Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras Talks "Gone As a Girl Can Get"
Bridget Liszewski | August 18, 2017 | Canadian TV, TV News | 4 Comments
Syfy / Bell Media
*** This article contains major spoilers for the Wynonna Earp Season 2 episode "Gone As a Girl Can Get" ***
Wynonna Earp giveth and Wynonna Earp taketh away! After an hour of television that saw a universe where Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) doesn't exist, thanks to the spell cast by the Iron Witch (Rachael Ancheril) last week, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and Nicole (Katherine Barrell) finally figured out how to get her back. However, during the trip to the alternate timeline, Doc (Tim Rozon), Dolls (Shamier Anderson) and Rosita (Tamara Duarte) were all killed. Once order was restored, viewers never got another glimpse at them and are left wondering what their fate will be heading into the Season 2 finale.
Despite its leading lady missing for most of the episode, the penultimate episode of Wynonna Earp Season 2 was filled with action from start to finish. "Gone as a Girl Can Get," written by Alexandra Zarowny and directed by Paolo Barzman, gave viewers a glimpse at what life would be like in Purgatory should Wynonna never exist. It also saw the return of Bobo (Michael Eklund), who helped the Widows (Dani Kind and Meghan Heffern) break the third seal, as they headed off together to raise Demon Clootie. Oh yeah, and Wynonna, while she saw the trio heading off, seems like she may be ready to go into labor. As she does every week, showrunner Emily Andras joined The TV Junkies to break down everything from the episode, as well as look ahead to the finale.
The TV Junkies: We finally get Wynonna back at the end of the episode, but it seems like she may be going into labor. I don't think a field is the best place for that to happen.
Emily Andras: A field is not the best place, especially when you just figured out that your mortal enemy has just teamed up with your other two mortal enemies. It's the worst time to go into labor. I speak from experience. Yeah, not great, but like everything on this show, Wynonna never seems to catch a break.
The saddest part for me was when she woke up and had a moment of being like 'what if we just stayed here?' It was a moment of peace that she so rarely gets.
TTVJ: We only got Melanie for less than two minutes and she still managed to break our heart.
EA: Of course! That's all you need. I don't want to make it a habit though of losing Melanie Scrofano. I think she's incredible and the heart of the show, but I feel like everybody else really stepped up their game to do a lot of singing and dancing in the meantime to distract us from the fact that we're missing our leading lady.
TTVJ: Was that a safeguard done in case Melanie did have the baby early?
EA: Bingo! That's exactly what it was. We block shoot and shot Episodes 11 and 12 together. As is common knowledge now, Mel's due date was a week after we wrapped. In fact, she gave birth four days after we wrapped because she's such a freakin' superhero. We just had to make sure if something happened, god forbid, or if she went early or was on bed rest, that we had a backup plan. I mean lots of stuff could've happened during the entirety of the run, but we knew at the end we needed to give her a break. I hope that even though it's so fun without her, and you see how much she's missed, that you realize how much she's done, and how important Wynonna is to this whole operation.
TTVJ: Will we get a resolution with the baby in the finale? I'm hoping you won't make Melanie get pregnant again for Season 3.
EA: You will get some resolution with the pregnancy and "the baby." Here's the thing, we have a lot that we still need to answer this season. I'm really proud of the work my writers did this season with bookending things that got set up early on. There are some incredible surprises to come in the finale that hopefully make sense, but maybe that you won't have seen coming. I still think there's so much potential for Season 3. It's a triangle of delight of satisfaction, shock and suspense!
TTVJ: Wynonna did see Bobo headed off, having broken the third seal and with the two Widows. What trouble are they going to be causing in the finale? How scared should we be of Demon Clootie?
EA: A shit ton is the answer to both those queries. We should be super scared. We know Bobo is terrifying and we know the Widows are terrifying. So together it's a whole cataclysmic situation, and the one person that could take them out might be going into labor. It's a lot, Bridge.
TTVJ: Earlier this season we saw Robert, the man Bobo was, and that he was a good man. But it seems like by breaking the third seal, only to keep himself out of Hell, he's only worried about himself. Will we ever learn more about what went into turning Robert into Bobo?
