Sunday, November 23, 2014

Haven, Season 5, Episode 11: Reflections




Nathan tells Audrey about finding Pete’s body and realising that the plague ended at exactly the same time – which points to Duke doing the murder/cure thing, which he did. They realise he’s with Mara – and that Audrey isn’t well which she is avoiding facing because she suspects it may be linked to her not being real.

Meanwhile rumours that Charlotte can cure the Troubles have spread and Kirk with his happy suffocation trouble decides to confront her about it – because she can’t magically pull a cure out of thin air he gets annoyed. Dwight rides to the rescue and Charlotte says she wants more Aethur and Dwight continues to aim for a relationship.

Trouble of the week time! A waitress calls someone asking for extra shifts and sounds desperate- and then gets sliced into pieces – he hands cut off and her head.

Move to Duke and Mara and Duke has a problem – he’s gone through the journal and he can’t find any more “safe” or “manageable” Troubles to vent. Mara needs Aethur to fix him. Mara continues trying to worm into Duke’s good side – having every chance to escape but not taking it.

Duke calls Nathan for the Aethur and Nathan is duly unimpressed with the whole Mara trusting but Duke points out the utterly epic hypocrisy of that and adds that while Mara may indeed try to destroy the town with Aethur, at the moment Duke only has epic town-destroying Troubles to unleash so may as well try. Nathan refuses and Duke takes it as another indication of all his friends failing him

Duke goes to steal the Aethur but it has been moved from the safe (apparently without telling Dwight).

Dwight checks in on Vince and insists that Charlotte is completely legitimate even while Vince points out she has no official standing and that he’s trusted a complete stranger with their secrets. Dwight’s gut is sure she’s legitimate. And how can you argue with a gut? Aaargh This is despite the fact that she came to Haven to look at Dave’s leg so she WAS there on official business (or so she claims) so there should be a record

To the Trouble of the week and Gloria is on point and she hates Charlotte as well (Gloria is, as always, glorious). Audrey interviews the dead woman, Marcy’s, boss who is just a terrible person – having zero sympathy for anyone having money troubles and referring to the Troubled as “those people” who should have warned her. Let us hope something eats her. However since we’ve pointed out her daughter Samantha I’m laying odds that her daughter will be the Troubled one. We also learn that Samantha is dating another employee Grace - yes, we have Haven’s first ever LGBT person!

Audrey continues to be ill so Nathan suggests she go see Charlotte (do they have no doctors in Haven?) While getting checked out Audrey asks Charlotte why she hasn’t reported about Haven – Charlotte points out that she could ruin her reputation making such a claim without proof. Audrey wonders what will happen when she does have proof which is all left ominous but Charlotte does hold that Haven does need help. We also learn that Marcy, the dead woman, wasn’t Troubled so someone else’s Trouble was behind it

So Audrey wants to see Grace who found the body only to learn Nasty Boss woman fired her for being Troubled. She’s kept Samantha away, but she tells them about Terrance who may know where Grace is (she’s also apparently called around people to get them to shun Grace). Terrence looks like another victim of the Trouble, having bulked up massively then lost it all while holding big weight over himself. This is a very very loosely connected physical transformation Trouble (Marcy was “falling to pieces” with debt so she did).

Audrey spots Grace in a crowd and wanders over the interview her – Grace sends Samantha to run before Audrey arrives (yes, going with “I told you so” here). They go to the hospital and Audrey has a meeting with Charlotte who warns her that her whole body is degenerating at a rapid rate.

