Friday, September 20, 2013

Fill In Blank Spaces With More Dotted Lines Haven S1E12 Resurfacing

Previously on Haven. There are two Havens! One is a normal small town with normal small town secrets. The other has Troubles. Lucy Ripley is one of those secrets! So is whatever Duke does that makes him so sinister, apart from routinely pissing off Nathan. Seriously, they keep playing up the Duke is a bad guy here, it makes me think he's going to have some secret murderous superpower oh wait. He's also a smuggler, and Audrey quit her job to stay in Haven.


And now that we're up to speed, we get a nice long coastal view of Haven and one of the fishermen on it before we reach the mystery of the week. A washed up boat named Fisherman's Honor? That's what it looks like at least oh hey! Skeletons! Well, that's a nicely contaminated potential crime scene for everyone to look over. Also if I ever go into a washed up boat, would someone please remind me to poke around with a ten foot pole instead of my hands? I know that skeleton didn't fall on top of the guy or anything, but I really expected it to.




So, okay. Audrey seems more delighted than maybe she should be by the prospect of the skeleton on the boat than she should be, which Nathan sort of agrees with. Around the fact that he's trying not to do Numfar's Dance of Joy that he's not going to lose the one person whose touch he can feel, and who he seems to be coming to care for apart from that. Happy enough that he feels like giving Audrey some hope of pirates by telling her old stories that there used to be such along this coast, and giving us some kindling as we facedesk over "the sea gives up all kinds of secrets." Really. Really, Nathan? You don't say. Are some of them named Glendower? The sea is dark... Okay, sidetracked again. Anyway, they both take note of the fact that he comes out and says in actual words that he's glad she's staying, but mostly in the blushing and looking away sense. Back to the case. Audrey speculates on identifying the bodies, cuing Nathan to give us the rundown on the ship that's wrecked. Lost, everyone on board presumed dead, rumored that it was the fault of James Garrick who was known to be a drinker in the past even though he'd been sober for years. The captain's widow especially. Oh, hey, the man who found the boat is still watching it! And his name is Hank. This Hank is NOT The Best, he's withholding evidence. Bad Hank. Even if it is the dead man's cross, the police would likely release it from evidence to the family if asked, since it's highly unlikely to be probative, but will you do the right thing and ask? No, no you will not. Between that and the unfriendly stare he gives the police even as he tells the widow to go home and let them work, I feel safe in saying that we're going to see more of one of them before the episode is through, probably interfering in the investigation. Yes? Yes.


Over to another house in Haven which is not just another house in Haven, of which there seem to be many. This one has a harried mother of at least two, one teenager and one younger than. The teenager is being asked to babysit while the mother takes on an extra shift, implying financial hardship and some fairly TV-standard frictions between mother and daughter; the mother needs the daughter to take on added responsibilities, the daughter wants her freedoms instead. And apparently these added responsibilities are recent? At least within the last year or so, because I would judge that the girl has only recently become old enough to watch her baby brother. Although they don't explicitly say this right now, this gives us a rough timeline for the sinking of the ship to within the last couple of years (as opposed to, say, a decade ago) because one can assume that the financial hardship started when they lost one income in the family. It's also possible that the mother needed her daughter to help look after her baby brother since the father couldn't, but I would put losing that added income as more likely, or at least more dire. For all the stress in the household the fight between mother and daughter doesn't even last that long, with the mother acknowledging the sacrifice the daughter's making and the daughter acknowledging the need. Meanwhile, the mother's keys are scampering off the table. Well, that's a Trouble! This does lead to a brief delay, but the brevity of it makes it difficult to tell if this was an on purpose Trouble to delay her (highly ineffective if so) or a not on purpose Trouble to delay her (emotional reaction?) or a side effect of some other Trouble. Far too early to tell. Besides, someone's a knocking at the door. Oh shit, it's the widow. And she doesn't sound happy, though with her husband's body discovered of course she oh. Well, now we know more for certain that the harried mother is James Garrick's widow! Yay. Because of course fighting amongst yourselves and in front of children is going to bring your loved ones back. Yes, I have Opinions.


