Previously on Haven! We got a crash course on, mainly, the Troubles in Haven and Audrey's unique responses to it, or at least everyone comments that her responses are strange to the point of being unique, and valuable to the people in it. Of course we know that Garland's comment on her approach to Haven is, mm. Because of different things. But we didn't know that when we first saw the episode, and she doesn't know that yet, and the writers are sneaky bastards.
So, tonight on Haven we have what may or may not be a full moon, it's hard to see at that distance and with that cloud cover, but it's at least implied. Night time at the Haven Hunt Club! And someone who's been staying late to lock up, it looks like, coming out to his car. This can't possibly end well. The only question, it being Haven, is in what manner of bad it ends. Which we find out shortly, because the guy has only enough time to get in, adjust his mirror, see the damage done to his rear window, and swear before something eats his face. By the pelt and growling I'm going with wolf, though it could presumably also be a coyote. Welcome to Haven! If the car's a rockin, don't come a knockin and all that.
We have some jaunty music to go with our flyover, so either the death was more ludicrous than usual or they haven't discovered it yet. Probably the latter, because we open not with cop talk, but with Eleanor writing 'No Parking' on Audrey's car. I hope that's wax pencil, is all I'm saying. Apparently she's teaching the summer people where not to park. Audrey's summer people now? And apparently this is because back in 87 a Gibson girl (Really? I don't think they had cars back in 1887. No, seriously, look up the actual time period for a Gibson Girl.) got hit by a car that she couldn't see because the car parked there blocked her sight lines, so no one parks there now. Oh, and apparently that was lipstick she used. All right, then. Nothing about that story makes a lick of sense to me, I'm sorry. Or Audrey, for that matter. Only she's more concerned with the fact that there's no signs posted and why does everything in this town have to be such a mystery? Well, she uses huge secret, but it amounts to the same thing. Eleanor gives her one of those evaluating looks people seem to be so fond of, no doubt because she, too, knew Lucy Ripley. In fact she definitely knew Lucy if she did the autopsy on the Colorado Kid; Lucy would have been as involved in her friend/son's death as much as possible (how directly and how much would have depended, I think, on whether or not she knew he was her son at the time.) So, Eleanor puts down Audrey's crankiness to no one telling her about Lucy, which Audrey admits, and tells her she needs to be more of a local, even going so far as to give her a bit of secret local information about where to get your delicious baked goods. She also says to give it ten or fifteen years, which is fucking hilarious now that we know what we know. It better take a lot less time than that. And in some ways, Audrey's not being from Haven helps her deal with Haven better, not being so stuck in the inertia of adjusting to the Troubles. Anyway, speaking of the Troubles, it's time to get over to the Haven Hunt Club.
What is the Haven Hunt Club? Well, as one might expect, it's a bunch of people in rooms surrounded by dead animals and dead animal heads drinking and discussing business, at least according to Nathan. Very exclusive. Not that exclusive, they let Garland in. Nathan is clear on the point that here he means Garland Wuornos his father, not Chief Wuornos the Chief of Police. Interesting, but not indicative of much. The vic of the day is TR Holt, divorced, comes from money, general opinion says it was a wolf attack and vicious enough to make Audrey 'whoa,' though not vicious enough to make her throw up. Then again I'm not sure what it would take outside of the usual noxious smells, etc, to make her vomit from emotional disturbance. To explain the unusual behavior (wolves don't usually attack humans unless threatened by the human or by extreme hunger, and definitely not in human cars) they decide on rabies, and it broke the window to get in. No, you know what, none of this makes sense to me, either. It doesn't make sense to Nathan, who more accurately describes the behavior of rabid wolves, thank you Nathan for injecting some realism into our sci-fi show. Okay, maybe that was asking a little much. Audrey attempts to figure out how a wolf could have done the damage anyway, presumably because if a wolf was the cause of death, they can figure out the manner of death later. Trained wolf attack let in by someone who broke the window might not be out of the realm of possibility, though it is out of the realm of rational human behavior. As Audrey says, a bit creepy. If the wolf did bash in that window with his head, he really wanted in there, couldn't feel pain, or both. Nathan will now crack an obligatory werewolf joke about there being a full moon last night. Cue the flirting about how he should smile more often, oh you two. Trollfaces aplenty. All right, back to business, apparently the victim was seen arguing with a man named Brad Donnelly last night. Which is a problem because they're both friends of Garland's. Ruh-roh, Audrey!
And indeed, Garland is more than willing to believe a wolf broke into a car and killed a man. He's also more than willing to hunt down and kill any wolf he finds that seems to fit the bill. Poor wolves. Nathan doesn't think this is a good idea, at least partly because he's not confident of the hunting skills of the members of the Haven Hunt Club, as described by "a bunch of men in the woods blasting anything that moves." That doesn't matter; Garland's dander is up and he's dragging Nathan along for the ride. Nathan will now demonstrate exactly how well he knows his father by playing to either the cop side or the socially conscious side, I'm not sure which. He cites that if something comes up later and there wasn't a police investigation rather than a wolf hunt, it'll look like he's covering for Donnelly or whoever. Which is true! Besides, it'll take time to organize the hunt, so Audrey argues for giving them the day to at least investigate and see if they can't come up with other theories of the crime. Garland gives in with ill grace and says nothing else had better happen, ensuring that something will. Honestly, Garland, you've lived in Haven long enough to know not to say shit like that when the Troubles are around. Wrath atop the thing and all. Cue credits! Which, by the way, include a mention (repeatedly) of this very episode! Why this episode? I have no freaking clue.
