Wynonna Earp Review: Hell Raisin’ Good Time (Season 4 Episode 8)

Wynonna Earp Season 4 Episode 8, “Hell Raisin’ Good Time,” is the Halloween episode we didn’t realize we needed. It’s full of hilarity, fantastic costumes, an evil pumpkin scarecrow, online demon gambling, and so much more. Purgatory really does the most when it comes to Halloween.

This is a vast improvement from Wynonna Earp Season 4 Episode 7, “Love’s All Over,” and thank goodness for that. The heroes’ memories getting wiped is nothing new, but Wynonna Earp does it fantastically well and provides us with a ton of hilarious moments from the dialogue to the re-appearance of familiar outfits that we know, love, and miss. 

“Hell Raisin’ Good Time” is the perfect blend of Wynonna Earp chaos. You get the insanity and hilarity from the memory fog combined with some emotional Earp sisters moments, along with some moments that move the plot along.

Aside from being a lot more entertaining than cupid-mishaps, giving us an update on the Black Badge Division (BBD) happenings in Purgatory is what helps make “Hell Raisin’ Good Time” such a great episode. With such a limited number of episodes left, it’s good to get a status update.

The status is, sadly, not great.

Wynonna’s demon-fighting techniques don’t line up with what BBD wants, and it would be great if the series explored more of that instead of just the typical “we need it alive” reminder to Wynonna as she goes off to fight a killer jack-o-lantern. However, I’ll take what I can get here.

It’s a relief that Wynonna dropping peacemaker doesn’t end up being a huge thing, and it’s simply returned to her via Doc. We went through such a battle to get peacemaker back on the first half of this season, and so it would have felt a tad repetitive if it became a whole big thing again.

And while you thought we were simply going to have a hilarious Halloween episode, Wynonna Earp sneaks in an emotional storyline as we finally learn what happened to Robin. It feels like forever ago that the mystery of Robin’s whereabouts was first introduced, so it’s great that we finally learn the heartbreaking truth.

While we get some wonderful Earp sisters moments, Jeremy and Robin ground the show into a more painful, emotional reality. Watching Jeremy try to connect with Robin, who doesn’t remember him, is heartbreaking.

It’s these moments that make Wynonna Earp as great as it is because yes, it’s a little crazy with all the demon nonsense that this group gets up to, but at the heart of the show are the characters. And they all go through things, like heartbreak, that we can relate to and connect with them over.

Of course, I don’t think anyone has been in Jeremy’s exact situation, but being heartbroken after the person you love has moved on is definitely relatable.

The growing fog around Purgatory is an unexpected development that’s somehow tied to the garden. It’s hard to tell how people losing their memories could be beneficial to whatever the garden’s purpose is.

My only theory is that it’s somehow the garden’s way of trying to catch Eve and/or mitigate the amount of damage she can do. However, seeing how it first appeared when Waverly and Doc initially went into the garden (a.k.a. before Eve’s great escape), there has to be more to this freaky fog than that. What are your theories?

Stray Thoughts

• It’s nice to see that Bobo’s punishment area by the edge of town is still around.
• The return of the stetson is glorious.
• I’m going to miss Amon.
• Doc reacting to Wynonna and Waverly being clueless is just amazing television.
• Tiny umbrellas are an unusual weapon, but they could probably do some damage.
• Casey’s skill is…removing a candle from an evil jack-o-lantern? That’s a very specific skillset.

What did you think of this episode of Wynonna Earp? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Wynonna Earp airs Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy.

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