Audrey interviews Grace and Terrence and they reveal they were both bullied at school (Terrence for weakness, Grace for being fat). Audrey realises Samantha is the Troubled one (told you soooo!). As she leaves she runs into Charlotte who now tells her the whole degeneration thing is now going in reverse (which is why Audrey is feeling better). Audrey realises Samantha did it – she has a Trouble which changes people into how they feel on the inside. Basically, because Audrey feels like she’s absolutely awesome, she became awesome. GO OVERWHELMING EGO! The problem is if they fix Samantha’s Trouble… Charlotte decides to go with them

Vince tells Nathan his concerns about Charlotte and Nathan realises they need to expose Charlotte because she is treating Audrey! (And there’s the whole town exposure, nefarious intent etc – but AUDREY!). Nathan goes to see Charlotte and asks him about Audrey’s health – somehow thinking that being a cop and/or her boyfriend means doctor/patient confidentiality doesn’t apply. Charlotte accepts neither excuse. But when she’s distracted Nathan steals some of her hair to give to Vince to give to Gloria for DNA testing

Dwight, having noticed the missing Aethur, accuses Nathan who, to my surprise, denies moving it. They both suspect Duke.

Samantha and her mother have a difficult conversation in which we learn Samantha’s father was Troubled and Samantha reveals she is too. Audrey, Grace and Charlotte arrive to see Samantha’s turned her mother into a child. Audrey talks to the child about the Troubled people just being scared and she morphs back into an adult declaring Samantha is Troubled because she doesn’t know right from wrong. Charlotte chimes in with the newly discovered Troubled gene. Samantha cries and suddenly all of her mother’s bigotry completely vanishes

Audrey starts coughing again

Back to Duke and Mara – Duke has to release a Trouble and relies on Mara to guide him into releasing a nice safe one. It doesn’t quite work – it’s the Egan family curse that turns rooms into ovens. An oven Mara and Duke are in. Duke decides to stay and cook and urges Mara to leave him to die – she refuses. Mara decides to do the Audrey thing and talk Duke through his feelings, how he pretends to be a selfish bastard to hide how it hurts when people walk away from him. Duke accuses her of agenda (her being evil and all) and Mara says she wants to save him – and kisses him. This ends the Trouble. See, clearly Audrey didn’t know about the magical make-out Trouble cure.

Duke now believes Mara cares about him. And they kiss again. AAAAARGH. And on to naked sexy time. Naked Duke makes this storyline much easier

Back at the police station Dwight and Nathan check CCTV to find a Guard member stealing the Aethur (they don’t recognise him – though it looks like Kirk/Kurt to me).

And just to confirm that Charlotte is evil – she has a dossier on Audrey and her many many incarnations



Duke and Mara: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Seriously, I don’t care about unleashing Troubled or Duke’s deep and abiding manpain, there is absolutely no way he can lost enough brain cells to trust Mara to this degree. No no no no, no chance at all. Is this just a clumsy way of resolving a love triangle? And Jennifer’s death is looking more and more conveniently contrived.

What is it with this show and people losing all vestiges of common sense when romance comes into view? Duke and Mara. There’s Nathan and his selfish obsessions with Audrey (even the idea that Charlotte may be nefarious matters to him because she’s Audrey’s doctor which is kind of the least of his concerns) and now Dwight with Charlotte, blissfully ignoring anything suspicious because LOVE INTEREST!

After 5 seasons, Haven has finally realised LGBT people exist! This must have been a huge revelation to the writers. Do I get points for predictable Troubled person being predictable? It’s a clumsy storyline – anti-Trouble bigot person (a storyline no-one has pursued since season 2 because it no longer works with the entire existence of the Guard breaking that bit of cannon.) happens to have a Troubled daughter! How shocking! Then they had Samantha explain to her mother how Troubled people are born that way and didn’t choose it and her mother saying Troubled people wouldn’t lie/hide about it if it wasn’t their fault. Why it’s almost like we’re making a direct comparison to something else … just in case you missed it, remember said daughter and Grace are this shows ONLY LGBT people in 5 seasons – they clearly didn’t want the comparison to be too subtle. The Vampire Diaries should look out, the comparison is almost as anvilicious (and problematic) as theirs. Do we really have to say why it’s problematic to draw obvious comparisons between people who can turn rooms into ovens and cause random dismemberment with LGBT people?

And it ends so simply as well. She goes from “you’re evil and corrupt” to “you’re my daughter” love in in two breaths


Though they did miss the chance to have Audrey burst in and sing “Born this Way” with Dwight and Nathan as back up dancers.  (NB: Syfy – this is NOT a suggestion).