The investigation commences with talking to someone initially unnamed about Donnelly and Holt. Apparently they were arguing over a woman that this unnamed person doesn't know the identity of. He also isn't sure, and is kind of exasperated, if the fight was at killing levels. Really, he sounds annoyed by the whole thing, or at least that he's being questioned over it, which says interesting things about the case. Too many to be sure, but off the top of my head, either it was expected that one of them would kill the other or it's generally seen that this was a wolf attack and why are the police bothering at all. The unnamed person says to go talk to Landon (Taylor, Nathan confirms). This is the same Landon Taylor who owns a dry cleaners, and he's been hanging here a lot ever since his wife died in the fire, so he might know something. This, by the way, is an amazingly good example of how to get in exposition without it seeming overdone or obvious. Each piece of information is compact and contextual, fitting in the context, and we now know that Landon has a business of the kind which many people might have at least been passing acquainted with him, he was married and very much in love with his wife, and he's a frequent staple of the Haven Hunt Club. Which now gives us a picture of a social, caring, probably passionate man. Without ever having seen him! At any rate, the unnamed guy continues to say TR and Donnelly nearly blew Landon's head off a few days ago, which also says something at least about the Hunt Club and combined with Nathan's descriptions, supports the theory that these guys aren't exactly the most skilled hunters on the block. There may be some among them, but taken as a whole, not so much. Also TR Holt and Donnelly were fighting then, too. Interesting that TR is constantly referred to by his initials, where Donnelly is referred to by his last name. Not necessarily relevant to anything, but something to tuck in the back of one's mind in case it becomes so. We do a lot of that around here.
Landon is out skeet shooting, but clearly no skeets were harmed in the making of this sunny afternoon. Rather than claim the sun was in his eyes he does at least admit he made a mistake, though Audrey questions the accuracy of his self-critiquing. At which point Landon questions her ability to critique, and I do deeply appreciate that the readers make this as little about her sex as possible (there's only so much you can do when the characters are male and female, but he doesn't say one word about her being a woman or having anything to do with her ability to shoot). So he invites her to show him how it's done which is certainly tempting fate, we seem to be having a lot of that today! Audrey does exactly that, shooting four clay targets in rapid succession. Landon admits defeat as gracefully as he admitted his mistake earlier. I'm starting to like Landon! Also this goes along with his earlier description from the unnamed man as being a nice guy. A nice guy Audrey would like to talk to, though. While this is going on Nathan moseys on around to the collection of Hunt Club members gathering to go after the alleged wolf. One man in particular seems to have half a plan and a full load of rabble he's in the middle of rousing. Oh goodie. Nathan interrupts and addresses the man as Donnelly, so, okay, that's Donnelly there. Nathan's not going on the hunt, which is of course the first question they ask, and neither is anyone else. Way to spoil everyone's fun, Nathan. Which is about the attitude of those groans of disappointment. He invokes the name of the Chief and tells them it's a hold until tomorrow, which might be the biggest thing keeping him from being ignored right now. Donnelly wants to know what they intend to investigate since, the implication goes, it was clearly a wolf. Although since he's referencing the car, there's still some serious questions there about what the hell kind of wolf breaks into a car to kill someone. I'd almost believe a bear before I believed a wolf, bears are known to break into things. Hell, I'd almost believe a rabid raccoon. Anyway, Nathan stands firm but gentle, the crowd disperses, and we go back to Landon and Audrey. He's awfully blase about getting shot at, as it turns out, because he doesn't believe he was the target of the shooting. Audrey keeps prying, and it turns out that Donnelly fired his weapon and the bullet hit a tree right next to Landon. No details on what he might have been firing at, though.
Back over with Nathan, Audrey approaches Donnelly. But he recognizes her as FBI which causes her to go into defensive mode again, pulling her jacket shut and crossing her arms, and she of course starts in on tacitly accusing him of being the murderer. Which in turn gets Donnelly's back up. I'd say this goes to show that she's not a real FBI agent, and indeed this shows some dearth of training or willpower, except I'm sure there are agents who are that bad at on-scene questioning. Nathan must think her accusations have merit, though, or maybe he's just resentful of Donnelly siding with his father? Probably the former, he seems to be at least more self-restrained than that. Because he sides with Audrey in the notion that Donnelly at least needs to be actively cleared, and points out that Donnelly and TR fought. Donnelly comes back with they fought like brothers, implying the sort of solidarity wherein only they can beat the stuffing out of each other (yes, I went there), and stomps off. Okay then.
One flyover shot and some oddly First Peoples style drum variations on the main theme later, we're at the police station. Audrey and Nathan concur that Donnelly's hiding something, but also that Donnelly isn't a likely suspect for the death by animal itself. The creepy brothers are here too. Hi creepy brothers! They've apparently been waiting for Nathan and Audrey; that doesn't bode well. They go over the case again, who shot at whom and who knows what, and are interrupted by Creepy and Creepier. I mean Vince and Dave. The cops don't have anything for you, boys, unless you want a somewhat dry overbaked pastry. This is both a bit more of worldbuilding and a bit more of gentle humor at Audrey's expense, as well as reminding that she's an outsider in this town. For now. Audrey will, however, offer to talk to them off the record, to which Vince responds enthusiastically. We've seen this before and we'll continue to see this as a pattern; whenever Audrey offers them something, particularly Vince will be the one who responds with enthusiasm bordering on the overly eager. We see this highlighted even in the pilot, where Dave tells Vince to relax and, in a sideways way, likens him to an overeager puppy. Presumably this begins with Vince and Sarah's relationship and builds up over the interim fifty-plus years, but at the moment all Audrey and we know is that Vince is joyful to be included in Audrey's life and investigations. Which, again, comes off as incredibly creepy. Of note, Dave seems to be in the way of trying to mitigate Vince's enthusiasm, at first by telling him outright to calm the hell down and now by making a joke of it. Anyway, right now Audrey and Nathan are interested in what the creepy brothers know about TR and Donnelly's quarreling over a woman. The first one they come up with is Jess Minion, who is apparently some kind of animal rights witch. Dave calls her an activist, Vince calls her a witch, going again with the split between rational and emotional. But they weren't fighting over her, more like fighting with her, which is an entirely different thing. But apparently everyone in the club agrees she's a pain in the ass. (Except Vince, who seems to think there's room in this world for people who like shooting animals and people who like cuddling animals? Or maybe he doesn't like shooting animals. Insufficient data to be sure, but Vince not claiming to be a member of the club is indicative.) With one tangent aside, Dave offers that they were more likely fighting over Brad Donnelly's wife Susannah. I'll stop a moment here so we can all get the Dark Tower freakouts over with. Yes? Good. Apparently there were rumors that TR was sleeping with Donnelly's wife. And now that we know that, it's time to report to the Chief, who isn't happy that they don't have anything more. The lab report was rushed through and does confirm that it was a wolf attack, but neither Audrey nor Nathan are willing to accept that it was an ordinary wolf attack even if a wolf was used as the cause of death. Normally that would put the manner of death under accident, but they're banking on homicide because of unusual wolf behavior. Which, it's true. Wolves do not break into cars with their faces and eat people, even rabid ones. Still, the people of the town are scared, the mayor is scared, and the wolf hunt will go on as planned. Well, this can't possibly end badly!
