Haven: Reflections

I’m of two minds about last night’s episode of Haven, “Reflections.” On the one hand, I’m enjoying the Charlotte Cross story and very curious to see where it’s going. But on the other – well, Mara. And now Duke. I am not enjoying any of that.

So, let’s get that out of the way first. Pete’s body is found, and Nathan and Audrey immediately figure out that Duke must have killed him to stop the contagion and that Mara must have been behind it. I’m glad they’re letting Nathan be smart again, at least about this. But Duke and Mara are still in hiding, and Duke’s upset because the only Troubles left for him to let out will cause mass casualties. Mara finally admits that she wants to help him in order to help herself – since his Troubles are the ones she’s not immune to – and her honestly “almost” makes Duke like her, at which point my notes say “No! Stop!” He winds up trusting her, for no good reason other than that she’s convinced him that no one cares about him – which is confirmed, or so he thinks, when Nathan refuses to give him the Aether to supposedly help Mara help him. So then Duke lets out a Trouble that makes the building he’s in catch fire when he feels isolated, thanks to the experience of a young boy who was left in a burning building and almost died. Duke wants to stay and let himself burn with the building, so that he’ll stop releasing Troubles that might hurt people, but Mara refuses to leave, and “solves” the Trouble by convincing Duke that she sincerely cares about him. I think she does get at an important part of Duke’s character with this line: “You want people to think that you’re a selfish bastard so that when they walk away they won’t know how badly they’ve hurt you.” But I also think that before she came along, Duke did (correctly) believe that at least Nathan and Audrey cared about him, so Mara has created the problem she’s claiming to have solved. And, of course, Duke and Mara start sleeping together, which I was apparently so annoyed about that I didn’t even mention it in my notes.

Let’s move on to the Charlotte and Audrey plots, which I like better. Audrey tries to brush off her continued sickness, but she’s still worried she’s somehow not real. Nathan responds to this perfectly: “You are the realest person I know. More real than me most days.” And at the same time, he – very smartly, I think – points out that she could be real but still have important physical effects from the split with Mara. He encourages her to see Charlotte, which dovetails nicely with Charlotte’s plot. She’s still doing scientific research, but people are starting to confront her demanding a cure that she does not yet have. (The guy who wants a cure but doesn’t want to let Charlotte take his blood for tests? Come on, dude.) There’s an interesting idea here about hope making people crazy, and I think that’s part of what has happened with both Nathan and Duke at various points in the show.

Dwight refuses to believe Vince that Charlotte’s not with the CDC – he believes her claim that she’s waiting for proof before telling her employers that she’s in Haven – and this means that we now have yet another man on this show who is potentially prioritizing his romantic interest over truth or the greater good. Maybe that’s the real curse of Haven. I also suddenly realized this week that Charlotte hadn’t met Audrey or Nathan until now, and that no one had even told her about Audrey, which seems odd. She determines that Audrey’s cells are all degenerating – so I guess in a sense maybe she’s not real – and so, yet again, we’re left with the threat of Audrey ceasing to exist. One part of Charlotte’s research is already helping in a practical way, though: now that she’s found the DNA marker for the Troubles, she can help the police narrow down who might be causing Troubles. And there’s DNA all over the place, as Nathan steals a hair from Charlotte’s hairbrush to have Gloria test her DNA . . . for the Troubles? I missed exactly what they were looking for here. Anyone else catch it? They’re not the only ones up to something secret – at the end of the episode we determine that Charlotte absolutely knew who Audrey was, as she has a whole secret file on Audrey and her other versions through the ages.

The Trouble of the week is a self-esteem Trouble, in which a girl transforms people externally into how they see themselves internally – people fall apart, literally, or revert to scrawny former selves, or become scared children. (Audrey sees herself as a healer, so her illness temporarily goes away when she’s affected.) The girl’s mother is bigoted against the Troubled, possibly because she feels her Troubled husband ruined her life. (They make a point of saying that she’s fine with her daughter dating a girl, which was an interesting note.) Weirdly, it seemed like the Trouble was solved by the mother realizing that Troubles were an innate thing (the DNA discovery helping again!) rather than a moral failing – isn’t it usually the Troubled person herself who has to work through her issues to solve the Trouble? Is it that the daughter’s problem was her mother’s judgment, so the mother’s judgment going away fixed things?

And tying everything together is the case of the missing Aether. Duke wants it for Mara; Dwight wants it for Charlotte. It’s stolen from the safe and Dwight and Nathan suspect Duke, but when they watch security footage Nathan can tell just by looking at Duke that the safe was empty when he got there: “That look on his face, I’ve seen it a lot. He’s furious.” They discover that the Aether was instead taken by someone in the Guard. What are they up to?

Other favorite lines and stray thoughts:

• “We keep beating our head against the supernatural, but what if it’s just science?”
• I realize the person who said it was kind of insane, but I liked this line: “People can’t fight their demons with a crutch. They need a sword.”
• “It all started when I was five. My unicorn got run over by a tractor.”
• “She took my blood, gave me a shot of vitamins, and didn’t discover my secret identity.”
• “Hey pot. This is the kettle.”
• “Even if I’m a cop? Even if I’m her boyfriend?” That’s how doctor/patient confidentiality works, Nathan!

(Image courtesy of Syfy.)