We open up on a picture perfect, literally-ish since it looks like it was staged for some kind of magazine shoot, house at sunset. Inside we have more picture perfect settings that seem less picture perfect and more tidied up, so at least there's that, but there's also a dead girl laid out on the table. Very neatly laid out, too, either her cause of death wasn't the messy kind except for the trickle of blood out of the corner of her mouth (which so often telegraphs This Person Is A Goner in visual media) or they cleaned her up and dressed her in day clothes for the purposes of whatever they're about to do. Of course, if we've seen the previews we know what they're about to do. Two people stand by the dead girl's tableside, presumably her parents by the way they're acting and I have to say, for a town that's most likely 98% white that's the third interracial marriage we've seen over the course of around 30 episodes. (The first two being Duke and Evi and Ray and Lily McBreen from 1x03 Harmony.) I'm mostly noting it out of pleasant surprise, no one comments on this at any time for any of the couples, which is also pleasantly surprising. Anyway, the father is distraught, frantic, and constantly moving; the mother on the other hand seems to be coping with her grief by latching onto calm certainty that this will work. Whatever 'this' is. Eventually the father can't stand it any longer and I find it interesting that what he's been fighting not to do this whole time is call the police. I'm not sure if he's afraid of going to jail because he's guilty of something unrelated or if he's projecting his guilt over his daughter's death into an idea that he should panic over the police's understanding. Specifically I'm thinking of the fact that he focuses twice on the manner of death being accidental, "Lizzie's death was an accident" and "we didn't kill her," both in distinct subgroups of sentences. Whatever the reason he fears the police will try to blame him, this leads to an argument in the next room and the traditional "don't say that" in reference to their daughter's death, underscoring the wife's determination and belief that everything will be all right if they just wait. Of course now it's time for the ominous crash of Chekhov's vase in the next room. They look around to see the empty table (not even with the cloth wrinkled from her getting off of it), the screen door swings shut, no sign of the girl. All of this designed to give us uncertainty as to whether or not the daughter has come back as something horrible, but when we finally see her she's swinging on the porch swing as though nothing happened. Oh Haven.
Over at the police station Nathan is holding the missing person's report and holding Audrey's trip to Colorado hostage for her update on what's going on with her Colorado Kid investigation. I know she's repeating it all for the Doylist reason that the audience needs to hear it, but given that they also could have had her briefing Duke on the way to the airport it's also showing us how far apart her and Nathan have gotten that he doesn't know what she's found on the Colorado Kid. Oh honeys. For recording purposes, Paul and June Cogan were the parents of the Colorado Kid, James Cogan. He was born in 1956 (the Sarah incarnation's last year of existence) and died or disappeared in 1983 (the Lucy incarnation's last year of existence.) Paul Cogan is dead but June Cogan is still alive and the moment we hear that Audrey's only getting an answering machine we have a sinking feeling June Cogan is in elderly or hospice care with some form of age-related dementia. Audrey hasn't figured out this narrative quirk of throwing obstacles in our heroine's face, so she still hopes she can find James. Nathan posits that finding James keeps her from going away, which since we have no evidence to back that up also points to how quietly desperate he is as well. It's also one of the first times in a while he's looked at her this closely.
Enter Duke Crocker! Moment Killer! Nathan doesn't so much jump as twitch and let go of the paper with one hand, half-turning before rolling his eyes and doing the one hand scrubbing over his mouth thing so he doesn't say something unfortunate. Oh Duke. (Drink!) He starts babbling ridiculously because that's what he does when he's uncomfortable and people he cares about are upset, he goes back to being the comic relief, and this time both Audrey and Nathan are not amused. Nathan because of his jealousy, and Audrey because she is scared of so many things about this upcoming trip, not being able to connect with James Cogan being one of them. Also because Duke needs to stop antagonizing Nathan, though in this case he's not purposfully antagonizing so much as trying to cheer everyone up, so Duke gets both a small smile and an eyeroll. Duke mentions their flight leaves in two hours. Nathan hopefully asks if he's driving her to the airport, conveniently missing the 'our.' Audrey rolls her eyes at Nathan and sidesteps him to head out. Oh everyone. I'm going to have Claire lock you in a room till you talk to each other or throttle each other, one of the two. This isn't so much Nathan's idea as it is Nathan's setup, which Audrey points out, and when she says it I don't know why he's surprised. Apparently he said she shouldn't go alone, which is reasonable, and that one of the two of them should stay behind, which is also reasonable, and Nathan, really. Think it over. How many people does Audrey truly trust with this? Of course she'd take Duke. Nathan comes possibly closer than he has yet to actually using his words and saying how uncomfortable and jealous he is over Duke by questioning that, she has twenty-three days left and she has to spend two of them with Duke? We can just take the "and not me" as subtext written in about large lettering as it is possible to write and still be subtext. Duke tones down the aggressive joking, for Duke anyway, and Nathan walks out before he can snap any of the things he probably wants to snap, with one of his final sentences being "take care of her." Oh Nathan. Duke looks sidewards at Audrey with a can you believe that asshole look. In between wanting to shake the stupid out of Nathan I find this an interesting role reversal where Duke is the one who knows how to conduct a stable relationship and is the one behaving like a gentleman and reasonably, and Nathan's the childish asshole, when in the previous two seasons Nathan was taciturn but a gentleman, trying to communicate with both Audrey and his father, and constantly telling stories about how Duke was a jerk when it came to his friendship with Nathan and their relationships with women. Tacks, I'm thinking of specifically, here. Anyway, no, I agree with Duke's look, and we move on with that.