In another part of Haven we have a green and white house. Oh, hey, it's Donnelly's house! He seems to be going out back to a shed with a fridge in it to grab a beer. Why he doesn't keep his beer in the fridge I don't know, troubles in the marriage related to drinking, maybe? That would explain both the affair and the temper. Lunenburg beer does not exist, though it's a nice nod to one of the towns they film Haven in/around. No idea about the lager in the fridge. Neither of these seem to be important, though, except maybe to the town. And it doesn't matter anyway because here comes the monster to kill Donnelly. Without even letting him have his beer! Poor bastard. It's a big monster this time, taller than the fridge. We don't see much else of it, but we do see a lot of blood spatter. And then we have Nathan and Audrey trying to figure out what the hell did this, both of them cracking wise about how improbable a wolf attack this was. Also making werewolf jokes. Apparently the full moon was last night, no one's sure how many nights werewolves get in wolf form, and whether or not silver bullets work. I would argue that silver bullets work for most things on account of being bullets, and how many nights depends on the canon. So none of this is helpful, in other words, until and unless they figure out the rules governing this specific case. Nothing further at the scene itself, just a lot of blood and mess, so it's off to talk to the wife. Who is traditionally pretty, and not at all like Dark Tower Susannah. Thank god. They tell her about the rumors that Brad Donnelly and TR were fighting over a woman, she assumes (correctly) that they assumed it was her, and points the finger back at Jess Minion. Who she says has been hexing them. I'd argue for superstitions here except, fucking Haven. Also she has proof, of a sort. Apparently Jess put some sort of Mi'kmaq sign on their fence that's supposed to say something to the animals. Audrey takes a picture of it just in case it turns out to be relevant later, and Nathan tells the widow they'll contact her if they need anything else. Hell with Haven, the widow's moving back to Tallahassee as soon as the legalities are taken care of. Can't say I blame her. Once she's out of earshot Audrey tells Nathan she's seen that mark before at the Haven Hunt Club, to which Nathan is skeptical. Apparently witches are an improbability in Haven, despite semi-seriously considering werewolves a moment ago. Not to mention the guy who ate food that caused a sympathetic magic reaction in other food, the woman who controlled the weather, and the person who played music that made crazy people sane and sane people crazy. Really, Nathan? You're doing the skeptical thing now? Audrey also points out that Jess has motive and that the sign appeared in both places where an attack occurred, to which Nathan can't argue. Jess is at the very least a person of interest, and now we will all have fits at the show crossover while they go over to Jess's place.
Jess Minion has a French (specifically French Canadian) accent and a whole boatload of information which, at least the general stuff, she is very free with. Interesting. The way she delivers it indicates that she's attempting to be harmless by showing how much she knows and that she understands why she's a suspect, but given how much information is at a premium here, she also comes across as knowing more than she's telling or having more power than she lets on. A little bit of information from the dialogue between her and Nathan, which is nicely inserted in such a way that it both plays up the chemistry between Nathan and Jess which we'll see in more detail later and gives Nathan some more control over the conversation, leaving Audrey the odd one out. Jess used to spend summers in Haven as a child and she now owns and works her grandmother's farm, and she is indeed Quebecoise. So. Audrey interrupts with dragging them back to the TR and Donnelly mess, to which Jess replies/explains that she's letting her land go back to the land and she doesn't let the Hunt Club hunt on it. Nathan calls her on taking shots at Hunt Club members, to which she replies quite reasonably that it's hard to tell friend from foe in the wild woods in the early morning. Only she does it with a rather coy smile that Nathan seems drawn to return. See what I said about chemistry? Audrey almost rolls her eyes as she asks Jess about the Mi'kmaq symbol, which Jess says means asking for forgiveness. Fair enough, I guess? Audrey then tells Jess about Donnelly's death, to which Jess responds with a flippant remark that gets her even more disapproval from our heroine. It's hard to say whether or not Jess senses that this isn't the best time for flippancy, but she does at least turn down the casual joking and invite them deeper onto her land. To what appears to be an animal memorial ground. Every stone represents an animal killed for sport, and there are a lot of stones. As far as she's concerned, the hunters earned their own deaths being Great White Hunters and not respecting the animals they killed for sport or laughs. Audrey asks her about the witch accusations; Jess replies that the people who call her that are angry because of her opinions and seems to be implying that if a witch is someone who does magic, half the townspeople are witches. Interestingly, she is also the only one who comes right out and talks about the Troubles without it being dragged out of her, at least at this point. She describes the Troubles as being magic of the same kind as she would call witchcraft, calls Nathan out on referring to his Trouble as a medical condition rather than a magical one. It's possibly the most frank and also the most revealing description of the Troubles we've had yet, And the way she describes magic as being everywhere in Haven makes me wonder what would have happened if she had stuck around and dug into the Troubles some more, given her perspective. Audrey is clearly wary of this woman who talks as though she knows a lot more about the Troubles than she's telling, except that if she knew more, given the way she spoke frankly and freely earlier she probably would just come out and tell them even if it wasn't relevant to the case. Nathan is clearly uncomfortable by Jess dragging out his Trouble and showing it to him while stripping all good/evil value from it. Whether because of Nathan's discomfort or her own irritation at not knowing about the Troubles, Audrey interrupts this exposition to ask her where she was at the time of the murder. Jess sighs and says she was in Derry getting her car towed, which is easy enough to check, and Audrey ends it there so they can go go ponder what Jess has told them. Audrey seriously doubts Jess's witchery, though her tone suspects Jess of any number of other things. Nathan just keeps his little smile and calls her interesting. Oh Nathan.
