Saturday, August 31, 2013

Sell A Contradiction Haven S1E09 As You Were

Previously on Haven: extremely creepy shadows and Trouble were, in fact, extremely creepy! No reference to Jung's shadow nature here nuh-uh no way no how. (I did not just get out of a camp in which I took a mythology and folklore class that leaned on Jungian interpretations what are you talking about.) Eleanor and Audrey had a brief talk about what the Troubles are for and Eleanor knew way more than she was letting on. Audrey talked about the dual Havens which Nathan lives in, over shots of butterflies and Beatrice/Helena. In conclusion, onions! have layers! Oh hi Lucy. Audrey! Has layers! Audrey and Duke are not sleeping together but they have some kind of a bizarre friendship, and so do Audrey and Nathan, complete with the intimation of maybe more someday. Oh, hey, and Nathan can totally feel Audrey's touch, which is I think the clearest early indicator we've got that her physical touch prevents a Troubled person from being susceptible/using their Trouble. The comfort scene with Marian Caldwell in the pilot is obvious in retrospect, but also plausibly simply about emotional release and so on and so forth. Anyway. We have established a nice long chain of events tracing back through most of s1 thus far, reestablished some of the side characters (hi Vince and Dave how very not nice to see you again GIVE US YOUR ANSWERS) and generally established that this will be some kind of a Pivotal Episode, either by character or by plot or both.


Since a lot of the plot (if not all) on Haven is character-driven, we'll go with both. I also want to note that this is the ep that we swore at and tore apart from end to end when Arla-the-skinwalker came on last season, because it was the only Trouble even a little bit similar that we'd ever seen, and as you'll soon remember with us, there is no fucking decent set of conclusions to be drawn from this ep's chameleon. No solid family tree, no nothing. So without further ado, I present to you a confused and mildly annoyed Audrey and a totally content Duke on a boat! He's dragged her out of bed early on a Saturday morning to get on a boat and see something and meditate or, you know, sleep standing up on deck. I wouldn't put either past Duke. He also hasn't told her anything about where they're going or why, which speaks either to his ability to con Audrey or her willingness to trust him; judging by his calm demeanor I'm guessing more the latter, because most of the cons I can think of would involve Duke faking a case or knowledge. Audrey, sweetie, you're here, therefore it has to do with the Troubles. Not that Duke knows that. Snark about Buddhism aside, we're headed to Carpenter's Knot which is an island with a hotel and resort that's usually closed off, the current owner's a bit of a hermit, we have aaaall the makings for classic locked-room horror/mystery! Oh YAY. Duke goes on to tell her little bits and pieces of the old stories about Carpenter's Knot and Audrey immediately calls him on "you hear?" So apparently he did lie a little to get her to come out, he saw something she needed to see. Still, the degree to which he's not fussed about this whole thing tells us, despite the horror setup and the mists and the everything, that Duke's not planning anything malicious. Remember how ep before last he proved himself the sort of person who could throw a surprise birthday party? Well, as they wander up from the boat and into the (admittedly creepy) old hotel... it's happening again!


Duke may count himself very lucky that Audrey's reflexes don't cause her to go for her gun when startled, or at least not to the degree where she pulls it out. I actually kind of think in this case the classic feminine flail is an attempt to keep her hand away from the gun that would be her first instinct. Yes, Duke, you are so going to pay for that later, though not in the way Audrey would prefer. And that's a very fond look he has for her when he drops the party hat on her head. (Which we never quite see her take off, but there's a fraction of a second where that's plausible so I'll ignore the possible mis-set.) Speaking of going for her gun, Duke you know nothing about dealing with women who prefer to remain at least a little stoic, do you. Stop calling attention to the tears and let her deal. Dork. But, yes, as she says, nobody's ever thrown her a birthday party before. I wonder if they did this for Lucy and Sarah. Especially Lucy, once they learned that love powers AudSarLu. I mean, we get a longish rambling spiel from Audrey about how awesome this is and how little she was expecting it, with pointed interjection from Vince about all she's already done for Haven. Heh. Though, note that the Carrs are up front and Vince is kind of looming in back and, actually, if Julia and Vince's disappearing tattoos are due to blood relation what we have here is a nice little family tableau. Oh you fuckers. Meanwhile Dave's off to the side and Garland is way in the back and past Dave, now it's time for introductions to Julia whose mother, for all that she may want to help Audrey and deal with the Troubles, only pays enough attention to her daughter to know "some African country with some aid relief organization." Eleanor. I like you a lot a lot of the time, but as a mother you kinda suck. Julia knows this, and seems to have come to at best partial peace with it, by the sharp look and sharp tone, but hey look it's margarita mix! And a new female friend for Audrey thank god. I do appreciate that she usually has one. I would appreciate it more if it didn't read, as we've mentioned before [link]at some length[/link] like a list of Henry VIII's wives. Speaking of marrying people, Duke takes this opportunity to establish his association with Julia, partly I think to give both women a sense of where they stand and partly because he's an obnoxious shit who likes to pull girls' pigtails. But it does establish Audrey as safe to give Duke shit around, for Julia, and for Audrey it establishes some of their history without getting into the gory details of what happened when Julia left, or what happened when Duke did something she couldn't countenance. Because you know it was one of those right off the bat.


And now Nathan, the final player in this little drama, with the presents! Audrey teases him gently about which one he got her, and he has a standard awkward-but-so-adorable routine there. Then onto more serious topics, he's really okay after Jess? He's okay enough to crack jokes about drinking Jack from the bottle and listening to Patsy Cline! Which isn't as okay as they might like, he's still got pretty defensive body language and I'd bet at most half of that is on account of being around a whole bunch of people most of whom know more about Haven and its secrets than he does, but he's working back toward it. Probably he thought coming to a surprise party for Audrey would help him reacclimate to life without a girlfriend, or something! There's a second there where it looks like he might be about to tell her that he can feel her touch, or she might be about to confront him about his joking and dodging because even that's more talking about his feelings than Nathan usually engages in, but this is a lousy choice of venue for that discussion, as old Mr. Carpenter-who-isn't proceeds to demonstrate! Hello creepy chameleon. WHERE DID YOU COME FROM WHAT IS YOUR FAMILY LINE WERE YOU RELATED TO ARLA'S FAMILY FROM WAY BACK? 'cause I could sort of see those Troubles intersecting back like the Novellis and Keegans and then branching off. Sort of like an evolutionary fork in the road, if you will. Argh give to Zim all your data.