Back to the parents. I appreciate that they're not arguing in front of their daughter who is now skipping merrily across the parking lot without looking augh, but they still bug me. The father is still relying on the supposed professionals to tell him what's what, in this case, the doctors he wants to have a look at Lizzie (and this is when I remember Dwight's daughter is named Lizzie too and then I start twitching). And the mother is still placing an uncomfortable amount of faith in some unknown person who brought their daughter back to life, openly saying that she doesn't care who or what, they should just accept that they've been given a miracle or a gift or something. It's been my experience that life is never free, there's always a price to pay, and oh look. Here comes a car to remind everyone of the inevitability of death and the fragility of life. In this case, by hitting and killing the mother and giving her her very own trickle of blood from the mouth to match her daughter's. At this point A and I were tossing around the idea that for a life to be returned, a life had to be taken, but as we saw later this wasn't the case. This was just human assholery. And that "Daddy's going to fix it", guy? Not helping my despair in humanity any thanks. Roll credits! Roll eyes! Roll everything!
Roll off that gurney with the poor woman's body while we're at it. I have flashbacks to Warehouse 13 with the purple nitrile gloves and the paramedics take her off. And yes, those purple gloves Will Be Important Later. But no artifacts involved. Because this is Haven and all the artifacts are people. We get a broken lightbulb on the ground and some police exposition about how they can trace that to the car and potentially the car to the murderer, if it wasn't stolen. Nathan's speculation on the topic of the father's phone call doesn't sound too convincing or convinced, but it's objectively a good first guess. And admittedly what the father says isn't indicative of any one thing in particular; he could be talking to one of his wife's relatives he doesn't see that often. Still, it's also not indicative of a normal grieving process inasmuch as there is one, and he gets in the car with his daughter and takes off, leaving Nathan bumping him up the suspect list. Nathan sends Tommy after the father, and Tommy asks about Audrey and whether or not she's joining them. At the time this seemed slightly odd and by the end of the episode and in retrospect it seems deeply suspicious. And Nathan, I know you think he's a fellow cop and you can trust him, but given the hinkiness associated with the Colorado Kid shit I seriously question whether or not telling him where Audrey was was a good idea. Tommy asks if everything's all right, like a good buddy cop does, and Nathan waves it off with some good-natured teasing. And again we have one of those things that seemed odd at the time, we've commented before on how awfully calm Tommy is about Haven's weirdnesses, but here he confesses to how he was "off his game" at first a little bit (really? after The Farmer we couldn't tell) and it'll be glad to get back to some good old-fashioned police work. Having seen the whole episode this makes me wonder if someone commented in Tommy's hearing how calmly he was taking Haven.
Over to the police station again, the murderboard, and one of the most annoying parts about Haven being a fictional town is that we don't have maps to go look up and figure out locations and whether or not they're significant in subtextual context the way we can with Grimm. Le sigh. Jordan's looking at Nathan's murderboard with what looks like the Colorado Kid on one side and the Bolt Gun killer on the other. Which is to say, on one side there's a set of fingerprints, a map of West Haven with four flags stuck into it, and a corner of a Missing poster that could be James Cogan's, and on the other side it looks like Nathan still has something set up over the Bolt Gun Killer with an innocuous note about an upcoming meeting. He sees Jordan staring at the bulletin board as he walks in and I have to say, before he closes the door and she turns around his expression when he sees her is a lot like his expression when Duke comes in, amused and resigned and very slightly affectionate. As he says her name and before she turns around it changes to soft inquiry, and I wonder if he's controlling his expressions on purpose. See again, playing her emotions and need for touch for his and eventually Audrey's benefit, which would also account for a lot of his snappishness towards Audrey because I will bet you a sum of money that he does not like being the manipulator. But he's desperate, and he doesn't want Audrey to disappear. Certainly there's an element of playing her when he touches her face as she turns, drawing her demeanor from her usual hard-aggressive attitude to soft and basking for a moment. Given Nathan's own trouble it could just as easily be cautious inquisitiveness at being able to do to someone else what Audrey does for him, but I wouldn't bet on that being the only reason. It's certainly the most benign, but as Nathan's rapidly losing control of everything around him being able to control someone else's emotions like that must at least be a little bit tempting.
So. Why is Jordan here? She's here because a friend of hers in the Guard is missing, and they can't find the Troubled person he was supposed to bring back to Haven. I have so many questions that Nathan is not asking for me about the Guard I cannot even begin to tell you guys, but right now he's being a good cop with the short term case and asking her questions about her friend. He went missing a few weeks ago, which is when the Bolt Gun killer first came to Haven PD's attention. Note that this is not the first Bolt Gun killing; that happened six, probably seven or eight weeks ago by now, outside of Haven PD's jurisdiction. With a few weeks and a couple of missed check-ins, that's probably about one check-in a week for those of you keeping tabs on the Guard at home, and just in case we couldn't put the two together Nathan exposits that the Bolt Gun killer showed up in Haven when Grady went missing. Or at least, as far as anyone knows. Probably this means that the vague figure we saw in the basement of the Altair Bay Inn was Grady, or at least Grady's shape, but we don't get a confirmation on that yet, sadly. And now Jordan wants to see the evidence that Bolt Gun's in the Guard, which is seriously circumstantial at best, Nathan. I mean, I understand that's the only major lead you've got, but really. Anyway, she wants to see it, understandably, because she wants to be sure this isn't her friend. It's not the tattoo that Jordan fixates on, it's the watch that she recognizes as being something she gave to Grady. Jordan, I concur with Nathan here, you don't want to know what happened to the woman in the security photo, but she pulls up the map and looks anyway and we get a good vivid recap of the three previous victims, two of them with nasty wounds and one X-ray. I'm glad I already finished dinner when I started talking about this. Jordan is understandably upset, can't make her mind let go of the idea that Grady is the killer in the face of more emotionally tied evidence than factual (a watch can be stolen and she hasn't verbally confirmed the tattoo is in the same place on that person as it is on Grady), and wants to help Nathan stop the murders by bringing Grady in. Nathan isn't having any of that, but interestingly he doesn't impress upon her in more words that the Bolt Gun killer is dangerous; rather, he points out that this is a police matter and thereby not for her to deal with. Which gives Jordan the opening to argue that the police coming in to deal with Grady will drive him deeper into hiding. There's a lot of interesting lines being drawn here, Nathan drawing the line between police and civilian either to drive her to push harder or because he actually feels it, Jordan first drawing the line between mundane police and Troubled Guard and then drawing Nathan behind that line to her side, bringing them closer together. Nathan's cautious and almost calculating nod doesn't feel that kinship the way she does, not yet, but copious statements from him about the Troubled people being his and him understanding them and so on would indicate it wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Jordan needs 24 hours to at least make a good faith attempt to bring Grady in; lacking other suspects, alternatives, or evidence, Nathan agrees. Actually she doesn't say bring him in, she says make this right. Which is an important distinction to make.
