And So It Begins Haven S1E01 Welcome to Haven

Indeed, welcome back! We promised a long time ago that we'd get around to doing recaplyses for the first two seasons, and we intend to fulfill half of that promise over the summer. Doing this is going to be a fascinating exercise in balancing what we know now with what we knew way back when these eps first aired, so you'll have to bear with us as we find our way to something short enough to get posted but long enough to be complete.

Without further ado, then, we begin! Our intro is the end credits music over a panorama shot of Boston, down to street level and into Audrey's bedroom. The bed linens and their woodsy print give us some indication that she's not sticking around the city long and/or she prefers the outdoors to the city but doesn't get much of a chance to indulge. Then again, given that this was all crafted by Agent Fuck You, that might be an implanted desire. Books books everywhere, that's frankly more books than I usually keep by my bed unless I'm hip-deep in research. And even then I try to keep it somewhat less precarious. So AudSarLu, on waking up for the first time in 27 years, has sheets with a forest pattern, a metric fuckton of books, damn near no furniture or paintings hung, and a clock radio that plays Love Will Keep Us Together. Uh. Huh. Well fucking played, writers. Howard. All of you. Also nicely pragmatic pjs, for which I am duly grateful. Our first introduction to Audrey herself is some bitching about how early it is (which, given the slant of the sun, suggests it's a) summer-ish and b) before 7 at least) and some good-natured ribbing about the vacation time she doesn't get. I don't think it counts as vacation time if you don't remember it, and fuck you, Howard, you staged this apartment and gave her her memories to make her into a workaholic. Which I bet is another of those qualities selected for when they go to find a new host personality. Anyway. Oh, speaking of staged, the two books we do get a closeup of, one is titled "Unstake my Heart" which is nicely pointed given how hearts and their wishes fit into the structure of this world, and the other one has a back blurb that begins with, in all capital letters, "To the Tenth Generation." You fuckers. I'm just saying, you sneaky fuckers. I refuse to believe that was an accidental close-up. Again, anyway. She's also snarky without being completely insubordinate, disciplined without being military. It's a nice mix of traits, even if it is largely an implant.

Howard starts teasing about her choice of reading material (see, I told you that wasn't put there by accident) as a way to start talking about how the FBI is non-fiction, which gives us a framework to put her in along with her seeming to be something of a rebel within that structure. This isn't very surprising; with the exception of a very few, very well done TV shows, it gets boring to watch people who conform to the TV standards of what law enforcement should be. (Actually, come to think of it, the shows that allow characters to conform to a system are also heavy on the idealism, not of the system but of the people who know how to use it for the better.) So we have a sort of framework, and those of us who came to this show because we were Stephen King nerds already know that this framework is going to vanish in a puff of smoke as soon as our heroine reaches Maine, but it helps us understand where she's coming from. Some of the writing gets awkward now, I think partly because they were trying to cram a lot of information into very little time, but let's break it down. Something happened in Miami, at least by Audrey's memories, that was inexplicable by mundane means. What doesn't matter, and we never find out, because it is, at a guess, either a wholly fabricated or a slightly tweaked memory to give Audrey the ability to consider supernatural explanations. Howard, whose name we still don't have, is trying on the surface of things to convince his agent that she needs to be careful about leaping to less-than-mundane conclusions, and on the flip side is doing some bog standard reverse psychology manipulation. And then we get the part with "where I grew up, a blind alley was even better than reality," which manages to remind me of the abandoned lot in which the Rose grew in Dark Tower for whatever reason, along with telling us that Audrey had a hard childhood of some kind. I don't think that part was actually necessary, and she's pretty awkward and uncomfortable about flinging it out there as a distraction. It gets her a rather paternalistic look, followed by Hey Look Let's Change The Subject.

So, yes, Audrey's off to Haven, Maine, to pick up an escaped convict who killed a guard. I just want to note that Agent Fuck You gestures at the folder with the details of the case when he says "that's your reality," and I'm pretty sure he means Haven, not the case. Because he's Agent Fuck You. In fact all the rest of this speech is full of fucking doublespeak, from the good/great agent bits (what, does she eventually get to graduate to barnvatar?) to focus on the job (uh-huh yeah right, you don't mean Lester). Sigh. Audrey just kind of eyerolls at him and internalizes all of what he's saying, because when you're being lectured by your superior you don't let on that it's pissing you off. Still, there's that spark of snark again when she tells him to put the book back when he's done with it, and a nice long lingering ominous shot of Howard as he pockets the book and turns to leave. We know by the shot on the book that This Will Be Important Later, though granted we don't know that it's going to be left unresolved until fucking season 2 at this point.

Then the camera zooms in on the man in question, Lester James, and oh, hey, there he is! Chasing someone through the woods! We get a bit where it's unclear if he's being chased or doing the chasing, and then a bizarre confrontation on the clifftop where he's shouting at someone about shooting them. Looks like a male someone, but unclear as yet, and whoops, dude, you just lost your gun. That was a bit of a gust of wind! That was... a lot of a gust of wind! Next time don't menace anyone when a weather witch is around, okay? Well, this just became a homicide investigation for our friendly local agent, not that she knows it yet. The camera zooms in, giving us a look at the person being pursued, and we can clearly see that it's a guy, now, though not much more detail than a shadowed profile. Still, it helps with basic identification later, and roll title screen! Which quickly fades into an overview of Haven and Audrey's little red rental tooling along the coastal road and a radio announcer talking about six of seven of Tommy someone's missing fingers have been returned. Given Tommy Bowen season 3 and the Tommyknockers and every other goddamn thing, I assume this is a King reference. You sneaky bastards. And then, changing over to something with music, which means Audrey misses the crack opening in the road, which leads to nearly going over the cliff! Whoops. Garland, who pissed in your cheerios this morning? Given that the barnvatar Agent Fuck You Audrey's Supervisor just sent her into Haven, that might even be Garland getting the news that she's coming back and being dismayed by what that means. Fortunately, Haven's shitty infrastructure appears not to extend to the guardrails and even though love will still keep us together I'm not convinced she couldn't have gotten out of the car just fine. I will agree that that's an atrocious song to be in mortal peril to, even if that's a bit of a reckless move, which tells us more about Audrey, at least insofar as her implanted personality goes. She doesn't have to do it all on her own, however! Nathan will now proceed to scare her half to death. Bad Nathan. I approve of the little bantering exchange, which neatly sets the tone for the entire rest of their relationship: truth layered under sarcasm layered under stoicism. Aww. Now kiss. Or haul Audrey out of the teetering car at cliff's edge, we'll go with that, and notably they could have framed any part of this to place Audrey as the damsel in distress, but they don't. Instead she's consistently framed as a comrade-in-arms if anything.

