This week’s episode of Haven was called “Countdown,” and while the title literally refers to the Trouble of the week, it’s also appropriate for the general atmosphere of rising tension in Haven as the standoff between the Guard and Duke/Nathan/Audrey continues.
The Trouble of the week belongs to an electronics repairman named Paul, whose Trouble is triggered when he’s traumatized by his store being robbed. It’s some sort of weird, very scary matchmake trouble that kills anyone in the way of Paul asking out a friend he secretly likes romantically. The targeted victim sees a countdown of about 15 minutes show up on every electronics display he looks at, and when the countdown runs out, he dies and the countdown moves on to the next victim. Nathan is targeted, but luckily, Audrey stops the Trouble just in time by convince Paul to get over his fear and ask out his friend.
So, Audrey. By the end of the last episode, Duke had figured out that Lexie was really Audrey, but she was determined to keep Nathan from finding out, to prevent that whole “being forced to kill him” thing. I have to say, in this episode it seemed more obvious to me that “Lexie” was an act, but I have no idea whether it was actually more obvious or whether it just seemed that way now that I knew the truth. Another interesting note: Audrey can remember Lexie’s life, like it was a dream. Anyway, she tries to stay away from Nathan, but of course it doesn’t work and of course he figures it out. Which is good, because for a little while there they thought he was going to die, and it would be awful if he died without a reunion with Audrey. He’s so happy to have her back, though of course unthrilled that Duke knew first and kept the secret from him. Of course, this gives Jordan another chance to try to convince Audrey to kill him – since he’s about to die anyway – but she sticks to her guns and refuses, and manages to save him anyway.
As her original plan isn’t quite working out, Jordan realizes she has another Crocker brother available, and starts seducing Wade to her side with promises of power as well as actual seduction. She tells him that Audrey is in fact the problem, but he could be the solution, but what really gets Wade is when Jordan makes it clear that there’s an Awesome Family Power that Duke has been hiding from him. This plays right into Wade’s lifelong family issues, and he’s soon doing Jordan’s bidding, bugging Nathan’s office so Jordan finds out when Nathan does who “Lexie” really is.
When Vince figures out Jordan’s plan – to activate Wade and then have him kill Audrey, theoretically ending the troubles – he absolutely does not believe it will work, and Jordan takes him captive to keep him from impeding her. Vince ends up telling Jordan (and the audience) some more of his own story in hopes of stopping her: his wife’s family had a terrible Trouble, and Vince activated Simon Crocker (Duke and Wade’s dad) and paid Simon to kill Vince’s father-in-law to keep his wife from getting the Trouble. But the guilt basically ruined his life, and years later he and Lucy killed Simon. “I became the monster,” he tells Jordan.
Jordan and Wade confront Audrey, Nathan, and Duke while they’re trying to talk Paul down, and though Audrey refuses to kill Nathan, it turns out Wade has few such compunctions. After confronting his brother about keeping this secret from him, Wade stabs Paul to activate himself, and it turns out he loooooves the feeling. Oh dear. Now he’s ready to carry out Jordan’s plan, but Vince has gotten through to her after all: she refuses to tell Wade the plan and tries to leave Haven for good. But it’s not that easy: though Vince may have kept Jordan from fully becoming a monster herself, she has certainly created one. Wade stabs Jordan just for the thrill of activating, and when she won’t tell him the plan, he kills her. Whoa.
Nathan and Audrey are happy to be back together, but it’s not all sunshine and butterflies. Nathan can tell something is off, and finally gets Audrey to confess that she’s mad at him because she made the decision to go into the barn and end the Troubles, and he messed it up. He argues that this means that whether she kills him should be his decision, but no. “I love you. That makes this my decision.” And really, I’m with Audrey here. Even if it’s supposedly for a good cause, killing someone is a huge, terrible thing, and I think she should absolutely have the agency to decide whether she’s going to do that. Of course, she’s not, and really, if the Troubles ended, what would the show do? With Jordan gone, will anyone still be pushing for Nathan to die, or can they go back to Trouble management for a while? I’m very curious to see how the show deals with this issue and where it goes from here.
Other thoughts:
- Former Haven M.E. Gloria is back, which seems like it could be significant, especially as she worked closely with Nathan’s father.
- I love that people who have known Duke his whole life are highly dubious when he claims to be a police consultant.
- The repercussions of the extended Troubles are continuing among the citizenry of Haven – there’s now a private school only for “clean” children.
- Before Nathan figures out Lexie is Audrey, he starts questioning Duke about his relationship with Jennifer – because, as it turns out, he’s been counting on Duke’s love for Audrey making him take care of her/Lexie if Nathan does die. “Audrey’s gone. We both lost her. Whoever she is now, I just want to know you’ll take care of her.” Aww.
(Image courtesy of Syfy.)