Thursday, December 17, 2015

In the Blood Haven S2E11 Business as Usual

Previously! Lucy Ripley, Audrey belonging to Haven, Nathan courting Audrey, Duke and the tattoo and his complete lack of answers. Evi working with the Rev and then dying! The Rev being in the middle of all of this. And then dying too! Well, I'm glad about one of those things.






We open with a panover and a few people running to a tune that the Haven soundtrack informs me is called Duke on the Dock. Aww. There's a guy named Reggie running the marathon and who appears to be suffering from extreme thirst? heatstroke? Heatstroke might account for the redness of his face but I'd call it Havenstroke as an explanation for why he suddenly mummified and fell over. Yeah, if I were the race assistant? I'd freak out too. Enter Nathan and Audrey, CSI Haven! Nathan still can't feel the heat but his body sure can sweat despite the lack of nerve sensation, apparently. Which Audrey will now point out thanks ever so. His nerves thank you ever so. They identify the body based on his race number and a list of participants, while Audrey muses over which of her past lives might have run a 10k. Oh Audrey sweetie. Nathan is calling her out on using dealing with her weird history of being other people to escape dealing with the fact that she shot and killed the Rev. Which may have been cleared legally but that doesn't mean it was cleared in the eyes of the small town, and he's got a very good point. Especially given the demonstrated lengths to which the people in said small town will go to to, I guess, defend their side against the other side? Might be the best way to put this. Enter Dwight to clean up Reggie. He knows Reggie, too, apparently, enough to know that he was Troubled but not enough to know what it was. And it turns out they ran in the same circles close enough to know that there was going to be a meeting tomorrow night between Troubled people about how to deal with the backlash from the Rev's shooting. (Hi the Guard?) Nathan is so not about this. Nathan, if only you knew what was in store for you in terms of Troubled people banding together for solidarity. Audrey, on the other hand, is all about this and thinks Nathan should go. I'm trying not to perspective this from the current state of things but it's so hard, there's irony laying around all over the place. (A: What have I told you about using God to press your shirts.)

There's also screaming. No, shouting. There's a guy shouting at another guy, the shouter being named Patrick Grolsch and the shout-ee being named Stu, for the sake of designations. Nathan tries to get Patrick to calm down and stop yelling at people and basically accusing a guy of murder possibly with the intent to direct a riot or a mob in poor Stu's direction. It redirects exactly 0% of Patrick's wrath, but it does at least distract him enough for Stu to get away. At which point Patrick blames Nathan and Audrey for everything that's pissing him off in his life at the moment and says that the next time they screw up etc. Oh this is going to go so well. Roll credits!

Nathan is talking on the phone with someone about a name match and it has to be more, and since we're looking at him through the blinds this is something Very Sekrit And Conspiratorial. Will we get payoff on it this ep? (Actually we will, thankfully.) Meanwhile Audrey is coming up with the autopsy report, which reads, hysterically, dehydration inconsistent with exercise. See, this is why I like Gloria, her official reports might read like that but if she were giving the report in person it'd probably be accompanied by mummy jokes. At the very least. It could be a Trouble but if it's a Trouble it had to have been caused by something other than the race. Well, not had to, but most likely. Ooh, ooh, I have a likely source! It starts with Patrick and ends with Grolsch, and there's a few scurrilous phrases in the middle. No, they're not going there just yet, but Audrey is going WTF over the fact that this isn't their usual coroner. No, Nathan had Dwight use a guy over in Cleves Mills (drink for the It's a Stephen King World After All bit) because he wants to let things die down from the Rev's death. Given the display of public accusation and ire earlier I can entirely see his point, not even so much that someone was shouting in public, but that he feels he has enough support behind him to make threats at the police with impunity. That's never a good sign. In the meantime, they have a second mummy to deal with. Yay.