Alas, there will not be data. There will instead be an entrance, as Carpenter puts it, and I swear to god there's something in Vince's expression that says he knows. Dave's is a little more circumspect, but definitely Vince. Something... sharp and a little wary. We know Eleanor knows more than she's telling, but I think she mostly suspects, along with Garland, who has to suspect. This is all a little too timely. Eleanor breaks the obvious tension following not!Vaughn's little speech by coming up and hugging him like an old friend, so either she knew Vaughn previously or she knew the chameleon or maybe both, and has made her peace with it over the years. Given the fact that she gets killed in this ep, I'm betting more on the first than the last two, but considering the chameleon also tries to kill Audrey I can see where Eleanor would have gotten vicious and dangerous to the chameleon. It also seems likely that Eleanor and original-flavor Vaughn had a thing, whether ever consummated or not we don't know, but they're rather flirty and touchy for the few seconds we see them interact. Not!Vaughn is, as we would expect, absolutely fascinated to be introduced to Audrey and yes, of course he knew Lucy, he's Troubled. Sadly, we can't blame the lousy weather on him, it's a narrative convenience but also a good excuse for him to run away while Audrey makes grabby hands after him. Yeah, we know that feeling. EXPLAIN YOURSELF, and everything. An old friend, my ass. He's also lying through his teeth about his wife being dead, and I'm sure Eleanor knew that, but what we don't know is why!


So, why are you lying about your wife being dead, fucking chameleon? We'll have a cryptic conversation in a bedroom about that! What it boils down to, with the knowledge we have these days, is that the chameleon's Trouble has kicked in either just because the Troubles are back or because it's gotten old and its control is lacking. Which the return of the Troubles could have triggered, but with such an isolated existence I don't know what else to blame for triggering his Trouble. At any rate, Olivia Carpenter is being sent away, for good though neither of them is admitting to that in any way save the last lingering look she gives him in the hall. Because once not!Vaughn picks up a new body, he'll pick up the new personality to go along with it, unlike Arla's Trouble which requires some acting ability to pull off. New memories, too. (Now I'm trying to picture the headache Audrey would have given the chameleon. And giggling. You fucking moron.) Basically, her husband (second husband, of a sort) is about to die, and she's going to have to grieve that somewhere else because she wants him to survive in some form or fashion. I... guess that works? I mean, I understand the survival instinct is very strong for us and our loved ones, but I also understand why not!Vaughn is sending her away, because that will not be her husband anymore. He closes the door, we get some nicely creepy face-rippling to demonstrate the increasing lack of control along with some Troubled music, and roll credits.


When we come back, Eleanor's response to bad news of any kind is to organize other people! Yeah, there's a reason she a) works in emergency services and b) usually doesn't deal with other people. Although c) it's interesting that until Julia steps in to confront her mother - which is not something children are very good at doing with their parents, as a general rule, and her hesitation indicates that she may have run off to get some distance and individuation - nobody seems inclined to say hey, wait a sec to Eleanor. That says something about the balance of power and perhaps Eleanor's willingness to use the men's past experiences with Lucy (and Sarah) to get them to follow a strong woman's lead. And it makes me wonder just what Eleanor's status in the pecking order was prior to Lucy showing up, and how that changed during/after the last round of Troubles. Julia's thrown a wrench into that, and it's particularly interesting that they have this in a mother-daughter setting, because often we'd have the father-son issues being thrown around this heavily. And indeed we will get some of that with Garland and Nathan later this ep, but we start off with the women, establishing that Julia doesn't want to be bossed around and isn't afraid (probably because she's seen her mother do this, frankly) to use the guys as leverage. It also rapidly establishes the Carrs as a not particularly functional family. At any rate, everyone allows as how they'd rather do things their own way - surprise, surprise, a roomful of strong personalities? say it ain't so! - and off we go to get rooms. The most notable about this is the banter between Vince and Dave, which establishes Dave as the older of the pair. I want to know by how much, but (as usual) nobody's talking. (In the novella, Vince was the older, I think by approximately 5 years, but they were also not related, so good luck finding anything useful there.) Dave claims to also be faster, which I suppose is sort of accurate given that he got the drop on Vince in s3. Vince is scarier, though. At least on first and second glances.


Oh, hey, that father-son thing I mentioned, here comes the start of it! Garland is trying his level best to be kind to Nathan, in his own stoic and awkward way, in the aftermath of his breakup with Jess. It's kind of adorable, but it clearly confuses Nathan, who mostly wants to be left alone. To wallow, possibly. Or just to re-combobulate himself. I would make weird faces at Garland too, if he blew a party favor at me. Because what the fuck, Garland. Despite that, they are in similar colors, making them more or less on the same side even if they don't understand each other. In conclusion, everyone's being a bit rattled around in who they are and how they relate to each other, which is great setup for the chameleon to come in and rattle things some more! Garland takes Nathan's bags on up while Audrey and Duke discuss how interestingly awkward that was. Big bucket doesn't even begin to cover it, Audrey. Duke has something awkward too, and Audrey you should really be paying attention oh my god. Though given the not-quite-sexual tension lingering between them, I can see why she puts him off. Plus that whole single-minded focus on learning everything she can about her "mother." Duke, would you stop saying things about "catching up with" someone she "just met"? Because it's making my head explode. Bad writers. No biscuit. And now her brain begins to catch up with her mouth, only not quite, because teasing Duke about his awkward gift is the way to get him to shut down and walk away. Dammit, Audrey.


Sigh. We get a quick pan outside of the grounds, yes, it's dark and stormy and ominous. So is the big Shining-esque front hall, now empty of people. Another pan over to a bathroom that looks rather like a prison from that wide dutch angle and the dark lighting, just to emphasize that we are all stuck here for the episode. Not that the characters know it yet, but they've been doing everything in their power to telegraph the locked room mystery since we got onto the island. Oh hello, not!Vaughn, walking into Nathan's room after confirming he's not there and taking his gun. THAT'S not worrying or anything. So now the chameleon is armed, we go back to the well-lit main room (half of which still has its furniture draped in sheets for the symbolism of everyone's hiding something, ow my toes) and to Eleanor asking if anyone's seen Audrey. Which right there should be our tipoff! So, if we're paying attention, now we know something's happened to Audrey. Eleanor starts giving orders again, Vince and Dave need to stop dressing Audrey up like their personal doll that is so skeevy I cannot even you two, and hey, look, it's Audrey! With an echo of not!Vaughn's opening lines, as a matter of fact, though I have to admit that's one of the more subtle echos that we only catch on multiple viewings. Also, there's no way that Audrey calls Eleanor Dr. Carr, though the lack of actual knowledge about the sea is marginally believable. Marginally. Come on, chameleon, I know you can do better than that! And then Julia screams, and the plot begins to congeal!