EA: I think a lot of that middle part is Hell. It's present in 208 when Robert Svane says to Constance Clootie 'I'm a good man.' She says 'Hell burns that right out of you.' The horror of this curse and the situation is that the torture and torment of Hell can make even the best person go bad, even if your intentions are pure.
TTVJ: I want to say again how happy I am that Bobo is back! Michael Eklund in those padded cell scenes was just brilliant.
EA: It was so good! The outtakes from those scenes between he and Dominique could be its own series. Michael is so off the chain. The other actors love working with him because he's so committed, so in it, and gives them so much to play off of. I know Tim and Mel talk about it a lot, but I also want to give a shout out to Dom because she never breaks in the outtakes. He tries all kinds of crazy stuff — he's sniffing her and touching her — and she's so in it. She can match him. You just realize what an enormous presence and how much charisma Michael brings to the show. We're so happy he's back, even if it's in the worst capacity.
He's coming to Dragon Con with us, so if you really want to come and celebrate Bobo with us that's the perfect time to do it. I'm so thrilled.
TTVJ: You guys teased us with giving Bobo back at the end of 208, but then we haven't seen him for a couple weeks. Then he's back now with the full on crazy Bobo so it was worth waiting.
EA: I love doing that! I love having a bunch of stuff on the shelf that you know we're going to reach for and put into the game at some point, but you don't know when. Sometimes, if we go long enough, you almost forget about it and you're like 'oh yeah, Bobo!' I love doing stuff like that and think it's really fun. It's a great reward to hardcore fans who are dissecting it and taking notes.
TTVJ: Bobo's exit from the mental hospital was so great and a perfect song choice.
EA: It's pretty funny because one of our editors, Matt Anas, had put that song in. At the beginning of the year Andrea Higgins, our music supervisor, gives us a file folder of songs for the editors to use as temp music. He put that song in and tried it, but it was so perfect that we ended up keeping it. It was so great. I also loved the song at the beginning of the episode. We just wanted to use music a little differently in this episode just because it was an alternate universe. It really gives this episode some fun and some energy, maybe a little relief, as we go into the finale, which is a lot emotionally.
TTVJ: The music was exceptional this week. I also loved the song playing when Waverly enters to give Nicole her lunch. Perfect!
EA: I love that song! It's so wistful, she's singing of small town life and it gives you that feeling of having a crush, when you see that person it makes your entire day. But also understanding that maybe they aren't for you, they are somebody else's and there's just so much going on in that moment with the music and Kat's face. It's a lot and I love it. The pickles!
TTVJ: It's a lot! Yes. [laughs]
EA: It's a lot. I love it. I love it. It's funny because I love one of my producers very much, Jordy Randall, he's such an incredible guy. We usually agree, but for that song we had different takes on what that song should sound like. So I'm a little triumphant that you like that song, but many times he has pushed for a song, especially with WayHaught, that later on I'm like 'that was the right song. You were right.' We just wanted it to be a little sweeter.
Andrea is so good at her job though, that even songs that get left on the sidelines are so good. I am always like 'remind me to use that if we are lucky enough to get another season.' She has such a good handle on what Wynonna is and the tone.
TTVJ: Doc and Dolls both died in the alternate universe and we didn't get to see them again before the end of the episode. Should I be worried about that?
EA: Yes! You should be worried about that. Some things have obviously still survived from the alternate universe, right? The Widows and Bobo are still in league together, the third seal is still broken and people still have their memories of what happened. So yeah, we haven't seen Doc, Dolls or Rosita who have all died in the alternate universe.
TTVJ: I forgot about Rosita! Oh no!
EA: It's OK. We've only seen Jeremy, Nicole, Waverly and Wynonna, so finding our people is going to be a huge problem and challenge. I'm worried about them all — some more than others.
TTVJ: I can't believe when Doc died you guys had him call Waverly "baby girl." Ugh, right in the feels!
EA: I know! What do you mean you can't believe it? Have you met me? All I want to do is make you feel things. If I don't make you cry and get dehydrated then I feel like I failed the Earpers.