It's a mummy faceplanted into a tractor. Ew. It turns out the guy had actually warned his wife that something could happen, albeit probably not something like this given that it's most probably someone else's Trouble, and it sounds like he was trying to warn her about his Trouble. And who else knew he was Troubled? Well, Stu Pierce for one thing, and the laws of character conservation tells us that this is the Stu who was being shouted at earlier. Stu Pierce was also Troubled, had convinced Barry to go to that meeting for the Troubled that we heard about earlier. All things considered that's a good reason to be stressed and have your Trouble set off, debating whether or not to expose your identity to the world. Especially if, as we learn in the next scene, there's a list of Troubled people! Nathan's theory is that Stu might hate himself so much he hates and is killing everyone like him. Okay, while I buy that whatever stressor caused the Trouble to appear in someone might also be a stressor to a murderous break, not to mention the Trouble appearing nonetheless, the Stu we saw and the guy Annie (mummy #2's wife) described did not seem like the type who hated himself quite that much. That kind of pathology tends to be distinctive enough in television that it gets commented on almost immediately, as soon as the character's described on screen by anyone else. On the other hand, again, the existence of a list or a roster of Troubled people, okay, to go with the more modern analogy I can think of (this goes back to the days of, oh, labor organizations, religious organizations, civil rights organizations, just within my living memory) we all know how dangerous it was for Harry Potter to have compiled a written down list of Dumbledore's army, yes? Yes. Only in this case there's a whole town of Umbridges just waiting to find out who the troublemakers, pun totally intended, are. And anyone who writes their name down on that list will know that. Anyway. They're at Stu's place, and it doesn't look good. In fact it looks tossed. And the second they get in there's the sound of someone struggling against a gag. Fortunately for her she's also right there in the dining room and Audrey and Nathan get to her quickly enough, get the gag off, she manages to pull herself together enough to say that Stu's been kidnapped. And they took the list with them. Audrey sums it up nicely by referring to it as a hit list. Because it is.

Out on the Cape Rouge Duke is talking to Evi's Mom, getting very little in the way of sympathy from her by the sound of his voice and his end of the phone conversation. Something about inventorying her stuff before he sends it back? I'm not sure what that's about, but it sounds awfully distant and clinical for someone who's likely just that day or maybe only marginally earlier been told her daughter died. As Duke packs up her stuff, though, he finds the smaller Crocker box. Ah-hah! With a note inside, no less. One wonders how much she paid for the box, or if she just stole it back. Irrelevant to the gesture, but it would amuse me. The note tells him that in case things go bad, he should have this, which says actually quite a bit about her expectations of making it out of Haven alive, not that that mitigates her stupidity and recklessness. If anything it makes it worse, considering she would have known that she was in real and lethal danger and... did nothing? Ran out into a street open to sniper fire? Dammit, Evil. On the other hand at least she is sharing the information for him to look at the box under the iguana lamp, which gives us the Crocker name, which considering this box was made before the advent of electricity makes no fucking sense and continues to have no explanation. I mean, if it were inlaid with some kind of mineral in a mosaic or something that spelled out Crocker in glowing rocks, I'd even buy that before I'd stop gnawing on this as a what the hell. So many glowing rocks there are. So many. But no, instead it's been painted or finished or something? With some sort of paint that glows under an electrically powered light, a hundred and fifty-two hundred years before electricity became a thing. Still unexplained! Meh. It's impressive, though, and Duke stares at his family name with a suitably impressed WTF face.

Audrey is taking Colleen's victim statement back in Stu's living room, getting an attacker description. She doesn't have much to go on but she does remember a tattoo or a mark on his leg. Nathan immediately goes to the Guard tattoo, but it was numbers instead. And Audrey immediately connects this to race numbers, Patrick Grolsch. I mean so would I, but I'd also give the poor woman a picture of Patrick Grolsch maybe in a lineup before I do anything like bring him in for questioning, because he sounded belligerent and "a three and an eight" are not at all probative.




Audrey, apparently, is not me. Because the very next scene is Audrey with Patrick Grolsch in interrogation. Telling him that they saw his race number, they saw him arguing with Stu at the race, and she all but flat out says they can prove he kidnapped Stu. He, on the other hand, has the entirely reasonable argument that why would he kidnap someone who can dessicate people with a thought/look/touch/we don't know yet. Well, he could have used his own Trouble. He doesn't, as one might expect, take violent offense to the insinuation that he's Troubled, but he does point out in the next breath that pretty much all they have is half a number on a leg, no description, no anything. He is also a lawyer. Whether or not he's a relevant lawyer is up for grabs considering nothing he says is anything that one can't get off of watching crime TV. It's enough for Nathan at least, who is playing it safe and releasing him as soon as the guy threatens a public lawsuit. Much to Audrey's fury, she wants to know why Nathan abruptly divested himself of his spine. Because, whether she likes it or not, he is trying to protect her from people who view her killing of the Rev as less about protecting a little girl and more about protecting Troubled people and yeah, especially right now this ought to sound incredibly familiar to everyone, yes? Yes. In this case the Troubled people are the designated Untouchables, Undesirables, the ones who it's okay to victimize. Audrey, on the other hand, stopped the Rev from victimizing the one girl, stopped him from taking another undesirable person (who, let's not forget, also may have killed and eaten a serial killer, I'm not even sure what part of that sentence would have gotten where with whom) out of the consideration of the town. Which Nathan points out! Both the cannibal girl and the fact that the Rev was one of those nebulous creatures known as a Pillar of the Community. I tell you, the kind of community he looked like he was building with the guns and the fire and the brimstone didn't look all that welcoming, but, Pillar of the Community he was. Audrey continues to be pissed, and we might be getting another look under her angry spikey defenses when she points out that Nathan hasn't said what he thinks of her shooting, either. Does he think she did the right thing? Since we've already established in previous episodes that his opinion matters to her this carries somewhat more weight than they've emphasized in this particular episode alone, but even a person just picking up now should be able to tell this is a cause of some consternation for her. Yes. He thinks she did the right thing, he knows she did what she had to do. BUT, and it's a huge but folks, but that doesn't mean that the town isn't after them, it doesn't mean they can push on and violate procedure, and it doesn't mean he wants to be under indictment right now for violating rights or whatever Grolsch would have him brought up on. Let's also not forget that Nathan was relieved of duty until very very recently, replaced with a Rev puppet. He certainly hasn't forgotten! So, okay. These are all very good arguments, not that Audrey likes it any better by her abrupt and snappish departure.