Note that the Teagues are the last ones out of the room and our trusty three the first, followed swiftly by Garland hollering for everyone to get back. From the dutch angle it's hard to say for sure if he actually saw what was on the floor or if he's just acting as da Chief, but I will admit that his willingness to take on the dangerous and dirty jobs is one of his better traits. The rest of this scene is shot so that we're given to understand Garland has some history with, if not this person then this Trouble, and Eleanor calls it molt which to me says she knows exactly what the fuck is going on even if she's not quite ready to admit it. The oldsters look on, Eleanor notably with a protective hand on her daughter's shoulder (and not just any shoulder, that's the one with the disappearing Guard tattoo) while the new generation tries to piece together what the fuck is happening. Also, you see that skin on the floor? You see why we had so many issues last season with the swearing and the what the fuck? Yeaaaaah. Especially after this, I would have expected a new chameleon to be trying to make itself into Audrey, because really, why wouldn't you. Dramatic lighting of the cigarette aside, and Nathan's protesting here in his guise of cop more than son, but Garland is, I think, responding to him as a father with that apology. I'm not even sure what he's protesting other than, maybe, bringing everyone in on this as though it's a case normal people should be aware of. Nathan, honey, if that's your protest, stop worrying. Garland spews some authoritative crap about how this works, which is to say that Vaughn Carpenter was a chameleon (monster, shapeshifter, Garland your biases are showing) and therefore one of the people in this room is a chameleon and their original form is dead. The way they're shooting this, Garland's obviously supposed to be the erratic red herring who's so emotional with this being brought up from his past that we're not sure if he's lying. And then the camera ends on Audrey, which is appropriate on multiple levels, both being that she's not quite herself right now and being that she'll eventually be the salvation of the Troubles. In some form, anyway.


With that dire pronouncement out of the way, up to the main living room they go again, accompanied by all the requisite thunder-and-lightning shots you can shake a stick at. It's storytime, children! Garland was a rookie, just back from 'Nam, um. That kind of screws with our timeline, since the war ended officially in '75, the next round of Troubles surged around '83, and we're not sure how long after the war Garland would have been still stationed nor how soon before AudSarLu's arrival the Troubles actually begin. He tells us a story about a chameleon who killed six people, ending with his partner, who he then killed in that shape. Ouch. Also, that sounds a lot more like Arla's style than what we know of Vaughn Carpenter, though admittedly we don't see much in the way of not!Vaughn's behavior once its Trouble is activated. Not!Audrey repeats the fact that Garland shot his own partner in tones of "oh I am in the shitter now," which nobody really picks up on. I would also lay you dollars to donuts that if Garland's Trouble wasn't already active from Vietnam, this story he's telling us is when it did emerge. Poor, poor bastard. Especially since the way he talks about it, this is seriously his worst nightmare. Oh Garland honey. Nathan asks the obvious question, how do they stop it from taking someone else, well, they all stay in earshot. Because it needs some kind of time or something to absorb the personality, soul, what-have-you of its victims. Which is not actually like Arla's Trouble, but is awfully similar inasmuch as Arla needed time, too, to fake the personality of the people she was pretending to be. At any rate, Garland is convinced that the chameleon is here to kill whoever it can and continue to hop bodies, possibly until the Troubles end and it settles into a new body, not that anyone phrases it like that. Not!Audrey's tells here are, for the record, obvious in hindsight but potentially attributable to a sudden new threat that she doesn't feel prepared to handle, so nicely done bit of acting there. What it really is, of course, is the chameleon using its knowledge base to try and figure a way out of this situation before anyone identifies the imposter. Plus hiding the knowledge that Audrey's not really dead because, hello, immune to the Troubles. Or in this case, largely so. I would also bet you a hat that I will eat that the chameleon mostly picked up on the implanted Audrey Parker personality and memories, and has NO idea what to do with the gradually increasing identity shift Audrey's undergoing.



One ad break and crash of thunder and waves later, Duke would like to bring up an excellent point, that they just happen to accidentally walk into the chameleon's lair now, of all times? Really? Yeah, I wouldn't be buying that either. Nathan thinks Duke has a point, too! That was an interesting little twitch. Vince, for once, will speak up and offer some information! Nobody fall over of shock. Oh, okay, he's ratting out his brother, that's more like normal. Though honestly it's not properly Dave's fault, either. (Incidentally, Kitty pointed out how they play Vince the intellectual and Dave the emotional back in Fur? Yeah, it's still true. Vince weighs the pros and cons of divulging information while Dave gets righteously indignant over the notion that he might have done this intentionally and looks for someone else to place the blame on.) I get the impression that Lucy cut the Teagues out of a lot of her work last round, so even if they knew Lucy had done something for the chameleon, they might not know under what circumstances that happened, how dangerous the chameleon was, so on and so forth. Lucy Ripley in general seems to have been much more suspicious of others than either Audrey or Sarah, which is in and of itself interesting and I really hope we get some background to explain why, this next season. (Along with that hair color change and everything. ARGH.) Anyway, Dave admits as to how not!Vaughn called him up and wanted them - presumably the Teagues? - to come over for a visit. We all know exactly what not!Vaughn knew when he talked about the Troubles in town and the new FBI agent, and those in the know on what Audrey is also know what he means. Garland, yes, that includes you, with your folded arms and braced stance. No, you don't get to blame Eleanor for calling and asking for a place to throw Audrey a party, Dave. Every so often shit like this really does happen and it's nobody's fault but the chameleon's, guys. Okay, fine, we descend into a bit of anarchy in the room, Julia looks like she's siding with her mother, Garland looks like he wants everyone to shut the fuck up so he can work out the details of how the chameleon lured them in, Nathan wants to be anywhere that's not here. And not!Audrey will proceed to treat them all like schoolchildren (much to Garland's amusement), which does have the benefit of getting them to shut up for long enough that Nathan can chip in.