From the overarching to the immediate, but also along the lines of making things right, we go back to the father in the current Troubled of the Week case. He's got a briefcase and he's walking into a building with rigid, tense carriage and looking side to side as though he either expects to see someone or is on guard against surveillance. As well he might be, considering he is being surveilled. Right on cue, here comes Tommy the surveiller, getting out of his car and walking the same path. Apparently Dan Hamilton has just left a large sum of money in a locker at an athletic center. Because nothing says suspicious activity like large sums of cashy money being left in strange lockers! Nathan will meet Tommy at his (Dan Hamilton's) next stop and we move on to...
Colorado! We can tell it's Colorado because of the mountains. Also because of the 'welcome to Nederland Colorado' sign. They're in Nederland, they're walking up to the door, Audrey's falling back as Duke just strides on up to knock. Understandably, she's nervous. Understandably, Duke wants to know why so he can help. Audrey goes on about having been three people and, again, she uses "in love with" as synonymous with "loved" the Colorado Kid and it's an interesting default. It's also winding her up to the point where she's focusing on the minutiae of her pants to fuss about rather than the more important details. Duke finds this all very cute. Duke uses gentle humor! It's super effective! Oh Duke. You are being such a good friend this season. Audrey still smooths her hands over her pants and is fluttering a bit as Duke knocks, and of course it's Duke who knocks since Audrey's still fluttering anxiously. But the man who opens the door isn't the Colorado Kid, and it gives Audrey a moment of blinking and recovering herself before she resumes her usual cop manners. Duke's or Eric Balfour's or both's finger pointing and thumbs up gestures amuse me enough that I have to pause to get out the giggles as Audrey holds up her police badge, which shouldn't carry any weight outside of her jurisdiction but at least gives her the appearance of respectability. It doesn't allay the man's wariness any but it does keep him from throwing them off his front step, I guess. It's also interesting that while he says "You're a long way from Haven" there is nothing on that badge to indicate where Haven actually is. Just off the top of my google search there's at least three different other Havens in real life, admittedly all with directional or descriptive prefixes, but still. He lies with remarkable aplomb and closes the door almost in their faces, but with a polite dismissal. Of course, even as he's doing this Duke's turning to Audrey with this "that little lying bastard" expression on his face, but before he can point out that the man's lying he sees something behind her and we pan around to see... The glyph. Glyph of Doom!
Duke would like to know what the hell that death omen's doing in Colorado, and I can't even blame this one on Nathan and his assholish behavior. He probably would have told Audrey that the Guard went across the country if he'd found out before she left, but, alas, timing. Both the writers' and the characters', for different reasons, when it's the writers' timing we call that pacing. Audrey turns to look at Duke with some concern and Duke turns to look at the boarding house and the man within with deep annoyance, and then goes and bangs on the door. He gives the man enough time to step forward, presumably to tell Duke to get off his lawn, before grabbing him by the shirt front and dragging him out to slam him against the wall. Sorry, Audrey left her give-a-damn in her other pants. She's even looking around to make sure there aren't witnesses, which is both snicker-worthy and adorable in that she trusts Duke not to do anything really illegal, violent, or stupid. Given that, I think she pulls him off the other guy more to play good cop, as she's so good at it, than to actually prevent him from doing something. And in another small sign of trust, Duke just steps back without fighting her. Apparently that symbol is up there so people know that the house is a safe house for people in the Guard or with the Guard fleeing to Haven. Which is all well and good, but Duke repeats the earlier question about where June and James Cogan are, with particular emphasis on James. Again, for Audrey's sake, he's leaving aside his own issues with that symbol, although there realistically isn't anything he could gain from this place or this person about his foretold demise. We get from the guy that Paul's dead (which we knew), he doesn't know where James is (which we could guess), and they moved June to a home (which we already had guessed). So now our intrepid heroes have another place to look and we move back to Haven!
Where Dan Hamilton is threatening Lucassi with a scalpel. Lucassi doesn't even look afraid so much as wary and annoyed. I'm liking Lucassi more and more as this goes on, actually. I'm glad they brought him back. The paramedics are here, too, looking upset and scared, and there's considerable chatter about who did what before Nathan nudges the guy to let the others go. The guy doesn't need hostages for very long anyway, but Nathan doesn't know that, so when Dan Hamilton drops the knife Nathan goes to cuff him. Just in time for Tommy to call to everyone's attention that the body bag is moving. Even in Haven, or especially in Haven, that's really not a good sign. The married couple embraces as Tommy and Nathan gape.
