Episode Recap: I See a Darkness

We pick up where we left off: with Meredith Gardner, aka Widow #1, busting into Nicole’s residence, and then busting up Nicole. She’s under the impression that Nicole is in possession of the last seal — which she’s not — and that she’s alone — which she isn’t. Waverly shows up to defend her girlfriend. There’s a huge fight, Nicole gets bitten by the Widow, and Waverly is too slow to stop Mercedes from escaping.

Nicole is immediately rushed to the hospital, where the prognosis isn’t so good. That’s because human doctors can’t undo the fate of the venom currently coursing through her veins. Only a Widow can. Cue Widow #2: Beth. Beth shows up at the hospital and finds Waverly overcome with fear outside. Beth offers to save Nicole’s life if Waverly will procure the last seal. Waverly seriously considers it, especially after seeing Nicole’s pitiful condition. Jeremy arrives at the hospital with a smidge of hope: if they can extract some more venom, he might be able to synthesize an antidote. But that would mean more Widow contact…

While Wynonna enlists Doc as her +1 to the whoop-ass Widow party, Sheriff Needley arrives to the hospital to notify Waverly that as Nicole’s superior he’s empowered to contact her next of kin. When Waverly returns to her girlfriend’s room, she learns who that next of kin is: Nicole’s estranged wife, Shay.

Dolls scours Purgatory for any dead people that may have been poisoned by the Widows’ venom, but he’s striking out hard. Ewan and the Brotherhood have already cremated the bodies of those that have fallen by the bilious bite. In lieu of excess venom samples, Ewan is willing to offer protection to the Earp heir. Dolls is like, nuh-uh. Despite their opposing points of view, Ewan hands Dolls a weapon that might come in handy. These guys are so cute.

If there’s a theme developing, it’s that everyone gets by with a little help from their friends / lovers’ lovers / rivals. Wynonna has roped Rosita into helping Jeremy develop the anti-venom. Well, help is an understatement. Wynonna, with the help of Peacemaker, "encourages" Revenant Rosita to act as Jeremy’s guinea pig, as her Revenant constitution might be able to withstand the assault of the poison. Meanwhile, Widow Meredith has abducted Sheriff Nedley to a barn where she can torture him into telling her where the last seal is. Boy, is she off base.

Dolls swoops into the Black Badge lab, where he finds Jeremy’s plan…faltering. He has a different one: Waverly gets the ring from Wynonna, hands it over to Beth in exchange for the serum. But wait, there’s more. Meanwhile, Jeremy will inject Dolls with more venom to turn him into a super-lizard monster. After Beth cures Nicole and raises Sheriff Clootie from the grave, he’ll be waiting for them all.

There’s not much time, though, as Nicole is fading fast. And as fortune would have it, the Iron Witch’s sister, Gretta (of course her name is Gretta) Parker, works in the hospital. Waverly breaks away from Nicole’s bedside to ask her if she knows how to extract the venom from Nicole’s veins. Turns out, Gretta’s got some flare for the witchcraft as well, and, after Waverly promises her “anything” she asks for in return, Parker gets to her conjuring routine. She uses her third eye to see where there lies a cure for Nicole’s ailment, uses a pen to write down the address of this place, and then uses her feet to leave. Waverly heads to Black Badge HQ, to Sheriff Nedley’s desk, and even into Sheriff Nedley’s coffee mug(!) where she finds: a ring, the third seal. That java must taste great.

Whether or not it did, he must have had a boatload of coffee because he is staying AWAKE through a torture sequence. He’s given some reprieve when Doc and Wynonna drive a pick-up through a wall of the barn and open fire on the Widow. Then they punch her. Then Wynonna shoots her in the leg with Peacemaker, and Doc ties her up so they can bring her back to Black Badge and extract her venom.

Vial in hand, Wynonna heads back to the hospital to cure Nicole where she finds…she’s already cured. Waverly traded the ring for serum. Uh oh. And at Shorty’s, Gretta arrives ready to collect on the debt she’s owed. She casts a spell on the possessed trophy hanging on Doc’s mantel. Doc arrives while Gretta is mid-imprecation, gets fed up with all the German mumbo-jumbo, and places his hand on the trophy in an attempt to stop Gretta. He immediately disappears. Then Wynonna, while talking with Dolls back at the office, also disappears. Mid-sentence, no less. See, Gretta’s plan was to gain revenge on the Earps for getting her sister killed…and she did. By sending Doc back to the well, and by making everyone else forget that Wynonna ever existed.

Woah.