Wynonna Earp recap: Season 4, episode 2: 'Friends in Low Places'

You’d think that after your friend fell down a giant black hole, or a naked woman appeared in another dimension claiming to have no memory of how she got there, you’d take a minute and regroup. You’d assess the situation and plan out the best way forward. But that is not the Wynonna Earp way. The sisters and their friends only know how to go out guns-a-blazing, full steam ahead no matter what.

That’s why we find Wynonna with Rachel trying to get to the bottom floor of the lab, you know, where all the zombies hang out. The hole under the grates goes all the way down, which is likely where Nicole fell.

What they don’t know is that Nicole is in the Garden-Prison World naked as a jaybird. Doc finds her in the underground caverns and tries to give her his coat, but there’s a barrier around her. He goes up and grabs Waverly, who is elated to see her girlfriend but also can’t reach her through the barrier. Waverly is so thrilled to see her that she’s asking her questions a mile a minute, including “Is it really you!?” To which, Nicole responds, “Who else would I be?” Dun dun dunn.

As they’re fending off the zombies, Rachel explains to Wynonna that Black Badge Division scientists were trying to figure out a way to open a gateway between dimensions. Naturally, BBD wanted to weaponize it — as they always do — but once the gate opened, they panicked and gassed everyone. Rachel is helping Wynonna get to the bottom level because she wants to find her mom: zombified or alive.

Rachel has a plan for getting into the gateway lab: They search the sleeping zombified bodies for the right keycards to gain access. This requires a hazmat suit and gas masks, one of which breaks almost immediately upon getting into the room. Wynonna is experiencing hypoxia, which is basically like regular Wynonna with even more jokes… but much less oxygen. Luckily, they find the keycards in time and make it through to the other side of the door. And that’s where they find Nicole Haught, the real one. With a very broken leg.

In the garden world, the lights are going crazy, meaning the blood vessel is ready to be fed. Waverly stays with Nicole — who is throwing red flags left and right — while Doc goes to feed the urn. He stumbles into another room that has three mini monoliths on it. Nicole’s face is displayed on one side, and a demon's face is displayed on the other. He realizes this is a prison world, but it’s for that “thing,” not them.

Doc skips feeding the machine so he can get back to Waverly — but this allows Demon Nicole to break free from her prison. She grabs Waverly and says they have to get out of this world. But when Nicole stops to kiss her and tastes sulfur (and Doc screams, “Get away from her,” from afar), Waverly finally realizes this isn’t Nicole. This is a demon who goes by the name Eve. She says Wave’s dad died before he could explain how to save the world from her, which isn't good now that she’s been released from her prison.

Doc catches up to them and punches Not Nicole, who then turns into Jeremy. He starts beating up Jeremy before seeing the hedge clippers the BBD man had used to chop off his head. How they got above ground I don’t know; this prison world is weird. Doc stabs Jeremy in the stomach, pinning him to a door frame with the shears. Then Jeremy turns into Wynonna, and she begs Doc to stop this. Through all this, Waverly is in full-on angel mode. She says she can’t let Eve leave, knocks Doc out with her powers, and takes off for the throne.

While Wynonna tends to the real Nicole, Rachel searches the room and finds her mother. She died with her hand on the switch to the other world. Rachel says this means her mom was willing to die to stop anyone from going through, so she’s going to do the same. Luckily, Wynonna and Nicole are smooth talkers and are able to help her see they just want to save their friends. (Leave it to this show to be able to work in a polygamy joke into the middle of an otherwise heartfelt, touching scene about moms dying.)

Rachel and Wynonna swipe the keycards and get the gateway open just in time: Wynonna leaps through and Nicole throws the ring through as it closes. Wynonna sees Eve as herself pinned to a door and decides to leave that mess for another time. She runs to find Doc, who thinks she’s evil. It takes Wynonna saying their safe word (Dollywood) for him to believe it’s really her. They divide and conquer: Doc goes to take out Eve, and Wynonna goes to save her sister.

And she makes it without a minute to spare: Waverly is saying she’s the failsafe as she sits on the stone throne. “I’ve always been here. I’ll always be here. Time is a flat circle,” she says in a creepy voice. But the sight of Bulshar’s ring and a reminder of her commitment to Nicole makes Waverly snap out of it. “Curse is over — time to start living for ourselves,” Wynonna tells her. She helps her up out of the chair and they head back to Doc.

Meanwhile, Doc has shoved Eve through one of the red doors into a random dimension. Right before she goes through, she says she was owed something in the Ghost River Triangle. I’m sure that won’t come up again!

And in the other world, Rachel tells Nicole about how her family’s lineage goes all the way back to the Mayans and there was a warrior princess in her family who was given an “entire kingdom to rule and an eternity to do so,” and I’m sure that will never come up again either!

In the prison world, Doc, Wynonna, and Waverly are trying to open all the doors. They find the one to Purgatory just as the lights and sounds start to get very angry. The three of them wake up in the woods but in different places. Wynonna is near the stairs, Doc is near his well (carrying the satchel and book Waverly had picked out in the Prison World), and Waverly is near the homestead.

As Waves walks toward the homestead, someone fires at her. It’s Nicole, suspiciously without a broken leg. As soon as she realizes who it is, Nicole throws down her gun and then throws down Waverly. They have some very — and I mean very — WayHaught time. In a postcoital glow, Waverly asks Nicole when she had time to get extensions. And that’s when the bomb drops: They’ve been gone for 18 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days.

Doc and Wynonna meet in the middle of town. They’re about to kiss when Wynonna sees just how much things have changed: There are four bodies hanging in the streets of downtown Purgatory. “I did everything I could to keep it safe for you,” Nicole tells Waverly.

What exactly happened in the past year and a half? Is Eve running Purgatory? Are the Revenants? Zombies? Black Badge Division? All of the above? Honestly, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see a Council of Baddies take charge of this town. Whoever or whatever it is, I’m sure this gang can tackle it once they’re all back together — and I won’t consider that complete until Jeremy’s returned.

Best Earp-ism of the episode: “I’m not abandoning any of them: my Haught cop, my celestial sister, or my vampire baby daddy.” —Wynonna

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