'Wynonna Earp' Season 4 Episode 3 Review: There's a demon rager in Purgatory and a strange new status quo
Spoilers for 'Wynonna Earp' Season 4 Episode 3 'Look at Them Beans'
When 'Wynonna Earp' is at its best, it does a marvelous job of balancing zany humor with great action and grounded heart, and it has done this for the past two episodes. However, as this episode introduces an all-new status quo for the town of Purgatory, it is not the show's finest hour. With new faces introduced, new demons in town and a new mission statement for Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano) and her family, the well-maintained balance shifts decidedly towards silly as the show moves in a new direction.
Wynonna, Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon) and Waverly Earp (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) attempt to find out what's happened to the town in the year and a half they've been away. After the evacuation ended and Purgatory residents returned to their home, a group of demons decided to set up shop in Purgatory as well, though it's not quite clear why. As a result, the Black Badge division has quarantined the area, a new Magistrate Cleo (Savannah Basley) runs things with a violently whimsical leadership style, and yes, there's a new sheriff in town and Sheriff Clayborn (Ty Olsson) is nowhere near as understanding as Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell) or the presumed dead Sheriff Nedley (Greg Lawson).
The episode does not nearly hit the high mark that the past two episodes have. While a sudden passage of time is a surreal situation for anyone to have to deal with, the new situation that Purgatory finds itself in feels more like a fever dream than anything else. The citizens, beset by a more threatening demon infestation than every before, and walled off from the rest of the world, have apparently descended into anarchy, with every one of them sporting a weapon and ready for a public hanging at the drop of a hat.
It's not just the situation that's strange. The vital exposition about the town's new situation is sped through in a rather bland manner. Dirty jokes and witty one-liners that usually fit in effortlessly now feel crammed in, and uncomfortable (get your mind out of the gutter). The silliness seems extreme, starting with the baffling appearance of the Magistrate and ending with a demon-infested Randall Nedley being defeated with a t-shirt gun and a Kombucha-filled super-soaker. The show lampshades its own silliness, but it still feels like maybe it's gone a bit too far.
The new characters on the show — the Magistrate, the new Sheriff, and the debonair new demon dealing with Doc Holliday — all feel like they have more potential, but this was not the episode to showcase it. Their moments are either bland, overly silly, or a group of quick one-liners thrown in so that the show doesn't lose its meme-ability. That being said, however, there's still a lot of fun to be had through this episode and fan-favorite characters continue to do what they do best. The situation around them might take some getting used to, but there's nothing quite like 'Wynonna Earp' anywhere else on television.
The next episode of 'Wynonna Earp' airs on August 16 on Syfy.