Haven’s back for its finale – time
to settle these cliffhangers.
Not!Claire reveals she killed the real Claire a few days
ago and she can pass as her because Claire, as a psychiatrist, taped every
session and kept excellent notes, making it easy to step into her shoes – and
her skin. Unsurprisingly, the Big Bad Guy thinks she is the victim not the monster- because of what Lucy did; though she’s only just
realised that Audrey’s telling the truth and really doesn’t remember her past
incarnations. Apparently James Cogan, the Colorado Kid, Audrey’s son knows how
to stop the Troubles – or so Not!Claire says before bashing Audrey over the
head with her gun.
This is when Nathan comes in and finds Audrey alone. He’s,
rightfully suspicious, why didn’t the Skinwalker kill her when she had the
chance? But Audrey easily proves her authenticity by touching Nathan – a touch
he can feel. Of course, now the Skinwalker will have to change to stay hidden –
so they need to figure out who is next.
Cut to a man running through a high school gym, chased by another who crushes him to death behind the bleachers. Except, after death, the body is suddenly awfully young.
Time for Nathan and Audrey to check the body, from the
wallet they find it’s Paul Sullivan who went to school with Nathan – and is
ages with Nathan, despite the body looking no older than a current student, but
Nathan recognises him and it’s definitely the same man. Audrey has more important
things on her mind – she sees a banner, it’s Nathan’s high school reunion.
In runs several of Nathan’s former class mates – the Mean
Girl (Denise), the Class Dork (Robert) and the Prom Queen (Jeanine) who are
involved in the reunion. We learn that Robert is a millionaire motivational
speaker (kill him with fire) and they all want to set up for the dance
Time for a meeting of the Scooby club: Nathan, Audrey,
the Teagues, Duke and Dwight (who I’d lay odds on being the next Skinwalker) with
the news of Claire’s death and a computer programme to put together a composite
of all of the Skinwalker’s victims and the pieces they’ve been taking to make a
new woman. The person the Skinwalker’s build? Looks exactly like Arla Cogan,
James Cogan’s wife. We cut to the Skinwalker putting on their flesh mask – and becoming
Arla Cogan.
Duke raises the possibility that the Skinwalker always
was Arla – after all, Arla disappeared when James Cogan died. Everyone starts
gathering information. They need answers before Audrey disappears for 27 years.
At his bar Duke briefly sees Jeanine until Arla shows up, with a gun, for a little chat. She wants Audrey to find the barn, so they can all go back to being normal; just like Lucy and Sarah did before her. She tries to use Claire’s notes to snipe at Duke – Audrey loving Nathan – and prey on his dislike of his own Trouble, and Duke asks what Arla wants (are we supposed to believe that Duke is betraying Audrey, really?)
The Teagues are doing their research and find that a woman did go missing after James Cogan died – and a body was found near the fishing shack afterwards, badly scalded or burned. Dwight drops in with his own information: the Guard are following Duke and Nathan around ready to intervene if Audrey doesn’t go into the barn.
And there’s another murder – Denise (the popular girl) and, again, her
body has reverted to High School age. Nathan and Audrey attend (and Nathan
makes a slightly thoughtless comment about Audrey remembering high school
which, of course, she doesn’t; her memories are fake). Audrey wants to keep
investigating the case – if she only has a day left she wants to spend it with Nathan.
Time to talk to Jeanine and Robert. They discuss who
would want Denis and Paul dead and it seems they were rather unpleasant
bullies, but it was a long time ago. Still Nathan wants the dance to go ahead
since it’s perfect bait if someone is hunting his class mates (wow, that’s not
ethically dubious at all).
Duke is at his bar when he sees an odd box on the dock.
He checks it and there’s a snake inside – and someone hits him on the back of the
head. He falls in the water and when he surfaces, he’s a teenager.