No, phone calls won't work, cell service is pretty spotty off the mainland and of course Duke knows these things. Because one of the things a smuggler knows is what equipment he needs to be able to contact the outside world. Hell, one of the things anyone in shipping knows. Garland checked the landline, Julia has paranoia to offer, honey that's not helpful and you get the Captain Obvious hat for the scene. Not!Audrey's nervous tic of hands drumming on the back of Julia's chair is definitely not one that we see out of real!Audrey often or ever, it's something that would make the person sitting in the chair uncomfortable and in these circumstances a properly trained FBI agent wouldn't be doing that. Yeah, no boat for you, Eleanor, don't be silly. Though it does speak to how close she and Vaughn were at some point that she's having a hard time making the switch. Now Duke and Garland will get into a little standoff over the boathouse! Boys, put it away or I'll smack you with rulers. Standard locked room mystery issue is standard: nobody should be allowed to go to the mainland, but by the same token Garland might be the chameleon so they can't just follow along like lambs to the slaughter. Julia's clearly thinking all of this over, probably using a lot of the skills that being in MSF taught her, and I love that they don't make a big thing of this. This is just, who Julia is! Not!Audrey interrupts the dick-measuring with some well-placed ridicule and logic, and now Julia will put in her two cents about, well, how do we know Audrey's not the thingamabob? And isn't she armed? Because she's a cop? Also because I'm sure Julia knows the stance and confidence of a person who is armed. There's a hilarious look from Vince on the first boy Audrey kissed that's both hilarious and creepy in retrospect dear lord you two. Dave looks more intrigued than concerned or wibbly over it, and as not!Audrey goes down the list, yes, this would all be very convincing, as Nathan points out, if they knew any of this about her beforehand. Which they don't. Because Audrey doesn't let people get that close, nor, as she progresses through the Troubles, do her old memories retain such a hold on her. Which lends some credence to the notion that if the chameleon picked up anything via its Trouble (as opposed to via questioning), it was the implanted set of memories and personality. I will laugh quietly over the Justin Timberlake and Prudence and confirmation bits, because aww, Audrey.


Well, given that nobody knows these things, she will have to disarm. She'll even go a long ways toward buying their trust, well done there chameleon, by pulling out the backup piece from the thigh holster. Because Audrey Parker, FBI agent, is a damn sight more paranoid than either Nathan or Garland, as we discover when Duke points out the other cops might be carrying. No, they're not. Nathan sure isn't anymore, since the chameleon took his gun! Which leaves not!Audrey with a third weapon hiding somewhere, we'll have to wait and find out where, though. Also, note that the guns and clips go to the Teagues and the Carrs? With the disappearing tattoo issue between Vince and Julia, I am now really suspicious that Eleanor was deliberately keeping all the weapons in the family. Maybe there's some kind of Trouble they have that allows them to tell if a family member isn't themselves. Maybe it's just long experience, or the awareness that Vince and Dave haven't been out of each other's sight. (Also, what about the bullet in the chamber? Guys? Guys? Basic gun safety? Sigh.) Anyway, Nathan says his service weapon's in his bag and Garland didn't even come with that much because it's a party! So he says. I don't believe him, but he's putting on a good show. I mean, there's less paranoid than the FBI agent and there's insufficiently paranoid to deal with the Troubles. Not!Audrey should be looking at Duke more than she is, on account of smuggler and have you SEEN that boat? Well, no, this one hasn't. So, to the boathouse it is, to find out what's there and take stock of their supplies! Because that, at least, is logical and intelligent.


Storm! Thunder! Lightning! Umbrellas which probably make them feel like they might have stayed drier than the alternative than doing any actual good. I also take some issue with not!Audrey not going up to change into more practical clothes for the weather; that's either the chameleon showing through or the writers/wardrobe wanting to keep not!Audrey in un-Audrey-ish clothes for the whole episode. Maybe both! Heh, and now not!Audrey will fumble at the ties on the tarp because no really she doesn't know what she's doing. It's an awkward fumble, as if she forgot she wasn't supposed to know what she was doing until a second after she started or something, and then the thanks for the backup at the hotel makes Nathan even more suspicious! So he tosses her a test in the form of a random one-word answer to her previous question when he's sure she was really Audrey. Okay, that's not a bad idea, and the way the confusion clears on the explanation could just be because these two don't quite pass the broccoli test, but our Audrey would be waiting with that "oh stop being taciturn" expression, not the "what the fuck you talking about, Holmes" one not!Audrey has on here. It's a subtle difference, but noticeable if you're looking for it. Sadly, we don't get to get further into it - though again, this does indicate that anything that's unique to AudSarLu herself was protected from the chameleon's memory-thieving abilities. Which means it's relying on prior knowledge for the past generations and Nathan and Duke will leave it confused. But the chameleon's good at conning people, it has to be, so it can work with, Nathan and Audrey are friends and partners. Alas, we don't get to further this right now, because Garland comes tromping in with an old oil lantern which will work in lieu of electricity. Because of course the electricity's going to go out at some point. I'm just glad our protags are allowed to be smart enough to prepare for that eventuality. Well, they have a boat, too!


While they discuss now-what, the creepy twins will discuss who they'd take in the event of being a chameleon in need of a new body. Garland and Nathan are their first choices, as the older one in authority who nobody listens to and Vince you have no room to talk about lack of social skills. Mutter grumble, okay, they'd pick Nathan because he's quiet but sensible and people listen to him. Plus, though they say this half by implication, Nathan's young. And if you're going to potentially be stuck in anyone's body for awhile, you want a young man, not Vince or Dave, they're old farts. Ahem. There's a nice moment of wary shock of we're-all-knowledgeable-here and I very much hope that we're right about them having some kind of a homing-beacon Trouble for each other, and that the frozen in surprise faces were them testing it out to be extra sure. Or something. Also, their bickering indicates that they do think the other one's been out of their sight for long enough that the chameleon could have taken them, which is. Interesting, but not probative of anything at all. Eleanor interrupts the proceedings with tea and yes, they could use it. This level of paranoia isn't good for your old nerves, boys. It also gives Julia a great opportunity to snag the cheese knife, which Eleanor catches her at, and that's not at all a rhetorical question about why would she lie about it, only we're pretending that didn't happen. I think, actually, that this is one of Eleanor's tests of her daughter, and Julia passes, which in turns means Eleanor passes, which means (we hope) that neither of them is the chameleon. I do like that all these little tests are subtle and rely on context we can only infer, and may be futile but they make everyone feel a little better. Anyway, I wouldn't chalk up Julia taking the knife as a sign of being the chameleon, though she's also being pointed up as a massive red herring as the newcomer to the audience, with some divisive family history and some kind of war zone experience. And the one to discover the molt. Which is just a few too many signs, for this show, pointing at one person.