Car goes off cliff, stoic/shocked faces and tension-dispersing quips ensue, but wait! What's that! A gun? Nathan, you are really fucking twitchy, may I just say, if someone carrying a gun in the usual law enforcement position sets you off like that. Or unaccustomed to processing fine details so much as noticing them. At any rate, we get the requisite tension ratcheted back up as they both go for their guns, and really, you two, you should BOTH know better. Someone who's casual about helping a stranger in that serious of a car accident probably has some kind of crisis training. Someone who's calm about hanging halfway off a cliff probably does too. No? No. Okay then, we'll do this. They both even have standard issue Weaver stance. Seriously, you guys. Then again, recognizing that while you've got a gun in your face is a little difficult even with crisis training. This then leads to one of my favorite lines in any standoff ever, because so rarely do we get snark like this and it is brilliant and glorious. It is also distinctive, which means that when we get it again at the end of the season both we and the characters recognize it and that the fact that the unusual snark is repeated word for word means Something Hinky Is Going On. Nathan appreciates the snark too, even if his stoic Haven PD face means we get barely a liptwitch indicating his desire to smile. Shields shown off, they then get around to holstering their guns with a very one-two-three series of gestures even if they don't actually count. It's kind of adorable. Kind of a lot adorable, come to that. They're both dressed in several layers here, too, both for the Maine weather (on Nathan's part) and professionalism (on Audrey's part), and also because for the symbolic self-protection and lack of information they're revealing. So, alright, one total fabrication about sandstone (which doesn't exist in Maine) and sniping about not commandeering Nathan's vehicle later, and we get our second major indication that all is not normal in the town of Haven. (The crack is our first minor indication.) Poor Nathan and his fingers and his idiopathic neuropathy. Audrey makes the more usual assumption about that, with her tough-guy comment, telling us that however much she may be inclined to accept the unlikely she also doesn't leap there without evidence for it. Though her comment is somewhat perfunctory as well and leads straight into asking after Jonas Lester. For someone as exuberant as Lucas Bryant seems to be, he's manages to communicate amusement and oh-shit-here-we-go with that one look and sentence about "just left him."

And it's on over to the crime scene for some more sardonic Maine snark! Audrey checks out the body, Garland snipes about how dead bodies don't change much, and Nathan tries to play peacemaker. Oh honey. Though we're first introduced to him only as Chief Wuornos, telling us that the man is the job, at least on initial meeting. He's also your standard small-town sheriff and right here is where I wonder how much they told Nick Campbell for the pilot. Because the Chief is supposed to be this damn good at hiding what he knows that it is, frankly, impossible to tell for sure how much of this reaction is actor-based and how much is standard squinty-eyed suspicious sheriff. It makes a great cover for recognizing her as having been Lucy, though! There's some bog-standard cop banter about Lester's escape (and a less standard attempt from Audrey to smooth over jurisdictional friction with a joke), and it's equally hard to say if Garland just missed the piece of paper or if he was trying to make Lester's death go away as quickly as possible to keep Audrey from getting involved. Given that the crack appeared around the time (we guess) Agent Fuck You was informing Garland of Audrey's return, on the road she would have likely been coming in on no less? If Haven's as small a town as it seems, having lived in a small town, there's only so many routes in and out and you get to know all of them. That crack wasn't there by coincidence. It might even have been the start of Garland's Trouble returning, for that matter. Anyway. Audrey does find the piece of paper, Nathan is a good cop who will get it to the lab techs, Garland snarks about Audrey's insight which is likely as much a way of testing how much of Lucy's perceptiveness is in there as it is jurisdictional snark. She does perceive enough to tell that it wasn't an accident (body too far from the edge of the heights) even if there are no other physical indications of murder. At which point Garland gets very upset and very defensive about it just being an accident, let dead cons lie, and investigating would be a waste of everyone's time. He doesn't try too hard, admittedly, to keep Nathan from joining her on a further investigation, but there's definitely animosity there towards someone or something. Audrey isn't leaving until she figures out everything to do with Lester and his presence here on account of he killed a Federal employee and she's just a bit tenacious.

So, she will call it in, like a good FBI agent does. Agent Howard is in a car somewhere where it's raining and that's all we get of his location, which for anyone who has seen enough procedurals is at least a little bit odd if not outright subtext (yes, you can have outright subtext, it's Haven) that something shady is going on with this character. Normally shadows and shades of gray, with a touch of mournful rain, are reserved for characters who are morally ambiguous but work in the interests of the protagonist, usually by doing things the protagonist can't or won't do. The light sky in the background (not blue, but light) indicates that he's in favor of the protagonist, therefore a "good guy" by general standards, but all the rain and shadow and half-to-three-quarters profile shots indicate dubiousness and sketch. He also doesn't say that he knows Chief Wuornos, which only makes us want to hit him more, later. He does say he trusts her instincts, which, the same. And then she gets her rescuer's name, which happens to be the same as the Chief and gets Nathan a "really? seriously?" look from Audrey. Not to be his last! Let us now read from the book of Nathan's Issues.

We get a nice, banter-y look at the relationship between Nathan and the Chief (acrimonious to say the least), on the surface full of rivalry and policemanship and underneath there seems to be a very clear delineation in Nathan's mind between his Dad and da Chief. He doesn't seem to have talked to his Dad in a while, mostly because his Dad has hidden behind da Chief, or at least that's my reading of things. However, lacking external crisis to bring this into the light, they're both content to let it stay buried. Which isn't the healthiest of situations but at least it's not getting worse? Ooh, Nathan will put away his issues long enough to dig into Audrey's! She is, or claims to be, a "free agent" which is pronounced in Nathan's language as "orphan." I'll be off in the corner suppressing my Pirates of Penzance urges. We also get our first look at the original name for Haven, Tuwiuwok, since the bluffs that launched the death investigation are called Tuwiuwok Bluffs. You see what I did there? Because they're playing around with words, words like "bluff" and "launch" and "Haven", too. They started it, why are you looking at me like that. Audrey finds Lester's footprints, chasing a second person until they end at Lester's launch point. Oh, hey, look. Uprooted trees and signs of a heavy wind. Nathan already checked, no wind last night. No cannon either. He's so cute. Audrey thinks so, too. They do find a hat, at least, which is proof of someone else's presence on the bluff and, oh, look. A gun. A literal one, for once! So we have a gun and a hat which Nathan thinks might belong to a guy whose money was stolen by Lester. A suspect! By George, a suspect!

