Haven‘s “Wild Card,” which aired last week on Syfy and Showcase, was another strong entry in this final season, combining an interesting Trouble of the week with progress both for the mythology and the character arcs.
Before we jump into the Trouble of the week, let’s see where everyone is: Dave Teagues is still having visions and trying to save people. He and his brother are hunting the serial killer, and they find a woman who encountered him, but she has lost time — much like they all did in the cave when Jennifer died, or on the beach with the Colorado Kid. They call in Gloria for some sciency help, and though she says she can’t repair the memory loss (and therefore get information about the killer), she can test for lost time.
Dwight and Charlotte are finally together, but Dwight’s worried about the future in which he will age and Charlotte won’t, so goes to Nathan for dating advice, which is adorable. (They’re technically dating mother and daughter. Don’t think about it too hard.) Nathan tells him that if he feels the need to ask if his relationship could work, he already knows the answer, which — I assume means “No”? Interesting.
While Dwight and Nathan are off policing and talking about their feelings, Audrey and Charlotte condense the aether into a ball. Charlotte’s plan is to make a new barn that’s a cure rather than a weapon for killing all Troubled people. Charlotte tells Audrey that her husband (Audrey’s father) was a great scientist, but his research went too far and he was banished to the void and died there. She also points out that aether is like plutonium for her people, which is an interesting analogy – useful in small doses but also very dangerous.
The Trouble of the week is a nifty one — when tarot reader Lainey draws a card for someone, the Roman numeral corresponding to the card appears like a tattoo on the person’s arm, and the effects of the card — like blindness or a lightning strike — start coming true for them, in some cases killing them immediately. The first victims are regular customers of Lainey’s, but when Nathan, Audrey, Dwight, and Charlotte are affected, Lainey has no memory of who told her to draw cards for them — leading them to realize that the serial killer is using the tarot Trouble to keep them from investigating him.
I’m not entirely sure why Charlotte hadn’t heard about the “Croatoan” connection with the serial killer until now, but at this point she does, and reveals that Croatoan is a terrible monster from the void, who is now in Haven killing people. She says that the new barn will take care of both the Troubles and Croatoan, but she, Audrey, and Dwight are almost completely debilitated by the tarot Trouble. Nathan is less severely affected at first – his card brings him bad luck rather than immediate physical injury — so he’s working with Lainey, but can’t figure out how to solve her Trouble. He does realize that if she draws new cards for people the effects switch, but this only causes more problems. He finally outsmarts the Trouble by asking a new question, one that can only have a good answer. And his question? “With everything we’ve done for Haven over the years, what fate have we earned?” Fascinating. The card Lainey draws is Judgment, which sounds potentially alarming, but she says that it means that as long as your cause is just, you can overcome any obstacle.
One of the previous cards drawn for Charlotte, though, was the Lovers, which is about lovers coming back together — and she realizes that this means her husband. It turns out that her husband wasn’t killed by Croatoan, but rather that the void turned her husband into the monster. She goes off to fight him, leaving her ring with Dwight, and by the time Audrey catches up to her, Charlotte is dying. She tells Audrey that the new barn is the only way, and with her (apparently) dying breath reveals “Croatoan is Mara’s father. Your father.” She then seems to die, and I keep hedging because this is Haven and really, who knows?
Off in North Carolina, after a few false starts and frauds, Duke and Seth hear about a “demon couple” who came to the area 500 years ago and cursed people with “black stuff” (presumably aether), and about a man named Walter who supposedly could help them — but when they go “find” him what they find is actually his grave, with the symbol from Duke’s tattoo on it. Someone (? I honestly couldn’t figure out if this was supposed to be mysterious or if I was just failing to recognize someone) appears and says he’ll give Duke answers. Meanwhile, I have a question: Why is Duke the only person in the outside world who has no trouble remembering Haven? Is it just because he was there after Haven was isolated, or is it more complex than that?
(Image courtesy of Syfy.)