While the wife is off presumably being checked out by medical personnel, the husband is in interrogation. Tommy expresses cursory disbelief at questioning the husband about paying to have his wife brought back to life, and it is only cursory. I can't fault his logic, though, and if I didn't know by now that he's totally in on everything about Haven and maybe in deeper than Audrey and Nathan, I'd applaud him for being so forthright about this. Claire and Nathan are watching from observation, with Nathan making comments about the case and it's about this time I realize he's also, in addition to being a good cop and bringing in the psychiatrist, making contacts within the Guard, he's also searching for a replacement Audrey in all aspects of his life, not just the romantic. Possibly because she pushed him away but I think more probably in case she disappears. Oh Nathan honey. (Drink!) The behavior that triggered this line of thinking is the way he comments, reminiscent of something he might say to Audrey, but when Claire responds with a joke rather than furthering the speculation he gives her a sideways glance, as if that doesn't feel right and so he's going to shift tactics. Except he doesn't so much shift tactics as verbally recall what Claire's doing there with him. Claire's surprised he's there, she thought he'd be in Colorado with Audrey, which might be genuine surprise or might be a hint. Nathan phrases it as "she took Duke" rather than Duke was the best option, which is what seemed to be the case going by what Audrey said earlier. I think he expected Audrey to argue that Haven could get along without them for a couple of days, please come with me. Except that Haven can't, Audrey trusts Nathan to look after Haven, and she wasn't going to argue with that logic. Oh everyone. Claire brings out the lampshade hat so it's really a party with her "polarizing choice" comment. It's like the writers know their fanbase or something! Though I think the most popular fan pairing is the OT3. Claire starts something that Nathan clearly expects to be "how does it make you feel" and cuts her off before we hear a finish to that.
Back to interrogation where I have to laugh and laugh forever at Tommy's inner-city style rundown of how blackmail schemes work, not to mention his incredulity upon discovering that they already went through this once with the daughter. I love you, Tommy. I wish you were real. We also, at this point, find out that the first hit was free, which Tommy promptly sticks a lampshade on. Up comes Stan outside of interrogation with a paper detailing the registration information on those headlights on the murder weapon, which Nathan promptly texts to Tommy in interrogation. It turns out the people who the murder weapon was registered to are partners with the Hamiltons in an organic vegetable farm. The plot congeals! Actually it just sort of sloshes around a bit.
And since we've advanced that plot juice enough we'll put that on simmer and move over to Dwight's truck! Dwight's other truck. We did see the utility truck briefly in Real Estate but so far this season it's been mostly his Ford WhateverThatIs. And what's that in front of the bumper? Hey, look, it's a hashtag! Take a drink. Dwight and Jordan are having a conversation full of awkward tension, beginning with the fact that until it gets to serious external matters neither of them can look at each other. Interestingly, Jordan seems to think Dwight thinks she called him for a different reason. (I personally like to think it has something to do with a prior romantic relationship between the two of them, but there's no concrete evidence to support that.) She starts off with "Dwight, I called you because..." which is the sort of thing you say when you're contradicting someone's expectation, emphasizing action and cause of action. But no, this has nothing to do with whatever's preventing them from looking at each other, and she gives the broad strokes, the importance of which he catches immediately. Whoever Grady is/was, he was someone both of them relied upon and trusted both as a person and as a competent whatever-his-function-was. Given the dog tags later, there might be some sort of shared military experience with Dwight. Jordan doesn't say outright that she thinks Grady is the Bolt Gun killer, which might be hopefulness on her part or might be not wanting Dwight to go off and do something stupid, or a combination of both. But, as Dwight says, to protect the Guard she needs to bring Grady in discreetly. And if Dwight's doing this he's doing it to protect Grady, which Jordan most likely was counting on as her hook to get him in on this. Also as her best chance to talk to/deal with Grady, considering both of them have shared personal history with him. It's a good choice.
For right now, though, they're not talking to Grady, they're talking to the guy Grady was supposed to bring in. Who, understandably, is pissed off at them when Jordan identifies herself as Guard, considering the Guard probably uprooted him from wherever he had built a life for himself and moved him across the country to a strange place, only to supposedly abandon him. Jordan doesn't apologize in words but she does give him a number to call for the help he should have gotten, perhaps assuming that an apology won't do so much for goodwill as the help he was supposed to get. Dwight's use of the phrase welcome package reminds us/informs those who didn't watch the supplementary videos of the Guard's practice of handing out basic information/kits tailored to the Troubled when they first arrive in Haven. I suspect that last part, anyway. Particularly in light of Dwight's security blanket armor. The guy, Ray, doesn't know what happened to Grady, just that he went to the Kitchener Mill and before he found Grady the cops showed up, so he ran. Like you do when you think everyone is out to get you.
Meanwhile, Back In Colorado. I take a couple of seconds to blink and re-read that sign that does not say the West-Haven Geriatric Care Facility, but the West-Head Geriatric etc. Mrs. Cogan is knitting something that, most likely, is only there to keep her hands busy and/or because her mind thinks she is a person who does a deal of knitting. The overall sense of the room is that of a care facility trying to make each resident's room a place where they feel comfortable and at home. The only thing I would note here is that she's in a long-term care facility of the sort that many people suffering from age-related dementia are eventually placed in, the kind where there are nurses and doctors on staff but all elements are made to look like an apartment building or a residence rather than an actual medical hospice care facility. And as we see, she definitely suffers from age-related dementia. For her, it's 1967, James is nine years old, and as we see in a moment she's familiar with AudSarLu by the name of Sarah, not Lucy as Audrey expects. She also seems afraid of or upset by Sarah, for reasons not yet apparent. Duke tries to buy Audrey time but it doesn't work, and the nurse who comes in at all the shouting goes to get security.