Back at the police station the brothers are trying to get what information they can about Donnelly's death out of Audrey and Nathan, neither of whom will have any of it. Then they want to know what Audrey thinks about the reward. What reward? Oh, that reward the Hunt Club put up for the wolf that killed TR and Donnelly, almost ten thousand, or so they say. On a lot of matters, including this one, I find the brothers to be at best a questionable source of information, but even the rumor of such a reward could stir things up and make an even bigger headache for the police, as Audrey seems to be anticipating. She's still not telling them anything and she's slamming the door in their face. Yeah, she's not happy. Also interesting to ponder: where did they raise that kind of money so quickly? I'm severely side-eying the brothers here, given what we learned about their finances in s3. Though granted, there were about 20 bored businessmen, that's not much of an investment for them if they all kicked in equally or roughly so.
Inside the office to which she slammed the door she and Nathan are going through the real world possibilities for what could shred a human with animal claws and teeth, and still enter via the sort of breaking and entering that a human would do, broken windows and all. The conclusion is animal weapon with human intervention, which brings Audrey right back around to the witch theory. You can hear her working her way around to it, too, animal trainer to animal whisperer to witch. While Nathan gets sidetracked on Evil Doctor Doolittle. Which I would love to see. It's hard to say whether Audrey's pursuing it because, let's face it, Jess is a likely suspect to use animals as weapons especially when there doesn't appear to be an animal death component to the crime, i.e. no animal corpses. And she does have a point about Jess not necessarily needing to be there when the crime was committed, but her smile is broad enough that she's most likely either teasing or testing Nathan for his more personal interest in Jess, or she knows exactly how thin her argument is and is trying to make it fit anyway. Bad federal agent. Not that she is, but she doesn't know that yet. Before they can come to a resolution on this the Chief wants to know what they have. Nathan says nothing, Audrey says they have a theory. And as they both look at her, she proceeds to outline what that pained smile admits is a weak theory about animals going crazy at the direction of some Troubled human. The Chief doesn't like this at all. The hunt will go on as planned.
Over at the Hunt Club Audrey is dressed for ... something. Dressed for CSI chic? as everyone is milling around the clubhouse waiting for the hunt to start. Enter a young boy and his mother? grandmother? Grandmother, since that turns out to be Landon's son! Process of elimination, since this is still a procedural albeit with supernatural elements, now says that since Landon has the greatest amount of character development either he or someone in his family is the cause of all of this, assuming he doesn't die in the next five minutes. This is both the blessing and the curse of procedurals: they follow a formula and thus are very predictable, but this also frees both the writers and us up from having to keep track of complicated plots and enjoy the scenery, the wit, or both. Of course, in the case of Haven, this also frees us up from keeping track of complicated individual episode plots and lets us pick apart all the other aspects of the show for every little last detail. As we do here. Hey, you're not here for our scintillating conversation, right? So, in this scene not only do we get the likely perpetrators of this drama, willing or otherwise, we also get a tightly packed dose of background information neatly folded into the dialogue. Zack is Landon's son, the woman taking care of him is Landon's mother, the kid is four years old, and the family is very close. Also Rosemary's baked goods really are better. No, that one came from Audrey. And so far her hunting party will consist of Dave, Nathan, her, and the Chief. Oh, this is going to be great fun I don't think! Says her facial expression. I sympathize, Audrey, I really do. Just from the amount of gunshots we hear as the scene changes over they're shooting at nothing and yelling a lot. Very productive, guys. Audrey is wearing her please don't shoot me I'm not a deer vest, which may or may not help, and she'd like to know where Vince is so we can confirm that Vince doesn't hunt. That's interesting. Especially in light about what we learn of him over the course of the series. He certainly does seem to be the more empathic, tender one of the two. But he also has that moment with Max Hansen that's coming up, so maybe he just prefers the most dangerous game? Or is a misanthrope, or doesn't want to encourage his bloodthirsty traits, or something else entirely. Difficult to say.