Down in the boathouse, Nathan and Audrey are talking over their options and Garland will proceed to take those options away. By shooting the dinghy. Garland, I understand your logic here, but you really are an ass. Not!Audrey is, of course, the one most pissed about this turn of events, though I have to say actual Audrey would be most vocally pissed, too. Anyway, even if they had a boat, who the fuck would want to try and pilot it in this weather? NOT ME. Which is something nobody is pointing out, but I will! Loudly. Anyway, ultimatum time again, either they kill the chameleon here or it kills them, gee, Garland, do you have a touch of PTSD there? Just a little? Sigh. Real!Audrey would be asking all kinds of questions by now about how this thing works, what exactly it needs to achieve a switch in personality/memory, what its motivations seem to be, generally kicking Garland to stop being such a murderous target-fixated fucker and getting proper data out of him. Not!Audrey just wants to survive. I would bet you a lot that's another of the things that tips Nathan off, in the end.


Garland will now proceed to lie his ass off to the assembly in the living room. He's doing a decent job of it, too, except Duke at the least can read the glances between Nathan and not!Audrey and realize that something else happened down at the boathouse. Yeaaaah. Also, Duke being Duke, he tromped up to the attic to explore. Almost certainly by himself, since nobody pipes up to say they went with him, but keeping his mouth shut about that would be the sort of contrary Duke thing to do. More importantly, he found a radio, which he's attempting to fix in front of everyone! This ep has a really heavy emphasis on doing things in front of people which are then lied about, covered up, or not at all what they seem in the first place, much to absolutely nobody's surprise. Anyway, given that they have no way out and no working communication device - yet - they might as well search for the body of whoever the chameleon killed. That's an excellent idea, and here not!Audrey is looking around nervously and not contributing to the conversation. Or the team-splitting. Also not like her, though da Chief is being extra overbearing tonight for obvious reasons of trauma. Nathan notices! Right before he's shuffled off with the group of civilians, or pretending-very-hard-to-be-civilians. Note that, once again, it's Julia who's the moving force behind, what else can we do, how can we work the problem.


The first words out of Audrey's mouth with Garland in a random bedroom as they tap the walls are about her orphanage. Which is believably Audrey, but also not something she's been quite as fixated on in recent episodes, as she uncovers bits and pieces about Lucy and begins to feel an obvious connection with the town. It's also not something we'd expect Audrey to give to the Chief, much more something she'd give Nathan. So it rings wrong on several different levels while also being plausible if we assume she's shaken. She's also way talkier than we'd usually expect her to be, and about on a level with the blunt and heavy-handed approach she started with back at the beginning of the season, with Nathan and Garland and their volumes of issues. No, not!Audrey, Garland doesn't want to talk about this shit. Not with you or anyone. Though it's a nice move from the chameleon in an attempt to bond with the person most focused on killing it. A dark place? That's a really lousy phrasing picked out on too-little data, not!Audrey. No, what this scene tells us is more about Garland than about the chameleon. Apparently he feels that he's not the person Nathan should be talking to about anything bad in his life, he's not a friend, friendship is a burden. Garland, honey, you have no fucking idea how other people tick or what to give them, you're talking like Nathan's a soldier without ever saying the words, and right now you're really pissing me off. The dumbwaiter fails to behead either of them, he manages to toss out a compliment, the world doesn't end, I still don't know what Garland's damage is. Though he sort of hints around the edges of it with a whole world of Troubles he's going to have to fix, which I think implies that either Garland doesn't really know what AudSarLu does for the town as a construct or that there's a lot of fixing up to be had even after she goes back into the barn. Neither would exactly surprise me. Plus, of course, there's the fact that it gets worse before it gets better, which we do already know. And Garland seems convinced that he's going to end up dead or otherwise gone before the Troubles end this time, I'd facepalm at his inability to ask anyone for help except that's practically hard-wired into the idiot. SO. He's trying to make Nathan like and not-like himself at the same time, I'm not sure what Garland sees as his faults with the last round of Troubles but it seems likely that he sees some of the same in Nathan.


And that's all he intends to say on the subject, so let's go check out the subject and the Carrs! Eleanor and Nathan are checking under the dust covers while Julia... mopes? Keeps watch? That's an awfully defensive, withdrawn stance for keeping watch. I'm gonna go with moping. So's Nathan, who comes to check on her, and she seems to have made her peace with some kinds of death, but not this particular kind. I don't blame her. Especially, as the scene goes on, it turns out that Eleanor convinced Julia to come back for some reason or another, which bears a resemblance to Simon Crocker and Duke that I don't really want to think about too hard. I really wish we'd gotten more of an explanation for Eleanor and Julia's tension (I've got a lampshade for her comment about the town being godforsaken and why do awful things happen here, thanks, guys), because while the overall pattern is apparent, the details matter. Like they always do in Haven. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Eleanor encouraged Julia to find out who she was outside of Haven and trusted that she'd always come home when the Troubles started up again, which turns out to have been less of a willing homecoming than a ceding to her mother's wishes. Or maybe Julia hoped that when she came home she'd be treated as an adult rather than a child, and in that she is obviously bitterly disappointed. Sorry, Julia, it's not you, it's everyone Eleanor treats that way. She just takes more liberties with her daughter. No, everything is not okay, Nathan would like to file a complaint about dealing with familial tension when he's got more than enough of his own to deal with. That is a very reluctant for-form's-sake hug that Julia's giving, and Eleanor, your daughter would be more willing not to fight you if you would share some goddamn information. Oy vey. But Julia's not willing to gripe about it to her mother's face, seeking comfort from a woman about her age who might have some sympathy. Well, um. Not!Audrey mostly has memories of wanting her real mother, so there's just an awkward smile and shrug forthcoming.