Back over to the police station before the fight gets started in earnest, boy! Hank doesn't look like he has anything to hide at all. Still not The Best. Hank apparently worked for James and Andy building boats, and possibly the one they wrecked on, so that's two reasons for him to be here. Audrey shows him some pictures of the wreckage, but he's very cagey about what might have caused the boat to wreck, let alone resurface. Yes, I did that. Nathan isn't buying the cageyness or that the state of the boat's machinery is natural, and we finally get something of a timeline for the wreck; it's been a year since it went down. And yes, the corrosion patterns of metal do vary depending on a lot of factors, but you can track and account for most of those factors and figure out if that machinery should, under optimum conditions and working properly, look like that. It's a potential murder investigation on a boat, of course they're looking into sabotage. They're going to look wherever they think they might find answers. Hank delivers the warning that by now is pretty much standard for Haven, that they might not like the answers they find, and we go...


... back to the house of Widowly Confrontation! It turns out the Widow Garrick's name is Tracy and she figured Andy wandered off, since he wasn't supposed to be on the boat that day. But he was, going by the cross, and the accusations start flying. One was feckless, the other was drunk, neither woman is inclined to listen to the other and in the absence of proof that can be shoved in their faces or a truth that they can be forced to listen to, this is going to come to blows really quickly. Oh, there we go, there goes the slapping, and that force that knocked the keys off the table? Is now knocking Vera into the door and sending things flying around the room. Roll credits!



After the credits the police are over, and by the police I mean Nathan and Audrey. I think because they're investigating the boat wreck/potential homicide rather than because they handle all the emergency calls around, though speaking of emergency calls we're not getting a status update on Vera. That worries me a little, though it does also indicate where Vera is in the sorting algorithm of main characters in this episode. And Audrey uses the present tense, indicating that Vera will be okay, she was just winded or stunned or knocked out. So! Vera and, as it turns out, the daughter Brooke blame James Garrick for the shipwreck, while the son Michael and Tracy insist it wasn't his fault. Tracy does feel somewhat guilty for blaming Andy when it turns out he was dead the whole time. But she's also tired of it, the fighting, the town, and everything, and she intends to pack up and leave Haven. Audrey tries to convince her to stay at least until the investigation is done for the sake of the children, which I guess is a friendlier way of telling her not to leave town because she might be a part of it? We don't get to hear if Tracy figured that part out yet because Nathan brings up the unusually corroded boat parts, but she has no idea with boat parts coming in from all over the world right now. Then she tells Nathan to "ask [his] Little League buddy" and I go "buddy??" and Audrey goes "Little League? :D" I'm more surprised by the friendship-implying appellation but yes, the thought of Duke and Nathan playing Little League together is just plain hysterical. Ickle Wuornos! Ickle Crocker! And their not so ickle tempers. I wonder how well that went, really. As they leave the house it turns out that Duke and Nathan were in Little League and coached by James Garrick, aww, isn't that cute? It also turns out that James comes from a very poor family and has a very strong work ethic, or at least that's the takeaway I got from holding down three jobs in high school and coaching Little League. Not the type to sink a boat he's working on, on purpose. Definitely the kind of stress that could cause a drinking habit, though. But also the kind of tenacity that could kick a drinking habit, so nothing strongly indicative any which way, there. On to other theories, like James' ghost is coming back and caused Vera to go flying across the room! Because everyone in that house acted as though something Trouble-y happened. Audrey teases Nathan about ghosts, Nathan teases her about ghost pirates, I wonder how either of them can flat out discount any supernatural theory because fucking Haven. And while we're being all informal and jokey, it seems like as good a time as any to note that now that Audrey's left the FBI, her wardrobe has gotten a lot less formal Agent We At The FBI Do Not Have A Sense Of Humor That We Are Aware Of. Partly because she's a small town cop now, and integrating into Haven, but also because she's integrating into Haven; it works on both an in-character and a meta level. She looks good in more colors and less stark neutrals and grays. As far as the case goes, they resolve to do some digging. Into the past, if not literally into the ground.