Of course it's Nathan who spies that they're on the back end of the Minion farm, both because he's not as invested in the hunt and because his Trouble induces a state of hyperawareness in his surroundings, at least as they affect him. The Chief doesn't give a fuck for postings, which is a bad position for the fucking Chief of Police to take, BAD CHIEF. NO COOKIE. No, they're going in anyway, even as Nathan says it's a bad idea. I'd argue for Nathan taking a stand and his authority and putting his foot down except the people who are armed and ready to shoot something outnumber him, and I'm in favor of Nathan living through the series finale, honestly. Hey, speaking of people living through things, Dave did you have to say that about lunching vs other things lunching on you? Because that's just tempting fate. Even if you don't know you're in a TV show that's the kind of thing people believe in not saying because it's tempting fate. Which you should not be doing in a town you know to be supernatural. Today's episode of Haven might as well be subtitled: Regulars Behaving Badly. True to form, something very loud and growly sounds from offscreen, agreeing with Dave in that it's time for lunch. Though that something sounds like it has a different idea of what qualifies as lunch. Everyone brings up their guns just in time to almost shoot Jess Minion's dog. NICE GOING, GUYS. Fortunately Nathan catches it in time, causing the Chief's gun to discharge hopefully harmlessly into the air. It's only harmless because it's television, though, guys, remember that what goes up must come down and the world is full of people who have been injured, killed or made into murderers because they were dumbassed enough to fire their guns into the air. (Apparently, according to Wiki and the physics of it makes sense as far as I remember physics, guns fired straight up into the air are less dangerous because the bullets fall back to earth at terminal velocity, which is less than the velocity with which they leave the gun. Bullets fired other than straight up are still dangerous because they retain their ballistic velocity for longer. The more you know!) And now that we've had that lesson and listened to Nathan and the Chief arguing about who was more at fault and what they should be more concerned about, Nathan interfering with the Chief's gun firing or shooting Jess Minion's pet... a Dire Moose appears! Dire Moose uses frenzied charge! It's Super Effective! Especially in the case of Dave and the Chief, leaving Audrey and Nathan to pick up shotguns and fire repeatedly into the moose who, admittedly, is not making it difficult. Not only do they bring down the moose, they take its head clean off. Because it's stuffed with rags, cotton, and sand. Just another afternoon in Haven?
Audrey's at a loss how to describe the evidence from the stuffed moose or what it points to. The Chief wants Audrey and Nathan to get Dave out of there so he can get checked out by a doctor, because moose charges are nothing to sneeze at. He also says two things of deep and abiding interest to us right now, especially in light of what we learn about him at the end of this season and sprinkled in the next two. The first is him snapping at Nathan about how this doesn't play out better in the middle of Main Street. This could be the kind of shamed anger that comes from having to deal with problems that aren't common or natural. It could also imply that since Garland was one of the foremost advocates of the Hunt Club going out hunting for the alleged wolf, that Garland had the feeling which Trouble they were dealing with (since he's seen this happen twice before), that he knew who was most likely to be targeted (hunters), and that he arranged for everyone to be out in the woods where they could defend themselves and each other and not get civilians in the line of fire. Which on the one hand is kind of cold because it means leaving a lot of stirred up and not necessarily sensible people in sketchy visibility with loaded guns, and on the other hand is sneaky and clever. The other thing he says is that he wants them, Nathan and Audrey, to stop this nonsense. Not find the human killer, not that they have a wolf to catch, not anything, he wants them to stop this. Indicating that he knows damn well and good there's a Trouble behind this and that Audrey, especially allied with Nathan because everyone can see the chemistry and teamwork there, but mostly Audrey can stop this. Underscored by the short tirade that follows to Audrey about how he wants Nathan to take over dealing with Haven after he's gone, and his word choices heavily imply the Troubles. There's nothing of regular cop business in there, even when he could directly refer to it. That said, it's the Chief who ends up hauling Dave off and it's the two of them who end up staying to discuss the case. Dave isn't in much condition to take note of anything, so a few babbled lines of "that's a funny looking moose!" and it's exeunt Dave, stage left, not pursued by any bears stuffed or otherwise. Audrey is still pointing the finger at Jess, and calls Nathan on Jess being sympathetic to his... she calls it a "problem." Either way, her sympathy is something they can use if it comes down to an interrogation, on account of her being Troubled would give her considerable empathy.
Jess isn't in a sympathetic mood. She's pissed that people are shooting and hunting on her land and she's pissed that they, being cops, aren't doing anything about it. I'd be pissed too! But when they break it down to her that there was another animal attack, and this time the animal was stuffed, her response is pretty much what one would expect of any unTroubled person: dull disbelief. Nathan attempts to use the justification that not all Troubled people are aware of it, and that it might be a result of whatever rituals she's doing. Which isn't hitting the mark either, we can tell that by her resigned sigh and movements of her head. That's not the response of someone who's been doing any rituals of vengeance who is suddenly confronted with the possibility that it worked, that's the tired sigh of someone who has to explain, yet again, that there is no such thing as unicorns. She's not doing any rituals, she's not a witch or a shaman or anything like that, she doesn't even qualify for Mi'kmaq tribal registration under Federal Law (one grandparent, and hers was half, making her 1/16 Mi'kmaq), and all she has is a healthy sense of spirituality, flexible imagination, and a head full of traditional folk tales. And an internet connection. Actually with all of that she sounds a lot like us. She also makes the very good point that if she were Troubled or had some other kind of supernatural power, the animals wouldn't have died in the first place. Not something they would have known before they found out that was a stuffed moose, but it works as an argument now. It's hard to say if Audrey accepts that, but she does call an end to it there and admit that there's no likely witch in the picture. Jess goes back into her house after a fraught moment of tension with Nathan. Aww, you guys.