Back in Maine, Nathan and Tommy are walking up the drive to the home of Sophie and Charlie Carter, the couple the Hamiltons knew and shared a business with. Also the owners of that murdering car. Nathan notes the lack of a Range Rover and Tommy notes the idiocy of parking a car used in the commission of a homicide in the open driveway of your house. Oh Tommy. Why aren't you real? They knock, announce, and open the door to... another body. Which of course means Nathan pushes the door the rest of the way open with his shoulder as his hands are currently occupied with his gun. The rest of the room consists of parlor type furniture, a more clear view of a corpse with two bleeding wounds in his back, and a distraught blonde woman clutching a phone and staring out the window at the sunset as if her life depended on it. Well, her husband's probably does. The sun sets, the man does not twitch awake, and she wails about why didn't it work, she paid the damn money. We also learn a little bit more about how this works, which is to say that someone was supposed to come and lay hands on him, and it had to be done by sundown. And Sophia (for it is she) doesn't know who killed her husband.
Hey, look, it's the paramedics again. Wheeling away yet another body. They go over the case with the questions we would expect, most of it police work but nothing significant or giving us additional clues as to what's going on. Suspect pool narrows, Nathan assigns Tommy the legwork as he gets a call from Audrey. She tells him about the safe house run by the Guard, he tells her about the nationwide Guard network, and again we see how fragile their relationship has gotten because instead of assuming he just found out about this, she assumes he knew and had been keeping it from her. At the very least she's suspicious and asks him if there's anything else he needs to tell her. Cue Nathan summarizing the current case in one sentence and a very how is this my life tone, which is the closest we've heard to their old normal in a while, I think. Certainly it's the closest we've seen to his old talking-to-Audrey smile in a while. Oh Nathan. (Drink!) Tommy and him have it under control, which is part be-proud-of-me by the expression on his face and by the way he ducks his head, and part don't-fuss-at-me. And then he goes and spoils it by saying he hopes she and Duke find some answers, in the slightly sulky tone he seems to use whenever he talks about Duke with her this season. Audrey, giving up on the conversation, thanks him and hangs up. Oh everyone.
It makes a nice segue, though, because we follow her after she hangs up rather than Nathan. Duke comes in and asks after Officer Grumpy, which means Audrey wasn't sneaking that phone call, just taking care of that business while Duke took care of other business. Which is sort of like a good sign. Officer Grumpy also dates Duke as to his age, to my eternal amusement; for those of you not raised in the US at a particular generational point, there was a program in many many cities where a police officer ostensibly called Officer Friendly would come by your school and talk to you about Don't Do Drugs, Stranger Danger, Police Officers Are Your Friends, and other simplistic ideas people mistakenly think kids should have in their minds. (Stranger Danger, famously, worked in reverse for reasons more suited to a Criminal Minds recaplysis than here.) Anyway. As one might expect if one is at all familiar with the conventions of throwing two people together, there are no other rooms in the inn. Apparently there's a lumberjack tournament in town. I love the writers, I'm just saying. Audrey chews over the very very insufficient data yet again, and yet again refers to herself as being in love with the Colorado Kid. Audrey, honey, I promise, that data won't get any meatier for chewing on it some more. I've tried. And maybe Sarah helped to relocate Troubled people, but June also apparently knew Sarah as someone to be feared, so there's something hinky going on there. (A: Is now when we get to remind everyone that Dave Teagues' greatest fear was Sarah? Because I'm just saying.) (K: No. Now is not the time for fear. That comes later.) (A: Yes, Bane.) Duke tosses out a few opinions that are mostly restatements of what we all know and then confesses to lifting a photo album from the woman's dresser. Oh Duke. (Drink!) Audrey looks and talks like her face is tensed up from trying not to laugh, gives up and smiles as she says it's the sweetest form of thievery ever. We have a couple moments of going through the album and looking at the photos, and while a couple of the photos are clearly of June and Paul Cogan with baby James, some of them have other children in them and I cannot guarantee that that will not be Important Later. But right now, say it with me folks, insufficient data. Duke's question of "do you feel anything when you look at [the pictures]" has some tension in it when he says it which is clear in his face and which I put down to a little fear, a little jealousy. Not the kind that Nathan's feeling right now, which is possibly because Audrey's never expressed a clear romantic interest in him and, in fact, turned him down a couple of times, but he's definitely got a self-interested fear that her affection/fascination for the Colorado Kid will pull her away from him. Again, unlike Nathan, and going by his behavior this season, he doesn't want to have her all for himself. He just wants to have her in his life, and for her to be happy. He values her for who she is and as a friend, as shown by his repeated comments along the lines of "At least I got to know Audrey Parker." It's adorable, and it comes at a decent time if a shade heavily played out, to be at the end of a long period of character development. So, slightly jealous Duke is trying to hide his upset as they look for signs of Lucy in the photo album, but what they find instead is a picture of James Cogan at his wedding. To someone who is clearly not Lucy. Which also took place in 1983, by the way. James and Arla Cogan, 1983. This skewers all of Audrey's theories about the great love of Lucy's life, and now she's fishtailing all over the mental ice and wondering how Lucy or even Sarah fit into James Cogan's life. Possibly she's wondering if she and James Cogan had an affair as she talks, even starts to babble, and Duke cuts her off with a slightly snippy or just plain tired "why don't we just focus on one past life at a time." Hell, the data's so thin on the ground, why bother. But Duke then points out, very reasonably, that marriages have records (or at least legal ones do) and so it'd be worth going and looking up this Arla Cogan to see what happened to her.