Meanwhile, over on another stretch of coast and this one somewhat off the beaten path, Duke is telling someone named Carl to "just set up the meeting." And paying him a lot of money to do so. Just in case we didn't know Duke was a bad guy? Or a smuggler? What's up with oh. Hi Nathan! This could get really ugly really fast if Duke weren't even faster on his feet. So we're reinforcing Duke is a clever bastard and Duke is a smuggler with a ruthless streak when the occasion demands it, with a serious disregard for the law. This is actually a thing I don't mind them reinforcing, because as adorable and cuddly as Duke can be, it can also be very easy to forget that he's a criminal and has been for a very long time by this point. At any rate, before Nathan can even get out of the car Duke is yelling at him for being late, and he'd better jump when Duke says jump. Then more yelling at Carl not to worry about the stranger who just drove up. Essentially this is what TV Tropes calls a Bavarian fire drill and what I call a brilliant piece of social engineering, taking the situation by the reins and yanking before anyone else has a chance to grab some control. Given all the yelling he did just a moment ago, too, lowering his voice can be interpreted as an act of menace as well as keeping Nathan from hearing what he's saying. Carl will now reference the people that Duke stole from, giving us and potentially Nathan some clue as to what Nathan's just interrupted. This is getting interesting on a whole other more mundane level. Oh, apparently these people that Duke allegedly stole from are angry enough to kill? Yeah, I'd go to that meeting armed if I were you, Duke. Who gets the guy in a headlock disguised as a friendly arm around the shoulders and tells him to set it up a third time, because them's the rules. And take a drink. Also he'll give Nathan a friendly smile over the shoulder that no one is fooled by, and Nathan would like his explanations soonest please and thank you. Oh, double the cash is enough to get the meeting! Well, that's all CHARITY WORK? Really, Duke? Sadly, we don't get a reaction shot from Nathan on that one, even though I dearly would like one.


We're over next to Tracy cleaning a pile of silverware at, hey! The Gull. Imagine that. This actually would have been a great time to break out the Rust Bucket or some other bar or restaurant they'd shown before and do some continuity as well as show that not everything happens at the Gull but, sadly, not so much. They get better about that in the second season, though. At any rate, Tracy's cleaning some silverware, drying it, it looks like, and Audrey's coming up to ask her a couple more questions. About the Troubles. Wow, she's really dispensed with the subtlety here, hasn't she. Oddly, Tracy is more scornful of the idea that it's Andy's ghost than she is of the Troubles, and when Audrey starts pressing for family history Tracy snaps back. So, yep, Troubled family it is, then, and Tracy knows it. She might not know the specific details or how it works, but she knows that something's different about her family in that unique to Haven way, and ghosts don't enter into it. Audrey pushes, because we've and she has learned by now that Troubles run in families, and between her and Vera this pushes Tracy into a tirade about how her family's been treated in Haven, like a pariah and a scandal. She tells Audrey where to go for answers about her family and stalks off.


Hey, speaking of secrets and scandal, looks like big sister has a boy over. Which she's not supposed to do, according to Michael. Brooke also would like to register a complaint about her family's treatment in this town, which, ouch. Being a social pariah as a teenager sucks. This goes on for a bit until boyfriend leans in for a kiss, which apparently Brooke isn't willing to do in front of her baby brother. I can accept that! Boyfriend can't. And we all know what happens to people who upset the residents of this household, right? Let alone try to assault them. I'm not getting much in the way of attachment or chemistry between the teenage lovebirds anyway, although that might be the point rather than a lukewarm acting performance. We get several closeups on Michael as this struggle's going on, just in case we didn't know it had something to do with the members of this family and then, yep, boyfriend goes flying across the room. Right now the camera's trying hard to sell us on Michael's a telekinetic, but only 13 minutes and change into the show? It's possible, but it's not fully there just yet.



When we come back from commercial Michael has apparently called either the police or Audrey and Nathan specifically. Or maybe just Audrey. Either way, Audrey's there at the house to deal with the hurt teenager and the missing teenager. And by now Audrey doesn't have to do much pushing to get Tracy to sit down and have a frank talk about the Troubles and the possibility that her family or someone in her family is Troubled. Missing children will do that. Tracy sounds exhausted, about ready to give up, and does reference packing up and leaving again, but Audrey keeps her on point. Poltergeist is the running theory for Audrey, due to them being linked to adolescence and emotional turbulence. There's certainly enough of both of those flying around the house! In order to figure out if that's what's going on, though, they have to find her, which means it's time to quiz the mom on how well she knows her daughter. What are the secret places Brooke likes to go when she's feeling hurt and desperate and wants to be alone and feel safe? Or at least, be alone.