Physical evidence apparently means the Haven Hunt Club? And some ominous shots of taxidermied animals, just in case we hadn't figured out at least that much of what was going on. The standard angle and lighting to imply When Stuffed Animals Attack, since that's a plot that's been recycled through at least several decades of horror movies. Audrey feels the same way about this room full of trophy kills as I do, calling it "Taste: The Final Frontier." I love you, Audrey. You and your closet geeking, never change. Nathan has a thing against one stuffed wolf in particular, and as Audrey nears it we can see that this involves blood on its muzzle. No way did anyone cut themselves on a taxidermied wolf's teeth, so the only question is, is this TR's or Donnelly's wolf. Yeah, they're going to need some help for this one. There isn't exactly anyone to call for a necroscopy on a stuffed wolf, so they call Eleanor. She's remarkably unimpressed by having to necroscopy something that's already been cut, cleaned, and stuffed. And what the hell is that smell? The wolf is giving them the finger. Which isn't the joke Eleanor makes, sadly, but she's still cracking jokes and it's even odds whether that's Haven zen or coroner zen. Or some warped combination of both. She guesses it'll be a match to TR's prints, which means the other wolf was Donnelly's. Yum. Now it's Eleanor's turn to demand answers, though she does it with a phrasing that allows as how it's not likely she'll get any. She's not much more graceful than Audrey about being denied answers, though. Her bitching has just had some of the sharp uncertainty rubbed off on it; she's older, she doesn't have Audrey's identity issues, she's sure in who she is. And it's entirely possible she already knows whose Trouble this is. Wench. Her jauntily slinging a lampshade onto Audrey's complete lack of knowledge/handling of what she's gotten into, though, does not sit well with Nathan. He's making stern and sulky faces over there. After Eleanor's gone Audrey tells Nathan that she thinks the moose that attacked the Chief and Dave was the one Garland shot in why-are-you-asking-me-to-spell-that. Okay, fine, Aroostook. I only had to googlemaps that. Does she really think it's the same moose? Is there a moose in the room? No? It'd be hard to miss a moose, Nathan. And the wolves are Donnelly and Holt's, and now we will lay out the reasons why this crazy thing of dead stuffed animals coming to life is the most likely solution, along with the other commonality they have: the maker's tag CL6. Just a guess, that's who you should be looking at? Since there's no other commonality that links all the resurrected animals together, so that's at least a place to start. If the Troubled person isn't leaving any signs on the animals or their mounted plaques, you've got nothing, but since you've got one as yet unexplained clue I'd start there. It's somewhat close to what Audrey's thinking, at least! Her first question is, what's bringing them back. Nathan's first question is, where's the bear. Let's answer that one first, yeah.
We can assume with about a 50% chance of being right that the next scene is where the bear is, which will in turn answer the question of who killed a bear. Oh hell. It's Dave. Of course it is. The bear is making grumbling noises, which Dave interprets to be Vince snorting and snuffling with allergies. Either because he's deaf or he's been hit on the head or both, I'm not sure, but I am neither deaf nor hit on the head and that does not sound at all like Vince Teagues. Stuffed up from allergies or not. Dave nags at him to take his allergy medicine, with some snarky commentary about how no one would notice a difference if he was, as he thinks of it, a bit slow. Then he yells, which does get Vince's attention. And it's not Vince. Hello, grizzly! Which stands up and, Dave killed a grizzly bear? Seriously? At least it looks like a grizzly bear in the face, the shaky cam is a bit shaky and excessive, most likely to hide what seems to be blatant CGI. At any rate, bear! Someone made a bear! Undo it! Undo it! Dave and Vince decide to run past the bear, what the hell you guys, not back into the house but around to something else. An anti-bear shelter? You guys aren't just creepy, you're idiotic under fire. At any rate, running away from the bear, even if this involves running past the bear. Miraculously, this does not involve them getting eaten by the bear before Nathan and Audrey get to them. It's pretty obvious what's going on given the plaque and the amount of both human and ursine screaming coming from around the back of the house. Oh, hey, they're in a storm cellar. The storm cellar doesn't have access from inside the house? There was something in the house they wanted to protect from a bear? No, that was still the dumbest move they could have made. Nathan and Audrey continue the trend of dumbassery by pulling out their sidearms and shooting the bear. With pistols. Guys. Even if the bear weren't dead already, you run a serious risk of only making it madder. Of course it is already dead so the bullets, they do nothing. What they need is a .50 cal or something. After what looks like emptying the clip into the bear's head then Audrey decides to say their pistols are useless. So we'll douse it in gasoline and light it on fire. Because a giant lumbering angry undead bear on fire is exactly what we need. Shockingly, this actually works, largely because the writers say it does. As far as I can tell the fire shouldn't destroy the bear sufficiently enough to prevent it from doing any more damage for a lot longer than it takes. But it's a small quibble to make in an otherwise chilling episode. So cut scene, and next we have Nathan spraying fire suppressant on the remains of the bear while Dave sits on the well cover and looks despondant and cranky. Vince is right behind Audrey, literally and unnervingly right behind her, if she backs up any further her shoulder is going to go into his chest. Even odds whether this is protectiveness and continuing sentiment from when she was Sarah, or simply hiding behind her because she's the Anti-Trouble. Probably the former, because he's awfully excited about a giant bear come to life. Dave could wish his brother was a little less excited considering it almost killed him, which is likely the point. I'm still not sure how much of their sometimes vitriolic rivalry is real and how much is habit by now. I'm really not. We've seen Vince threaten someone over Dave's safety before, but we've also seen them both clock each other over the head and do pretty nasty things to each other, so. Audrey doesn't know any of this yet. She's more worried about how this will look in the Herald. She needn't be, really, they're such old hands at this (largely thanks to her, how's that for unseen at the time irony) that they come up with some thin but plausible lies right off the cuff. Rabid bears, sure. Vince, you're not being as reassuring as you think you are, and you're being oddly affectionate to a relative stranger. Stoppit. Dave interprets the tag for us! Thank you, Dave, for providing a distraction. CL, he surmises, is Canis Lupus, and Landon Taylor did the stuffing. Didn't I tell you he'd be important later?