As we head into town we have banter on two subjects: pancakes and Nathan's car (and by proxy, driving off cliffs). The pancakes will come up again later. Nathan's car won't, really. All those of you who are Team Pancake, here's your hats and badges. This again serves to introduce us both to the characters and their relationship and to the town, which we're driving into with an episode title drop. (Drink!) The hat in question belongs to a Gulf War vet who apparently distinguished himself during the war and the money in question was apparently in the form of vet benefits. Ouch. Lester stole money from a number of vets who, it's implied, he served with, so double ouch there. Nathan greets him with some friendly conversation about helping Marian, which will of course turn out to be important later because we're still in the early stages of the show where everything is important. Although Haven is worse about that than most shows. And then we get into it, which is that Nathan found Conrad's hat up on the bluff. Whatever reaction that might have elicited is eclipsed by the stronger reaction when Audrey steps in to hand it to him; apparently whatever happened to him in the Gulf left him with a more solid and bigger personal bubble than most people have. More violent reactions to it being breached, too. I have to say, as far as PTSD depictions go, this is both one of the less subtle and better portrayed ones I've seen. Personal space issues aside, Audrey would like to know when Conrad was up on the bluffs. A few monosyllabic answers later (and one lampshade, Ms. Parker, where would you like it) we learn that Conrad has a less than iron-clad alibi and, more importantly, does not want Audrey to go inside and question the shop owner. Who we see appearing briefly over his shoulder in the shop window, nice blocking there. She's just in view enough to get it on a third or fourth (or eighth, or twelfth) watching, but not in view enough for it to register immediately as significant. Conrad's hostility towards Audrey questioning the shop owner, Marian, for the record, of the aforementioned, extends enough to make Audrey come back as authoritative cop. He really doesn't want to let her in. Neither does the weather, apparently. This Will No Doubt Be Important Later, but right now that fog seems to come out of nowhere. And starts rolling down the street with a good low Dutch between the stores angle for maximum It's Coming To Eat Me blocking. Yes, Audrey, that's weird. You're going to be saying that a lot, I suggest you look up synonyms. Conrad's gone, there's a lot of fog, a lot of confusion as you'd expect when people are suddenly driving through pea soup fog, and oh shit, Nathan, a truck! Thereby establishing a pattern of recursive and reciprocal lifesaving between them that extends through the rest of the show. Bonus parallelism points for both these instances involving near-death by vehicular accidents. Have a pancake, everyone!

Not a Nathan pancake, fortunately; we come back after the break to one of many panoramic shots of Haven from the bay. God that town is pretty. This has the added bonus, in this case, of demonstrating that the fog's lifted even as we pan down to the street for confirmation and see Nathan getting patched up on a stretcher with typical little-boy-cop "aww can I go NOW?" No, Nathan, now you have to go back for an MRI with Eleanor, not that we get her name just yet. Right now she's just the resident EMT/coroner/friendly local medical professional on call for all manner of emergencies. This serves, beyond the lifesaving parallels for Audrey and Nathan's relationship, to give us a chance to explicate Nathan's Trouble a little bit! Not that we get confirmation that it's supernatural right now, right now we get medicobabble. Idiopathic neuropathy my ass. I remember way back when I first started watching this snickering over how he expected anyone to buy that line. And he's rubbing his shoulder sort of like a normal person who can feel would, though that may be a combination of a couple factors: a) looking normal helps other people in Haven who don't know about the Troubles deal with Nathan better and b) increased bloodflow to bruised tissue does generally aid healing time. Though I would be more inclined to do that later, myself, after the initial trauma. I suppose if you can't feel pain (or ice) there may be less point. Snark snark banter snicker oh Nathan, your pan is very dead. Amusingly, he uses a headache coming on the way people who do have a sense of touch would to indicate that he'd like not to talk about this anymore please. Not surprising, considering that he could feel just fine up until a couple years ago, so he has experience both ways. Poor honey. Knowing what you're missing has got to suck on so many levels. But we're not talking about that! Audrey will leap from one Trouble to the next for a subject change and Nathan will continue to dodge talking about any kind of anything that might be weird. No, Maine gets all kinds of fog! Including the obfuscating obnoxious policeman kind. Fog of war, anyone? Well, not outright, not yet, but anyway, Eleanor interrupts Nathan's bad attempts to cover by trying to drag him off to the hospital in the back of the wagon. Like you do when someone's medical issues means they won't notice anything's wrong as far as intracranial bleeding right up until they keel over dead or in a coma. Audrey tag-teams him, knowing the too-stubborn-for-own-good look when she sees it. Probably because pot, kettle. She'll play ET and call home before checking Conrad's alibi, Nathan will drop us a name for the ME very quietly and mutter about her overreacting, it's all fairly subtle and well-done. It's interesting that Audrey has Howard's direct line and uses it all the time; though it's not uncommon practice it is somewhat uncommon for him to be as immediately available to her he is, as procedurals go. There's often a staged Now You're On Your Own moment, but Agent Fuck You is taking particular interest in shepherding AudSarLu through this transition point so he's always there. And she's really just checking in, anyway, nothing relevant but she'll keep in touch.

What this phone call is for more than anything is to bring her into contact with Vince and Dave Teagues at a point where Audrey's not in the middle of anything else. Excuse me, I have to go get my steel wool in preparation, though at least this is the second time they've run across a new incarnation who wasn't the one they were both in love with. I cannot even begin to imagine how sleazed at Lucy Ripley must have felt. Poor woman. Their eagerness and awareness is right now passed off as nosy newspapermen but in reality it's quite obvious someone told them Audrey was in town and who (what) she was. Current betting's good for Garland or possibly Howard, though more likely Garland given the mild time delay since it looks like they've been chugging up to the latest batch of lights and sirens just as fast as their ancient legs can carry them. By the way, did we all notice that their offices are on King Street when Dave handed the business card over? Yes? Because fuck you guys I have to go buy a new desk again from facedesking so hard. Vince leads us into seriously creepy land with "I feel like I've seen you before." Vince, I know you're rattled and possibly trying to prime her for later discovering who and what she is, but I'm with your (just as creepy) little-big brother. Augh don't do that. They banter, establishing themselves as the creepy pair of brothers who will give us fits and send us diving for blankets and machetes in equal measure for the entire rest of the show, and Audrey is not taking any of their shit. She will call them. Don't call her. I love you Audrey. And they go off, still bickering, though fortunately for my remaining shreds of sanity they haven't god forbid giggled already.

Nathan has somehow managed to escape the much-loathed MRI, and now for much cuter and more police work! Marian and her partner are in the shop, and judging by their body language they're somewhat closer than just business partners, or he wants to be and she's too well-trained in being a nice polite woman who doesn't shove men away to tell him off. She's thinking of moving to Santa Barbara, which gives us the groundwork for Nobody Leaves Haven (unless it's in a bodybag) and hey, Audrey, have you been there? Please don't answer that. Nobody wants that answer. Worse, it's for two criminals that would make even me blanch and reconsider moving somewhere, no matter how unlikely a recurrence would be. Nathan would like to know what wolves in the foster system raised Audrey, by that expression on his face, and yes, yes indeed, she is the socially awkwardest. Though at least she realizes how much of her leg she's swallowed a second later and manages a really bad joke. Lampshades for everyone on Marian losing her mother not long ago, there's our triggering event for her Trouble, and Ted is awfully smarmy. I don't like him on sight. Nor are we supposed to, he's supposed to be the worldly and questionable male maybe-more-than-friend who's going to fuck over the vulnerable small-town woman. At any rate, we begin bog standard cop interrogation with the exception of this is a small town so they don't try to stick Marian and Ted in separate rooms. Besides, they can't have had time to get their stories straight yet, but Nathan gets a phone call and leaves Audrey to conduct the rest of the questioning without the benefit of either native guidance around the landmines or native support to break down the walls against strangers. Of both, there are traditionally many in small towns! They both alibi him, though, Ted in a general sense of backing up Marian and Marian as a childhood friend who might be half in love with him and not realize it. Oh honey. Also, he was a soldier, and while it's entirely possible that he is a very gentle man, he was a soldier. Well, points for self-delusion, I guess? Whatever that phone call was it's not something Nathan's going to talk about in front of civilians, so out of the store and onto the street we go!