We'll leave them discussing that and catch the next flyover to Duke and Nathan discussing the case. Or rather Nathan accusing Duke of selling bad parts to Andy for his boat. Duke claims that whether or not the parts he sold were bad, they were non-essential and shouldn't have made the boat sink anyway. That's actually a pretty compelling argument, but it's not like Duke keeps bills of sale around. It's also not like Duke is the sort of upstanding citizen who enjoys answering questions of cops and helping out cops, which we have underlined for us by Duke giving us a lovely and convoluted preamble to an agreement with Nathan. One of those you scratch my back I'll scratch yours deals. We follow them away from their trucks and up the steps of the Gull for a pedeconference, Duke wants Nathan's help with whatever that meeting he arranged was for, in exchange for his help with Nathan's case. Predictably, Nathan puts the Duke's-a-criminal spin on the situation, though as much as he's right about Duke being a criminal, the other guy he was meeting with when Nathan drove up didn't look like the most stellar of witnesses either. It's entirely possible that Duke was set up, as he claims. Exasperatedly. Nathan, stop needling Duke. Especially in public. Now we'll get a rundown on the situation, which is that Duke delivered a sealed box the recipients claimed was empty, and he claims the person at the initial end of the transaction set him up. He also, I suspect, wants to use a b-word stronger than bottom-feeder. Entertainingly, this is the first and only real hint we get as to Stoney's gender. It seems obvious now that I've seen the episode four or five dozen times, but initially they do a pretty good job of masking what's supposed to be a surprise later on. Oh, and insult to injury, Stoney paid Duke for his services with counterfeit money. It's also telling that, even as Duke presents Nathan with more things he can accuse Duke of and try to pin on him, Nathan doesn't push that issue further. Not with posture or attitude, not with words, he just asks Duke what the plan is. Which Duke doesn't have yet. Oh boys.


Audrey's walking up on Brooke, who's sitting on a bench alongside a wooden walk in some sort of park or arboretum. She apparently used to come there with her father, so regardless of what she says she still misses her father and wants to feel that connection. Audrey tries to empathize with her, but in the direction of connecting Brooke's anger with what's been happening in the house, which Brooke knows nothing about. Brooke isn't so much having none of this as she's just angry, at her father for leaving, at her mother for pushing her to be more grown up than she wants to be no matter the good reason, at the whole town for treating her family like garbage, and now Audrey for chasing after her. Which makes this the perfect time to broach the Troubles. Of course. Though arguably Audrey could also be provoking her to try and find a response, like the firebug a couple episodes ago. But instead of anything or anyone flying around, all we get is a sobbing, angry teenager. Who would love to have that kind of power and, by her "I'm nobody" comment, get some kind of respect or recognition that she feels she doesn't have right now. Poor kiddo. And she's right, if she had that kind of power this confrontation would go a lot differently, and probably so would the family's interactions with the rest of the town. Since she doesn't, the confrontation ends in tears and hugs as Audrey attempts to comfort her. Probably with at least some success. Audrey's getting rather good at that for someone who couldn't make friends to save her life (or the town) in the beginning of this season.


