Entertainment

Wait — Did ‘Wynonna Earp’ REALLY Just Kill Off That Character?

by Genevieve Van Voorhis
Michelle Faye/Wynonna Earp Season 2, Inc./Syfy

Lots of major spoilers ahead for the "When You Call My Name" episode of Wynonna Earp. Just two episodes into Season 3 of Wynonna Earp, and although the gang is supposed to be worrying about Bulshar Clootie, that hasn't stopped them from battling a gang of club-kid-looking vampires and a survivalist cannibal Revenant with the power to snatch voices like Ursula from The Little Mermaid. Everyone is worrying about Waverly, and Wynonna is busy jumping over booby traps. But it's in the last five minutes of the episode that the true whammy hits: Agent Dolls is killed.

Of all the people who seem on the verge of death in that episode — Waverly, Wynonna, Nicole, even the miserable and newly mortal Doc — Dolls seems the least likely to kick the bucket. And yet, such is the uncertainty of life in Purgatory.

Wynonna pretty much sums up what everyone is feeling when she says, "Maybe this is a mistake. Maybe he'll wake up."

Is Dolls really dead forever? Like, forever and ever? Well, he's not a Revenant, so the odds of him popping up again when Alice Michelle turns 27 are slim to none. The rules that go along with genetically engineered dragon-men aren't entirely clear, so maybe there's a deus ex machina waiting there, but for the most part, it does seem like Dolls is as mortal as anyone else now.

However, Jeremy does seem awfully convinced that there was something faulty going on with Dolls' drugs, so maybe Jeremy could figure out a way to bring him back to life. Or maybe someone from the Black Badge Division can put him on ice until they figure out a way to reverse the damage that killed him.

In an interview at ClexaCon 2018, series creator Emily Andras alluded to the fact that Black Badge wouldn't be totally absent from Season 3. "I would say they [Black Badge Division] do come back in a very unexpected way," she said, "and a way that’s very personal." Could she be referring to a Dolls' possible resurrection?

In a world of demons and witches and dragon-men, never say never. But it does kind of seem like — for the moment, anyway — Dolls' death is the real deal.

Melanie Scrofano spoke to Bustle ahead of the season and teased some massive changes that would challenge the team. In retrospect, it certainly seems that she was alluding to Dolls' imminent demise.

"So the one I can talk about, obviously, [is] how everybody reacts to the baby being sent away," she says. "But then there are other — and quite early on in the season — there are other pretty huge events. And it’s really interesting to see how everybody reacts, and judges other people for the way they’re reacting."

Considering Wynonna's unresolved feelings for Dolls, Scrofano's comments could mean that there's going to be trouble in Purgatory for Doc and Wynonna. On one hand, Dolls dying tidies up that love triangle problem those three had going. But Wynonna is clearly not ready to say goodbye to Dolls as he lays dead in the forest. She's going to need plenty of time to mourn him, and that probably won't sit too well with Doc, who's just finally coming out of his post-partum, renewed-mortality funk. I'm still of the opinion that Doc and Wynonna are endgame, but that doesn't mean that they're ready to be together just yet.

Actor Shamier Anderson was with the rest of the primary Wynonna Earp cast at San Diego Comic-Con the weekend after the premiere, which would be a little strange if he were leaving the show after this episode, never to return. Then again, how better to throw audiences off the scent? In the roundtable interview below, Anderson does tease a shift to the Wynonna and Dolls' relationship. "Especially in Episode 2," he said, "you'll get to see a real different side of Wynonna and her relationship with Dolls, how she goes towards Dolls."

Whether Dolls is really out for good or merely Jon Snow-ing us, Wynonna and the rest of the gang will have to recuperate from this loss ASAP. Bulshar is still out there, waiting to send more minions to wipe them all out given half a chance. And next time, Dolls won't be there to save them.

Additional reporting by Sage Young.