Wynonna Earp season 3, episode 4 recap: “No Cure For Crazy”

Last week’s episode of Wynonna Earp mostly dealt with the sad business of mourning Agent Dolls.

However, there were a couple of revelations that are likely to have some ramifications moving forward on Wynonna Earp. First, Nicole told Waverly the story of how she ended up being the lone survivor of a massacre by the Cult of Bulshar when she was a child. Second, we learned that the vampire who continues to hang around Doc — whom he refers to as the Contessa — is his long-lost wife. And despite his protests to the contrary he seems to be having trouble staying away from her.

When this week’s episode of Wynonna Earp “No Cure for Crazy” begins, Wynonna and Doc are chasing one of the revenants who stole Dolls’ drugs. Fortunately (and weirdly)  a tree jumps into the road right in the revenant’s path, knocking him over and giving Wynonna and Doc time to catch up.

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But when the moment of truth arrives and Wynonna tries to dispatch the demon, Peacemaker won’t shoot. She tries over and over but no dice. Peacemaker’s out of ammo.

Meanwhile, while walking in the woods, a park ranger discovers a tree that is bleeding real red blood. He panics and runs.

Elsewhere in the woods, Nicole and Waverly are examining a plaque to the “fire” — really the massacre by the Cult of Bulshar — that Nicole survived. Waverly wants to know if it’s jogging Nicole’s memory but the event was 20 years ago so it really isn’t ringing any bells for her. Nicole does realize Black Badge cleaned up the whole incident, though, making her just a loose end.

As Waverly and Nicole talk, the park ranger runs up. Waverly knows him. His name is Robin. Waverly and Nicole drive him back to the police station to see Sheriff Nedley.

At the station, Jeremy is working with Nicole and Waverly to examine the area where the massacre happened. Wynonna and Doc rush in with the revenant they failed to kill. They look for more ammo so they can get the job done but there isn’t any. And without Agent Dolls, the Black Badge pipeline is dried up. Well, that can’t be good.

Doc goes to look for ammo at the bar. And Wynonna offers to take Waverly to the prison to see their mother. She assures Waverly Mama’s doing better. She may have oversold it, though, because the scene then cuts to Mama at the prison. She’s got a woman trapped and is ranting as she draws with the woman’s blood on the wall.

At the bar, Wynonna and Doc search for bullets. Instead, Wynonna discovers a crib that Doc made for their daughter. Doc assures her that she did the right thing by sending the baby to safety but Wynonna counters that she always takes the easy way out when things get hard. She did it with her mother too.

The scene flashes back to seven years ago on Wynonna Earp. Wynonna has gone to see Mama at the Ghost River Institute. She tells Mama she’s leaving Purgatory. Mama makes her promise not to tell Waverly she’s there. When Wynonna gets angry, Mama tells her never to come back.

Back in the present, Doc assures Wynonna she doesn’t share her mother’s failings. They kiss but are interrupted when Nicole comes rushing in. Nicole tells Wynonna to go see Nedley as Doc finally finds some bullets.

At the station, Jeremy and Waverly are discussing Jeremy’s dating options — or lack thereof. Robin walks in and Waverly introduces him to Jeremy. She then leaves them alone hoping for a love connection. As she walks out, she gets a call from the Ghost River Institute about her mother.

Waverly goes to visit Mama but Mama isn’t happy to see her. She freaks out and threatens to kill Waverly. The orderly shocks her. As he drags her away Mama mutters that she needs to kill the demon.

Meanwhile, Wynonna arrives at Nedley’s office as he discusses the department’s finances with a money man. They both have trouble explaining where she fits in.

When Waverly returns to the station, she tells Wynonna she went to see Mama and Mama tried to kill her. Wynonna doesn’t believe it at first but when Waverly convinces her, Wynonna stalks out.

At the Institute, Mama is in the process of being transferred to a more secure facility. Wynonna confronts her and yells at her about threatening Waverly. Mama apologizes but not for that. It’s for what she’s about to do. She takes Peacemaker, uses it to bludgeon and threaten her guards, and escapes. She makes it clear she plans to go after Waverly and warns Wynonna not to get in her way.