Back at the Gull Nathan and Duke are going over the plan! Which Nathan, predictably, doesn't like. You're going to have to give a little somewhere, dude. We get a comic moment to keep the situation light as the waitress brings by their drinks and Duke blinks at it, then moves them around so Nathan gets the tea (which is probably not from Long Island) and Duke gets the beer. This isn't as trivial as it seems, both because we get further bonding moments between the two of them and because we do get bits of information here. Duke is offering Nathan information about the boat wreck as well as a counterfeiter in exchange for Nathan's less than legal help. It's a trade Nathan seems at least inclined to consider, but he still has major trust issues with Duke, though he controls himself considerably better than he did at the beginning of the season. He can't keep a rein on the sarcasm, but the glaring and the hostile posture is much down, along with zero threats of arresting him despite the snark about Duke's extracurricular activities. But back to the trust issues. And the information, because we now learn one of the (most likely) many incidents which led to Nathan's very low opinion of Duke, the kind of incident that Duke's been working off with help like this and help with Audrey's problems for at least two out of the past three seasons, if not more. So. Third grade. Duke and his friends lure Nathan out of somewhere, the gym? After gym class with the promise that a girl he likes likes him back. As you do, though not usually as early as third grade? Well, maybe you do, I've never been a third grade boy. And as Nathan goes out they all slap him on the back and cheer him on, all the while putting tacks in his back because, hey, he can't feel it, he's still Troubled. Considering this would still be in their formative years, and if this went on throughout the whole time the Troubles were going on, probably little wonder Nathan feels such distrust and hostility towards Duke even if he's had no immediate reason to do so. Setting up a relationship like that, especially ruining Nathan's chances to talk to a girl he liked as well as coldly betting on it, would be immensely destructive, particularly in a small town atmosphere. We also here have some more character reinforcement/expansion, whereby Nathan complains and exaggerates that he didn't talk to another girl for two years after that, highlighting his shyness, and Duke was taking bets on how many tacks they could stick in Nathan, highlighting his skewed morals and his tendency to do things for the sake of immediate gratification that he regrets later. You say I'm extrapolating too hard, but I promise this is a thing. Look no further than second season and his interactions with the Rev. Duke then asks a very honest question, does Nathan think he should die for that? Not likely that Nathan does, but still being hostile to Duke he's not going to give him an honest answer. Just a flippant one. That said, the number of downcast looks indicates he is sorry about what happened and feels shame for it. Probably not as much as Nathan would like to see, but he recognizes that he did bad things when he was a kid. Not the kind of bad things he's doing now, things that hurt people. It's a start.



Over at the Garrick household Michael seems to wind the day down by reading a textbook. Oh honey. Especially so when he's woken up either by someone driving by very loudly or by the newspaper wrapped brick thrown through the window. I agree with Tracy on this one, and I'd add a 'fucking' to it. Cowards. The kid unwraps the newspaper, which I am both gratified and reflexively hissy to see it's the Herald. No byline, though. Not Vince or Dave or anyone. Odd. It's too blurry to make much out, but the headline is "Lost Boat Resurfaces" and the sub-heading is "Garrick and Weaver responsible for deaths?" That must be James Garrick's face that's crossed out in a red X. Poor everyone in this family. And let us also note, and I wouldn't bring this up if Haven weren't renowned for paying nitpicky attention to detail here, that when the dead Rev and his crew start marking homes where the Troubled live, it's with a red X too. It could be a coincidence. It's not like red X's are reputed to mean anything but "bad shit here." And yet. We'll file that away under suspicious coincidence for now while Michael goes into his shivering flash-step type fit. Which his mother is understandably worried over, though there doesn't seem to be much she can do other than pick him up and hold him as it goes away and try to comfort him. Or her. Both of them, really. Michael seems too out of it to be distressed, but when he opens his eyes it's to get and give us a good look at the newspaper hovering in the air, only to be balled up a second later and flung somewhere else. So... not Michael, then? Maybe? Still hard to say.


In the morning Audrey walks up to the house, which now has a Tradewinds Haven Real Estate sign in front of it. Looks like Mom was not only serious but also fast about moving and selling the house, or she was already in the beginning stages when all of this kicked off. Brooke lets her in, Tracy is showing people around, surprised to see Audrey. These two prospective buyers, if that's what they are? Hair and makeup's done a good job at making them look immediately shady, lots of shadows and deep lines and thinned places, and the actors themselves are doing a damn good job of not hiding the menace of their characters. So we instantly know that these two are Up To No Good even before they're rude to Michael. Tracy tries to make peace, citing Michael's sensitivity still to his dad's death (and considering it was about a year ago, that's not unusual), but either this is a deal-breaker for these folks or they decided they didn't like it the moment they stepped in, because this is where they take their leave. Or, more likely since these are clearly Two Shady Characters, whatever it is they want is in the office and they've decided that they'll just break in and steal it later. Classy folks. Thankfully Tracy doesn't rebuke her son for losing them a prospective buyer for the house, she just turns and looks tired.