How good was that performance? It's so funny because that was the very last scene we shot this year. It was pretty incredible. We were all on the sidelines watching so there was a lot of crying and blowing our noses. We saved the best for last.
TTVJ: Last year I know you ended shooting on Dom and Michael Eklund in the treehouse and now this year you end on that.
EA: I know! It's just very fun to end on something really important. It makes everyone hopeful and remember what makes the show so special.
TTVJ: Speaking of feelings, after a lot of WayHaught tension in the past few weeks, we got to see that it doesn't matter what universe or timeline we're in, WayHaught is meant to be.
EA: They are soulmates and destined to be together. I think that's so awesome and so fun to establish that. One theme on the show, and we've seen it this year more than others, is that destiny seems like a cold, hard mistress who makes a lot of decisions and doesn't give you a lot of choice, forces you into situations or scenarios that maybe aren't ideal, or over which you have no choice of whether you can participate or not. I think it was also fun to show that destiny has plans for these people that are sort of magical. Their connection is universal. I don't know if anyone will notice that part though, Bridget.
TTVJ: I love Dani Kind and I love Doc Holliday. You basically put them together in a box and said "go crazy!" It was everything I dreamed it would be and more!
EA: Yeah, we put them in a box and were like 'Why don't you guys have some fun? We're going to lunch but we'll leave the camera rolling!' I love Dani so much. She's so fun and she's so game. The other crazy thing is that because of the pregnancy we lost a lot of script writing time. We were so frantic writing that I didn't have a lot of time to sit down with the actors and be like 'here's a 2 hour pitch of where your character is going.' Dani and Meghan, in particular, were so lovely about it because I said I didn't know totally where we were going with it. I did, but I couldn't give them the whole lay of the land. So every week, Dani would get the script and be like 'OK, now this is happening. I'm in a box and my face is rotting off!' She's just been such a star this year.
TTVJ: She was so great in that scene, and Tim is so amazing in it.
EA: He's so good. Tim is so in it. Tim is singing this year!
TTVJ: The Widows in general have just went next level crazy and I'm quite enjoying it. Now they are with Bobo, and I know I should hate all three of them, but I'm here for it.
EA: We just don't do subtle. I think if you want to have fun villains then you should let them loose. We established that with Michael Eklund and Bobo in Season 1 where he was such a strong villain. You need to give your villains room to play. At the same time, we need to see what they are truly capable of and the danger involved.
TTVJ: This episode, at times, felt like more of a production than most weeks on Wynonna Earp, what with the scenes where you had lots of extras. What are those like to shoot and orchestrate?
EA: It was amazing! I know I talk about this a lot, but our budget and the amount of days we have per episode is pretty small. It had to be planned to the Nth degree. We had the dream team of our director, Paolo Barzman, and stunt coordinator, Steve McMichael. It was funny because they took the Homestead and mapped it out like a giant pie. They cut it into quadrants and we called it the Wheel of Death. So they'd say 'in this pie piece we have the flaming tire. In this piece Waverly shoots the guy off the back of the ATV.' It was planned so perfectly and choreographed so extraordinarily.
In typical Calgary fashion, the beginning of the day was -25℃ degrees, so cold and snow was all covering the hills behind the Homestead. Then a chinook rolled in, a warm wind and a signature move of Alberta, and it was +15℃ by the end of the day. Everyone was boiling to death and all the snow had melted, so it became just a mud pit.
The other fun thing for me personally was that I flew in my little brother. He's one of the revenants running around fighting people, including our beloved Brock Skretting, who is our third AD. He's incredible and if you look carefully he's in it. He's the least scary revenant. He was in the revenants, coordinating them, so we just threw Brock in there to be able to help on the ground. I want to give him a shout out though because he's amazing. I just happened upon him giving this Braveheart speech to all the extras, painting a picture of how some were loyal to Doc, and some were loyal to Bobo. He's such an incredible, joyful soul. He's one of those special people you meet in your life and everybody on crew loves him. He deserves a huge amount of credit for keeping everyone engaged and energetic. He's an incredible person and we'll all work for him some day, and it'll be good!