Over on the street Duke is accosting the Teagues as they deliver the papers on their tandem bicycle? It's hard to tell when it's behind them and the newspaper stand. Anyway, Duke would like to show them something and get their opinion. On the Crocker box. Which definitely causes some oh shit reactions that neither of them is apparently capable of hiding, dude, Vince, no. You have failed your bluff check, give it up. Dave is somewhat less inclined to hide things, or he's just hiding behind a veneer of interest and willingness to cooperate? I wouldn't be surprised by either, at this point. Duke pushes their ability to sell ignorance of what's going on with the box by running a light over the top and showing the Crocker logo. Vince pushes everyone's credulity of his ignorance. I'll hit pause on things here to say that while I wonder if the Teagues didn't have some historical knowledge of what was going on, especially with Vince's nervousness, it's also entirely possible that Vince knows the boxes from his friendship with Simon and that's what's making him squirm and rub his hands. At any rate. Dave looks it over, pronounces it familiar and from one of the town's early silversmiths, and promises to look into it overtop of Vince's protestations that they're too busy to take on another project. And then they will add further pushing of the credulity by covering up Vince's reluctance and their parting of ways on the box research by claiming bad shellfish? Yeah, I don't know what even they think they're doing here. Well, I know what the show thinks it's doing, it's pointing out that the Teagues have many things to hide and that they're constitutionally incapable of it, but I have no idea what the Teagues themselves, in character, think they're doing. And yes, Duke will hold onto the box thank you very much, because if he lets them have it he will in all likelihood never see it again, and he knows it. Dave promises to get back to him with the information, though. And he might even follow it through. Vince does look like he's swallowed some bad shellfish as he tells Dave he will stop him, and Dave just makes some comment about this town facing its realities. Given recent events in the last season oh dear god. And Vince is calling for someone to come see him about a job. That's not ominous at all! I hate you both. Still. Again.

It's night. Duke is coming home to the Cape Rouge. There's a light on? A flashlight? moving around inside his ship. So he does what any enterprising and considerably illicit young man would do, he gets a weapon from one of his secret hideyholes! We can only tell it's a gun by the light glinting off of it in one angle because everything about this sequence is filmed dark, including the combat that results. However, just going by sheer size as compared to Duke I think we can be pretty sure who it is before Duke turns on the light and yelps "Sasquatch?" (How much do I miss that nickname? ALL OF THE MUCH. Oh Duke.) Not that Dwight's saying anything, he's going for the box. Duke is also going for the box! The fight will now proceed to devolve into farce when the box breaks apart, revealing a key. Not that they can tell what it is at first until they go diving. Duke ends up on the side with the key, Dwight with the box, so Duke grabs a boat hook and Dwight grabs a... sword. Yeah, I'm not sure where this is going at this point, other than me going straight to the kitchen to laugh my ass off in relative privacy. I'm also reasonably sure by everyone's expressions and the staging of this that this is meant to devolve into something more and more absurd until, as Duke does, they look at each other and go to the talking. Dwight isn't giving up the box. Duke isn't giving up the key! Dwight isn't giving up who hired him or pointed him or told him, but Duke pretty much knows that this is Vince, that Vince and Dave are fighting, and that whatever's got them fighting has got to be pretty damn interesting. And given that his bloodline, his father, and his family are all tied up in this, he would like to know what the fuck. Dwight has no actual dog in this race, but yes, he is somewhat curious. It actually ends up being Duke who puts the boat hook down first and reaches for the alcohol. That is not nearly enough alcohol, Duke. He then lays out the situation for Dwight (who is standing there slowly regaining his breath and still looking deeply wary. with his long hair. that is still very trippy and also very surfer dude, which actually goes well with Balfour): namely that Vince and Dave have all the answers, somehow the answers are causing them to fight over the Crocker Box of questions, and either Duke and Dwight can go another few rounds till they're both pounded and bleeding and not know why, or they can get the damn answers themselves. He seals this proposal with an offer of a drink. I were Dwight, I'd at least take the drink. The Teagues make my head hurt.