Wynonna tries to go after her but is stopped by the guards who take her into custody.

Meanwhile, at the station, Waverly and Nicole are discussing what happened when Waverly saw Mama. Nicole pulled Mama’s file from the archives. It says Mama was arrested for arson for burning down the barn at the Homestead.

Waverly is confused. No one gets 20 years for burning down their own barn. But there’s only one page in the file.

Nedley walks in and confesses he was the one who removed the pages from the file, but Waverly is now grown up and deserves to know what really happened. Mama wasn’t sent to prison because she burned down the barn, she was sent to prison because Waverly was in the barn when she burned it down.

Somehow Waverly escaped the fire in the barn. But when they caught Mama, she was raving about trying to vanquish a demon. Wynonna and Waverly’s father also said she had written occult nonsense all over the barn walls before lighting it up.

Nedley insists, though, that Mama doesn’t have an evil bone in her body.

Elsewhere, Jeremy and Robin go to see the bleeding tree in the woods but they can’t find it. They flirt as they search. Then they come across something odd:  a stone staircase. Jeremy calls Doc for help.

Doc looks for them but is stopped in his tracks when he hears a baby crying in the distance. He searches for the child but instead finds Bulshar. Bulshar entices Doc to do his bidding with promises of rewards.

Before Doc agrees to anything, though,  Jeremy finds him. Doc’s confused and disoriented but plays it off.

At the Institute, Wynonna tries to convince the guards to let her go so she can stop Mama from going after Waverly, but they have other plans. They want to kill Waverly and Wynonna and frame Mama for it. Why? Because the guards are revenants.

As one of the guards takes her to her death, Wynonna breaks the news to the guard that she had a kid so no matter what he does to her the Wyatt bloodline continues. When the guard hesitates at the news, Wynonna takes the opportunity to hit him. They fight and Wynonna wins, beheading the revenant.

SIdebar: This is now the second time this season that Wynonna’s killed a revenant with her bare hands with no need for Peacemaker. Wasn’t Peacemaker supposed to be the only way to kill those things? Between beheading this guy and doing whatever she did to the revenant who kidnapped Waverly in episode 2, it seems like maybe the rules are more flexible than they originally seemed.

Anyway, Wynonna gets the warden to release her and heads out to find Mama.

At the station, Jeremy and Robin review the photos they took in the woods, but they show nothing but midst. What happened to the staircase they saw? They agree to discuss it later on a date. As Robin walks out, he coughs up blood. He hides it from Jeremy.

Later, Robin returns to his house to find plants growing in his yard that weren’t there before. A tree branch snakes behind him and pulls him away.

At the Homestead, Waverly and Nicole are listening to tapes of Mama’s sessions at the Institute. Doc comes in searching for whiskey. After his encounter with Bulshar, he’s decided being drunk is his best bet. Waverly goes to find more liquor for him in the barn.

When Waverly leaves, Doc hears a third voice on the tape and panics, but Nicole doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

In the barn, Waverly finds Mama drawing symbols and lighting candles. Mama tells Waverly the demon has come for her. Waverly turns around to find a creepy woman right behind her.

As this episode of Wynonna Earp ends, Wynonna returns to the Homestead to protect Waverly. She finds Waverly, Nicole, and Doc eating baked goods. They tell her they have Mama locked in the barn. She tried to attack Waverly, but the woman who’s baking all their treats, Jolene, showed up just in time.

Wynonna is skeptical until Jolene force feeds her a brownie. As soon as she gets a taste, Wynonna acts as if she’s known Jolene forever. Creepy.

This was a jam-packed episode of Wynonna Earp with a lot of mysterious things going on. What’s up with all the weird things in the woods? Did Doc actually make a deal with Bulshar? And if the demon’s intention is to kill Waverly, why is she spending time brainwashing everyone with baked treats?

Plus, we didn’t see the Contessa at all this week. Where will she end up fitting into things? Lots of new questions — hopefully, some answers will be coming soon.

See you next week Earpers! While you wait for the next episode, check out our recap of episode 3 and stream the first four episodes of Wynonna Earp‘s third season on Syfy.