TTVJ: I have seen a lot of Paolo's work on other shows as well [Killjoys, X Company], and I just feel like he was a great choice to film these scenes.
EA: He's masterful! He is such a personality too. The crew and cast adore him. He's what I aspire to be, which is the perfect combination of fun and artistry. He takes it really seriously, thinks really hard about the story and how we're going to do it, but at the end of the day he is like 'it's just a TV show. Let's have fun.' He's always yelling things like 'it's a total disaster!' Or 'the reshoots will be better!' He's French too so he's always tossing around a million scarves. He has a million euphemisms that we all use on set. Last year he kept yelling 'let's just shoot the Bobo out of it,' but in a very booming French voice. He does the finale as well.
Again, Steve McMichael, along with his wife Leslie McMichael, I cannot speak highly enough of them. They have done some incredibly huge properties. They've done X-Men and The Hobbit, so the fact that they are so committed to our little underdog, demon hunting show is why this show bats above its pay grade so much of the time.
That was an incredible day. That was definitely one of the most challenging and ambitious sequences we've ever done. It's so funny too because you shoot for 12 hours and it ends up being like three minutes of screen time.
TTVJ: I also really enjoyed the use of different lens filters and the different looks used.
EA: That was all Paolo. He really fell in love with different lens filters. We used one for the vision quest episode in 208, and he really wanted to show this was a different timeline here. He shipped in those lenses from Germany. It really does, even subconsciously, give everything a different feel.
TTVJ: What should we expect from this finale? You can't possibly answer all our questions, right?
EA: I can't even really joke about the finale. I think it's really powerful and moving. Every single person on our team, still alive, gets a hero moment, gets to make a choice that really defines who they are and who they want to be. It's really about the team coming together and making sacrifices. But, as always, this one is all Melanie Scrofano. It's about Wynonna deciding, wherever she can, what her own fate is going to be.
There are two moments in the finale — I'm kind of cold because I've read the script so many times that even though the performances are so good, I don't cry that often at scenes. I know what's coming. I admire the scenes and I admire the craft from our talented cast, but there are a few scenes that had me bawling, two in particular that I think you'll know. One that really defines the Earp sisters to me to the core. It's going to be a lot for you, Bridget. It's going to be a lot for you. I'm excited about it. Of course, we also set things up for Season 3, which we are so grateful to have.
What did you think of the alternate reality in this week's episode? Add your thoughts and any season finale predictions below!
Wynonna Earp airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Syfy and Space.
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1 Comment | Aug 17, 2018
Women Behind Canadian TV: 2019 Edition
dbjean22	 August 19, 2017
Emily Andras is a genius! The End!
P.S. Thank you, Bridget for actually getting her to "spill the beans"-ish.
Emily: No, B-Train! Not the Lasso of Truth!
Bridget: Bwahahahaha! 😈
Guest	 August 19, 2017
This was the worst episode of "Sheriff Nedley and Calamity Jane" ever! 🙂
Why is Emily air quoting the baby? That seems suspicious; +1 on ratcheting up the suspense for the finale Emily.
Is it just me or did anyone else want Waverly to touch Bobo's spikey hair when he was laying on her stomach? 🙂
I am both excited yet sadden by the finale based on Emily's comments; I'd be surprised if Dolls and Doc don't survive, out of the three I'm definitely worried about Rosita, that said there are ways to have a character leave besides just killings then so maybe she'll go out that way if she doesn't stay for S3. Again PLEASE DON'T KILL NICOLE! If this finale is anything like S1 then there will definitely be some intense moments.
Miss	 August 20, 2017
I am more worried about Nedly surviving. I was thinking that Wynonna's baby will turn out to be Waverly.
I do sweat for Neadly, I hope he doesn't go any time soon as I like his relationships with everyone and he seems like a good guy but I have to be honest and say I'd save Nicole over him because given the history so far of LGBT characters I need her to survive and then of course I have Nicole is awesome feelings and WayHaught feelings so sorry Randy but I'm rescuing Nicole first. Again though I'm not trying to rush him out. Hopefully he'll be in the next season!