Where we get our first mention of Duke! HI DUKE WE LOVE YOU. Ahem. Nathan we can tell already doesn't like him, and for that much dislike to be showing through in our well-established local stoic's voice it must be severe. On over to the Cape Rouge we go, a battered but clean and well-tended deck in view, and Nathan's comment about smuggling tells us at least what he thinks Duke's primary source of income is. Given the weirdness going on and Nathan's obvious biases, it's not too far of a stretch to take that with a lump or three of salt. But Duke is decidedly not at home; what we do get when Nathan peers into the pilot's cabin up top is a June 2010 tide chart with the lower right corner ripped off, which begins the lengthy and annoying process of trying to figure out what the fuck kind of internal chronology Haven is playing at. Goddamn The World Has Moved On tropes. We can see that Nathan thinks Duke's either hiding or was tipped off not to be there, which I suppose is possible but given our current knowledge base I'm going to go with, was out making deliveries/deals/what-have-you for his next trip out. And now it's time for Nathan's spiel about how unreliable and untrustworthy Duke is, and Audrey is sitting here going "what minefield did I fucking step into?" Like you do when it's Obviously Personal. Nathan could be more blatant about that, but he'd need a bullhorn and the ability to communicate what Duke actually did to him to a stranger. Also, I'm sure the "pain in my ass" comment launched a thousand ships right then and there. I'm just saying. At any rate, this means it's time to look for Duke in his usual haunts! Because clearly that will crack this case wide open! Nathan could also be more obvious about obstructing Audrey from finding out anything about the Troubles right away, but he'd need a big neon Don't Look Here sign. And a bullhorn.

Later that evening, we come back to Marian's shop instead of following our friendly LEOs around, which probably means they blew the whole day with an increasingly pissed off Nathan looking for Duke. Yaaaay. Conrad's at the store after hours checking on her for reasons that we the audience are supposed not to know. The whole thing is shot to deceive us into thinking they're conspirators in some respect, or at least deliberate ones. But she trusts him and he, obviously, trusts her; she's well within the personal space bubble he set out for Audrey and Nathan earlier or at least the camerawork indicates she is. She's scared, he's scared, he wants to handle the thing with Lester in his own way, they do seem to both Know Something but they're talking around it. So whatever it is that happened, they're not the kind of people who planned out his death in cold blood, even if Conrad's doing his best to play the stoic soldier and tamp down the worst of his fear. Which would help if he didn't, you know, admit to it in front of her. Hey, there's a massive storm suddenly rolling in! I can't think how these things might be related! Oh wait. Thunder, lightning, rain turning to hail as Audrey checks in with Nathan. Yep, wandering around all day with no luck and she's checking in at what sounds like the home office, because that's her business-FBI voice more than her talking-to-Nathan voice and she's mentioning Howard. Alright then! She's not going to make it back to her hotel room before the lightning strikes the power box and she goes flying into the water, but Audrey's not allowed to die so this must be an excuse for something else.

And, indeed, when we come back to the next scene which opens on the Cape Rouge's prow and gives us the Haven piano theme that we usually get at end credits, well, hi there Audrey in Duke's boat. Her second waking in this episode is damn well meant to be more than just literal oh I hate you all. You clever fuckers. Where we saw her for the first time, waking up alone in Boston in a bare and unlived-in apartment, we see her now waking up in Duke's boat after a near-death experience (or as close as you get on TV), in a cabin that is warm and homey and I think that quilt might be handmade. All the things her place isn't, in other words, and it's got to be deliberate that, okay, yeah, so he took her clothes (because they were WET and COLD and hypothermia is nobody's friend) but she's being cared for and tended to on her second awakening. I'm using that term deliberately, yes. Especially given that she is awakening to awareness of the Troubles and spends the entire rest of the show awakening to her own abilities and identity, and part of that identity is having to be loved and cared for before she can go back in the barn, at least according to the barnvatar. Excuse me. I have to go buy a new desk again. At any rate, despite not having her clothes there's an oversized shirt and her gun and shield on the table beside her, and Audrey, honey, though it might have gotten waterlogged do you really think someone with bad intentions would have left all that there? Though I'd be pretty paranoid too, so I can't entirely blame her for clearing her path in proper FBI fashion. At least she's not pointing the gun at Duke when she comes out with "you took my clothes." That's a... Chinese paper? It's bloody well not in English, so right off we establish Duke as someone who defies easy answers and everyone's assumptions. And her clothes are hanging up right there, though with the initial side-on shot of the line it's hard to see. Plus I'm focused on cackling at Duke's calm, amused smirking. As are we all, I'm sure; he's doing his very best to portray the rakish devil-may-care rogue type. Duke, honey, did you watch too much Star Wars growing up and decide that Han was a role model? I'm just asking. There's something in his expression that suggests he, like everyone else in this goddamn town, knows more about Audrey than he's telling, but at this point that's already turning into background noise. Singsong background I-know-something-you-don't-know variety. Grumblemutter.

He's very cute, though, offering her coffee and teasing about how she takes it. In such a way that implies that he knows as much if not more about her than she knows about herself, which, given where we are with Audrey and Duke and mostly Audrey now, is definitely cause for another oh you fuckers. In fact, from where we are now, it's almost as if they're setting up this conversation for a mirror conversation further down the line. Or at least, I wouldn't be surprised if that happens. Anyway, for someone who has plenty of reason not to like or want the cops around he's been extremely helpful to Audrey personally. Still, whatever she and Nathan talked about yesterday while they were looking for Duke has evidently worn off, or the irritation of looking for someone and wasting a day on him is wearing off, or the fear of having nearly gone and gotten dead by the weather is transferring... basically, Audrey has a lot of reasons to be sharp and brusque with Duke, and we can't really blame her for it. That said, Duke really isn't the kind of person to make mistakes if he felt the need to kill someone, and more than that, he's not the kind of guy who makes a habit of running around killing people. So we get another couple passes of banter and then, hey, his gun was stolen. Which gets him a not-quite Casablanca reference, which is moderately hilarious and really interesting, considering it's the one about "of all the gin joints in all the world," because AudSarLu will always have to walk into this little town of all the little Maine towns in the world. Unless they can break the cycle. She's still in full-on snarky FBI agent mode at this point, though, and reminds us (or informs those of us who didn't know) that not reporting a stolen gun is illegal. Except Duke did report it! Audrey has a reassessing look on her face as she brings gun and coffee on over to the table and chairs now that she's dressed (and how interesting is it that Duke only sneaks the one look before getting control of himself? if they were really setting him up as a bad guy he wouldn't have used the newspaper to shield his gaze, either) of the "well this is a shitpot I didn't know I was stepping in" variety. Also possibly the "I'm gonna kill Nathan when I find him" variety, assuming Duke's story checks out. Which is not quite what she tells him when he asks her if they're clear, but the comment on Nathan's dislike is more personal than professional. Duke clearly knows Nathan at least as well as Nathan knows Duke, or the front that they like to present each other with, because that is damn near verbatim a litany of his supposed character flaws. Audrey would like to know, as would we all, if Nathan's right, but Duke's not exactly in a sharing mood. Pain in the ass, definitely. Willing to admit to the rest, well, not without context, not to a stranger, and damn sure not going to ruin his perfectly good bad boy reputation in front of a federal agent. Or fully commit to it. Alright, then, subject change it is! How's the weather, Duke? Is it always this weird? And no, sorry, still not telling you about the Troubles, Audrey. Nobody is going to be communicative or volunteer information until she's agreed to stay, and that's even assuming that Duke and Nathan remember who she is, since they were awfully young and there's that weird mass amnesia effect going on. She seems to accept this, or at least accept that she's going to have to work around the local secrecy act, whatever it is, because she'll go get a birds'-eye view then! With or without you, Duke. Only she can't requisition a chopper or satellite imagery because her phone's toast. That's okay, Duke got her a pink princess phone! I would have a similar reaction, but Duke's right: she's pretty bad at gratitude. Pretty bad at being forced to rely on anyone else at all, in fact. Which is consistent with not just Audrey but what little we've seen of Lucy and some of Sarah's traits, as well. Independent and not inclined to follow where she can lead.

