'Wynonna Earp' Season 4 Episode 4 Review: A new enemy gives Wynonna a taste of true fear
Spoilers for 'Wynonna Earp' Season 4 Episode 4 'Afraid'
After a chaotic welcome home in a rather uneven episode, things slow down in Purgatory, just enough for some major reveals — the first is that the Black Badge division is back, though it's not quite what it was before. The second, and more pressing concern, is that there's a group of people with more hate for the Earp clan than even the revenants that goes all the way back to Wyatt Earp himself. Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano) has run fresh out of flippancy — for the first time in a long while, she's truly afraid.
With its slower pace and reduced focus on wacky ideas, this episode is a vast improvement over the last one, playing to the show's more grounded strengths and establishing the seriousness of the situation. While Black Badge may be back, there's a new face to the division with Nicole Hytcha (Reagan Pasternack), a woman whose biggest concern before Purgatory was fish food poisoning, and is now well in over her head.
Purgatory's no longer under threat from a nuclear weapon — it's apparently now a social experiment to see just how well demons and humans can get along. The show effectively inspires a certain amount of compassion for the new employees of Black Badge. Gone is the sinister professionalism, now replaced by a group of regular people terrified of the job they've been roped into.
With the return of Black Badge, though, comes the return of Jeremy Chetri (Varun Saranga), the one member of Wynonna's team who was missing. He brings the same nervous, cheerful energy to screen as ever, but now underlined with a new confidence — he's in a position of authority here, possibly the one remaining Black Badge agent who has any clue as to how to deal with the supernatural. Wynonna's palpable relief at seeing him again and the open, vulnerable honesty she employs to get him to rejoin Team Earp is the most heartwarming aspect of the show.
As heartwarming as things can get, however, there's a much darker shadow hanging over the episode. The cursed cattlebrand of the Clanton Clan from the OK Corral is employed to deadly effect, as a zombie-like Reaper is sent to target Wynonna. It's finally explained how Sheriff Holt (Ty Olsson) and the Magistrate Cleo (Savannah Basley) came into the positions of power they did - the longtime rivals of the Earps, the Clantons, have risen to take the Earp Curse's place, establishing themselves like a virus through Purgatory.
While we've seen outright evil on the show before, this degree of pure and petty hatred is something altogether new. Carol Clanton's (Paula Boudreau) cold hatred is one baked into her over generations. Carol is a terrifying matriarch for her ruthless authoritativeness, and in one episode quickly establishes herself as a formidable threat — to friend and foe alike. It's not the danger that chills Wynonna to the bone — it's the hatred she sees in the eyes of the zombified Uncle Ike Clanton.
This episode manages to throw in a little Romeo & Juliet-esque teen romance, as well, between Rachel (Martina Ortiz-Luis) and new character Billy Clanton (Billy Boyk), who wants to find a way past his family's hatred – and is made to suffer terribly for it. Seeing what Carol is willing to do to her own family is a lot more chilling than it is seeing what she's willing to do to Wynonna. Though Holt and Cleo seemed like one-note joke characters last episode, it's now clear that they're pawns in something a lot scarier.
Though it's four episodes in, this feels like the one that truly establishes what the season is about. It may be late, but it's definitely effective. Without Peacemaker, Wynonna's not just lost – she's more vulnerable than she's ever been before, and it shows. Even Anthony, her unused Checkov's Gun, was not enough to save her, and with Billy's sacrifice, her luck is all used up.
The most important thing, however, is that she's got her family back together and while she may not have the Peacemaker, her family reunion as at least made her a little bit of peace. The next episode of 'Wynonna Earp' airs on August 23 on Syfy.