The Trouble of the week on Haven’s “The Trouble with the Troubles” is, as the title suggests, a compound one. It starts when William changes Doreen Hanscombe’s Trouble: instead of having harmless reactions like sand in her shoes when she thinks of her trip to Hawaii, a volcano erupts, and it kills a Havenite named Suzy, which in turn triggers her husband’s Trouble. But before the Troubles of the week really kick off, Nathan and Audrey have some adorable coupley moments, starting with Nathan’s “Let’s go home” at the crime scene. You know, together. Aww. They talk about William a bit, but Nathan at least seems to be totally secure about his position in Audrey’s life: “He certainly thinks that there’s something between you two, but he’s wrong.” And then: “There’s a Trouble. In your bed. I think we should check it out.” Nathan Wuornos, ladies and gentlemen, happy and in love and cracking jokes.
Of course, this can’t last. Suzy’s husband Cliff wishes for the Troubles to go away – and it works. Audrey wakes up in an entirely different Haven. The gull is a bait shop, and when a police car stops to see if the lady walking up the road barefoot in her pajamas is okay, it’s third-generation police detective Duke Crocker inside, and he doesn’t know Audrey. This Haven bills itself as The Safest Town in Maine, and its biggest problem is a new wave of vandalism. (And it’s got an awfully big police department for a place with no crime.) The Teagues are still newspapermen, but they’re very different: Their comment upon meeting Audrey (still shoeless) is “Haven has its first homeless person!” and when she goes to them for help, thinking they’ll understand, they tell her that there’s never been any trouble in Haven.
Duke tells Audrey that no one named Nathan Wuornos has ever lived in Haven, and when he takes her to the hospital to get checked out (still thinking she’s insane), it becomes clear why: in this Haven, he’s Dr. Nathan Hansen and has a wife and child. William finds Audrey at the hospital and tells her someone’s Trouble stranded them in this Haven; they’re the only ones who know what’s going on because he, like Audrey, is immune to the Troubles. “Deep down you like the Troubles,” William insists. “Hell, you want the Troubles.”
Duke finds out that there’s someone named Audrey Parker in the FBI but it’s not this Audrey, so he begins to think she’s undercover – until Haven has its first murder in 42 years, when Vince and Dave are found dead with blonde hair at the scene, and Duke arrests Audrey. To her credit, Audrey tells the truth, but understandably enough, Duke thinks she’s lying or crazy. Audrey correctly surmises that William is killing people in an attempt to find the Troubled person causing the alternate Haven, but there’s little she can do from jail. She’s right: The next victim is Doreen Hanscombe, the Troubled person from the beginning of the episode, and she has NOT HER written on her forehead and fiberglass under her nails. Since this Haven isn’t used to murders, Dr. Nathan is acting as ME, and in this version, the animosity between Nathan and Duke is entirely one-sided – and caused by Duke stealing Nathan’s Han Solo lunchbox in third grade. Awww. Dr. Nathan does establish the time of death as when Audrey was in custody, so at least she’s in the clear.
William shows up at the jail claiming to be Audrey’s lawyer and seeking her help, but she insists: “No, I wouldn’t help you. Not in this world or any other.” Of course, he claims this is all for her own good and threatens to kill more people she cares about – and soon enough, Nathan’s wife and daughter go missing. William says he’ll kill Nathan’s family if Audrey doesn’t find the Troubled person, so Audrey leaves Duke a list of potential targets and goes off to investigate. She soon realizes that the vandalism – centered on ads for Suzy’s new real estate business – are the other new thing in Haven, which leads her to Cliff, who readily confesses what he’s done. He thought the wish Trouble was just an old family story, but now that it has actually triggered, he’s afraid that trying to wish for something else would just make things worse.
William takes Nathan and Cliff captive as well, but Duke has started believing Audrey’s story – or at least claiming to – and they track the men through Nathan’s phone. Nathan turns Cliff over to William in return for his family, and Cliff seems to understand and be willing to sacrifice himself, but as soon as Nathan gets his family home, he goes back to try to help Cliff. Aww. When he gets there, William has Cliff tied up and Duke and Audrey at gunpoint – and he shoot Duke, while telling Audrey that the real her made the Troubles, and liked it. Then William shoots and kills Cliff – and Audrey wakes up back in the real Haven, in bed with Nathan.
Audrey tells Duke and Nathan what’s going on – except for the part about her supposedly causing the Troubles with William – and they conclude that they need to kill William to keep him from killing more people to get to Audrey. (Nathan, of course, can’t help but tease Duke about his alternate career: “Nice work, Detective Crocker.” “That hurts me.”) In real Haven, Suzy and Cliff really did die, but everyone else is still alive. The fiberglass under Doreen’s nails in fake Haven leads them to a boat repair place used as a cover to dry out weed that’s empty most of the year, and indeed, William is there. He says he’s going to tell Nathan and Duke everything that he and Audrey have done, because they’re “so connected.” And he’s not joking, at least in one respect: When Nathan shoots William, Audrey gets the wound too. And . . . cliffhanger.
Alternate reality episodes are generally not my favorites, but this one was well done, and definitely gave us some new and important information about the ongoing mythology. Obviously Audrey is not going to die, so the cliffhanger isn’t suspenseful in that way, but I am very curious about where things are going.
(Image courtesy of Syfy.)