The Heartbreaking Twist in Wynonna Earp: Vengeance Was Always Meant to Happen
The cast and creatives of Wynonna Earp: Vengeance break down the new special's heartbreaking final moments and what comes next.
The following contains major spoilers for Wynonna Earp: Vengeance
Fan favorite genre series Wynonna Earp has roared back onto our screens with new special Wynonna Earp: Vengeance and while it’s been over three years since we last visited Purgatory, the sassy, snarky drama about a hot mess demon hunter and her eclectic posse of family and friends hasn’t missed a beat. But while Vengeance feels like nothing so much as an extended episode of the original SYFY drama we all loved, this new iteration delves into new stories of both growth and trauma, allowing its characters—almost all of whom are brought back for this new special—a chance to explore what life looks like beyond the happily ever afters they each earned at the end of season 4.
But where Wynonna Earp giveth, Wynonna Earp also taketh away. Vengeance ends with Wynonna saving the day by facing down her darkest childhood trauma in the form of her former social worker out to destroy her family, but In a shocking twist, it all comes at a painfully high cost. Doc Holliday, infamous gunslinger and love of Wynonna’s life, is fatally shot during a confrontation with an unstable former Black Badge agent. He dies in Wynonna’s arms, and with his passing the landscape of the series is forever changed. (Or, at least, is changed for right now.)
While Doc’s death likely came as a (huge) shock to viewers still swooning over the preceding scene in which he and Wynonna dreamed of finally building a cabin in the hills above Purgatory and bringing their daughter, Alice, home to live with them, it wasn’t a surprise to the man playing him.
“I’ve kind of known from day one,” Tim Rozon, who plays Doc, tells Den of Geek. “I was there from the beginning when this idea was being thrown around and I may have even fought for it.”
“Fought for it” might actually be something of an understatement. According to showrunner Emily Andras, Doc’s death was, in large part, Rozon’s idea.
“When we heard that Tubi might want to do a special, we knew we had to have a clincher. We have to have a reason to come back. To tell a story about these characters after happily ever after,” Andras says. “And Tim, who is, let’s give him credit, the Earpiest Earp who ever Earped, was like: ‘I have a story for you. Doc dies. That’s an interesting story, right?'”
Though season 4 of Wynonna Earp was cut short, Andras and company still scrambled to wrap up the show that gave its characters satisfying endings and its loyal fans a sense of closure. Though “Old Souls” involved a cursed wedding dress and a relationship ultimatum, it ended happily for all involved, with Waverly and Nicole tying the knot on the homestead, and Wynonna leaving Purgatory and the duties of the Earp heir behind as she and Doc literally rode off into the sunset in search of a fresh start.
“Overall, we left things perfectly at the end of season four,” Rozon says. “Being on the back of that Harley, he’s got his arms around the woman he loves and they’re driving off. Finally, it’s just the two of them – free and heading toward their daughter. I mean, what else do you want? But life isn’t just that. We can’t always expect to get to where we want to go.”
The Wynonna Earp cast speaks lovingly of Andras’ ability as a storyteller, and her innate understanding that “there’s never really an ending,” as Scrofano puts it, to anyone’s story.
“It’s the ending to season four technically, but it’s only the beginning,” she says. “I think Emily’s greatest gift as a writer is going, ‘Yeah, but…life is messy.’ She knows that conflict is what life’s about, and it’s through conflict that you really get to know the characters. And boy, do you get to know us!”
The idea of essentially blowing up the happiness her characters had found at the end of season 4 was a challenge Andras “relished.”
“We had the privilege of writing a finale that was a real ending. But more than that, not to sound arrogant, but everybody loved it. Do you know how hard it is to write a TV finale that people aren’t screaming about?” she laughs. “But fear is good when you’re a writer because it means you care, and Earp has never been traditional. Once I wrapped my head around telling a story about these characters after happily ever after, after they literally ride off into the sunset, it was good.”
The loss of Doc is devastating on multiple levels because Wynonna had only recently begun to accept that it was okay to want, to even embrace, the idea of a real future and genuine home with him.
“I think Doc is the only thing in her life that she’s sure of,” Scrofano says. “Everything else is a little bit confusing and overwhelming, but I think she’s finally in a place where she thinks it’s okay to love someone this much.”