Back at the precinct, Audrey has that distracted look we will soon come to know and love in conjunction with being on the trail of a particular Trouble. While not, in this case, having a damn clue what the Troubles are. Nathan, I know she's an outsider, but you really are being a jackass here, and you're bad at lying. The only reason he's getting away with it is because it's buried under a bunch of other misdirection, like lying to himself about how Duke's all bad. Because that hurts less than admitting that he and Duke were ever close, or ever wanted to be close (however one-sided that was, not that we have any idea STILL isn't it great?) and he feels betrayed. Oh Nathan. No, Audrey's not going to buy your I've known him since he was 5 stunt; if anything that makes her more dismissive because that means there's History and nobody's going to be even a little bit objective. Plus, the more important thing are these satellite photos of the weather! Which is, indeed, fucking weird. Microsystems like that don't happen much if at all, not on a less-than-several-blocks radius. And not in Maine. Nathan can be dismissive too! And the scrap of paper is from Duke's tide calendar, yes, thank you, that long pan earlier on the Cape Rouge was so subtle, you guys. Ahem. With Nathan off to harass Duke some more, it's Garland's turn to test the new girl! New version of the old girl? Whatever. Massive, massive props to Nicholas Campbell for an understated portrayal of a man with a lot on his shoulders and probably in a great deal of pain, seeing Audrey who isn't Lucy but reminds him of her a great deal. And for the tough stoic act that, knowing what we know now, is hiding a lot of that pain. (But not all. Oh honeys. Except Vince and Dave, who we still find creepy as hell and would like to lock in a closet until they tell us all their secrets.) He also knows, better than most, that Lucy wasn't the kind of woman to take well to kindness from strangers, and will assume until proven otherwise that Audrey will find it patronizing as well. That's extrapolation, but it seems like reasonable extrapolation given that Audrey's implanted memories and personality put her as a woman in a male-dominated field, which will make her used to fighting tooth and claw for whatever recognition she can get. She'd be suspicious if anyone in that field cut her slack, especially in a rural Maine town. Not that I think Garland is necessarily doing this consciously, it's his defense mechanisms kicking in on the surface of it, but it has both effects. At any rate! Muttering about the tide calendar gets her brain cramp shaken loose and hey, how's about that, you can't go clamming where Conrad said he was unless you're a Glendower. (I don't know that Nicholas Campbell knew about them when they shot the pilot, but I'm going to retcon it and say Garland Wuornos was thinking of it, because this scene becomes TEN TIMES FUNNIER that way. Also creepier.)

Off to the antiques store with her! This is going to end well. Really well! With a confrontation and shouting and poor Conrad's personal space issues and Marian trying to protect her friend. Yah-huh. Real nice officering, there, Audrey, you could have started a little softer. Though I understand to extent: she's pissed off, she just almost died, she was supposed to have a nice simple case and this is anything but, and everyone around her is lying to her and she probably knows that much even if she's not calling them on it. After all, there's no point in alienating the only allies she's got, even if she's pissed at the cops and Duke and all the people who think she can't see what's in front of her nose. Or blowing her against the car. Those of us who are genre savvy, both in the procedural sense and in the Stephen King/supernatural sense, will know from Marian's terrified "stay away from me!" that she knows on some level that she's the one doing this, though she's projecting it onto Conrad because that's less terrifying than admitting she has strange supernatural powers. Poor Marian. Poor everyone, really. Conrad will now promptly confess to protect her, because he is so in love with her it hurts. Gun beats weather manipulation, so now it's back down to the station with competing suspects!

Duke, you are... sadly, exactly as adorable as you think you are. Dammit, Duke. Audrey knows exactly what got him in handcuffs down at the station, which is to say, giving Nathan lip. Like he does. They look... well, Duke looks comfortably cocky in the way of a man who knows there's nothing to charge him with that'll seriously damage his reputation. Hell, given that he's a smuggler, obstruction of justice is something he ought to be looking to add to his list of prior offenses. People who want someone to break the law for them would like that someone not to be the kind of person who tells all their business when threatened with a little jail time. Nathan's leaning up against the post looking like it or Duke or both will bite him. Considering this is Haven, I can't even say that's an unreasonable concern. We will all pause to ogle Lucas Bryant's long lean body in that long-sleeved tee. Or at least those of us as likes the boys. The look between Conrad and Nathan as he asks about the confession is one between a very cornered man and a man who suspects there's a great deal more to this that he can't discuss around the outsider. Duke, being Duke, breaks the tension, no he can't leave just yet (although bets on him having a set of handcuff keys on his boat? no takers? yeah, thought not) and the grin as he sits back down is the one cats give when they're deliberately testing your boundaries. Also the eyeroll of a man so used to being the bad guy that he no longer cares what anybody thinks, or more importantly wants them to think he doesn't care. (He does, or he will again.) Well, Nathan will go question Conrad somewhere not at all more private though they're Manly Men and can presumably communicate in Grunting. I only half-jest. Meanwhile Audrey leads off with a positive, aww, it's a praise sandwich of positive reinforcement! Sort of, trying to get Duke to tell her what the fuck he was up to when he talked to Lester. Because he won't talk to Nathan ever, but he might talk to her, except Duke doesn't talk to cops. I have to wonder, I'm sure the rule/guideline reference to PotC is deliberate from the writing staff, but is it deliberate from Duke? Is he that kind of a pop culture aficionado? If so, no wonder we adore him. So much for positive reinforcement. Duke, Audrey has big guns, and by big guns we mean the possibility of a customs agent assigned to your case. Just your case! It wouldn't take long to drive him out of business or into more dangerous and stupid stunts and thus get him arrested, possibly on felony charges, and that's a bridge too far. So, how about an apology from Nathan! Because Duke is clearly willing to cough up some information, but he'd much rather do it without abusing his pride any further than it already has been. I suppose that's fair. Audrey does too, by that "well? so?" look she gives him. (Conrad is staying the fuck out of these weird dynamics. Sensible man.) If she's the one doing the asking, he supposes his pride will bend, but only to two words. Look, it's a step! A big step, for Nathan! And Duke just can't resist the one last jab and I swear if I were Audrey I'd be looking for a rolled-up newspaper or a ruler or something to bash them with. Quit dick-measuring, boys. Her "don't push it" is the verbal equivalent, and Duke responds to that where he responds to little else, leading me to wonder just what his history with aggressive women is, beyond his wife. At any rate, Lester wanted to escape to Canada, Duke said no because he does have lines and they're even pretty sensible ones. He smuggles goods, not people, and for sure not potentially dangerous escaped felons. Nathan doesn't actually look surprised by this, contradicting his talk about Duke being all bad; see, you do know that he has boundaries, Nathan! You even know what they are, more or less! Be less of a jackass, both of you? No? No. Duke's shrug and grimace about the registration number for a different boat is extremely telling, and yeah, that's about as far as he's willing to go with his reputation. Audrey pushed him with the customs comment, so he confessed what only involved him and the dead guy, but he's not going to give up the name of whoever he sent Lester to. Which is also sensible, in his line of work, given that if there's someone who does smuggle escaped felons up to Canada, chances are they're a lot more willing to commit violence in revenge than Duke is.

