WYNONNA EARP – Episode 202 – Shed Your Skin – SPOILERS ⁓

Construction worker Jesus (Brandon Overwater) disappears from a port-a-potty, amid shrieks and skittering noises. Agent Lucado (Kate Drummond), now in charge of Black Badge in Purgatory, stubbornly refuses to let anyone investigate. Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) does so anyway, and on the way there runs into her high school buddy Mercedes Gardner (Dani Kind), who is now a real estate developer, and the old school bulding where Jesus disappeared is one of her recently acquired properties. (Bobo’s attempt to poison everyone in town drove down prices.) Inside, the first person she finds is Earl (Sam Duke), a revenant who has been in Purgatory for ninety-five years.

The smell of Shaladelle, the perfume Willa wore, distracts Wynonna, and Earl escapes. A shadowy feminine figure appears at the other end of the hall, then vanishes. Wynonna goes looking for Earl, runs into some webs, and finds what’s left of Jesus inside a cocoon (which brings back memories of Ridley Scott’s “Dominique Provost-Chalkley) is bringing coffee. After Waverly takes over the dissection, a spider emerges, which Wynonna shoots, puts in a jar, and suggests should be left on Lucado’s desk.

Doc (Tim Rozon) is still hatless (see previous episode), and is reluctant to become re-involved with Wynonna, because he suspects she is in love with Agent Dolls. Nicole (Kat Barrell) seems to be distancing herself from Waverly, and doesn’t seem to know precisely why. Wynonna has so far refused to accept new arrival Jeremy (Varun Saranga) as part of the team, and wonders where his loyalties lie. She softens toward Jeremy when he shows up unexpectedly at the homestead, jarful of demon arachnid in hand, and gets excited at the idea of working with Doc.

Sheriff Nedley (Greg Lawson) talks Doc into taking over Shorty’s which was left abandoned after Bobo’s departure. Doc finances this by stealing classified documents from Lucado’s safe and blackmailing her. The documents prove that Lucado, without authorization, sent assassins after Dolls. (They did not succeed.) Doc hires Rosita Bustillos (Tamara Duarte) to assist him. She doesn’t want the job, but Doc’s offer of “protection” convinces her to take it.

Nicole and Waverly read Willa’s diary and come across this entry: “I hate that they brought the baby into the house. There’s something wrong with it. Mama told Daddy that we have to do what’s right. And why does she get the pretty name, Waverly?” This will be elaborated beginning with “No Cure For Crazy” (Episode 3.4). Waverly explains that Bobo Del Ray told her she wasn’t an Earp (see “I Walk the Line” – episode 1.12) and Nicole responds by bringing forms for Waverly to fill out to get her birth certificate and medical records. Consequences for this will develop in “No Future in the Past” (episode 2.8).

Wynonna tells her younger sister about the perfume-wearing ghost that’s haunting her, and Waverly suggests exorcising Willa’s ghost by burning all Willa’s stuff. They do that, but Wynonna saves a stuffed animal, “Mr. Plumpkin“, from the flames. Waverly tells her sister she burned it all, but she keeps Willa’s diary for herself.

Jeremy determines that the spider they killed was a Krakinos, something usually found underwater, and that the one they killed was small and recently hatched. Karkinos (note the slight difference in spelling) is the giant crab in Greek mythology that lived in Lerna Lagoon and attacked Hercules while he was fighting The Hydra. Krakinos sounds like a blend of that with The Kraken, the giant squid of Norwegian myth. Crabs, cephalopods, and spiders are all arthropods, so such a hybrid is not out of the question.

Earl points the Earps in the direction of a concealed chapel at the construction site. They break in and find very large arachnid eggs. “Holy body snatchers,” Wynonna exclaims, a reference to the Jack Finney novel that will very soon become prophetic. The Earp sisters smash the eggs with sledge hammers. In a closeup, one of the shadowy feminine figures that watch them leave is shown to have no face.

Later they return to the chapel and see that a round seal on the floor has been broken. Wynonna belatedly concludes that in fixing one problem, they created another, larger one. “Those spiders, Earl — they were all drawn here to guard that thing,” she tells Waverly. “Which means, when we took out the eggs, we cleared a path for whoever came and did this.”

Waverly redecorates Willa’s room and makes it her own. She and Nicole have make-up sex, but after Nicole leaves, she removes the dead Krakinos from the jar and takes a bite out of it, bringing to mind The Mayor and his preparations for Ascension in the Buffy episode “Graduation Day“.

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WYNONNA EARP: TALES FROM PURGATORY, is now available from Audible.com.

WYNONNA EARP: VENGEANCE can be streamed on TUBI.

All 49 episodes of WYNONNA EARP can be streamed on Netflix