Sunday, October 27, 2013

Haven, Season 4, Episode 7: Lay Me Down


Starting at the Gull and Duke trying to call his brother who, unsurprisingly given the whole murdering thing, isn’t eager to get back in touch. Jennifer is back and worried about her new job with the Haven Herald, read to get back in the work force and feeling insecure still about her mental health issues.

And Wade shows up and assures Duke he won’t try to kill anyone again. Excuse me, even discounting Jordan which no-one knows about, the idea that “I won’t do it again” is an excuse for stabbing someone in the stomach? Duke warns him how hard it is to control and Wade assures him he’ll leave in a couple of days. Duke is then distracted by drunk customer Freddie who is delivered to the drunk tank to sleep it off.

At the police station where Nathan still gets the heebie jeebies from the whole Lexi thing Audrey pulls and how good she is at channeling her brief former self. Much pouting and stomping from Nathan follows until the return to the drunk tank and find that Freddie has been brutally mauled to death in his cell.

To Gloria in the morgue (yay she’s back!) and Audrey excuses “Lexi’s” lack of squeamishness by “I drank my breakfast” (Gloria, being Gloria responds with “me too!”) Gloria is amazingly snarky, telling Nathan to shut up, making her intern answer her to prove there’s no trace evidence. Basically while it looks like poor Freddie had been attacked by an animal, his clothes weren’t torn and the wounds are clean – animal attacks are never clean of fury, saliva, dirt, DNA. Gloria also comments on how quickly “Lexi” is picking up on all the police investigation skills

Dwight has a curious aside about why Jordan, leaving town, would just abandon her car before telling Duke about Freddie, his barfly, dying. Duke tells Dwight that Freddie loved nature programmes about grizzlies – he had “bears on the brain.” He also doesn’t know anything about Jordan but is concerned when he heard she was spotted with Wade

Duke has a dream – about him cooking dinner for wade and cutting himself. Wade loses control seeing Troubled blood and leaps on him, trying to stab him with a knife. Duke raises his arm to protect himself and wakes up. But once he’s awake, he still has the cut on his arm. He calls Audrey and leaves a message – he now knows what happened to Freddie.

To Jennifer and her job interview – Vince and Dave are up to something (of course), Vince saying it’s “too obvious” to hire a new girl Friday at the moment. But Dave wants her on staff so they can figure out how she’s connected to the barn. In the totally-not-suspicious interview they ask her to do a test assignment: a background check on herself.

She prepares an extremely comprehensive background check on herself which is very boring – but she couldn’t find her birth parents. She gets the job (they say offhandedly) and starts tomorrow.


Meanwhile the real Wade has convinced a woman with a Guard tattoo to leave the bar with him – once alone they kiss and he bites her. With her blood in his system, his eyes silver and stalks talking about “salvation” from her “curse”. He stabs her.

In another very obvious dream, Nathan is in the police station, stark naked – and late for a class he forgot all about and hasn’t studied for (I’ve had that dream, barring the nudity and the police station). The police station re-arranges itself into a classroom – prepared for a test; and Audrey as a teacher. There’s a question on the board: Who do you love? The choices are a) Audrey Parker, b) Sarah Vernon, c) Lexie DeWitt, d) none of the above, e) all of the above. And she smacks his hand with a ruler and talks about boys like him needing to be punished, followed by a naked paddling.

Ah, so less nightmare and more kinky sex dream? Well that puts a whole new angle on this particular Trouble.

He wakes up with Audrey knocking on the door – but needs a moment to… calm down before he can set off to work. At the morgue Audrey explains what happened to Duke and applies that to Freddie while Nathan is incredibly uncomfortable and can’t meet her eye. He shows her the bruise on his hand and tells her he agrees; she asks him what he was dreaming about and he just says “school”.