So, no, he's not going to make this easy for Nathan, he is going to keep clowning around rather than admit to any of what I just explicated, and apparently we'll all be knowledgeable here, by that look on Audrey's face. Over to the harbormaster they'll go! Nathan will go, at least, Audrey has something she wants to chase down, specifically she needs to explain the details of what happened to Nathan. Guys, if you're going to talk about weird shit like that, maybe you should go in an office with the door closed instead of doing it out in the open bullpen where Duke and Conrad both have a chance of hearing you? Guys? I'm not fooled by Duke wiggling around like an impatient five year old, and nor should you be. Anyway, she explains to Nathan about the gust of wind that blew her down the street and the upshot of all this close conspiratorial body language is to a) give us some foreshadowing on their eventual romance and b) give us a chance to see Nathan's surprise that Audrey is the kind of fed who admits to something happening that won't fly on the witness stand and that she can't explain away and doesn't try to. Which is the absolute defining trait of AudSarLu, that she accepts what's in front of her face instead of lying to herself about the nature of reality being skewed from normal in Haven. If you read any amount of fantasy fiction that involves a Masquerade you will probably have read some form of the conversation involving people justifying small breaches of the Masquerade because they lie to themselves, because weird shit doesn't happen, there's always an explanation. Not so with Audrey. Not that this readiness to accept always extends to herself and her interpersonal relationships, but those are actually harder than dealing with the supernatural. Duke interrupts all this chatter with another request to be let go (which is, I believe, the third one! drink!) and we get a classic Mom-and-Dad moment of "no." Thereby setting up many, many hilarious Mom and Dad moments to come. Although lately it seems more like Mom and Dad and Dad. Or crazy uncle.

Once I recover from cackling madly at Nathan and Audrey, it's on over to the antiques store again! Where Marian's getting a key on a blue ribbon so we and she know it's special, aww. This would be touching if it weren't for the fact that Ted is a sleazy creepy fuck who wants to get out of there with his money before anyone catches onto his partnership with Lester. Hey, they have 3000 square feet on State Street in Santa Barbara! That would actually be downtown Santa Barbara, the kind of swank shopping area that gets a posh website and a lot of stock photos taken of it, so, goddamn. She's touched and hopeful, so hopeful she doesn't ask where the money to get prime real estate in Santa Barbara comes from, and oh honey, this is going to get so much worse for you before it gets better. She also doesn't look entirely certain she wants to move out to California, but that could be as much the face of someone wary of major life changes (like, say, most of us!) as the face of someone who genuinely wants to stay in Haven. Which makes her eventual end tragic on whole other levels. Are we sure Haven's theme song isn't actually Hotel California? (K: No. No we are not.)

With that established, Audrey's gone back to staring at satellite photos of the weather in an attempt to make sense out of what's been happening to her/to the town. I love that she's trying to do this, but no, it's not going to be easy. And hey, both foreshadowing and character development, as she smells something awfully strong and makes faces at it. There's a wooden box full of essential oils of some kind, and this is Nathan's office, so it must belong to him... oh. Oh Nathan. Because he can't feel things, so he's using other senses to bring small pleasures into his life. Not quite so stoic as he'd like us all to believe! And the Teagues come wandering in to stare at the new incarnation some more and try to get information out of her, that's adorable, you guys, that's also not going to work as well as you might hope. They gave Nathan the oils/perfumes! Aww. That, I will admit, was thoughtful and well-considered, in all probability given with a minimum of fanfare, and does make me think slightly better of them. Dave explains for the folks in the cheap seats who didn't get it right away, and they brought her a present! Vince, I agree with your brother, you're being creepy and overeager again, stoppit. I don't want to agree with your brother, who might actually be creepier than you and just better at hiding it. (Maybe by the time we run through all the back eps we'll have settled the burning question of which Teagues brother is more unnerving singly, but I doubt it.) It's information, which is awfully like a puppy for them. Or flowers. Or chocolates. Pick your courtship gift; for these guys it's the lure of information, though in this case it's also base manipulation. Maybe they know Audrey Parker, FBI agent, is an orphan already. Maybe they just know that one of the things that can convince AudSarLu to stay is the promise of information about her family. Do they know this from patterns, since this is the third incarnation they've been around for, or do they know because Agent Fuck You told them? We have no idea. Regardless, this sets up neatly the entire mystery for the show, giving us a woman who looks identical to Audrey but has a different name, a strange murder mystery (which those of us who read the King novella are already familiar with and makes a great fucking red herring, thanks guys), and a not very subtle indication of Vince's continued interest in Audrey. Lucy. Both. This whole scene, in light of s2 and s3 reveals, is layered with doublespeak and triple meanings. That's only half an exaggeration. Vince knows damn well why he "thought" he recognized Audrey, and has a better idea of who she is than anyone else in this town. Though I will grant that, long term, he might hope she can explain who AudSarLu is, as a construct, and what the hell the town ever did to deserve the Troubles. The look the brothers exchange on not having family anywhere is by way of confirmation and also, I think, by way of noting that down for future manipulation. I kind of hate you guys. I kind of also feel really sorry for them, because this 27-year cycle fucking sucks and they've just entered the second one where the woman in question has no idea who they are, and they're old and not exactly objects of romance anymore. Note the music that starts up exactly when Audrey takes the folder, because you're going to be hearing a lot of it over the course of the show. This particular motif, especially.

