doc comes to see her. They talk about Dolls. Wynonna still doesn’t understand what happened to him. Doc sums it up simply: They were dying and he saved them.

Back at the house, Nicole, Waverly, Doc, and Wynonna agree to have a wake for Dolls. But when Wynonna learns that Jeremy is autopsying Dolls, she leaves in a rage. She doesn’t want that for Dolls.

While Wynonna goes to stop the autopsy, Waverly and Nicole go to find something for Dolls to wear in his hotel room and Doc returns to the bar to find someone broke into it. The basement is ransacked. He doesn’t notice, but whoever did it took all the serum that had been created for Dolls.

Back upstairs, Doc finds a man with a gun. As they aim at each other, the man explains he’s there because he was a friend of Dolls. Doc is skeptical.

At Dolls’ hotel room Nicole talks about her bond with him. She tells Waverly that they bonded because they both experienced trauma. Waverly doesn’t know about what Nicole went through so Nicole tells her.

When she was a kid she went to a music festival with her aunt and uncle in the Ghost River triangle. There was an attack and the Cult of Bulshar killed everyone — except her. Waverly comforts Nicole.

Then, they find an envelope addressed to Wynonna in a briefcase. It says it’s for her after he’s gone. Waverly and Nicole realize the envelope means Dolls expected to die. As they leave the motel, the Contessa steals Waverly’s purse with the envelope in it.

Wynonna goes to confront Jeremy but he’s not performing an autopsy after all. He doesn’t have to — he knows what killed Dolls already. Wynonna can’t believe Jeremy didn’t tell them that Dolls was going to die, but Jeremy counters that he was being loyal to Dolls by respecting his wishes to keep it private. Black Badge and the drugs were to blame, but Wynonna blames Jeremy.

Wynonna heads to the bar where Doc had handcuffed the recently arrived friend of Dolls, Staff Sergeant Ramon Quinn. Wynonna asks Doc if he knew Dolls was dying and Quinn interjects. He says he’s amazed Dolls lasted as long as he did. The only thing that could’ve saved him was the Black Badge serum and there isn’t any more left.

Wynonna wants to know how this newcomer found them. Quinn explains Dolls’ squadron would place coded messages in ads in magazines to signal to each other so they could attend each other’s funerals without Black Badge’s knowledge.

He’s the only one who came because the rest of the squadron is dead. Quinn wasn’t experimented on like the rest. He had the wrong blood type. Wynonna informs him that he can stay for the wake but then he has to go. She uncuffs him.

At the wake, Waverly tells Doc about what happened to the envelope Dolls left for Wynonna. Doc knows who took it and agrees to help get it back as long as they keep it quiet.

Meanwhile, Wynonna bonds with Quinn who tells her about the rest of the people in his squadron. He confides that he’s worried Black Badge isn’t really gone. They spent a lot of money experimenting on the squadron and the rest of the members are all buried in unmarked graves because Black Badge came to collect their remains instead of letting them rest in peace.

Just then, revenants break into the bar. They’ve been getting high off the serum made for Dolls and they’re ready for action. They attack aggressively but Wynonna takes care of most of them with Peacemaker. The rest run off.

While Wynonna, Jeremy, Nicole, and Quinn deal with the mayhem at the bar, Doc and Waverly go to retrieve the envelope from the Contessa. Waverly has gleaned that there’s a connection between the Contessa and Doc and she wants to know what it is. Doc tells her: The Contessa is his wife. Whoa!

Waverly and Doc stealthily approach the house where she’s squatting, but the Contessa hears them from inside and tells them to just come in. After she and Waverly have words, she gives Waverly back her purse with the envelope still safely untouched inside. The Contessa wants an invitation to be part of the group but keeps getting denied.

After some tough love from Nicole, Wynonna realizes she should make up with Jeremy so she goes to find him at the police station. There she finds Quinn torturing him. Quinn knows Jeremy was part of Black Badge and he wants access to the serum Jeremy created for Dolls.

He plans to shoot himself up with it and then storm Black Badge headquarters to get revenge for his squadron. Quinn feels guilty because every time Dolls escaped Black Badge he’d find him and bring him back. Those were his orders. Wynonna talks him down and Quinn lets Jeremy go.

After what she learned from Quinn, Wynonna becomes concerned that Dolls’ body could become currency. To prevent that from happening, she has him cremated. She and the rest of the team bury Dolls’ ashes along with other meaningful belongings.

Later, Waverly gives Wynonna the envelope Dolls left for her. It contains a photo of her with the team. Wynonna interprets it to mean Dolls wants her to keep going.

At the end of this episode of Wynonna Earp, Doc goes to see the Contessa again. She says that before he passed away, Wyatt told her Doc was still alive. After that, she was determined to do whatever it took to be with him. They fall into each other’s arms.

This was a sad but necessary episode of Wynonna Earp. While it had some requisite revenant action, it mostly focused on the loss of Dolls. Appropriate, given how pivotal his life was too many of the folks on the team.

Of course, learning in the midst of everything that the Contessa is Doc’s wife was still shocking.  What will her desire to be with Doc and integrate herself into the team mean for the rest of the season? We’ll see how things evolve on the upcoming fourth episode of Wynonna Earp.

Until next week Earpers! While you’re waiting, check out our recap of episode 2 and stream the series so far on SyFy.