Audrey is not enjoying this stakeout, not by that look on her face as she's drinking coffee. Nathan isn't enjoying this either, he's not enjoying being in the position of having to stop Audrey from doing what she wants, almost needs to do, helping Troubled people. He's probably also not enjoying being in the position of knowing this guy's bad or dirty somehow and not being able to do anything about it, and having to make sure Audrey sticks absolutely to the book, which she's chafing at. Sure, she put an APB out on Grolsch's car, that's paperwork, that's a paper trail he can then use to get her run up on charges of police harassment, etc. Which Nathan is keenly aware of, and Audrey is too angry to give a shit right now. Nathan, given that he now has to wrestle with Audrey as well as the anti-Trouble brigade, is feeling like he's being made out as the bad guy. Audrey doesn't really apologize, but does explain that she's clinging to helping Troubled people as the thing that comes from neither Audrey nor Lucy, but just comes from her. From over at the point of view of season five we have all of the hysterical laughter for what we know now as opposed to then. Ahem. In the moment, well, she's not wrong. A touch compulsive, in dire need of extra coping mechanisms to deal with her non-standard human identity issues, but not wrong. Nathan, meanwhile, will point out that she's tripping merrily down the path of suspension, firing, arrest. None of which is productive. Audrey will proceed to not listen and, the second Patrick emerges from the building she's going to go arrest him for jaywalking. Nathan has so much eyeroll let him show you it.




Dave is on the phone with Duke giving him and us the information that the box was commissioned by FitzWilliam Crocker in 1786 and designed as a set, the one Duke has being the smaller of the two. No word on what they were used for, though. So! Duke somehow manages to relay that information to Dwight, standing right there, I think we're meant to infer that Dwight can hear him or can interpret the other side of the conversation well enough. In any case, he definitely interpreted that Duke is in fact a very practiced liar and con artist and this isn't really conducive to him trusting Duke or judging that he's doing the right thing. Duke has a shrug for that. And a wary look for Dwight smiling when he says that if it turns out not to be the right thing, he can always change his mind. That's the nicest threat I think I've heard in a while. Duke moves quickly on from there to the key, it probably goes in the larger box, and no, he didn't hear anything about it from his father who confined their conversations to hey get me some smokes and beer. Considering how young Duke was when his father died? Remember, he was holding Lucy Ripley's hand in that photo which was taken around the time his father died so, what, seven? ish? Who the fuck in Haven is selling a seven year old beer, because it had damn well better be someone who knows it's going to his father, and that's only marginally better because then whoever it is is basically aiding and abetting a drunk and most likely very negligent parent. Good job, mysterious liquor store owner. We have a glimmer of bonding here when Dwight comments that he knows how that goes, and then refuses to elaborate. Right, then, Duke's got other ideas than sharing bad dad stories, if they find his Dad's old boat they might be able to find the box! It's as good a theory as any.

Nathan and Audrey are fighting. Which is extra funny because they're both ignoring Grolsch being cuffed to a post. It stops being funny when Nathan points out that this is by the book harassment and she must want to get fired because this is fucking ridiculous. They get as far as arguing about whether or not she'll be okay, then he'll be okay, if she gets fired, which leads to a very awkward confession of feelings. With a handcuffed dude behind them. You guys have the weirdest fucking timing. Before she can deal with that in any aloud, spoken way the fire alarm goes off. Which, if we're assuming Stu's mummification touch is his Trouble, that means the fire has another cause. Audrey, naturally, looks to Grolsch for that answer even though at the moment with him cuffed to a post she has no reason to. So I kind of question how justified she is in all of this? At the same time, it's true that Grolsch was awfully panicky about his yelling about harassment when he was so calm earlier in the police station. Now he's yelling about how Audrey should go up and check on Stu. Well, fine, maybe she'll just do that! Which she is perfectly confident in doing because what the hey, immunity. Not that Grolsch knows that, and we will all snicker because of this. Nathan still, possibly, hasn't had quite enough time to fully internalize her immunity, and in any case the fact that Grolsch is so encouraging of her going up there is making him very edgy. And shouty. Audrey is not having with this, and besides there's Patrick Grolsch to deal with. Who, well, let's face it, if she's able to get Stu's testimony he'll be going away for kidnapping for a good while. As long as Audrey can get Stu out! Which given the quantity of smoke and the flames already lighting up the floor when she kicks the door in, that could be in question.

