okay so i have a #WynonnaEarp theory-

season fours overall theme is trauma (and how impactful it can be): a thread

firstly we’ve been knew nicole is going through it rn, but this theory spreads out to even more characters.

also wanted to say some of these gifs used are stolen from @BeckyNCKFan so shout out to u bub

okay so i’m going to start of with wynonna and rachel because they kind of intertwine with one another. for each character i’m going to list event that did/could lead to trauma just as a refresher to understand the links i’m making etc

tw //

wynonna:

- parents with substance abuse (alcohol)
- death of father, sister (plus the deaths of friends we see on the show such as dolls)
- responsible for fathers death
- wrongly admitted to a psychiatric facility (unsure of what she was diagnosed with)

- multiple arrests
- in juvenile prison 3 different times
- arrested multiple times
- the earp curse
- absence of a stable environment (her traveling from place to place is an included factor as it’s all she knew to do)
- possession

almost all of these occurred before she was 18, so theres quite a lot to take in but anyway, here’s how some of these points can connect to things occurring in s4

• the absence of peacemaker
the absence of peacemaker can very much connect back to her psych ward days as-

she knows the truth, what’s out there yet has no protection. i personally don’t think i’ve seen wynonna this panicked about a demon being after her when she hasn’t had a weapon, and her possibly having a change in time could have been a factor within that- which leads me to

• quick changes in environment

within these episodes we see her in purgatory, then going to find valdez, then going to the garden, then back to purgatory, then taken to wherever the bbd is, then back to purgatory. even though there was a time jump, this takes place in a matter-

of weeks. after finally having a base home when she returns to purgatory at 27 from a whole childhood of moving around and being disconnected from her only living family, to then having to/being forced to move could potentially be bringing back her uncertainty of consistency

• being framed
so wynonna being framed for nedley’s death and being almost hung (throw back to waverly s1 being hung btw) to then being put into a cell could easily bring back memories of her time in juvey. bc we don’t know much about that time i can’t go into detail sorry

so you’re probably wondering what this has to do with rachel, well let’s state what we know for her

tw //

- absence (/possible death) of father
- death of mother

as we know this has also occurred before the age of 18 similarly to wynonna.

• loss of parent

rachel had to learn to be independent quickly after the loss of her mother because she didn’t have anyone else to turn to (similar situation to wynonna not being with family). this quote in the gif can also link to wynonna saying she’s always worked alone etc

i think in some ways rachel can be a representation of a younger version of wynonna, it can also explain why she has the most relaxed reaction to rachel’s actions in the gif above, and why she’s able to open up and connect to rachel in the gif below

the only difference between wynonna and rachel is rachel’s current support system (nicole) in the midst of dealing with her trauma, so as much as rachel is depending on nicole for her care, nicole also has been depending on rachel for her own which is a lot to take on at 17

okay with that being said, time to explore nicole-

tw //

- only survivor of the cult of bulshar
- aunt & uncles deaths
- unsupportive parents (career wise) + no longer in contact (loss of blood relatives)
- almost kidnapped (s1)
- possession (s3)
- those 18 months
- anxiety

- multiple near death experiences

• loss of family

it’s hard to say what exactly is going on with nicole as we don’t know what happened currently so i’m going to look into connections of what we do know. clearly nicole was close to her aunt and uncle when she was younger, so-

their deaths probably reshaped her family a bit, a shift that’s hard to deal with at 6 and the events of it all have began to be on her mind more as we see in s3 where she explores it more. nicole having to distance herself from them in order to pursue her career probably-

reshaped how she views family. so after finally finding and developing a chosen family- losing them probably made her lose her sense of what a family really looks like in those 18 months as she had experienced both forms of family (blood and chosen) which had both “ended” and-

weren’t a constant as most families usually are.

to me this can kind of explain another side of why nicole can only fully connect and lean on rachel apart from the one i mentioned prior. the only family experience she hadn’t actually had before everyone’s disappearance-

was a “mother/daughter” family, which is what was created and what nicoles current focus tends to be on.

this might also explain her disconnectedness from everyone else, she feels as if she’s already lost having that kind of family and is undeserving of it.

waverly’s is similar within the family side of wynonna’s points

tw //
- depression
- possession
- near death experience
- almost burnt alive which lead to her mothers incarceration

• cures and responsibly
so in s1 we see that waverly has been questioning for a long time-

why she can’t break the curse. there was this kind of “jealousy” within having a higher purpose, which is why i think she was so easily drawn to the role the garden was trying to set her up for.

• fire
okay this is in the next episode so i’m not entirely sure what’s happening-

but in the promo we see the homestead on fire followed by a shot of waverly, this can easily connect back to when she was in the barn and michelle set it on fire with her inside. this could spark that past trauma + explain why “waverlys not coming”/“i did something terrible”

anyway to conclude this bc it’s 2am and i’m running out of cohesive thoughts, i feel like this season is exploring events occurring in characters lives which connects to past ones in their lives

also please note: i’m not any sort of professional or anything like that- this is just an analysis of what i’ve seen on screen and connections i’ve been able to make within the new season okay ty have a lovely day