Back over in Haven, Nathan and Tommy are wrapping up the interviews with the workers, to no apparent effect. Sophie Carter comes out with a rattly tray of tea or coffee or something in mugs, most likely rattly because of her nerves. She apologizes for the state of the coftea and this leads to finding out that there's a housekeeper who gets paid under the table and also worked for the Hamiltons. You know, in the category of things the police probably could have stood to know about a few hours earlier.
Over to the house with, hey, the paramedics we've been seeing all over the place! Lady paramedic is insisting on something about her sister, and family bonds, etc. All her partner knows is that her sister dragged her into a blackmail scheme, and the lady paramedic says they should have gotten to Charlie Carter quicker. So, yes, Charlie Carter is really most sincerely dead, and there's some limitations on this Trouble. After I have a moment of wondering if this family is related to the gravedigger at all Moira/Claudia Black bursts in telling lady paramedic, whose name is evidently Noelle, that they have to leave. Now. Now now now now now. Noelle's partner tries to get Moira to leave her alone, referring to Moira as 'punishing her' which could be hyperbolic but as we soon see, not so much, and Moira responds with a scornful remark. Or three. The argument culminates in Moira shooting her sister's partner in the head, as we could somewhat guess was going to happen for the logistical purposes of demonstrating the bring people back to life ability. After the commercial break!
As it turns out it does involve a laying on of hands, for which Noelle will do whatever Moira says just as long as she can heal him. And then we do see the price she has to pay, which is that she takes the death into herself and it's reflected in her own body. I swear I've heard this somewhere before, but in the last 24 hours I haven't been able to figure out where or from what story. If anyone wants to volunteer a thing, that would be great! Anyway, it does seem one of the top five most obvious choices for a price to pay, and Moira hushes her and says big sister's going to make it all better. I deeply, deeply question your idea of better, Moira. By the time the cops are there from the sound of the gunshot the paramedic and her sister are long gone, and the other paramedic is sitting there with a I-just-got-my-brains-scrambled look on his face. Because, well, he did just get his brains scrambled. At this point I feel I should say something to the effect of cop dialogue on Haven is solely for the purpose of recapping the facts of the case in case the audience got lost in all the twitching over the Trouble of the week. Maybe I'll start leading them with "the facts were these." It culminates in Nathan saying they couldn't have gotten far with that roadblock, which is an excellent demonstration of the power of line references, now we know there's a roadblock in place. Tommy shakes his head as if to start refuting that, but they're interrupted by Laverne calling Nathan honey again and letting us all know that the sisters used to live in a cabin out by Trapingi/u/as (? fucking English) Cove. Again with line references and this time to highlight the isolation they're about to go into, Tommy asks for the address and Nathan tells him they don't use addresses up there, too isolated, they'll have to search cabin by cabin. This actually is true and probably many of you are nodding along as though it were self evident, but for those of you who don't have personal experience, there are indeed remote sections of the US (and probably many, many other countries) that don't have postal addresses. My family farm was one such for many years! They head off to get the personnel and equipment to check the cabins and we cut up to the cabin ahead of them.
It looks like it takes a while to recover from the strain of healing someone, because Moira is still supporting Noelle as they stagger into the cabin and Claudia Black, honey, your accent is slipping there. She's (Moira, not Claudia Black) disgusted that they can't get out of Haven tonight, which means baby sister is in for a tongue lashing. She grumps about it, then hands Noelle the ledger as she closes the curtains. Noelle is astonished that her big sister could kill that many people and I have to crack up here as Moira's utterly blase about shrugging and "temporarily!" Only in Haven, I swear. We find out that find out that more than one healing/death a day is dangerous, that Moira looks on this familial talent as a disease, which may be jealousy that she doesn't have it or may be some other issue. We hear the emphasis on touching a body with her bare hands, remember those purple artifact-handling gloves earlier? I told you those would Be Important Later! And then we find out the really real issue, which is that both sisters blame Noelle for letting their father die. Moira using it to blackmail her sister into helping her blackmail people for money, and Noelle using it as the impetus to become a paramedic. As much as I distrust Claire, one thing I've never argued: this town needs a battalion of therapists.
Danville Motel, Audrey and Duke! I feel like I've seen the sign for the Danville Motel somewhere, but I'll have to content myself with it being a reference to Patrick Danville from Stephen King's Insomnia. Because it probably is. Oh, and Danville also turns up at the end of the Dark Tower series, because this season is apparently all about the Dark Tower. Inside the motel and away from the Tower (please god) we find out that Arla Cogan killed herself when the Colorado Kid went missing. Went missing in May? Or was discovered dead in Haven a couple weeks later? Hard to say, since that paper Audrey's waving around doesn't have a date that we can read. And now she's trying to cope with the idea that no, she and the Colorado Kid didn't have a torrid love affair in a past life, and nothing is what she thought it was, she's going to get drunk on a couple of beers now. Duke offers her some Funions from the vending machine which prompts a tangent on funions, pizza, hand-rolled cigars, skydiving, and Pez, and by this we know she's stressed and tipsy because Audrey doesn't usually unspool (heh) like this. But she keeps having to rewrite who she is based on not knowing who she was. And that's just exhausting, even for us more normal folk. I take a moment to wonder if Pez is a reference to The Pretender, about a guy who reinvented himself voluntarily every episode, and Duke tells her that he has Cuban cigars on the Cape Rouge, of course you do, Duke. He's been telling her for a month (which gives us a reference point in time, too, albeit a vague one because if there's 20 days left it hasn't been a month) that she should experience things she wants to. And Audrey really can't keep a straight line of conversation but the gist of it is that she needs some way to cope with what is happening to her, what will happen to her, and she's not finding it. So now she's going to try doing what she wants to do, living life how she wants to live it, as much as she can, as long as she has.