At any rate, teams are switched, the younger generation goes poking around by themselves and Julia comments as to how she lost it in there, wanted to run away and come back full of knowledge and wisdom. Oh honey. I think most of us know the feeling, and she's just now finding out that you can't go home again, but if you do, particularly in a small town, there are people who won't know how to see - let alone admit - that you've grown up. Or who might refuse to. I think in Eleanor's case it's not so much willful ignorance as it is believing that she's the only competent person ever to be born (which is something I also sympathize with), but it's having a similar effect on their relationship. Not!Audrey tries to point out that staying away means you miss out on a lot of things, which is certainly true but, frankly, doesn't sound at all like our Audrey, who would listen to the words that weren't being spoken as much as the things Julia's saying and come up with a way to explain essentially what I just did. It feels harsher and more confining than our Audrey tends to be. But look, a distraction! There's no body in the desk drawer, but there are newspaper clippings, which are their own form of useful. Whatever Julia's issues with her mother, she has inherited the typical knowledge-is-power attitude of most Havenites. I have a second of nearly having a heart attack over FBI Agent blah-de-blah, because the clipping looks potentially old enough to be from Lucy's era, but no, that's Audrey with the "rabies" issue from Fur and not!Vaughn was spying on her. Of course. Dammit, that would have been really awesome data, but alas. The paper from 1983 is dated to May 12, which is, I believe, shortly before James Cogan's murder. Death. Whatever the hell happened to him. We will all facepalm and drink over the three days later, could you get more Messianic or Rule of Three about it? No? Oh good then. They piece together what must have happened, though who the fuck knows right now how much of a hand Lucy had in it. Not!Audrey goes somewhat out of her way to a) not contribute to the uncovering of the story, which is all Nathan and Julia and b) to humanize the chameleon's life and choices and how much the Troubles coming back would have sucked. Which, sorry, but Audrey as things currently stand doesn't actually know how the Troubles coming back have affected people. I can practically see Nathan's wheels turning. But the chameleon recovers some degree of poise and questions what the fuck this all has to do with Audrey.


Say, let's ask Vince! Because that gets us all kinds of places all the time! Vince claims to have had no idea about the chameleon and Vaughn the original, and for once I half believe him. He might not have had any concrete evidence, but a) the Herald is a bastion of coverups in the town and b) he damn well suspected. Again, however, if our theory that Lucy kept the Teagues at arm's length last round is true, he might only have suspected, for a change. He also delivers a brief lecture on how the chameleon's still a person, and is afflicted just like all the other Troubled Audrey's seen in Haven, and shouldn't be considered a monster without further evidence. Like, say, a bunch of bodies? Would that count as evidence? I'm still not completely sold on the chameleon that took Vaughn Carpenter being the same as the one who killed six people, particularly since Garland claims he killed that one for taking the shape of his partner. We have, in short, no fucking clue where the truth lies here. Or for that matter, who Garland's partner even was. For all we know, and with some truly wild-ass speculation thrown in, his partner could have been James Cogan and never a chameleon at all. Plus everyone's memories are suspect, between the trauma and the apparent amnesia surrounding the events of the last round of Troubles. Rarrgh all your murderboards give to Zim. Not!Audrey has the same fucking reaction to "hey wait you knew Lucy?" Yes. Yes he did. And Sarah. And as usual, further interrogation of a Teagues brother will have to wait because Duke and Nathan are engaging in raised voices and the high likelihood of violence.



Leaving Duke alone resulted in him doing a little investigative work of his own! Oops. Because now he knows about the boat being shot out, and he went and searched Nathan's bag and there's no gun. If Duke were a little less on edge he'd know that anyone could have taken that gun at any time, but he's very on edge and he has an ax and now everyone else would like to start up with the shouting and recriminations again. Just in case we weren't sure people were still scared shitless and inclined to do stupid things without warning. I'm not sure how much of this series of accusations Garland hears, since he seems to have come in last, but if he heard the bit about the boat being shot out he's sacrificing Nathan's credibility on his own closed-mouthedness. Sadly, this is in character for both Garland and the chameleon, so on an initial watch that plus the indeterminate timing really didn't tell us much. (Plus, frankly, we knew Garland was going to have to die or be otherwise removed from the plot sometime in the first season, because he was such an obstructionary pseudo-mentor figure. It just happened later than this ep.) Not!Audrey, taking on the leadership role she's now realized everyone expects of her, gets people to shut the fuck up again. And a brilliant solution presents itself! Since everyone seems certain she's not the chameleon (ha. ha. ha.), then they can cross-check against what people brought as gifts to the party. It's not a solid solution, because if the chameleon does actually get all the memories and personality it would therefore know all these things, but if it needs time to process through everything then it might not be up to the present. Or, y'know, some kind of logic like that. Basically, they're working on the assumption that they might get false negatives but not false positives. That's not an awful theory! Garland points out that Dave is still under suspicion because Audrey's wearing/holding his presents, with some justification. (And again: ew, Dave.) Eleanor got Audrey some penguin earrings to which I can only say OH YOU FUCKERS in retrospect of s3, with the woman whose death led them to Arla's dumping ground having very similar penguin earrings. Everyone chug. Vince got Audrey a copy of Misery Unchained, a first edition signed shortly before the author got his foot chopped off. I will be over here facepalming and giggling at the King reference. Julia apparently has a thing for horror novels? Heh. And now we come to the third person, Nathan, and we know it has to be different because he's third, he got her a blue cashmere sweater which... turns out to be a blue scarf. Possibly cashmere, more likely silk. Well, the boys still have their whole attempting to kill each other with animosity thing going on, but that's not really proof to Duke anymore. Fortunately for him, Garland knocks Nathan out before Nathan can bleed on him. (And wouldn't THAT have been fun.) And somewhat notable, too, that Garland does go for the knockout rather than the kill, indicating both softer feelings for his son and probably that he's not as sure as all that about the conclusion reached by the mistaken present. To her credit, not!Audrey does a very good job of looking surprised at this, because no, nobody was expecting that. Probably the chameleon expected everyone to check out, people to get huffy with her again or possibly people to go, welp, that doesn't answer anything, back to looking for a body!


Nathan's tied up and not that unconscious, which could be that Garland didn't hit him very hard or could be his Trouble's fringe benefits kicking in. Such as they are. Not!Audrey gets the idiots to disarm again before the room, as she so calmly puts it, goes Lord of the Flies on their asses. His explanation is that he had Jess do the birthday present shopping and, yeah, that's a perfectly logical explanation right there. No, she wouldn't have told Nathan before she left, she got a nice present to give to his partner for her surprise party and she wasn't exactly counting on it being a test of his identity. The gun has no explanation as yet, though since they searched Nathan in the interim of course he's not armed, so it's someone else, Duke, thank you. Dave, with one of his intuitive leaps that means an outburst, accuses Garland of shooting the boat. Well, yeah, that fits. With the other two not saying anything and with his semi-defensive stance. Garland, honey, you can argue that it proves you're not the chameleon all you like, but the elephant nobody's naming is the one where that's what the chameleon would want you all to think, too. Not!Audrey gets Nathan untied, which means she has to touch his skin, and there's a very nice bit of eyeflicker from him as he realizes that he can't feel her touch. I'm not sure why he waits to bring it up, maybe it takes awhile to sink in, but it's a start. And in the meantime the lights go dead, the tension in the room explodes into panic, someone gets hold of the gun, someone else gets hold of the ax, and we're left with Duke, Nathan, and not!Audrey in a darkened room alone while Nathan comments that now it's every man for himself, just like a predator would want. Which is true. Assuming the chameleon really wants to kill all of them. Assuming the chameleon's not desperate and feeling cornered and considering killing them all because they've all expressed interest in killing it. I mean, I'm just saying. These are things that maybe should have been considered before freaking everyone right out.