Speaking of tired, a flyover brings us to the Gull again and Duke commenting on how Nathan looks like crap. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if Nathan slept in the truck. For all his willingness to work with Duke on this there are, as mentioned earlier, massive trust issues. Maybe he doesn't trust that Duke doesn't have some other plan or ulterior motive? Maybe he doesn't trust that the people Duke's attempting to trap with this don't come back and kill him. We have so many trust issues to choose from. I am sure that he slept in his truck, whatever his reasons for spending the night on the premises, because going in and asking Duke for couch space in the Gull or on the Cape Rouge would have pushed the limits of his tolerance for proximity to Duke. Anyway. Somehow this plan involves Nathan turning over his badge and gun to Duke, and here we see instantly part of what caused him to sleep badly and put that grumpy look on his face. Gun, maybe less so than badge; the gun is a weapon that we can all be sure Duke's had before and has access to many of them, the badge confers authority he couldn't get any other way, and while we can be pretty sure from the course of the season that Duke would abuse it in the cause of good if not of law, Nathan has no such faith. See also: tacks he's still holding onto. So. Duke will be playing the part of the cop for today? And apparently Nathan will not, based on Duke critiquing that he still has cop hair. We are now treated to a fucking hilarious Three Stooges-esque attempt at a makeover where Duke attempts to muss Nathan's hair and Nathan knocks his hand away after a second with a straight up hand that looks like he's about to thonk his palm off Duke's head. Oh boys. I do love you. The impact of their hands/wrists even coincides with a little "ting" from the soundtrack that, if it's coincidental, is the most hilarious Mickey Mousing I've heard since I don't know when. Duke's sure it'll be fine! Nathan isn't nearly so sanguine and is very exasperated. But he does sit down with the bag at a table at the Gull and wait for Stoney. Or whoever. He also musses his hair when Duke's out of sight. Oh Nathan.


Back at the house Tracy is telling Audrey about what she calls Michael's seizure, which Audrey then links to the family Trouble. James did have "seizures" when he was a boy, around 1983, and there was a woman named Lucy who helped him. No, we are not getting out the jar for this. She helped James hold himself together till his "problem" passed, and in this town for all we know that could be literally. I'm pretty sure that even is literal, considering that in the very next episode we get a man significant, even integral to the plot of first season, who fails to hold himself together and there are serious consequences to that. I can say no more. (Garland.) Yeah, Tracy was being literal, as she refers back to Michael the previous night and going by her use of the word 'until' she hadn't been around for any of Michael's previous fits of Trouble, or he hadn't had them. Audrey promises to try to help Michael, citing a family business. Oh Audrey. I have to wonder if this phrasing is also a signal by the writers of something involving her history at this point, because they seem to enjoy putting in those little sneaky references that only come back a season later, e.g. "Maybe she can help you with your Troubles." Time will tell on that one.


And we're back to Nathan! The cuts between these scenes are choppy, but the scenes themselves are just long enough that it's more of a clear "we're wrapping up these two plotlines simultaneously" and not short enough that it's the quick back and forth of ramping up tension. Nathan's sitting at his table with a resigned, sullen, hooded look. The whole looking up from beneath thing. A woman gets out of a car with a couple of flunkies all dressed identically in black like she got them out of a box, and only she approaches, saying that Nathan must be "Sheldon." He's Sheldon now? I'm picturing either turtles or the Big Bang Theory. Nathan doesn't look too thrilled with the nickname either, but he isn't flinching, and calls her Stoney. She is, and she comes bearing a nice little lampshade for the gender confusion as well as half a flirting comment. She's very well put together at least, shades of gray and silver on black for austerity but also a lot of bling for class and poise. Her makeup is impeccable and showy. She's dressed to be in a position of power on purpose. They'll now have a bit of As You Know Bob to fill in the audience on the deal, which is that Nathan's playing the go-between with the money so Duke can pay off the people who want to kill him. Stoney has a better idea! She can pay "Sheldon" off to kill Duke and they can split the money! First of all, just how dumb does she think Duke is that he might not have made arrangements against that already? It's possible the answer is 'very' but in that case she doesn't know Duke that well. Second off, just how dumb does she think "Sheldon" is that he'll trust her to keep her end of the bargain? So the poise of that ensemble leans more towards arrogance than earned confidence, or that's my takeaway. Nathan repeats the deal to be sure he has it correct, not so that "Sheldon" is sure necessarily though, who the hell knows what "Sheldon" is like since no one's bothered to put any thought to the background of a five minute undercover character. Nathan repeats the deal also because he's a cop, and that way he can testify that he's sure she wanted to exchange money for homicidal services. Stoney is not best pleased, though, that he's trying to pay her with her own money. Nathan, like us, is disinclined to go to the effort of getting out the surprised face in a jar, in fact he doesn't seem bothered or stirred by anything about her at all. Despite her best efforts to be threatening and authoritative. That has to rankle. She gives the nod or at least a head waggle to her mooks, who grab Nathan and haul him to his feet at which point, the cavalry! Or rather, Duke. Or rather, Alfred Duke-as-police-officer claiming to put them all under arrest. He's a Special Agent now! Does Haven HAVE Special Agents? (No, as it turns out according to Nathan.) Though this is a nice callback to Duke calling Audrey "Very Special Agent Parker." Also, Duke's thoroughly enjoying this, much to Nathan and Stoney's resignation. Stoney tries to undermine the arrest by pointing out that Duke isn't a real cop (which he isn't, that's a weakass stance that won't work, very far from a traditional Weaver), which would work if Nathan wasn't a real cop. Oops. Nathan proves that it was more the badge than the gun that bothered him by, well, making a point of taking the badge back. And letting Duke keep the gun. Silly, silly boys. Yes, Duke, you're very special. Also a bit touched.