When we come back from commercial break the fire is pouring out of the top of the building but thankfully doesn't seem to have damaged the interior structural integrity any. At least, she's able to cross the room and get Stu untied without difficulty. Not what he expected, he's a good guy, he shouts a warning at her about not touching the sweat on his body, but she's immune, so it's fine. Somewhat less fine or at least less reassuring is the way he gasps and talks about "you're Audrey Parker" like she's some sort of magic saint come down to rescue him. Ulp. Some sort of reverence, not quite to the point of divinity but definitely set apart from other people in some profound way. Fortunately Audrey doesn't have time for that either, and it'd be easy to pass it off as his relief at being rescued by the one person who can quickly and efficiently help him. Especially with burning limbs coming down behind them. I'd give him another two, five minutes tops before the smoke inhalation or a burning falling beam got him or both. Five minutes if he was lucky.

Meanwhile Duke is cleaning out a bilge? Sump? Something damp and nasty in someone else's boat and no, there's nothing there. Dwight even makes comment on who the hell would go fishing around down there if they didn't have to, and asks if he's sure this was Simon's boat. Yep, Duke's sure, he even remembers who his father sold it to (which may not necessarily be the current owner, given time elapsed, but as it turns out it is). And Dwight would like to know if it's so valuable, how come Simon didn't tell his son about it? Well, Dwight, when a father screws up very, very much... Duke's own answer is worse than that, he claims not to know that his father liked him very much, and he's sure his father didn't trust him. Oh honey. Not that Simon ends up being father of the year when we do finally get a glimpse of him and in fact he won't give us a sense of contradicting either of these notions. And, oh Duke. Sweetie. Dwight doesn't have it much better, he ventures a guess that Duke's father was bad at telling him things, and he does it in such a way that Duke (with a very 'oh really/why are you telling me this' look) gently pushes to inquire what is Dwight's Trouble, and by silent extension why is this a big thing? It's Haven, there are so many reasons why a father not telling his kid of the family Trouble could be a mess. Well, it turns out Dwight's Trouble, the bullet magnet thing, first kicked in in Afghanistan. And his father didn't tell him even though he knew Dwight was going to enlist, because of this demented need not to admit that his family line is Troubled. Yep. Father of the year, that one, too. Saving us from even more awkward confessions is Sal, the guy Simon sold his boat to, coming down the stairs wondering what the hell you two. Not even in a get off my boat sense, in a why the hell are you poking around the ass end of the boat. Duke tries to calm the guy down, explains that he's looking around on the last boat Simon Crocker owned, though not why, and Sal contradicts him that this was the second last. It turns out he sold this one to Sal when he bought this other boat that turned out to be the Cape Rouge! Which he then gave to the guy Duke won it off of in poker, a Ray Fiegler up in Castle Rock. We're going to pause here for a second while we twitch uncontrollably at an unseen offscreen person with the initials RF, from Castle Rock, having been in linchpin position in Haven. All those of you who have read enough Stephen King know exactly why. Ahem. But yes, Duke, essentially your father gave you your boat. I think at this point it's not even a question whether or not he left RF (*twitch*) instructions to get it to Duke somehow, lose it in a poker game or trade it for a favor or what have you. It's the kind of indirect, backhanded thing he would do because he doesn't know how to fucking talk to another human being at this point. Poor Duke. He doesn't look like he knows how to handle the idea that his father gave him basically his home and his livelihood, because that's what the Cape Rouge is to him. Along with the whole Jack Sparrow a boat is freedom speech.