Subject change! Not subtle, Vince! With the subject change comes the end of the AudSarLu motif and the beginning of Haven case-solving music, so we know we're back to business then. Fortunately for them, Audrey isn't inclined to discuss her personal life or desire for a mother figure with two complete strangers, and would much rather talk about the weird weather and how it might relate to her case. Or to Conrad Brauer. Dave will be helpful! Like, actually helpful and not just full of misdirection, because now is the time for the carrot to get her to stay. The withholding data to make her go in the barn when it comes time is saved for later. Jackasses. Some standard banter and no, Vince, I do not for a second believe you don't know how to use a computer. Might not like using a computer (it's too easily hackable/searchable), that I'll buy. VINCE. STOP BEING CREEPY oh why do I bother. Yes, we're aware you like how she thinks. We are SO AWARE OF IT. Urgh. We'll leave the disturbing duo over in the office with Audrey for a few seconds while Nathan visits the Helen Ann Thomas, which must be where the boat registration number led him. A mysterious tarp! Covering something that might be body shaped! Or might not! We don't know, because search terms for Conrad on the Herald's archives have turned up nothing but a returning war hero piece. Alright then. By way of a brief digression, this only gives us two instances and we would love to know if there's a third, but a returning war hero also kicked off Sarah's entrance into the world of the Troubled, even though or perhaps especially since in both cases it wasn't the war hero himself, but he was definitely present in the episode. This seems to be more of a Doylist cleverness than a Watsonian one, though. And Dave wrote the piece, cue more banter, but it's the sort of long-ingrained sibling banter that they've done since time immemorial. (No, seriously, I'd have to go back to 3x13 Thanks For The Memories but I'm 90% sure they did this in the flashback to Sarah's time in Haven.) Admittedly with something of an edge, but still and nonetheless. Hey, but those weather patterns turned up something! I would love to know what the fuck search terms Dave typed in there, if he went for some kind of freak weather incidents or if he just typed in "Hastings family," because really now. Not that we get a clear enough shot of the screen to see that. Grumble. Alright, so, in 1956, which is 27 years before the last 27 year cycle, have I mentioned how evil the writers are, packing all of this into a couple minutes' dialogue that also serves to pull together the mystery of who's manipulating the weather? Because they ARE. Evil. And also fucking good. So are the Teagues, because alright, so the Hastings moved to Haven from Georgia after a freak hailstorm, that sounds familiar, and Dave will now start a bit of banter with Vince that's obviously designed to make Audrey think they've forgotten she's there. Hey, there's a name drop of the Caldwell side! Hey, there's the cop instincts we know and love in Audrey! Goddammit, boys. You did that on purpose.

That plus the documents (not a body! unless we're talking body of evidence) Nathan found on the boat is enough to give us a quick phone call, intercutting between boat and station to give us both sides of the call, and yes, alright, they've caught up with the situation. Marian was up there on the cliff, Conrad's protecting her, Lester came back for the $2mil she inherited from her mother recently (and if her mother was as much of a terrible person as Dave suggested in the office no wonder Marian's susceptible to the kind of manipulation Ted's been engaging in), and Lester and Ted were working together. NOW THAT WE'RE CAUGHT UP. Can you go arrest the fucker now? Please? Oh, no, worse. Fuck. I want to yell at Audrey for this but it is her first Trouble and she's probably having some difficulty responding instinctively to "this woman controls the weather with her emotions let's not upset her in the middle of town." Sigh. Though I can see arguments for and against this, especially given that Marian might still be in physical danger and she's her own best protection against that. She, of course, denies that Ted would do such a thing, that people want to hurt her, she's going to have a great little shop in Santa Barbara, even as she talks about how Ted lured her up to the cliff and then never showed, and realizes she's given him access to her money, and yeah, that'll do it, along with confirming that her bank balance is now at zero. Oh Marian honey. I do feel sorry for her, even as I want to be NOWHERE NEAR HER when she's pissed, and we get a clip that looks like something out of The Craft or Practical Magic, woman with winds whipping around her stalking off to go confront the man who done her wrong. Yes, Audrey, you should probably have seen that coming.

When we come back we have something that looks like maybe a funnel cloud forming in the sky, in perfect view from the police station! Well, that'll be easy to track, at least. Audrey's being good and calling Nathan for backup, and thank you, Nathan, for dropping the taciturn lying to outsiders thing and not pretending you don't know what she's talking about. I'm pretty sure Audrey notes this, even as she doesn't bother to call him on it right now, because there are way more important things to worry about. Like if Marian Caldwell's going to kill a man, or some innocent bystanders, or cause infinite infrastructure damage to Haven. Well, maybe not that last, it's a truism of having Dwight and the Teagues around that Haven has the worst infrastructure of any town ever. Obviously. We go on over to Marian confronting Ted, who a) has no fucking idea what's going on with the weather and b) is currently the world's worst liar. Yeah, honey, no, don't hold a gun on a weather witch who doesn't know she's a weather witch. He should be glad that it was only ripped out of his hand. Cue Audrey pulling up and trying to talk Marian down, and note that she's a lot more direct and brutal here than she becomes over the course of the show; I'm guessing most of that is a combination of implanted personality and lack of knowledge about how the Troubles work/what they are than Who AudSarLu Is. Ted, being an idiot, goes for the gun and then tries to SHOOT A COP. Oh my god you moron. Even better, he wings the cop who can't feel pain, so yes, yes he does get tackled and cuffed. I kind of think that sideways glance was Nathan assessing, okay, that's not arterial spray, I'm not going to die from blood loss, do my job now and get medical attention later. It also has the effect, and I doubt they intended this in the pilot but I'm sure they used it come Magic Hour part one? Of some nice symmetry, criminals getting caught out and shooting Nathan to get away. It's just that Arla-as-Tommy was much more capable of killing people and damn well didn't have a windstorm throwing her aim off. Meanwhile, Audrey keeps talking Marian down, and damn, woman, I guess telling her about all the people she's hurt is one way to get her to release control over the weather. It also showcase how Audrey isn't a touchy-feely person, because she probably could have gotten Marian to stop by touching her immediately but she doesn't know that, so she does the smart cop thing and stays at minimum safe distance for a civilian in emotional distress. And hey! Instead of a rainstorm when Marian's crying in her arms, we have blue skies! That seems odd.

I chew on a corner of the desk muttering "you sneaky fuckers" over that for a bit, and we pan over the gorgeous fucking Nova Scotia (excuse me, Maine, but all the shooting pics they're putting out on Twitter right now make me want to go visit for the sheer beauty of it) to where Audrey's driving Conrad along the coastline. That's one way to release a man from jail, I guess. He's not quite as fussy about his personal space in the open air with no buildings or closed in other objects around, which makes sense, actually. Plus his visual focus is all on Marian. Jokes about rental cars and their damage aside (and I wonder how much Hertz subsided this show or if that was just a gimme), Conrad's purpose here beyond being Marian's new partner is to tell us that the full translation for Tuwiawok is "Haven for God's Orphans." Well, um. That seems indicative. Of fucking what we still don't know, but it's our very first solid clue as to Haven's history and maybe its founding. I really hope they go into that next season, because all the clues they dropped, especially in s3, have me and Kitty gnawing on our desks swearing about their murderboards. But no time to talk about that, and Audrey doesn't have enough information to ask the right questions, so, hey! Let's talk about how Conrad loves Marian dear lord woman you are blunt. Possibly more so than I am. (This is probably a lie.) Though he responds pretty well to that, probably in classic ex-military fashion. Look! A problem! You're the solution. Go fix. Which is the gist of what Audrey's telling him, although she's not phrasing it in full on military terms. Just that someone should make Marian happy and calm, and he's got the best chance out of the people who know what she can do at both of those. We don't get told why Marian's out here on the beach, but I can make a couple guesses: that once she realized what she could do, she asked to be taken somewhere that she wouldn't hurt other people, and either she or, more likely Audrey, picked a place that was also fairly soothing. And now we get a really adorable bit of understated bonding; whoever they got for these roles, they're good at showing us in small ways that these are people who grew up together and have been friends a very long time. They don't need many words or anything explicit to say I'm sorry/no I'm sorry/we'll get through this together. And then they don't need anything at all, and I am so grateful that they gave us hand-holding instead of kissing on the beach. It was all set up for the classic romantic gesture, and no. They're both damaged enough now that that's going to take more time to get to, and while Marian's over-conscious of that, Conrad's had enough time to heal that now he knows he needs to take more steps. Baby steps. Awww. Audrey thinks they're adorable and well-suited, too! Plus she's definitely right; jail time wouldn't solve a damn thing and Marian's certainly feeling guilty enough as it is.