Duke, because he is a good, good friend, will support her however she decides, and says so. It's the kind of support she hasn't been getting from Nathan, not as overtly as she needs to hear it, not after she pushed him away. Somehow, Duke saw through and wasn't as hurt by Audrey putting up her self-protective barriers (A: Probably because he does something similar albeit with different mechanisms), and so now Duke is in a position that Nathan is not, to support her and be there for her when she does need someone to lean on and tell her it's okay, whatever she does will be okay. Particularly now that she's feeling adrift because she has no idea who she is. She's leaning on Duke's idea of who she is, or at least that he has that idea, as expressed by his statement that he'd do anything she needed him to. Help her find her past, or fight her future. Leading to discarding the past and the future, neither of which are happy options for her, and leaving her with only the present, which is Duke. Right here in front of her. We all know where this goes, and while it is a joyful scene in some ways because they really do care for each other, there are some complex problems inherent in them taking up together, which aren't addressed by a moment of desperate kissing.
And Audrey breaks it off when the clothes start to come off, which is probably a good thing and understandable. And in no particular order, the things I find admirable about this scene include the fact that neither of them are played as negatives, not him for kissing her and initiating the stripping and stopping, not her for stopping the increasingly passionate kisses and walking out for some air. They're two characters with a complex relationship, who are allowed to be complex and have feelings that make them do things they think aren't such a good idea a moment later, and then change their minds. I love that Duke just nods and accepts that she's not ready for this, I love that Audrey takes a moment to breathe and then find her words and explain to Duke why she stopped and backed up right there. I think that had neither of them done each of those things they both would have been worse off. But in doing so, they took care of themselves and each other, even if it hurt. And I love Duke kind of looking at the ceiling and taking a long drink, resigned, tired, but probably going to bed that night feeling perfectly at ease with what he did.
And in the morning there's coffee for both of them and sheepish, affectionate smiles and their teasing banter and chemistry hasn't changed a jot for what happened. Actually it's probably deepened. This is going to cause some serious problems with Nathan when they get back to Haven, but if either of them realizes it right now they're not thinking about it. This is them-time and time for Audrey to relax and be, in a way, Duke's Audrey, the person he knows her to be. And now that I write it like that, I think that's part of what appeals about Duke, the person she is to him is a good person, and someone she wants to be. Speaking of Duke's image of her, Duke comments and makes faces about trying to imagine her in a red-head, which sparks an idea!
That we do not yet get to see because now we're over to Nathan and Tommy checking out cabins again. As Tommy says, one cabin down, plenty more to go, as Nathan gets a call from Dwight. He's out on Route 17 and they found Grady's body, Dwight specifically is holding his dog tags. Jordan takes the phone from Dwight after he tells Nathan that Grady's been dead a while, burned out car, isn't likely the Bolt Gun killer. It's a bit telling how unbothered by this Jordan is, particularly in light of Grady being her friend, but Jordan also introduces Nathan to the idea of someone going rogue in the police department a lot more gently than I'd expect, so maybe she's just holding everything in and will explode later. Given her power, control would have to be a large part of her everyday life, and she may well fall back on that in this sort of crisis as a piece of structure to which she can cling. Anyway, she tells Nathan she suspects a rogue police officer of killing Grady, cue ominous close-up.
Back to the cabin of sisterly unlove, and Moira's going to go raid the other cabins for supplies to wait out the roadblock. Which isn't the worst idea ever, though mistreating her sister some more and then giving her a gun might be. I don't think so, given the sister's behavior, but it could have been. Moira reminds Noelle that she's the only family she's got, in case Noelle thinks about doing that thing I really want her to do, then pulls on her backpack and leaves.
Back to West-Head! Audrey has in fact done what we thought she would and found a decent red-headed wig (better than the one she was wearing in Dave's nightmares anyway) and is appearing to June Cogan in a skirt and conservative looking sweater. June, of course, sees Sarah, and begs her to give her another chance. (!) She says that the day she (Sarah) brought him was like a miracle, they're a family now, and she named him James. (!!) More begging Sarah not to take him away, they've kept him safe, and June knows it must have hurt to give him up but she can keep him safe, she can protect Sarah's baby. (!!!!!) Audrey stammers out "James Cogan is my son?" loud enough for the lurking Duke in the doorway to hear, at least. See, Duke? No need to be jealous. Plenty of need to make faces, though. That seems like all we're going to get out of Colorado, too, because the next shot is a plane taking off and then an establishing shot of Haven.
For confirmation Duke comments about Home Sweet Haven and gripes about potholes, and apologizes to Audrey that they didn't get anything more. Audrey says they got the important part, which I deeply question considering Audrey doesn't even know how much more there might have been to get. Still, yes, finding out that James Cogan was either her son or a baby she had care of is important, and it's probably all they were going to get out of June. Audrey's having a difficult time processing. I would too if I were her! Duke offers it could be their secret, which is sweet, but probably not what needs to happen, and I will hazard a guess that what Audrey's doing here is expressing her displeasure about all the secrets they've all been keeping lately. Albeit doing so in a gentler manner because Duke's trying to help, not to keep secrets from people to deliberately keep people in the dark or out of maliciousness. They smile at each other and it's another one of those moments that could be tense and awkward but, as Duke says, saved by the cell. In this case Nathan calling to summon Audrey to be a cop and help him search the cabins at what I have decided is spelled Trapingus Cove. (Stupid, stupid English.) He doesn't even react much when Audrey says she'll be there as fast as Duke can drive her, although Duke looks over with sort of an eyebrow. I think that's her way of warning Nathan that she's still with Duke and everyone needs to play nice. Nathan stomps past that and gets her the coordinates to the cabins. Which, by the way, forces him to monkey around with Tommy's GPS. And now he knows that Tommy's been around Route 17. Cue scare appearance by Tommy as he leans in the window and asks if Nathan wants to drive them to the next cabin. Which Nathan brushes off, but when we cut to commercial we do so on a close up of Nathan's face as he starts putting pieces together. That's a decidedly 'oh shit' look.
