On the latest episode of Haven, “Nowhere Man,” Audrey is back! We think! Maybe! Sort of! And so Nathan immediately disappears, because God forbid the show actually give us the character dynamics that made us like it in the first place.
So. Mara and Audrey are now in separate bodies, but Nathan and Duke are worried that they might be connected, so instead of trying to get rid of Mara in some way, they hide her and protect her. Mara wants to trade her knowledge for the Crocker journal, but clearly they’re not going for that. Meanwhile, Audrey is “just Audrey” for the first time, with no other versions inside her (or so she thinks/says) — and one effect of this is that she’s no longer immune to the Troubles, which means that Nathan can’t feel her anymore. He puts off telling her because he doesn’t want to scare her, but finally has to fess up in order to explain why he’s worried about her being out on cases — especially since the denizens of Haven don’t really believe she’s not Mara. This is interesting payoff from Duke’s question last week, about whether Nathan is so in love with Audrey because she’s the only one he can feel. He now swears that he doesn’t care and that it won’t affect their relationship, but it will be interesting to see how they work through this, if it persists.
The Trouble of the week basically seems like very focused nuclear incineration — all that’s left of people is a shadow. It gets Nathan almost immediately, and turns him into what seems to be a ghost – he’s still there and can see and hear everything but not touch anything, and no one can see or hear him. He finds someone who can see him, who tells him that they’re dead and Haven is purgatory. Well, sure. Haven’s everything else so it might as well be that too. Nathan reports to the cemetery for New Ghost Orientation with a guy named Morgan, but while there he remembers the Trouble there that let him talk to his father’s ghost. Duke killed the man with that Trouble, so Nathan’s plan is to make Duke let out the Trouble so that Nathan can communicate with people. He doesn’t seem to realize that this plan requires communicating with people in the first place. I’m frustrated this season by the way they’ve turned Nathan into a lovesick fool in service of the plot. He’s supposed to be smart, and steady, and practical, and while being in love — which isn’t exactly new, after all — may change some of his priorities, it shouldn’t change his intelligence.
Meanwhile, Dwight’s out of town — at his sister’s funeral, maybe? – and the Guard is out of control, threatening Nathan and eventually going after Audrey, who they think is Mara. Duke tries to prevent it, but without Dwight or Nathan around he doesn’t have much leverage, and ghost!Nathan overhears their plans but can’t warn anyone. While following Duke around trying to communicate, Nathan realizes that Mara can see and hear him, and so concludes that he’s actually Troubled, not dead. He’s determined to solve the Trouble, even though Morgan disapproves: “There’s one thing that keeps you sane around here. It’s not hoping to go back.”
With Nathan gone, Audrey’s also trying to solve the Trouble; she uses herself as bait and promptly gets kidnapped by the Guard. They believe that she’s Mara and can cure their Troubles by touching them, which is dangerous, because some of their Troubles kill anyone who touches them, and Audrey is no longer immune. But Duke has a reasonable plan, now that Nathan has no say: he’ll trade Mara for Audrey. “I am not gonna lose her and Nathan in the same day.” Oh, Duke. The found family dynamic between the three of them is by far my favorite thing about the show, which is a lot of why I’ve found the last few seasons — in which they’re rarely all together and themselves — to be so frustrating. He’s serious enough with this threat that Mara decides to help him rescue Audrey, which he does with his usual level of seriousness and respect for the law: “You wanna arrest him, or you just want me to shoot him?”
With Audrey back, Mara confesses that the two aren’t connected, but says they need to keep her around for her immunity – and because she’s the only one who can talk to Nathan. They “test” the connection by inflicting a minor injury and Mara and seeing that it’s not reflected on Audrey, but that doesn’t seem like proof to me — their lives could be connected without literally all their injuries showing up on each other. But whatever. Another reason to keep Mara around, because apparently the show thinks this is something we need! Yay.
At the end of the episode, Nathan and Audrey have a sweet but heartbreaking “conversation” in which he can see and hear her but she can’t even be certain that he’s there. He talks to her anyway, vowing to make it back to her somehow. Aww. But then he goes back to the cemetery to tell the other “ghosts” that they’re Troubled, not dead — and finds that they are now in fact dead, with the message “Even ghosts can die” written on a gravestone. Eek.
Other favorite lines and stray thoughts:
- “I can’t imagine a family of serial killers kept perfect records. No offense.”
- “I gotta go. Enjoy your afterlife.”
- The longest a current “ghost” has been in Haven is two years, and I’m curious if that’s supposed to be when the current Troubles came back to town. I assume so, but I’ve lost all track of how much time has supposedly passed since the show started.
- The ghosts are supposedly dressed in clothes that are “residual self-images” from their last happiest moment with someone they loved. Morgan to Nathan: “You were … at work? With someone you care about?” Aww. But does this mean Nathan was happier at work with Audrey than in bed with Audrey, or even just hanging out at home? And wouldn’t you think this rule would mean some of these ghosts should be naked?
- “Everybody around me is dying.” Poor Duke.
- “Nathan’s dead? Well who’s gonna bore the hell out of me now?”
- “Nathan, I’m sorry, we’ll have to have a séance later.”
Next time: “Exposure,” in which Audrey apparently calls in outside police help because she’s not immune and Nathan may be gone. I’m sure that will go well and they won’t think she’s crazy at all.
(Image courtesy of Syfy.)