So it's over to Landon's shop. Which looks suspiciously like the Haven Herald, right down to the stairs and the window boxes. I know this because I analyzed the stuffing out of it. Pun damn well intended. Anyway, today this is serving as Landon's dry cleaners out of which one assumes he also does taxidermy. That's definitely not the interior onto which that door opens in the Herald, but that's also definitely the front counter station of the Herald. Landon's in the back cleaning up a mess of cloth and stuffing, and he wonders if the rabid animals did it. Or at least he wonders out loud; I would wonder what a rabid animal would want with a place that most likely smells of chemicals and not food, and how it left the building so relatively clean. By which I mean clean of animal smell and biological material. Hard to say whether or not Landon knows all of what's going on now, but his putting this mess on a rabid animal seems more than a little thin. Nathan and Audrey will just come right out with it and bring up the Troubles, and how they're causing what's happening in this case. And by the way, all of the animals were stuffed by them. So, yeah. Landon is mildly shocked but, notably, he doesn't waste time claiming that this is impossible, just goes straight to the part where the stuffed animals will have to be destroyed. Meanwhile Mrs. Taylor is sneaking around and palming a pair of scissors. Piper, what are you doing. Apart from interfering in a police investigation. What she's doing is she's getting in between the police and Landon, for no reason that anyone can figure out. She's vehement that they need to leave him alone, that this isn't his doing or his fault, despite the fact that no one has actively said it was. It's the vehemence that's suspicious, straight off the bat without stopping to address that no one had accused him yet. Audrey simply stated what was going on in the least judgemental way she could manage. But Piper tries to order Landon into the car and, what, she'll hold off the police? By the way she takes a swing at Nathan, scissors in hand, that's exactly what she plans to do. There's some blurry shots of people's arms moving across each other and then Nathan has Piper overpowered and in an arm lock, taking the scissors away from her. Which frees up Audrey to notice that, um. Landon's not bleeding. Not blood, anyway. Landon, understandably, freaks the fuck out and runs off. Piper screams about how he needs her, but considering she just tried to stab a police officer they're not letting her go now that they've got a grip on her. This is turning into one giant clusterfuck! And no, it'd be physically impossible... okay, we'll call it highly improbable even with the Troubles for him to stuff himself, which means it's Piper. Because it sure as hell isn't the four year old. Piper admits that it's all her fault. The animals are waking up, because of her.
In the truck on the way to... somewhere. To find Landon? To the Hunt Club to deal with the rest of the animals? We don't know, we haven't gotten an intention before we got the travel scene. In Nathan's truck Piper is sandwiched between the two of them explaining how she never dealt with the taxidermy, she just gave him some of her sewing rags for stuffing. She didn't think that would be enough, which tells us at least that she knew what her family's Trouble was. And Landon? Well, she found him in the fire, dead presumably of smoke inhalation. And apparently decided that the thing to do would be to taxidermically stuff her son. Ew. But yes, she can feel the animals waking up. She could feel Landon waking up. Ew again. Everything was fine until Landon almost died in the shooting altercation the other day. Audrey vocalizes the rule about how stress makes the Troubles worse, and Piper says that her father warned her to be careful, telling us that this goes back that far at least.
Over at the Haven Hunt Club Landon seems to have decided that it's axe time. Hatchet time, specifically. The owl disapproves. Audrey creeps her way through the darkened building, followed by Nathan, both of them are thoroughly creeped out by now. Yeah, I would be too. Landon's trying to destroy them with the axe, sure, except Nathan and Audrey are there to drag him away? While they do that, Piper sneaks in after them and locks the door behind her. It's a bit of a scattered scene and the motivations of Nathan and Audrey for dragging Landon off instead of helping him destroy the animals before they can fully awaken isn't entirely clear. Piper's motivations, on the other hand, are very clear. Just so that we know, she says it herself, that they'll stop (or at least everyone seems to think this is the case) if they kill her and they won't come after anyone else. Though she's mainly concerned about her son, and probably after him, Nathan and Audrey. Landon's going all Jack Nicholson on the door with the hatchet, and given the Stephen King connection I'm not at all certain that's not on purpose. Piper sorrowfully proclaims that it ends with her; uh, no, lady. You have a homonculus son and a living grandson, your bloodline is not at all gone and the Trouble too. Still, this might put an end to this cycle's worth of Night of the Living Dead Things. There's some growling, some twitching, considerably better CGI blending of the living animals and the stuffed ones, and we get a lovely shot of the oncoming wolf before the camera discreetly takes us elsewhere.
Oh, hey, it's the here's Johnny shot! At least the blocking is the same, but the angle and lighting of the shot is much different, there's only a glimpse of Landon looking through the broken door before he reaches around to open it and go in. Unmoving legs on the floor means she's dead, yes? Yes. For all the blood splashed around the earlier crime scenes, this one is discreet and bloodless. And there's a reason for that, as we discover if we look close. Where the one wolf had blood on its muzzle still when it de-animated, these have rags in their teeth. Everyone crouches down by the body, Landon takes his mother's hand, distraught, the music goes into a minor key and we're all very sad, except for those of us who are slightly more unnerved. Like Nathan. Sun... rise? Set? It was night when that went down so since Nathan refers to "today" possibly this is sunset on the next day. The hunters are still killing wolves, three of them, and Nathan's not so happy with the ending they got as Audrey is. It seems like Audrey's just glad for the deadly part of it to be over. We have it laid out for us again, not as frank or accepting as they'll be later on, they're still calling it a condition, but pretty systematic. When the fire happened, Piper's Trouble awakened but was focused on Landon; when Landon almost got shot, what little and mainly subconscious control Piper had over her Trouble went away and, as Nathan puts it, her Trouble went into overdrive. Which means her death solved the murders, but still leaves Landon somewhat of a stuffed man. Minor Shakespearean pun also intended.