A wild Garland appears and uses Scare Eleanor Half To Death! It's Super Effective! We get a series of scenes, from Garland engaging in some parental self-castigation, hey, he has feelings under there. And opinions about what he should do as a parent, which does not include tying up his son and accusing him of being a murderer. I guess that's SOME kind of a line, jesus fucking hitman, Garland. Though I suspect he's using this one incident to cover all his myriad failings as a father, which he's had thrown in his face quite a lot recently. With reason. Eleanor tries some bonding, which about half-helps and makes the rest of us facepalm. Dropping your baby on their head and consistent inability to be a good parent of an adult is not the same thing, you two! Though by Garland's grunt he knows this, and knows that Eleanor won't admit to more than she is unless things get a lot more dire. Which they're about to! But too late for her to fix anything. Julia has adopted the time-honored strategy of hide under a bed with a knife and stab them in the ankles if they come for you. And if this were a little more of a classic horror movie, I'd question that strategy, but here it's actually a pretty good one! Meanwhile in the basement our terrible threesome tries the fuse box to no avail, leading not!Audrey to suggest that they split up. Duke is drinking. Duke also thinks this is a terrible idea, and gets told to man up, which is not something real!Audrey would say. Real!Audrey would probably not have suggested that they split up in the first place, would have remembered the radio Duke had been working on and started from there, too. Nathan is easy to persuade because he's still feeling tetchy at Duke for the whole ax thing, Duke you're not helping matters, and oh look now he's kicking a tricycle. Which I'm sure is supposed to remind us of the creepy little girls with the trikes in The Shining. You guys are all bastards, have I mentioned this? I say it with love. And twitching. Especially the twitching.


Continuing on! Not!Audrey opens a door. Nathan goes up a staircase. Eleanor opens what looks to be the same door not!Audrey did! And promptly sees something she wasn't expecting to, and freaks right out as the candle goes out, in classic horror movie style. Dammit, you guys, I wanted answers out of her. And maybe some kind of a reconciliation arc with her and Julia as they modeled how to grow into a healthy parent-adult offspring relationship? For Nathan and Garland's sake? No? Well, fuck. Julia, to her credit and despite her hiding instincts, has also been trained to run toward danger and screaming, the moreso when she recognizes her mother as the person in trouble. Pun intended. Too late, of course, but it's a good try and I like them and their incredibly dysfunctional relationship a little more for it. If I were her, seeing Garland standing over the body would not incline me to trust the man even a little bit, though he does admittedly have cop-face on instead of guilty-face, the way you'd expect out of the chameleon. Maybe. Potentially. Plus, let's be fair, Julia's more concerned about the fact that she's staring at her dead mother instead of wondering who's next. Poor women.


After the ad break, we come back to the three cops, well. Two cops and one "cop," gathered around the body checking for cause of death. Not!Audrey is allowed to start seriously giving the game away here, so she looks guilty and concerned and a little bit freaked out. More than a cop really should, anyway. Definitely full of regret, Nathan questions what the fuck the chameleon was doing if it hasn't taken over Eleanor, what's going on here? Well, under the circumstances panicking and running is a perfectly valid answer, yes. Duke fixed the generator! Duke will now be the one who gets to come handle Julia, who's gone into some degree of shock and is just standing around trying not to collapse. Whatever their history, he's still someone she trusts enough to collapse on emotionally, which is pretty telling, I will say. Somehow Vince and Dave wandered back, too, we're not asking how. Dave is standing in the doorway staring at Eleanor's body and has a posture that looks rather like he's grieving; he would also have been out of frame in the previous crime scene shots, so no telling how long he's been there. Vince has something they should look at, though! Namely, another crack. In the house proper this time. The way he's staring at the wall at first it seems like it's going to be writing in blood or red lipstick or whatever, like a typical serial killer, but no, it's a crack. Hi Garland. You might wanna work on your poker face a little bit, especially when you're being framed right next to the crack and by yourself. I'm just saying. Poor guy. That one really does have to suck, and it must have happened when he found Eleanor's body.


Not!Audrey has a very valid question about that, which echoes a question she asked of Nathan back in the pilot and got the answer of sandstone, very shifty, crumbles a lot. Heh. Which brings Nathan back to his suspicions, complete with Significant Shot of the chair with the ropes. The rest of the crowd in the room continues to stare and mutter at the wall while he has his little revelation and, well. The music would like us to know that shit is going down now, to the tune of dragging Audrey off to the side and having a quiet little conversation with her. First not!Audrey tries to take control of the situation by saying they need to find a way to call for help and that this will get worse before it gets better. Aheh. Well, that doesn't sound like a threat at all under the circumstances! Nathan thinks so too. Nathan will rely on not!Audrey having to act like she trusts him to get a chance to grab her hand and, honey, have I mentioned your issues? I mean, I realize that he's very not okay right now and history is about to repeat itself, but really, Nathan? Kissing her just to be really sure? Nobody is buying that story. It's Dramatic, and it throws not!Audrey off her guard, and wait a goddamn fucking minute. Nathan's hands are view the whole time he's kissing her, so he's not stealing the gun back from the chameleon. But that does look like his service piece. But we know the chameleon had it, at least at the beginning, and all the other weapons we've had a Big Deal made out of separating, so where the fuck does this gun come from. The Plot Box? That's all I can come up, and goddammit you guys I expect you to be better than this. Sigh. The only way I can fanwank this is that Nathan took Eleanor's clip off her and somehow got Julia to cough up the matching gun, 'cause it sure isn't one of the holdout pieces. More to the point, Nathan just shot not!Audrey, Duke is freaked out by this and yet his immediate reaction is not to attack but to protect Julia, possibly because Nathan looks so traumatized. Like you do. Oh, hey, that's not a normal looking bullet wound or blood or anything. It's also one very pissed off cop and very scared chameleon; he'll confess to the dying chameleon how he knew but not to anyone else. Vince and Dave have a clue! Except they're confused as to how the chameleon got even that far with Audrey, since she's supposed to be immune to all the Troubles. Heh. Not that they're saying this. Nathan is disgusted by the morphing, Eleanor wasn't supposed to die but she somehow or another saw what the chameleon was, we don't get to learn how. It does sound like the chameleon has to kill whoever it's taking over in the process of becoming them, with normal people who aren't the messianic figure for an entire supernatural phenomenon. And it also sounds like the chameleon isn't particularly thrilled by that, just accepting, though it's hard to tell with the giant hole in its chest.