Time for Gloria to unveil the new bodies with Dwight and intern Vicki in attendance. Victim 1 died from bee stings – he’s allergic to bees and phobic of them, yet venom free and stinger free. Victim 2, died from blood loss from a dream where his teeth, roots and all, fell out and he bled to death (Nathan and Gloria have both had the same dream) and on to victim number 1 (yes, Audrey notices she said 1 already, bingo, she’s listening. Gloria is awesome). Female victim died of multiple stab wounds apparently NOT in her sleep. Dwight knows her – Sonya, she’s in the guard – yes, it’s Wade’s victim. Actually stabbed (the tip of the blade is in the wound) and dumped. Dwight takes the mundane case, leaving Audrey and Nathan the lethal-and-occasionally-kinky dream Trouble.

Wade is at Duke’s boat and being very creepy which Duke notices and Duke tells Wade Jordan is missing, Wade deflects but Duke notices the knife Wade is using to gut fish has lost it’s point. And that none of the fish he was supposed to be cleaning have been gutted.

The gang gathers, Duke bringing coffee (he makes sure Nathan’s is luke-warm  since he can’t feel if he’s being burned. Nice touch). Most the victims are dead, only Nathan and Duke are known survivors so they need to compare for commonalities. Duke read his horoscope, Freddie was passed out on a pile of Haven Heralds and the guy who died by beesting had a Haven herald by his bed; Nathan read the Herald at the station

Yet again I feel I have to complain about Haven’s leap of logic. Everyone involved was somehow associated with the Herald is a ridiculous point of connection considering it’s the daily newspaper of the town. How many people from Haven will be reading a copy or touching a copy or owning a copy? This is a terrible thing to decide everyone has in common and wouldn’t stand under any pretence of logical detective work.

Duke blames Vince and Dave and Nathan worries because he got the paper off Dwight’s desk so Dwight could also be affected (and the entire population of Haven for that matter!)

Dwight is already asleep – dreaming about Jordan and Sonya’s cases and Wade as a suspect – when a gun floats into view and shoots him twice, with no-one holding it (Dwight fears guns because his Trouble makes him a bullet magnet). He wakes up with Nathan calling him – but has a bullet wound in his shoulder.

They get Dwight to hospital and he’ll be ok, but while Audrey and Nathan go to see Vince and Dave, Duke checks Dwight’s files and finds the picture of the missing knife tip. He knows Wade is guilty of murder. Duke goes to the docks where Wade has been allegedly fishing and pays the dockmaster to let him check Wade’s GPS and see where he has been supposedly fishing. Following the route, Duke finds Jordan’s dumped body.

To Vince and Dave where the Teagues assure Audrey and Nathan that they have never put out a Troubled paper. Audrey asks if one of the photos in the paper could be Troubled (Vince notices what an insightful comment this is from “Lexie” who knows so little about Haven). They check their files and find that all of the victims are on the same delivery route, delivered by Carrie Benson (the woman who gave Jennifer advice heading into the interview –I knew she was too big an actor to play such a bit part). She’s currently delivering the afternoon edition.

They go to confront her and she knows she’s Troubled. Women in her family have always been Troubled – whatever happens in their dreams happens to them in real life. She’s quick to understand that her Trouble has changed though (it’s a nice twist to have someone who is aware of their Troubles). They think the key is to cure Carrie and, therefore cure everyone. Carrie knows of a way – in family lore, but nearly everyone who has tried it has died.

They go to her home and she talks about lucid dreaming, being aware in dreams so she keeps herself safe. She’s always been told by her mother to avoid the “dark places” which is where the relatives who died went. The dark places are where their greatest fears lie and if they confront them, the Trouble stops. Of course, their greatest fears could also kill them. Carrie has been recently mugged and believes her attackers will be in the dark places. Audrey checks if Carrie is sure she wants to risk this but Carrie doesn’t want more people to die from her power.

Carrie enters her dreams dark places with Audrey reassuring her at her bedside. She faces her two muggers and her feet become trapped in the ground. One of the muggers hit her and in her bed her body shows the damage. Audrey tells her not to be afraid, to fight back and in the dream she closes her eyes and chants that she’s not afraid of the dark – and she’s not afraid of the muggers. The dream turns from night to day and the muggers disappear. That seems… easy and anticlimactic.

