The Blade

The Blade is the fourth episode of Season 1 of Wynonna Earp. It aired April 22, 2016 on Syfy in the US and on CHCH in Canada.

Synopsis

Wynonna is not convinced that Doc Holliday is who he says he is, and urges the town odd ball she knows as John Henry to prove himself. To do that, she takes him to a dirt patch and has him demonstrate his sharp-shooting capabilities on a handful of household objects (beer bottles, wine bottles, playing cards, a nickel). He even hits his mark while blind folded. Turns out, Doc made a bargain to achieve eternal life, and ageless dashing good looks, after he and Wyatt Earp had a falling out.

Back in town, a Revenant has claimed the life of one Megan Lynchford, by coming through a mirror and slicing her throat with a razor blade. Dolls and Wynonna investigate the crime scene where the two most prominent pieces of evidence are Megan's lifeless, bloodless body and the mirror on which is written "Repent Sinners." But besides that, nothing out of the ordinary. At the police headquarters, Waverly posits that a Revenant Father Robert Malick might be behind this spectral murder, considering he was convicted in his former glory of murdering women and being a bummer.

Following a tip from Doc Holliday that there's a gaggle of Revenants hanging out in the trailer park (possibly among them Malick), Wynonna leads Dolls there. After Bobo gives our good guys the "Abandon hope all ye who enter here" proceedings, he gives them permission to follow their noses to Father Malick's digs. When they come upon Malick — who's basically living in a tent of his own filth — they find out that he's disabled (a double amputee below the knees) and therefore probably not the killer. He's also a woman-hater, like, big time.

On their way back to town, Wynonna spots the reflection of a Revenant holding a razor blade — one of the Revenants that was there the night her daddy died — in the side mirror of Dolls' police vehicle. But when she gets out to catch him, he's gone. Dolls tracks down Sarah Parker, one of Wynonna's high school frenemies, who was the last person Megan talked to before she was killed. Megan wanted to confess to Sarah that it was she who killed her father in a hit-and-run when the girls were in 11th grade, and that she needed Sarah's forgiveness.

At Shorty's, Doc comes upon a fellow boozer in the bathroom who's fallen victim to the barber Revenant's blade, and catches a glimpse of the barber in the mirror. Only problem is that when Waverly enters the bathroom, she sees Doc with a drawn knife in self-defense, and immediately assumes he's to blame for the murder. Dolls takes Doc into custody, where he subjects him to a one-on-one interrogation, but Holliday has nothing to divulge. It's a clash of the titans.

Doc and Wynonna are called to the scene of the last victim's home, where his wife Susie has been receiving the same creepy signals from the Revenant barber. While covering up the home's reflective surfaces, Susie begs Wynonna's forgiveness for having gotten her sent back to juvenile detention when she was a teenager. Wynonna has to offer Susie forgiveness, or the barber slits Susie's gullet. Wynonna forgives her, but the barber doesn't buy it, so he (invisible to all those but his target) kills off Susie. Then he threatens Wynonna with the same fate: two hours to get the forgiveness of everyone she's hurt, or he hurts her. That list is a mile long, though.

While Wynonna hops around town trying to kiss up to every person she's jilted, Dolls goes shopping for items he will use to turn the barber's reflection into killable flesh and blood; and you can't find that stuff at Costco. Waverly heads to Doc Holliday's cell where she offers the inmate freedom in exchange for identifying the latest killer, which he does gladly: August Hamilton, the once-barber of and keeper of the town's dirty secrets. And the harshest aftershave west of the Mississippi.

Meanwhile at the Black Badge headquarters, Dolls has set up a black arts trap using tools and knowhow he picked up from his time in the Middle East, which he hopes will draw August out from his reflective shelter. Waverly, studied in ancient languages, delivers an incantation that draws spirits from the underworld to the present. A few even inhabit Dolls and take him for a fox trot around the room, and Doc has to stun the Marshall with a Taser to prevent him from going berserk. The barber is called forth, and Wynonna shoots his reflection with Peacemaker; Dolls has stopped breathing — forcing Wynonna to give mouth-to-mouth. Call it romantic license, but he lives. When he regains consciousness, Dolls tells Wynonna that the barber was just toying with them, and that he's still swinging his blade with impunity. So Wynonna gets an idea.

Wynonna, Waverly, and Doc track down August at Big Deep Lake, where the barber is hiding out. He springs from the murky depths to surprise Wynonna, running his blade across her throat. Wynonna realizes that the person she's wronged the most is her sister Waverly, as Wynonna became the "chosen one" and Earp heir rather than Waverly. When she realizes this, Wynonna regains her power over the barber and escapes his grasp. And then she roasts him- Peacemaker style.