Over at Stu and Colleen's place, they're getting the full statement of what happened. And apparently it was as simple as they were talking, both men were getting nervous about the meeting with one wanting to back out and the other simply getting nervous, Stu grabbed his friend's arm and that was when he realized what had happened. He got scared, ran home, didn't have time to warn his friend before Barry touched him. Which is entirely plausible given how fast we've seen that Trouble work. Oh everyone. Nathan's quick on the stick with needing to get him out of town, which is true. It's not just Patrick Grolsch, who will definitely be going away for a good long time, kidnapping? Attempted murder? With a couple of cops in the building? Yeah. But there's also a lot of people who are still highly anti-Trouble and motivated to do something about it, and at this point Audrey's shot and killed the Rev and got another person arrested who, we don't know how highly placed Grolsch was in their organization? But it's still only going to piss people off more. Stu, with a Trouble that does need to be closely managed in ways that would make him stand out, would be better out of town. Fine, says Colleen, then I'm going with you. And no, she doesn't care that they'll have to stay away until the Troubles are over, and she doesn't care that he can't touch her, she's with him for better or for worse. We have a lovely closeup on their hands on the couch, not touching but clearly intimate, and then a closeup of Nathan and Audrey in almost identical posture not looking at the intimacy. Which compares the two of them well, and also compares Colleen's reaction to Barry's wife Anne's, in a nicely subtle way. The acceptance of the Troubles and the risks they bring with the rejection of them and the pain they've caused. Not that either woman is portrayed as being wrong or reckless or stupid, but they're both powerful reactions that the townsfolk have to deal with in themselves and in each other.

Outside as the somewhat beleaguered couple is packing up to leave, Stu expresses somewhat clumsy gratitude that Nathan took the invite list off of Grolsch, I say somewhat clumsy because it is an awkward turn of phrase to explain where the list went so that we didn't have that plot thread dangling, but at least it's a line reference. Rather than take it off into the wild unknown (or burn it, which is what I would have done) he presses it upon Nathan, and they have a brief conversation over whether or not people are already irreparably divided. I think we're meant to see that it echoes his conversation with Audrey, going by the glances they exchange over the next thirty seconds or so, and in some ways it does. On the other hand, this conversation is about divisions in the population and whether or not they can be healed, which is a whole other argument when you get into who can pass and who can hide and who can't do either, because of temperament or Trouble or both. Whereas Audrey's argument was more that the Troubled are people who have a right to exist and be happy, or as happy as anyone can be, regardless, and didn't address the overall social dynamics of the town. And all of that is obviously a much more complicated issue the show has touched on over time. And for a more extensive discussion of the subject, one could look at any of the essays about the X-Men comic book series-es, most likely numbering in the dozens by now. It's a very old topic of discussion that spans several social quandaries.

And now that I've thoroughly digressed, Nathan is writing something down while Audrey walks up, and it's nothing to do with the list. Nathan's got this little not quite self-satisfied, maybe more like life-satisfied smile on his face and expresses quite a bit of optimism and empathy regarding the now-departed couple's situation. Aww. He asks if Audrey's thinking (presumably cued by her pensive/worried/sad expression) about what he said about Haven not being safe for the Troubled anymore, and she's come around to questioning whether or not she should have killed the Rev. To his credit, Nathan tells her that she did what she thought was right, what she felt she had to do, by implication. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean she didn't make things worse because she totally did, but she didn't have a whole lot of options at the time, either. But more than that, she's having an existential crisis, taking the form of how is she supposed to know right from wrong if she doesn't even know who she is. Nathan totally knows who she is, in one of the more adorable non-explicit I-love-yous of the series. I'm not kidding, that's pretty much what he's saying. And doing, in an expression of love as a performative act, love as a verb, he's tracked down Lucy Ripley for her, Lucy Ripley the original version. Audrey is, mm, gobsmacked seems like a good word to use, we'll go with gobsmacked, and first asks him how he did this and then hugs him in mid explanation, which for a man who hasn't felt another person's touch in a few years is quite a gesture. Not that she knows it because he stopped himself from admitting it a minute or so ago. And the answer to her question is both banal and touching, the banality comes from legwork, analysis (*waves!*) putting together clues and casefiles, photographs, and hiring a PI from Portland. Maine, not Oregon, there will be no Grimm crossover as amusing as that might be. The touching part is that it had to require a considerable amount of attention and work outside of work for pretty much handing her the information in case she might want to do something about it. But then from the look she gives him she is very much aware of and touched by this. Even more so when he talks about her going and talking to original Lucy like he's not sure she's going to come back, of course she's going to come back, silly. And even if she can't say the words (look, we all know what she means by you're not just my partner either) she can at least give him some ideas. Also this might be the one time waving around our trollfaces and screaming has ever worked. Oh Nathan. You so gone.