They go sit down by Landon, bracketing him, for condolances and comfort. Landon is staring straight ahead as he, well, doesn't come to grips with what's happened over the last twenty four hours, because generally, people in Haven don't do that. There's grief and then there's the weird shit that goes along with living in Haven, and Landon's had his identity as he thought it was pretty well destroyed, along with his Mom. Not only does he have to rebuild who he is not quite from the ground up, but close, he has to do it without any of the answers or consolation his mother could have provided. Nathan offers his condolances, which addresses at least the forms that happen after a death. Audrey attempts to reassure him by telling him they're destroying all the animals his mother brought back, which isn't nearly so much of a reassurance as it could be because technically that includes him. Which he points out immediately. And then asks if they're going to kill him. I would too; imagine hearing someone referring to a group in which you've just discovered you belong as needing destruction. A malfunctioning or misbehaving animal to be destroyed. A trifle upsetting, isn't it? Audrey now gets to show off how not good she is by trying to tell him it doesn't have to be so bad, reminding him that he still has his son. This doesn't address the fact that he feels like a stuffed rag doll, Audrey. Not a real boy, in other words. Hey, where have we heard those words before? It makes for a nice callback to what Duke said to Nathan, which may or may not be the impetus for Nathan stepping in. Did I mention he steps in by pulling out his pocket knife and cutting himself? Across the palm? Why is it always across the palm? Especially for Nathan that's really fucking dangerous, there are soft fleshy bits, yes, but there are also a lot of muscles and tendons and other things that don't want to be cut! Nathan does, however, use it to highlight the fact that he's Troubled too, and that just makes him different from the norm, not less than. The part that probably does even more good is when Nathan points out that Landon's been that way for six months, and neither he nor his son noticed. Not the sum of his parts but greater than, etc, and possibly magic, taking us back to Jess's own speech to him earlier in the episode. It seems to work. There's a bit of treating Landon like a child here, but he's essentially been dropped back to the accumulated sense of identity of a child, very little to build on and having been reduced to fumbling around the existential questions like a child. So, it works. Landon goes up and retrieves his son, still sniffling a bit, and leads him off for home. Once they're gone and hopefully out of earshot Audrey asks Nathan if he really believes that the Troubled are all magic, see also: childlike, Blue Fairy, Pinocchio, Velveteen Rabbit (which also comes into play later), certain aspects of the Nutcracker, and about half a dozen other children's stories. (A: Nathan as the Steadfast Tin Soldier?) . Which brings up the interesting theory of Audrey as the child in the Velveteen Rabbit story, for love of whom, etc. It's not quite foreshadowing yet, but given the direction the show is going it may yet turn out to be. Nathan isn't so ready to believe they're magic, though. At least not benevolent magic. Well, Audrey is impressed and grateful that he saved Landon's life, or close to it, so that's a kind of magic. Cue Queen. But Nathan isn't ready to hear that yet and Audrey doesn't yet have the trust/friendship credit with him to make him hear it, so he up and quietly walks off. And Audrey heaves a sigh of "this is going to be a job of work." Oh Audrey, you have no idea.
Over at Jess Minion's house Nathan pulls up, so that's where he ran off to. She's deeply cynical (I'd say paranoid except it really has been every time they come to visit her someone else has died or come close) about the reason for his visit, but he's not there for the animals. He's there to apologize. Her spiritual/magical realist outlook on the Troubles, well, it might not be right, but he seems to have decided it's right for him at the moment. Whatever he is, she likes it. Him. There's a considerable amount of more smiling shyly and fidgeting as they make their breakfast date. Awww! But she doesn't like pancakes, so this relationship is doomed right from the start. I say that largely tongue in cheek, but it's entirely possible the writers threw that in as a device to tell us that this is a temporary thing.
So. Back over at the police station Audrey's called Eleanor in to discuss the freaky shit going on around Haven that no one will talk about. The exchange of "I trust you." "That's your first mistake." is almost as interesting as the more blatantly significant rest of the dialogue. For example, consider that her daughter Julia has the same disappearing reappearing Guard/Duke's-death tattoo that Vince Teagues has, as we'll find out later on in the season and series. Consider also that Vince and Julia are the only ones on whom the tattoo disappears and reappears. Consider, finally, the Guard's... contentious relationship with Audrey and that Eleanor would have been around for a good portion of that, and not only that but in a position to be close to Lucy. So the comment about trusting her being a mistake for Audrey, while seeming an innocuous joke at the time, now looks a hell of a lot more sinister. Audrey's not here to talk about that, she's here to talk about Piper's death. Basically, that while they're going to report that all the rags flung around the room came from the animals, Piper was also stuffed, and this creepyass human zombie taxidermy has likely been going on for generations. They must be stuffing each other after the next in line produces a child at least, because biology, and we'll leave it at that, but it's not at all implausible. Hell, would a stuffed person even age like a normal human? Are there stuffed Taylors running around Haven from the colonial era who have learned to adapt? That's an interesting, morbid form of mortality. They can't all die when the Troubles go away, unless Piper was stuffed between the start of the Troubles and the start of the show. So many questions! None of them getting answered right now. Audrey hasn't told Landon so Landon won't be tempted, won't be aware that this is a power coming from him and his bloodline and not just his mother, but she can't help feeling that this is just another Haven secret that's going to play itself out all over again. And where did you want that lampshade set? Eleanor is sympathetic, and offers her one of Rosemary's pastries. Aww! Eleanor gets up and, with a tone of determination, says she's going to do what she can to help Audrey find out about her Mom. I can't even tell if she's telling the truth and assuming the identical resemblance is a Haven thing, or if she knows and she's just using Audrey's words because the truth isn't something Audrey can hear right now. Most likely the latter. And this fills Audrey with unlooked for hope, but after the initial joking around Eleanor only looks tired and sad for her. Or maybe sad for them all. Audrey's theme plays in the background as Eleanor walks out on that summer person comment, which may be symbolic to the seasons or may just be a sign that Audrey's settled in to Haven for the cycle. And etiher way, it's going to be a rough one.
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