'Wynonna Earp' Showrunner Emily Andras Explains That Alternate Reality Episode

08/23/2017 05:54 pm EDT

Last Friday on the penultimate episode of Syfy's Wynonna Earp season 2, the series took a surprising turn, moving to an alternate timeline where Wynonna no longer existed. Executive producer Emily Andras acknowledged that it was an odd choice to happen at such a late stage of the season, but described the move as an "insurance policy."

What kind of insurance policy? Well, like her on-screen counterpart Wynonna Earp, actress Melanie Scrofano was days away from giving birth by the time the series was filming the last two episodes of the season -- and Andras had the It's a Wonderful Life-style episode as an ace in the hole, in case Scrofano went into labor early.

"It's a Wonderful Life was definitely our starting point but it definitely had to be within our world," Andras told ComicBook.com, acknowledging that the episode almost felt more like an Earth-2 episode of The Flash than a Frank Capra classic. "The thing I love about an alternate universe is that the rules don't have to be as hard and fast. It's kind of like Doctor Who with the time travel; after a while it just became 'timey-wimey.' We can always break our own rules if we can justify it [in-story]. So with our alternate universe, because it was our second-to-last episode, we definitely felt like we needed to keep certain elements of the plot moving forward, right? We needed the third seal to break, we needed the Widows to still be on their journey and on their mission. At the same time, it sort of put our characters at a disadvantage. It was definitely an odd place in the season to have an alternate-universe episode without your protagonist, but the truth is, Mel was 9 months pregnant by that point. It was almost our insurance policy, that if she went into labor early, we had an episode that she wasn't featured as heavily in. Those are the realities of production. But I think it worked out well creatively as well."

The finale, which airs on Friday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Syfy, will pit Wynonna and her team against a demon freed from over a century in captivity...at the same moment the title character's water broke.

...So, no pressure there, right?

Based on the IDW Publishing comic book created by Beau Smith, WYNONNA EARP follows the life of famous lawman Wyatt Earp's demon-fighting great-great-granddaughter Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano), who inherited Wyatt's mythic abilities and his famous gun. As a special agent in the Black Badge Division (a top secret sector of the U.S. Marshals) and with the help of her younger sister, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), boss, Agent Xavier Dolls (Shamier Anderson), notorious gunslinger Doc Holliday (Tim Rozon) and officer Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell), Wynonna is determined to put an end to the Earp curse once and for all. WYNONNA EARP is produced in Calgary by SEVEN24 Films and distributed by IDW Entertainment. Emily Andras developed the series for television and continues to serve as showrunner and executive producer. Jordy Randall, Tom Cox, Ted Adams, David Ozer, Rick Jacobs and Todd Berger also serve as executive producers.

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