Short version, though: Audrey's alive! Soon the chameleon won't be. Off they go on a mad dash to the cellar, I have no idea if they wait for the chameleon to die or simply assume that it will, because that damn well is everyone and nobody left behind to guard. Either way makes me kinda twitchy, because on-screen deaths are the only ones we can be sure of. Aaanyway. Nathan and Duke are the most frantic, as we would expect, she's been shut in a trunk with no airholes for hours so yes, of course she's unconscious and dubiously alive. I haven't the foggiest what would have happened had she gotten any closer to dying, but I suspect the barnvatar would have had to intervene and that would NOT have been pretty. Julia has excellent field medicine skills which we get briefly explicated because, yeah, ammonia wouldn't be my first choice but it's what's available. Nathan is stuck on calling her Parker because to do otherwise would reveal more of how terrified he is and how much he cares about her. Nathan, honey, you're not fooling anyone. Again. Still. Like a proper FBI agent, she comes out of it with a witty quip. Aww, Audrey. Good to have the real you back.


It looks like next... morning? Probably, anyway, and they've all been rescued from the island and have just arrived on the mainland! Which means it's time for a series of awkward and uncomfortable conversations. Let's start with Nathan and Audrey, who doesn't believe the chameleon was a monster, just desperate for someone to help fix him. She might be right about that, too. Nathan doesn't really want to hear this, but he does kind of need to. He's also not going to explain just how he knew the chameleon wasn't really her, he'll just be super-cryptic and annoying about it. At least he's not outright lying; they both know he's hiding something but it's pretty obvious to anyone looking at the poor bastard that he's awfully traumatized from shooting someone who looked and, by and large acted, just like his partner. Who he might be a little in love with. (Inquiring minds really want to know what the Teagues made of the whole kissing business, since you know they noticed even if they pretended hard not to.) They trade middle names, and Audrey has almost the same delivery and definitely the same word choice for hers. Heh. That's not hurting my theory that the chameleon got the personality and memories of the original Audrey Parker, particularly because this Audrey looks a little shy and a little wary of why she's being asked. Different circumstances, to be sure, but also different because it's sharing personal information with Nathan. Garland, you are a bad man. Or Max is, depending on who really gifted him with Thaddeus. Poor Nathan. Beset on all sides.


Eleanor's body comes past, Duke comes over from tending to Julia though he doesn't look like he's been trying to escape. Relieved to get out from under that duty, a bit, but not actively looking to rid himself of it. Aww, Duke. You old softy. No, Julia's not okay, she's not going to be okay for a long while, and Duke really does care about her quite a bit. Nathan takes off so that Duke can have a private moment with Audrey and also probably because he would like not to see Duke's face right now. I don't blame them for wanting some distance at the moment, given all the horrible of the past 24 and compounded by their having begun to mend fences. This might throw them right back to the beginning, sadly. Speaking of throwing them out of any kind of camaraderie, Garland will proceed to be socially awkward and incompetent with his son some more. I adore the man for many reasons, but his parenting skills? NOT ONE OF THEM. He attempts to give Nathan a compliment, as the chameleon suggested he should, which is kind of hilarious if you look at it on the slant. And on the other hand oh my god Garland you're complimenting him for shooting his partner, how the hell would you have felt maybe 12 hours after that one? Yeah, I didn't think so. Growing up? Hah. Especially since Nathan's reaction is to stare and clench his jaw and fling Garland's cigarette to the ground, and that "Got a whole pack" is about as childish in tone as you can get. My god you two are morons come here and let me lock you in a room for about a decade so you can sort out your issues. Garland stumps past where the Teagues are offering genuine and, I think for once, non-creepy help to Julia. Or at least I'm not skeezed out, and this is not helping the relatives theory, because she seems to take this as perfectly natural, too. Not just in the old-timers who are nosy fucks sense, but in the of course they would offer. This is not helping the OTHER theory about how she's somehow related to them. Nnngh. Say, that's a rather large crack along the side of the van a few feet from where Garland glowered his way down to the uniforms! I Wonder If It's Related. Dave looks vaguely concerned, but if he's saying anything to his brother about it we don't get to hear.



No, instead we get Duke and Audrey! Audrey's about to head home, it's been a long day, but Duke has a present for her! With suitably adorable puppy eyes and quips. That is a very lovely carved box, and so is the locket, but there's something very specific that Duke's waiting on. Unlike a lot of people here, he is coughing up information, though maybe not as fast as Audrey would like and definitely not to the extent that she'd like. At any rate, the LR stands for Lucy Ripley, that gemstone looks like aquamarine or something similar, the front engraving doesn't seem particularly significant. Though it comes in a four-part set of curlicues, I can't really make that stand for the Guard in any way aside from, there are four sections. That's a common enough design that it could mean or not-mean anything. Grumble. Audrey has to be led by the hand to get it, which seems to surprise Duke, but a) she's been locked in a trunk and deprived of air for awhile pretty recently and b) she's never had ANY indication that Duke had knowledge he wasn't sharing about her predecessor. So yes, this comes as one fuck of a surprise, to the extent that she's not even sure which of the many, many questions to ask first. But Duke will tell her, even though the look on his face says he knows exactly how badly this could damage their friendship and is doing it anyway because waiting longer would be worse. Lucy gave it to him at some point or another, we don't know when, but he was on the beach with her the day the Colorado Kid was murdered. Audrey has no idea how to take this, whether to say thank you for the information or why the fuck didn't you tell me sooner or some combination of the two. And it's worth noting that this has never really come up again, not in context of what Duke's relationship with Lucy was (it must have been at least a little bit close, if she gave him an engraved locket that belonged to her so obviously!) nor in the context of what he remembers from the Colorado Kid's murder. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. It is immensely frustrating, and I don't think it's because the writers forgot. I think it's because they're bastards who are making us wait to find out anything about Lucy's stay in Haven, the same way they didn't tell us Sarah even existed for awhile and then, when they did, we had to wait an entire season after that to get any dirt on her.


In conclusion ALL YOUR MURDERBOARDS GIVE TO ZIM. God this episode was exhausting.

2 comments:

  1. The creators have said that the Vietnam comment was improvisation from the actor and a mistake.

    See this interview:
    http://www.randomfandemonium.com/interviews.html

    ReplyDelete