Back at the Garrick residence Audrey and Michael are in James's office, and it turns out that James had the presence of mind to warn Michael before he died/left/disappeared. Good father. He described it as a sickness, like being out of control of every part of his body flying in a thousand directions at once, which is a reasonable description of that Trouble. It also, if both Garricks feel that this Trouble stems from a loss of control, what might this say about the origin of this Trouble? Does it start with Garrick, who came from hardship and likely had no control over his circumstances at first? Or does it start before that? In Michael's case it probably was triggered by the adults around him being upset and throwing rocks through his window, worrying his mother, harming his sister, and him being unable to do anything about it. Thus, upset, thus, Trouble. Poor kid. Audrey questions him about the other two people who were knocked down or knocked around, but Michael claims not to have done that. It's true, his Trouble doesn't look like it works along the lines of telekinesis, but Audrey has no way of knowing that. Especially when Michael gets slightly agitated and a book goes flying off the room. More experienced, season three Audrey might be able to judge that Michael's level of agitation isn't quite enough to throw books around (though that doesn't address suppressed upset) but right now Audrey sees this as proof. Which gets her trying to reassure him that she understands, he's just trying to protect his family, which triggers a thought. Yay thoughts! Michael is still protective of his father's memory and study, but Audrey's more benign than the other strangers, so he lets her off with a warning not to mess with anything and leaves, closing the door behind him. At which point Audrey will start talking to thin air. You're here, you're just trying to protect your family, BANG! goes the mug against the wall. Bookcase? Something. It takes her a second to narrow down the search field by figuring out where the mug came from precisely, but then she's able to grab James by the shoulders and bring him back to normal speed, to the rest of Haven's world. So to speak. Hi, James! Audrey looks like she can't quite believe this is happening, even for Haven. And when we come back from commercial, James calls her Lucy. She corrects him, and he tells her he's been there the whole time, he's been trying to tell Tracy that he's there, trying to protect his family, but every time he touches anything... well. We've seen the results. Poor bastard.


Over at the Gull Duke is willingly and concisely giving information about the boat, its operations, and its workings. Good Duke! It turns out that Duke also doesn't think this Hank is The Best, claims Hank was covering his own ass when he was poking around the wreck because he was pressuring James and Andy to hire Sal and Nancy Fortuna of East Haven Metal Works. But they cut corners, which means inferior parts, which means inferior boats built and so on. Duke seems to think this won't be the only wreck tied to the Fortunas, and I'd be inclined to agree, which also makes them some very callous and ruthless people. Oops. James and Andy may not have trusted them, but they trusted Hank, who was getting paid off. Nathan is none too happy about this, but at least he has his line of inquiry now. He starts off to go pursue it and Duke, in a fit of ... something. I'm not sure what's prompting it here, momentum from the earlier candid speech, realization that's been gnawing at him of how much he hurt Nathan, not just physically? Whatever it is, he offers up a somber, heartfelt apology, which Nathan doesn't so much brush off as not verbally accept. Nathan's not in a place where he can accept this right now, he can barely accept Duke. It clearly affects him, but that effect doesn't seem to be in the direction of forgiveness. Not in that moment, anyhow.