So. Lucy. She's got a nice little cottage on the water in wherever, and having listened to the soundtrack way too much I have to note that she has the Colorado Kid theme playing over the scene where they meet. She's fishing over the water behind her house, and seems startled but not surprised to see Audrey. And it turns out Audrey, that is to say Laudrey, told her she'd be coming? She'd be back? 27 years ago. Well now. After the break they're sitting in some rather nice blue chairs on the edge of the water (no symbolism there, of course not, nothing about sitting still watching everything flow by in the visuals. actually possibly not, it might just be a picturesque house they found to film at, but the symbolism is appreciated nonetheless) and talking about how Audrey as she is now doesn't remember anything, and that must mean they got her. Um? Who got her? Lucy doesn't know, but when Laudrey showed up she was on the run, she had Lucy's memories, and she was scared. Sadly, Lucy doesn't know who she is, but she knows Laudrey was from Haven and she knows Laudrey had been helping people with "strange Troubles." Though by the way she talks about it probably not the nature of these Troubles. She says that someone had died, and Laudrey had discovered a terrible secret, how all these Troubles had started and how she could finally stop them. And the people chasing her were trying to erase her, and they would erase original Lucy too if she told anyone, ever, except her, if she came back. So apparently Laudrey anticipated her amnesiac self returning, at least! And that she'd need to know. And sadly that's probably all she knows, except then she says something that causes Audrey to push. It turns out Simon Crocker came looking for her after, said there were people coming after her and he could help. But she didn't tell him anything, she didn't trust him. Given that it's Simon Crocker, as well she might not!




Simon Crocker also didn't trust anyone, including his own son. Since Duke's been smuggling on the Cape Rouge for the last, oh, call it ten-plus years, assuming he started when he got the boat? He's having to clamber around in some really unpleasant, unused, manky areas of the boat to try and find what the fuck his father left him. Dwight is not helping so much as summarizing for the audience and looking vaguely amused and sympathetic, offering up the very faint wisp of a hope that Simon had good intentions for his son and his little toy surprise, wherever he put it. I'm not entirely sure Dwight believes what he's saying either, but it's the best he has to offer. Where it turns out to be is in between the walls, halfway down the hatch, in a sealed barrel, and they'll skip the difficulties of prying up the wall and getting a rope around the damn thing, which is probably for the best. Even if it amuses me to picture Duke swearing like a sailor and Dwight swearing like a Ranger. Because really. Dwight handing over the crowbar to pry it open is accompanied by a musical cue and a camera focus on the crowbar that reminds us that could as easily have been a threat as assistance, and will shortly become the former. But hey! There's the giant matching Crocker box of murder to go along with the matching expressions of satisfaction and curiosity. Dwight looks actually kind of puppyish-hopeful, which is… almost adorable considering he MUST have known what the Crocker Trouble is, given his position with the Guard. At least one would THINK. And on the other hand that would assume that they had that part of the town and its interactions all laid out at this point, which as we'll go into in a sec isn't necessarily a safe assumption. All of this is, okay: brass knuckles, throwing stars, derringer, and some kind of … spear head from the Templars? I'm not joking, that's what it looks like, except maybe it got attached to a dagger hilt at some point, unclear. And then there's a dagger with a jeweled hilt, jeweled sheath, the Very Important Journal, more guns and knives, some tied-together papers… honestly the only thing missing to make this a real murder kit is the body disposal supplies. And since he gave him a boat as well as a murder box the body disposal supplies, you might say, already came with! Nothing says permanent body disappearance like dumping it into the Marianas.

Now Dwight looks concerned, except here comes Audrey to announce that they need to talk, which means Duke's leaving his dad's murder box alone (with a very intrigued looking Dwight, no less, with that expression I hope he has a mini camera) to go find out what those ominous words portend. More Simon! Is the answer. Though he starts off with I need to tell you some shit, and Audrey trades him with okay cool story but I found Lucy Ripley and BY THE WAY I think your father was looking for me and found the original instead and I Have Concerns. This is exactly the distraction Dwight was looking for to close up the box and take it away! And while I'm all for Duke not having to learn all this shit the hard way, that's not exactly establishing trust. I don't think Duke believes the line he's feeding Dwight, maybe a little bit hurt, but he had to expect this. Personally I'm going with that's why he kept the one knife out, particularly with the exchange about how he said he might change his mind. Yep. Dwight gets the first sucker punch in, because despite his lack of stealth on the boat he is still a Ranger thanks, except apparently he's forgotten about fighting lefties. Never expose your right side like that! Aaand that'd be a bicep slice, Duke acting really fucking weird, and Dwight going hoshit. This first time, the blood absorption and silver eyes take quite awhile, I'm not sure that's entirely for dramatic effect, and I really have to wonder just HOW long Duke's had his Trouble activated in potentia without touching Troubled blood, as it were. Since Audrey shot the Rev? Since he found out his father was lying about everything? Since fighting with Dwight this ep? One of our readers suggested since Evi got shot, which would be an appropriately traumatizing stressor. Dwight tries to start another fight, or more accurately tries to keep Duke from going all crazy-silver-eyed murder-monster, since that probably IS what he knows of the Crocker Trouble, and no. Rejected. No crowbar for you, dude, have a very long shove into the water. Honestly the only reason that doesn't kill Dwight is probably Because Narrative, because that much force should totally have broken ribs and probably sternum and possibly punctured a lung and/or heart. It's possible we're meant to believe, since we know about the bullet magnet Trouble already, that he's got a vest under there? But he doesn't, going by the set of his clothing. That's cloth and body and muscle and sensitive organs under there that took the brunt of that hit. Which I think Duke knows, though he's trying for dismissive about whether or not Dwight's okay. I don't entirely buy it, on account of he's way too shaky in all other respects? But he's not wrong about the Ranger part. If Dwight's not dead he'll probably find a way to be okay. Audrey would like to know what the fuck with the murder box now. I would, idly, like to know if the top of it glows too and what it might say, but we don't find that out ever.