Duke confronts his brother Wade outside a bar where he is offering a lift to another member of the Guard. Duke chases off Wade’s next victim and confronts his brother. Wade says he’s saving people and their families, it’s why they have the power and Duke hits back that it’s a curse; they’re Troubled just like the victims (Wade denies it) and how can something that turns you into a killer not be a curse? Wade asks if Duke will turn him in – and Duke is torn with guilt since Wade’s victims are his fault if he doesn’t, especially since he promised Audrey and Nathan he’d handle Wade. Wade threatens to reveal that “Lexie” is a lie and Audrey is really Audrey – which means the Guard will force her to kill Nathan. And Duke hits Wade in the head with a gun.

Back to the Haven Herald and the Teagues have found something in Jennifer’s background check. The man who arranged her adoption was Agent Howard (who or what is he?!)

She goes from there to Duke’s boat to tell him and hears Wade asking for help from the hold – where he “accidentally locked himself in”. She lets him go and he grabs her, panting that he just needs a taste – if she doesn’t move he won’t kill her. He puts a tiny cut in her neck and drinks the blood –but when his eyes go silver he needs more. Duke grabs Wade and throws him away from her and touches Jennifer’s hand – getting the blood on him as well. Silver eyed Duke demands Silver eyed Wade get in control. Wade says he can’t control it – Duke says he will kill him if he has to – Wade just says “I know” and attacks. Duke stabs him.

Wade dies – and Duke doesn’t absorb his blood. His Trouble has been cured by… his Trouble. Jennifer tries to reassure Duke that Wade was going to kill her and that he wanted it to end that way – and Duke touches the cut on her neck. The blood isn’t absorbed. His Trouble is definitely gone. Duke, rather confusingly, asks her not to tell anyone and to keep it silent. I’m not sure I follow the logic of that, if anything it’ll take him off the Guard’s hitlist. And Audrey has been known to rely on Duke’s power before – shouldn’t she know that he no longer has it?

In the hospital, Audrey and Nathan check on Carrie – and Audrey sees a large handprint on her back – it’s black and fiery. Neither Carrie nor Nathan can see it. Carrie remembers when she was mugged feeling something strange on her back – which means they’re going to have to find the men who attacked her since there’s a Trouble involved – which may have been why her Trouble mutated.

Nathan and Audrey have ructions about Audrey keeping herself secret and the problems of possibly mutating Troubles. Audrey makes it clear she’s still hiding and Lexie isn’t going away – and she doesn’t see why Nathan hates Lexie so much when he was perfectly fine with Sarah (and slept with her). They fight, him refusing to apologise for that because it’s so hard for him and her hitting back that she doesn’t know who she is, that she’s not just one person. Nathan wants to know who THEY are and Audrey says too much has happened for them to be in a relationship – they’re co-workers

Nathan stomps out of the building, then comes back – he doesn’t care who Audrey is or what, he loves her (and has kinky dreams about her) and they kiss.

All the while the Gull and her flat is watched by the 2 men who mugged Carrie-  and they look like the same goons who threatened Lexie in the barn.




There’s a lot of interesting issues in the idea of Nathan really hating Lexi and Audrey being uncomfortable about that. After all, “Audrey” is no more real a personality than Lexi is – and since Lexi is still in Audrey’s memories, how much of “Lexi” is completely an act or fabrication and how much of it a genuine part of the personality of “Audrey”.

Gloria is awesome and needs her own show.

I never considered that downside of Guard tattoos – the Guard protect the Troubled, but their tattoos single them out for anyone hunting Troubled people. But I still think it’s ridiculous how little come back there was over Wade stabbing Krebbs last episode. He’s an attempted murder “I won’t do it again” doesn’t cut it.

Wade looks like an almost suicide unable to be in control – but I think his storyline was also important for Duke’s – not just for angst but to emphasises why Duke didn’t use blood to power up or use his Trouble and why it is such a curse – because it is nearly impossible to control. And, of course, now he has removed it from his bloodline…