Speaking of baby steps, she brought flowers for Nathan! Oh my god that is the cutest, and incredibly insightful, and I love them and ship them already. Only slightly more than OT3, which I think Kitty and I fell for by the end of, what, Ball and Chain? Or thereabouts. But anyway. He's sacked out on the couch in his office, to all appearances, hey Garland. You got something to say about this? No, he doesn't, he's got a duck of his head as if to say yes, alright, I see what you're doing and appreciate your desire to take care of my son. The printout of the Colorado Kid picture is still on the desk, and it looks like she's just going to wait for Nathan to wake up. Or admit that he was awake all along. Hard to say, I'm sure he's one of those people who's trained himself to have no discernable waking-up period. And yes, he can identify the flowers by smell (hey! those were my wedding flowers! stop laughing) and yes, he appreciates the gesture even if he doesn't say so directly. This time when she asks after his shoulder and gives him a ribbing about being a tough guy, it's with a certain degree of affection or at least camaraderie as well as self-mocking for making the same comment earlier; now they both have a better idea of how the other acts under pressure, and some trust that they've got each other's backs even if she is an outsider and a fed and he's strange and keeping secrets from her. She gives him more of the rundown on Lester and Ted, I can't decide if this repetition was just in case new viewers are coming in late to the show or because they haven't gotten quite as tight in their writing as they were last season. At any rate, no honor amongst thieves, Lester broke out because the con was already in process and he didn't want his partner running off with all the money. Sigh. Also, Nathan's doing a good job of pretending not to believe that Marian controls the weather. Though I will grant that he probably also would like to be swimming up and down De Nial about the Troubles being fully back, no matter what his inability to feel tells him. Nathan, you are not helping anyone right now, and your subject change is obvious. Though perhaps warranted by what he sees in Audrey; her body tension throughout the entire first half of the conversation is holding her almost up off of the chair she's sitting in, like she's going to get up and run away. It relaxes after his utterly undisguised topic switch. Does anyone in this town have proper skills at subject changes, or do you all just dodge the topic at hand blatantly like this? Well, in this case we'll get more data yet, in that Garland was a beat cop on the Colorado Kid murder and thus probably knew or at least knew of Lucy. It remains unsolved, much to absolutely nobody's surprise, and Nathan uses that to jab at his father. Well, da Chief. Who he's still not calling his father, though this time when Audrey prods him about it he all but flat out says that he doesn't have a father anymore, he has a superior officer. Ouch. Also, Lucas Bryant. Your face. I'd ask how he does that, except I can see the slightly widening eyes, the flaring nostrils as he looks at Lucy and sees Audrey and bites back half a dozen things before settling on the obvious. Hey, that piano's back again, with the Lucy motif Mark 2. Or maybe this is the Audrey motif? Whatever, it's the same piano. It's the music of bonding and softness and love! So, for Nathan's half-reveal of how little connection with his father he has, she'll trade him with an orphan's story of … well, never mind, because he's already had a couple moments of pulling away from her and lying to her, I can't blame her for the hesitation. But he does care - already - even if he's bad at showing it, so he prompts her and I think that's the gentlest we've seen Nathan this ep. So, an orphan's dream that her mother would rescue not just her but all the other kids in every orphanage everywhere oh Audrey. Or, I think I should possibly say, oh AudSarLu. It's exactly the sort of boundless compassion that she needs for dealing with the Troubles over and over and over again, and it mirrors the talk with Conrad about how it's a haven for god's orphans, and now we can see how much that must have hit her. Oh honey. And also oh you fuckers because right after that translation reveal of haven for god's orphans, and what AudSarLu's role in this town is? You people are not subtle no matter how much you think you are. (This is a lie. We appreciate it even as we bitch about it.) Nathan doesn't have a good response to that, just that maybe it's time to let that go, and no, Nathan, you do not understand, this kind of dream is possibly why she (thinks she) landed in law enforcement and definitely what will allow her to stop the Troubles.

Back out to the pier and the rocks and the scene of the 27 year old crime, then, and trying to figure out what happened there, who the mysterious woman was, so and so forth, and making a decision. At least we do already know that Audrey makes spur of the moment decisions like this a lot, based on instinct and impulse and whatever else she can find to guide her. So it doesn't seem too odd that she's calling her ostensible boss and requesting some leave. A few weeks. Which will turn into a few months, but we're not there yet, and that much is easy enough, and if anyone by now is surprised that Agent Fuck You is standing up on the road looking down at her they weren't paying attention. Particularly with the initial close-up on his face. Though I will say there's something akin to regret or maybe sympathy, even, as he hangs up the phone and stares down at the coast. Impossible to say why; maybe regret that it's happening again, maybe regret that he has to go back into the barn. Maybe sympathy for her struggles. It's the closest to a normal human expression over what he does that I think we ever see out of Howard, though, because by the time the barn rolls around in s3 he's encased himself in armor again. Assuming that, as the barnvatar, he has emotions at all, though I think we have to make that assumption until such time as we're proved wrong. Or until such time as we get a definitive origin for the jackass, whether he was created by the barn or whether he was human at the start of Haven and what we're seeing is the effects of immortality and all of Haven's .... Havenness on his emotions. Maybe not standard human emotions, but I would bet that in some measure absorbing all of AudSarLu's memories has also entailed absorbing the emotional content of them as well, thus leading to some degree of attachment toward its primary inhabitant. Something like that, anyway. But it lasts barely a second before he's calling someone else! Oh hi, Garland, not that we get direct confirmation on that until either the Trial of Audrey Parker or Spiral, depending on how you're counting confirmation. Fuck you all for the Troubles line, and Agent Fuck You gets in his car (license plate 92 RX, I have no idea if or what meaning that has though I feel like I should know, anyone got anything?) and hey, there's a crack following him out of Haven now that his drop-off duties are finished! Oh goodie. And we leave Audrey still staring at the pier wondering what the fuck her life has become. I'm sorry, Audrey, it's going to get a whole lot worse.