Nathan gets a call from Jordan, ignores it, and now I really, really wish he hadn't done that. I understand why he did, he's on cop business and he can't always stop to answer or ask her questions, but goddammit. Since this is the last cabin narrative determination means it's the correct cabin, and Nathan knocks and announces, only to hear Noelle begging him not to come any closer. A bit of hostage negotiation, Noelle begging for clemency for her sister because Moira's had it rough, she never got over their dad's death. Noelle, honey, it's not just Moira, and no offense but your sister's a manipulative bitch. Nathan points out that she did stab a guy and Noelle explains that she was supposed to bring him back. Because that makes it all better! One justification after another, judging by the tears and pleading she knows it's not a good or even a bad excuse, but she's so bound up in protecting her sister at this point that it's instinct. Tommy comes in the back, disarms her with a +2 Flanking bonus. Now, the only reason I can think of for Nathan to tell Tommy to stay with her while he gets a blanket out of the trunk is so Nathan can search the car, especially now that he knows Tommy's hinky. There are clearly blankets all over that cabin. Whether or not Tommy figures out that Nathan knows or is just keeping him from rummaging in the trunk on general principle is unclear, but it's okay! Nathan will take the opportunity to send Tommy back inside later to see if Moira left anything behind. (Giving us another Tommy gem, "Left behind a whole sister!" Oh Tommy, why are you evil.) And now Nathan's rummaging in the trunk, finding the captive bolt pistol as by now we knew he would, and hey! There's Tommy popping up behind him in traditional horror/suspense movie fashion. Aren't you proud, Nathan? He modified the thing himself. The music even cues us that he's the Bolt Gun Killer, it's the same as when Audrey was kidnapped by someone in the basement of the Altair Bay Inn. He shoots Nathan once from close-body, only raising his forearm, not the signature of a cop who are trained to shoot at near-full extension. In the woods, Moira pops up, sees this, and disappears before anyone can see her. Smart. Nathan stumbles into him gasping "You're the bolt gun killer?" as we all go "Yes, honey," and Tommy shoots him again. Of course Tommy's either forgotten or discounted Noelle, who takes off running, like you do when the cops are shooting each other around you, and he shoots at her a couple times right before Duke and Audrey drive up.
As much as I love how Duke is the one who runs up to Nathan while Audrey stares in disbelief, this scene breaks my heart. Tommy offers some very, very lame lies about how Noelle shot him and by the time he got out there, etc. Duke knows they're lame. Duke disbelieves you so hard, Tommy, but he doesn't have time for you now. He and Audrey are busy clinging to a dying Nathan who is busy being Christlike all over the ground. Seriously, look at that pose.
So, while we're all staring at that dreaded "To be Continued" text on our screen, I have to point something out that at least mitigates the silliness of Nathan's disbelief in Tommy being the Bolt Gun Killer. For one thing, Captain Obvious says that Tommy's kind of, well, not white. Like the Bolt Gun killer is, or at least the one Audrey saw and the one caught on camera at the ATM. It's entirely possible that there's two Bolt Gun Killers working in tandem, that has happened before and will surely happen again, but for now all descriptions of the unsub involve the words "white male." For another thing, as far as Nathan knows, Tommy arrived in Haven after the kidnapping and after that started, and he did confirm that Tommy was from Boston with the police department there. Hard to be in two places at once, right? Unless, of course, you're Troubled. Which brings me around to my point that we and at least one other clever fan noted way back in the beginning of this season. What if that body in the bag and now in the shallow grave outside of Tommy's first motel was Tommy? And a chameleon took his place? This would account for the different initial appearance, depending on how chameleons work (because we're still not sure with only one example) it might even account for the different appearance at the ATM, and it would account for the tattoo being in a funny place. It accounts for Grady and it accounts for some of those interesting behavior changes we've seen in Tommy, as well as Tommy knowing a number of things he probably didn't have time to research about the creepy brothers Teague back in Over My Head. It also accounts for Tommy-not-Tommy being able to act like Tommy Bowen so thoroughly; remember, chameleons take the subjects' memories too. Regardless of how he's the Bolt Gun Killer, it's certainly clear that he has a bolt gun, he has used it before, he's a very good suspect in Grady's murder, and he's either killed or is about to kill Nathan. So, evil. Oh Tommy. Why did you do that?
Next week on Haven! White-eyed Duke! Shirtless Dwight! Pissed-off Audrey! ACTUAL WORDS! We get to hear the actual L word, it only took two and most of a third season! (A: Of course with our luck Nathan's probably dead at the time, and not in the ha-ha Eddie Izzard way. If I'm right I will make SO MANY TROLLFACES you have no idea.) And of course, Nathan dying and coming back. Fortunately the nature of the Trouble this time prevents him from coming back in three days, or I might have to find a book on Christ imagery and beat someone with it. I have to say, though, with Audrey finally coughing up words, does everyone remember that the Crocker box says Omnia Vincit Amor? Because we damn well haven't forgotten.
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