Wynonna Earp - War Paint and Daddy Lessons - Season Finale - Review

A week has passed and I am still floored by the Season three finale of Wynonna Earp.

Aside from that cliffhanger, the two-episode closer sure felt like a series finale. The team faced off against the biggest of all bads, Wynonna made peace with her sworn enemies followed by an epic heroine speech and a war like nothing we had seen on this show before, characters died, old threads were resolved, and the emotional stakes just felt so high to a point where I found myself asking, how can they ever top this? This is all without mentioning the death of Dolls several episodes back, which made the whole season feel like a climax.

Then again with angels officially introduced, there is more to explore with this mythology, and whence the Garden opened, we find out there is an even bigger bad. And who the heck is Valdez? Reading about her in the comics has me excited for her introduction. If Wynonna Earp was a series of books, the Season 3 finale was the ending of Book 1.

The episode was not without its flaws though. I was not happy with where they took Bobo's storyline. There was such an oppurtunity to put him on a path of redemption after giving him some redeeming qualities throughout the past two seasons, chief among them, his oath to protect Waverly. I mean, Jeremy even explicitly questioned whether Bobo was good or not. It seemed they were building up to a turn for the good.

Instead Bobo turned evil again at the behest of Bulshar, and instead of double turning against his master and dying in an act of sacrifice, which seemed likely, Bobo died quickly at the hands of Waverly. The former Season 1 villian went from the main antagonist to kind of just being around to becoming a lackey. What was the point of bringing him back? There was zero growth with his character over these three seasons leading to a very disappointing arc.

Nevertheless, the episode as a whole was handled well.

There was not a wasted minute in both Daddy Lessons and War Paint. There were no dragged out soap opera moments that Wynonna Earp at times fell victim to. It was a heartpounding finale with tension that just kept building and building as the episode progresssed, along with some great character moments.

The overall tone was very un-Wynonna Earp like. Hell, we heard the F word used a few times, which I don't believe was ever said in episodes past. That just made moments seem more urgent and the characters more human. Wynonna's speech, for example, was absolutely rousing, strengthened by her use of F***. Also, it was refreshing to see Wynonna take a backseat for once. This season, and the finale in particular, was all about Waverly and the climax benefited, as a result. In fact, this show should just be renamed "Earp."

Though the treatment of Bobo left a sour taste in my mouth, I would have to say that this was arguably the strongest episode of the entire show in terms of both its character work and its action scenes. Everything just felt so fresh. Here's hoping the next season carries over this momentum.

8.5/10