This week’s episode of Haven, “Friend or Faux,” may as well have been called “The Softer Side of Duke.” Or “Let’s Make Audrey Talk About Her Feelings.” But first, the Trouble . . .
A banker named Cornell (played with hilarious soapy sincerity by Cristian de la Fuente) kills a man who discovers that Cornell has been embezzling, and because this is Haven, the psychological break that results from his act leads to literal copies of Cornell appearing around him. Every time he kills one, another appears, and he hides the bodies at the half-built and abandoned Everwood resort outside of town. The copies are after Henry, a teenager who witnessed the original murder – and is now working for Duke. Henry only has time to tell Duke that he saw “something” at Everwood before a copy shows up looking for him; Duke engages the copy in a shootout to give Henry time to escape. For once, Duke does the reasonable thing and calls the police, and Audrey and Nathan hilariously assume that Duke caused the shootout by stealing from the bank.
Audrey and Nathan confront Cornell at his house, but as he’s insisting that he’s innocent, a copy drives up in Cornell’s car, sees the cops, and speeds off. They chase him back to Everwood (where Duke has also appeared, looking for Henry) and get in yet another shootout. When Audrey shoots the copy, another Cornell shows up, of course. Duke finds Henry hiding in a wall, and in the process of convincing him to come out, gives Audrey and Nathan some high praise: “It’s okay. They’re my friends. You can trust them.” Aww. Someone’s growing up! As soon as Henry tells the cops that he witnessed Cornell shooting someone at Everwood, and right then a Cornell appears and starts shooting. Finally one Cornell claims to be the original and explains the situation to Audrey and Nathan, saying “My copies are the worst part of me.”
Duke and Henry get separated from the rest of the group, and Nathan goes to look for them, leaving Audrey with the “real” Cornell – but she quickly figures out he’s a fake because the copies are all obsessed with playing with a coin that the original stole from a friend as a child. The copy tells Audrey his method for impersonating the original: “I just do me, and take out the cool parts.” Audrey distracts him by talking about their similarities (more on that below) and cuffs him to a pipe. As soon as she leaves to find Nathan, though, the copy impales himself so another will appear.
Nathan finds the body of the man that the original Cornell killed, so Cornell hits him on the head with a brick and knocks him out. A copy shows up and starts arguing with the original, eventually convincing him to kill Nathan, but Duke and Audrey find them and start shooting. Audrey offers to let all the Cornells get away if they give her Nathan unharmed, but Duke points out that no one – including him – believes the police when they say that. Audrey eventually convinces the copy that this is his chance to have his own memory – of saving a life – rather than being stuck with Cornell’s memories. The copy kills the original just as he’s about to shoot Audrey, and then flickers out of existence.
Toward the beginning of the episode, Audrey talks about trying the Vegemite that Chris sent her from England to make sure her memory of not liking it is real, and this sets things up for her personal arc this episode. (Nathan, of course, is adorable jealous that Chris is sending her presents, and affects a hilarious Australian accent for a bit.) When she’s trying to get the copies of Cornell to stop shooting everyone, she draws upon what they have in common: Audrey and the copies are both living with other people’s memories. “Do you ever wonder if you’re real?” she asks, and then, “If we have someone else’s memories, then what makes us us?” Later, she sums up what it’s like to live with the knowledge that her memories aren’t really hers: “Every night I have to make myself forget what I’m not, and every day I have to figure out what I am.” Duke asks her whether she meant what she said, or whether she was just trying to get a point of connection with the copies, and she says it was both. Poor Audrey.
Speaking of Duke, he’s acting like a mature adult by the end of this episode, and everyone is shocked. At the beginning, though, he’s himself: when Audrey suspects that he isn’t telling her everything about the shootout at his bar, he gives a big confession: “I am secretly afraid of bananas. I’ve never been windsurfing naked, and deep down in my heart I know that Bigfoot is real.” But he bonds with Henry over the course of the episode, and when he discovers that Henry is living on his own at a young age because he ran away, not because he has no family, Duke calls his father. Henry: “I can’t believe you called my dad.” Duke: “Yeah, it kind of blows my mind too.” That goes for all of us, Duke. He goes on to tell Henry that “sometimes it’s tricky knowing who the good guy is.” Here’s a hint, Duke: Your wife? Not one of the good guys.
And that brings us to Nathan’s subplot. Evie overhears Nathan talking about keeping two sets of reports, so the Troubles are edited out of the official versions. Later, he won’t call for backup in a shootout with a copy because he doesn’t want to give the Rev more ammunition, but it’s too late – someone is breaking into the chief’s office. At the end of the episode, one of the town selectman confronts Nathan with the two sets of files and fires him. Nathan suspects that the Rev is behind it, because the way things operate in Haven has never exactly been a secret. The selectman suggests that Nathan leave Haven altogether, but Nathan of course refuses. Instead, he and Audrey go drinking at Duke’s. When a girl asks Nathan to dance, Audrey tries to intervene (which, um, may or may not be her place, but anyway!) because Nathan is not exactly the dancing type, but Nathan’s all for it this time, which leads Audrey and Duke to conclude that Nathan has a copy. Heh. Duke takes out Evie’s phone to take a picture of Nathan dancing and sees a text from the Rev: “Thanks for the files info. I took care of the rest.”
So, to recap: Nathan has been fired, but Audrey is still on the force, at least for now. And Duke knows Evie is working with the Rev, but will he tell anyone else? Will the police force function without Nathan? Will Nathan possibly manage to stay out of things? Will his dynamic with Audrey be different now that – at least for the moment – they’re technically not coworkers? We’ll find out next week!