This week’s Troubles begin at an annual baseball game between the two teams for young boys in Haven. Nathan, who is very into the whole thing, explains the tradition to Audrey, who seems to think it’s all vaguely adorable. When there’s a contentious call, though, it becomes clear that everyone worships the mayor and does his bidding – even when that means rooting for their own player to be called out. Meanwhile, the lights have been buzzing and blinking on and off, and then they start sparking, and eventually the sparks connect to make a giant electrical field. Everyone freaks out and runs, but the umpire gets hit by electricity. They first suspect the umpire himself, and then the mayor, until the mayor is electrocuted by his microphone while giving a press conference. Audrey and Nathan trace a series of electrical issues to a nurse named Lori, who turns out to be the late mayor’s mistress – the electrical stuff happens when her emotions run high. Audrey eventually figures out that the mayor’s widow was manipulating Lori, and used Lori’s involuntary Trouble as cover for her own very deliberate murder of her husband. Nathan manages to “ground” Lori and expels the excess electricity throughout the Rev’s church.
In the aftermath of all of these electrical issues, a guy named Dwight shows up and claims to be Nathan’s father’s “cleaner.” He distracts the town workers who are supposed to deal with things while he takes care of Trouble-related repairs himself. He seems to be sort of amused that Nathan wants to know who he is and what’s going on, and ends up tell him “Your dad didn’t ask a lot of questions.” Heh. Indeed. Dwight ends up praising Nathan for standing up to the Rev the way his father would have, and I hope Dwight sticks around for a while, because he could be good for Nathan.
Meanwhile, when the mayor dies, his Trouble of having everyone worship him is immediately passed down to his son Chris, who doesn’t like it anywhere near as much as his father did. As usual, Audrey is the only one who isn’t affected, and this gets Chris’s attention. There are some definite love/hate sparks between the two and he asks her out at the end of the episode. Nathan comments that Chris is certainly under Audrey’s skin – is he jealous? I guess we’ll find out. Jealous Nathan could be fun.
Duke and Evi have a whole subplot of their own this week. Duke follows the map from the file into the woods and finds Evie there too, convinced he’s on some sort of treasure hunt. At the marked spot, they find a board that says “Rasmussen House” and decide to try to get information from the Teague brothers. They each tell the other that they didn’t make any progress, and then, of course, run into each other in the dark basement of what was the Rasmussen House. An arrow on the floor points to a spot on the wall, and when Duke breaks it, he finds a metal box with the inscription “Amor vincit omnia” (Love conquers all). He’s disappointed that it doesn’t seem like a clue to the mystery tattoo, but Evi points out that it might be valuable, and they take it.
While she’s conning Duke to try to get to the basement first, Evi talks about how much she missed him and wanted to be back with him; she later tries to convince him that this part was true: “Believe it or not, I meant everything I said.” “Yeah, I choose not,” Duke fires back. At the end of the episode, they talk about letting things go, and she’s clearly about to kiss him. He says “It wouldn’t mean anything,” but kisses her anyway – and while they’re making out, he knocks over a lantern that illuminates the hidden word “Crocker” on the box they found. Oooh. Intriguing!
Troubles aside, I thought it was interesting that the love triangle the show set up last season has become somewhat diffuse, with Duke distracted by Evi and Audrey now interested in Chris. I still think Audrey and Nathan are meant to be together, but I loved Chris and wouldn’t mind him sticking around for a while. And the synopsis of the next episode suggests that Duke will have to choose in some way between Audrey and Evi. So, what do you think? How do you want these relationships to work out?
Photo Courtesy of Syfy