Later that evening, there's a handful of people in the Herald for the meeting of Troubled people that is totally not the Guard no of course not that would be Silly. Maybe potential recruits, though? I don't recognize any of the extras offhand. Vince has all of the objections to having the meeting here, presumably because he'd rather not cross the streams, as such, and I have all the questions over how "we are not Troubled." Um. The magical moving tattoo on your arm from s3 begs to differ, Vince. Dave I can at least buy as not Troubled, just a halfling adoptee. But still and nonetheless. Vince thinks Dave is starting a war, which he'll have no part of, no seriously this little exchange makes almost no fucking sense given Vince as leader of the Guard in s3. And all the stuff between him and Max Hansen and the Rev's people and Vince you may not WANT a war but you've been preparing for one for AGES. At least 27 years, to be precise. Unless he thinks the Guard isn't ready, or the town isn't so desperate that they need to know about the Guard yet? Not to mention if Vince is the one chiefly involved with the Guard, apart from starting a war what on earth is it that he thinks Dave's doing? Anyway. Dwight walks in to update Vince on the situation, which is, to borrow the proper military terminology, fubar. So very fubar. Vince makes the point that if he'd given Dwight full intel going in, he'd've been scared and - he says or, but I claim and - would've just killed Duke. Rather than risking activating him LIKE HE JUST DID. Well fuck. Yeah, having an active Crocker running around town is a long, private conversation to have later. Not in front of, say, Nathan. Who is not here to shut them down, as Dwight needles him to start, but here to participate and declare a side, such as he's willing to even admit out loud that there are sides here. Vince isn't quite pointing that out to Nathan such that he's telling him to pick a side, but he's damn well implying it with very heavy handed looks and anvils. Nathan''s on the side that involves not treating the Troubled as second-class citizens, and he's willing to take the risk of people looking at him very much askance for that, since thanks ever so he is Troubled. Also that whole bit about he's got to do what he thinks is right has a bit of a look to him reminiscent of when he was talking to Audrey earlier, gee I wonder whose words he's echoing. In a fit of Doylist irony, he claims that sometimes risks pay off. And sometimes, says that look Vince and Dwight exchange, they just fuck everything up more! Honestly where I land with this whole meeting subplot is that they needed to spell out the Guard a lot earlier, and firm that potential plotline up, because while Vince and Dwight's relationship makes sense after the Guard is a thing in s3, it does NOT work with this meeting and the tone this meeting sets of civilian scrappy pull-together hopeful group, versus the almost survivalist militia tone of the guard later.




Over on the Cape Rouge it's also nightfall, which suggests that either it was closer to sunset than the scene where Duke learned he was a Troubled-blood-sponge implied, or they took some time out to calm down, grab food, and then tackle the piles and piles of data. Because Audrey seems to be going through the firearms for proper maintenance and safety first, then diving for the Crocker journal, while Duke's trying to bend the crowbar. No, no matter how frustrated you get that's not happening, sorry Duke. Actually not sorry, come to think of it. Audrey calls out cause and effect of cutting Dwight, superstrength and creepy eyes. Though she doesn't mention the eyes part directly, probably for the best. How about the ledger? That's like helping, yes? Yes, there's names and dates going back hundreds of years, it's a Crocker family kill list. Also history, I suppose, but definitely kill list. The last pages are of course in Simon's writing, indicating that he did not so much die in an accident, and he's somehow got hold of a picture of Dave and Sarah, and another of Lucy, and he's left instructions for Duke to kill AudSarLu because that's his life's work. Um, say Audrey and Duke. All of the um. And the what the fuck. I think you guys need more booze to start poking this hedgehog.

No comments:

Post a Comment