But while Wynonna’s grief-stricken reaction to losing Doc is heartrending to watch, Rozon says that Vengeance’s ending is “one hundred percent” what his character would have wanted for himself.
“Doc loves Wynonna. He’s always loved her. For me, that’s been my [character’s] arc from day one,” he says. “I think it’s a beautiful end to the story. Listen: I got to die in the arms of Wynonna, and I also got to die in the arms of Melanie Scrofano. So if I’m going to die Tim-wise or Doc-wise, that’s the way I want to go. I was in the best hands possible.”
Truthfully, one could argue that his character has done everything else at this point but die. (Save for reuniting with his daughter, Alice, but I guess Wynonna Earp has to leave something on the table for a potential sequel special.)
“Doc has been on every adventure,” Andras says. “He’s lived for 175 years. He’s been a good guy. He’s been a bad guy. He’s been a gunslinger. He’s been a dad. He’s been a frigging vampire. But what bigger adventure is there than death? And to die with meaning this time. To die for his people. I cannot think of a better demise for a character like Doc Holliday.”
It’s a testament to the strength of his character that Doc Holliday has been such a central part of Wynonna Earp that his death not only sends shock waves throughout the fictional community of Purgatory but the real-life world of the show’s cast.
“I was really shocked,” Dominique Provost-Chalkley, who plays Wynonna’s sister Waverly, says when asked about Vengeance’s ending. “For me, Doc is the heart of the show in so many ways, so for him to be leaving us….it felt like even if it [turned out to be] temporary, it’s still such a loss. Luckily, we’re in a universe where we can bring characters back. There are so many ways to do that, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a forever goodbye, but it still came as a surprise.”
“Tim sometimes teases us with stuff,” Katherine Barrell, who plays Sheriff Nicole Haught, adds. “And he told us that Doc dying was in the plan, and I just didn’t believe him. I don’t know if I didn’t want to believe him or I really didn’t believe him. But I was like, no, there’s no way they’re going to do that. I mean…Wynonna just cannot catch a break. Her poor heart. How many times does it have to break?”
For Scrofano, Wynonna deals with yet another heartbreak by throwing herself into a larger mission.
“I found it really challenging to play the parts after Doc’s death, because how does [Wynonna] move forward when Doc isn’t there anymore?” Scrofano says. “For me, the idea was that she dives right in. I’m a deputy now, great. I don’t think she ever would’ve done that before but now she needs a purpose. She needs to be moving. I think that’s what she does to cope with the loss of Doc. And I also think she keeps the hope alive [that Doc might return] because otherwise she’ll drown.”
Wynonna’s faith in the possibility of Doc’s return isn’t exactly misplaced. The Ghost River Triangle is teeming with the supernatural—and occasionally even the divine. Previous stories have featured everything from zombies and vampires to witches, ghosts, and cursed objects. Waverly is half-angel, and Nicole struck a deal to become the Angel’s Shield, destined to remain in the Triangle to protect it and its people. Heck, the show’s foundational concept of revenants involves all the people Wyatt Earp killed coming back from the dead to wreak havoc on the living. Doc himself has done time as a vampire. The idea that he’s not dead for good has more merit on this show than most. So it makes sense that Wynonna’s not the only person in Purgatory trying to find a way to save or resurrect him.
“Listen, I’m still ‘Cliffhanger Emily,’” Andras laughs. “I”m always playing both sides! So if fans are yelling at Tubi for more, that helps me. If you’re like ‘We need to resurrect him’, I can play this game. I only want to do more, to make more. And I will say, the first day on set, Tim came up to me and asked ‘Can I come back if we do this again? I already miss it.’ And I said, we’ll talk.”
Even Rozon himself is quick to remind fans that just because Doc’s gone for now that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s gone forever.
“Don’t be too depressed, I’ve died before,” he says. “Multiple times! I’m pretty sure I’m still undead in some way or other. I always tell people, let’s just chill out. I just died. I didn’t shave the mustache. It could have been really tragic.”
Wynonna Earp: Vengeance is available to stream on Tubi now.
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Lacy Baugher is a digital producer by day, but a television enthusiast pretty much all the time. Her writing has been featured in Paste Magazine, Collider,…