He runs to see Audrey and Nathan at the police station where they’re going through all the info they have on Nathan’s classmates. The snake may have been a reference to a high school prank when Duke put a snake in someone’s locker.
Dwight has some more info from the Guard – 27 years ago
Arla approached them because she wanted them to bring the barn back. And she
wasn’t amused when the Guard refused to help. We also get Dwight’s history with
the guard, after they helped him he helped them relocate people, until he found
out they were relocating people whether they wanted to or not – and because of
them he lost his daughter.
Nathan follows up on Jeanine, as someone who had been
taunted by all the victims. She tells him she does know about the Troubles and
does have a Trouble – but not to make people young. After feeling envy at her
best friend’s wedding and wishing she could be the one cutting the cake, all
food she touches turns to cake and that’s why she’s gained so much weight, she
hasn’t eaten anything but cake for 3 years (put on weight? Weight would be the
least of these woman’s problems with the vitamin deficiency she’d have going
on. And can you imagine a diet that lacking in fibre?)
Arla watches Duke and Nathan leave Jeanine and the Teagues appear behind her – and hold a gun on her. Now it’s their turn to tie her to a chair. They duel back and forth and Arla says that they all know there’s another way to stop the Troubles. Vince is confused – and then Dave hits him in the head with a jug, knocking him out. He tells Arla that if she tells him about this other way, he’ll let her go.
Sadly, we can’t stay with them because we have to go to Nathan’s reunion dance and, in between dancing, they review the case and again come back to the victim being someone who was bullied in high school, turning his bullies back into teenagers to attack them. Nathan points out that Robert – the dork – would be a prime candidate and even though he’s all friendly with everyone now, it definitely affected him back then. Cut to Robert dealing with some hard memories – and morphing back into his teenaged self.
He traps 2 of his former schoolmates in the boiler room
with the boiler rigged to explode and runs – Audrey chasing him while Nathan
sorts out the boiler. When Audrey catches him (evacuating out the dancers) he
tries to hit her with a wrench – and Arla shoots him. Yes, Arla rescues Audrey.
They lay Robbie down with his injury and he morphs back
to Robert, with no memory of what just happened. He starts to blame himself for
the deaths but Jeanine intervenes and says everyone was so mean back then and
she only realised since gaining weight and being on the receiving end of that
treatment – he counters she was never mean but he thought it was because she
never noticed him. She talks about what he did in school proving she paid close
attention; and Duke becomes an adult again.
At home Duke and Nathan reiterate their determination to
save Audrey from the barn. Audrey goes back to her apartment – and inside is
Arla, with a gun. Time for a conversation where Audrey makes a snide remark about
Arla’s face and she confirms that when James comes out of the barn, she wants
to look like the woman he loves. Apparently after James was killed Lucy said
she would take Arla and James into the barn and the barn woo-woo that kept Sarah/Lucy/Audrey
alive would heal James.
Except on the day Lucy was due to go into the barn, Arla’s
trouble kicked in and her skin fell off, leaving her raw and oozing. So she
killed someone for their skin (the body the Teagues learned about, we assume)
and this made Lucy Most Displeased and wouldn’t take Arla with her.Audrey
agrees with Lucy and says she won’t help Arla left.
But Arla has an Ace. Before he went into the barn, James
said he and Lucy had figured out a way to save Lucy from the barn; get James
back and he can help Audrey remain and end the Troubles for good. And if she
doesn’t help, Arla will have a little killing spree.
Outside, the meteor storm arrives and the barn appears. Out
of it steps James and Fake!Agent!Howard (WHO IS HE?)
Jeanine – a fat woman with the Trouble of turning all
food to cake. Really? She’s fat because all she eats is cake. Add in the
comments on how she “peaked in high school” and her flirting with Paul and Duke
being presented as faintly mockable – not one of Haven’s better moments. Her
and Robert getting together at the end is much better and more heartening but
it’s a rocky road to there.
One more episode this season, Haven. Answers need to be
forthcoming!
