Wynonna Earp EP says resolving that crazy twist will be 'tricky'

If there’s one thing Wynonna Earp knows how to do, it’s ending episodes on epic cliffhangers. And episode 10 had a doozy of one.

[Spoiler alert… stop reading now if you have not watched “I See a Darkness.”]

The good news is Nicole survived. The bad news is Waverly made that happen by aligning with Greta, The Blacksmith’s sister (both played by Rachael Ancheril). In exchange for whatever she asked, Greta led Waverly to the third seal, which she then gave to Widow Beth in return for an antidote to the venom. What Greta asked from Waverly was the demon-possessed hockey trophy, and she used it to cast one whopper of a wish: that Wynonna disappear.

In addition to Wynonna going missing, Doc became a casualty of the wish and found himself at the bottom of the well… again. Plus, the Widows now have the power to raise Demon Clootie. Obviously, there’s a lot going on, so we caught up with showrunner Emily Andras to walk us through it all.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start at the beginning of the episode — why did Waverly not trust Wynonna to come through with a cure for Nicole in time?
EMILY ANDRAS: Waverly trusts Wynonna more than anyone else in the entire world, but the truth was circumstances were different this time. Nicole truly was dying. Dolls, of all people, actually gave Waverly permission to take this different route. And I think she got tricked.

It certainly seemed to be a hard decision for her.
One thing we need to remember is that deep, deep down, even though Wynonna and Waverly are so close and Wynonna is the Earp heir, Wynonna is a huge screw-up and has been that for longer in Waverly’s life than she has been the wonder woman of Waverly’s life. I think Waverly just couldn’t take the chance. Or at least thought she couldn’t. And look, I think if we’re being honest, there was a moment when Wynonna didn’t know if she was going to pull it out either.

But Nicole pulled through, and we found out she has a wife! What does this mean?
It’s good that Nicole has a past, that she’s not perfect. It’s naïve to think that Nicole and Waverly are high school sweethearts and haven’t had relationships before. The takeaway is that even the wife, Shay, has heard of Waverly and knows the way that Nicole loves Waverly. I’m sure there will be many opinions, and I look forward to all of them, but I think it made Nicole more interesting. Shay has insight into Nicole and who she was before she came to Purgatory that may give everybody that backstory that they’re looking for.

And bearing in mind the wife news, when or is Waverly going to bring up the kiss to Nicole?
They’re going to have to have a big long sit-down. Unfortunately, it’s just not that type of show right now. Right now we are putting out fires over here and over there constantly. And right now I feel like they don’t even necessarily remember each other and what they were.

Yeah, let’s talk about that! What is going on!?
All I know is Wynonna has disappeared, Waverly is back in her Shorty’s outfit, and she’s supposed to be getting married.

Greta was obviously a surprise! She said she was mad about her sister dying, but was there more behind why she made this Wynonna-less wish?
She’s a witch, so she is already a mischief-maker. She likes being a puppet master, so to speak, but there is a sense that her hatred of the Earp girls has gone back longer than merely the fact that she blames them for The Blacksmith’s death. I definitely think it’s not the last we’ve seen of Greta… she may have her own repercussions from this wish.

Did you have any pop culture inspiration for this story line?
There are certain genre story lines I love that you see time and time again — there’s a reason they work because you can always have a fresh take with the characters at hand. I like It’s a Wonderful Life. I like seeing what Purgatory would have been like if Wynonna had never showed up, if Wynonna had never been born, if Wynonna was not the Earp heir. I think it’s a chance for the actors to play a different take on their characters and maybe reexamine how important Wynonna is even when she is a screw-up.

Another inspiration was the Buffy episode “The Wish” when Cordelia wishes away Buffy. It was super, super fun and well done. There are a few instances in pop culture where this story line has been done, but I’m really proud of the way we do it. I think it’s really fun.

Did this have anything to do with a certain person’s pregnancy?
Completely frankly, we block-shoot our episodes, which means we shoot two episodes at a time, and we’re at our last two episodes. Melanie Scrofano, woman extraordinaire, was nine months pregnant, so we needed a bit of an insurance policy in case she went into labor early. We needed to have an episode where there was less Wynonna, so it was both practical and then it became creatively really exciting.

So how is the gang going to fix something when they don’t know something is wrong?
I don’t know. Isn’t that horrible? It’s awful. End of conversation.

Just kidding. This is really going to be tricky. I would say that Wynonna is such a huge presence in this world. The universe and destiny obviously have a use for her, so I wouldn’t count her out for very long. And there is one person who maybe knows Wynonna is missing … but he’s sort of stuck at a bottom of a well.

Wynonna Earp airs at 10 p.m. ET on Syfy.