Back over to the Garrick household, Audrey tries to figure out how James survived the wreck. But he was never on the boat. Apparently Michael did a project about boats and their workings which involved taking pictures of finished sections, things they wouldn't have been addressing or looking at if it weren't for that project. Which means he saw the rapid deterioration of the cheap parts he'd been sold. And the boat was due to go out that day. The resultant upset triggered his Trouble, and we all know what happened after that, yes? He tried to warn them, but nobody heard him, and we all saw the results. And since then he's been in the house on a separate, sped-up plane of existence. Ouch. He describes watching Tracy the first night after the boat was lost (which, gee, you think that will come in handy later? Uh-huh.) and it gets him more and more upset, to the point that when the door opens again he vanishes despite Audrey's best and now distracted efforts.  It doesn't look good, at least by the family's standards. Audrey doesn't so much get kicked out as pulled out by Tracy to talk about it where the kids can't hear, which is good because she's trying to tell Tracy that her husband, their father, is alive. This goes over about as well as you'd expect until Audrey pulls out that bit James just told her, about the first night he was gone and the honeymoon in Nova Scotia. That's pretty convincing! James is alive. Audrey can at least help him control his Trouble a bit, to the extent that his wife can probably see him again. Poor everyone in this show, now. Also because Nathan's calling, it's time to get interrupted by police business. Hank, Sal and Nancy, etc, it doesn't take long at all to get Audrey up to speed (yes, I had to go there) and she'll go look through James' home office to see if there's any documentation there that can link Sal and Nancy to the defective boat parts.


Apparently this will be somewhat of a job of work, since James kept everything. A man after my own heart! No, seriously, you should see my file cabinet of paperwork left over from buying the house. She doesn't get much further than complaining (and therefore expositing to the audience) about the extensive file pile when there's some crashing and breaking sounds from outside the office! Oh boy. Gee, is it the sinister couple from earlier who was touring the house? Are they Sal and Nancy Fortuna? They ARE! Isn't that adorable. And they're holding the family at gunpoint. That's less adorable. When we come back from commercial this time, because everybody needs to go to commercial when there's a gun-toting standoff on, the standoff has moved to the office. Sal demands Michael's pictures, and Michael promptly goes into a fit of Flash-ing. I have to add the capital letter and hyphen or it reads like something very different, but that's essentially what it is. He drops to the floor and Nancy offers up the half-assed mundane explanation of epilepsy, while Sal either is more used to Haven or simply brought the lampshade of That's No Moon Not Epilepsy. Audrey tries to settle Michael down, but in order to do that she has to take her sight off the Fortunas, and that means giving up her advantage and eventually her gun. Damn. Michael does eventually settle, but a doctor isn't going to help him any, Tracy. The Fortunas' reluctance to kill people offers Audrey a faint hope that she tries to grab onto, but Nancy is all too willing to burn down the house and everyone in it; I guess that reluctance was more out of practicality than morals or human feeling. Audrey keeps advancing, apparently buying time by talking at them, about Hank, about the inevitability of their arrest. Nancy tries to convince herself and her husband that they have it under control when A Wild James Appears! James Uses Accelerated Punching! It's Super-Effective! Both the surprise and the acceleration help, and down go the Fortunas! Down goes James! He's too exhausted to speed up, or at least it's played that way, which only invites the question of why the hell didn't he reappear ages ago, then. But then I remember that's just expecting logic from Haven, which doesn't ever happen. Oh, hey, exhaustion means he falls over but then disappears! That makes more sense.


The Fortunas go off by ambulance, handcuffed to the stretcher, at a guess. Audrey will meet Nathan back at the station now that he has Hank in custody, and it's time to wrap up the family! Because Tracy doesn't give a damn about the Fortunas' shattered anything, and neither do we. Those were some very unredeeming villains. Tracy wants to know if she can talk to her husband finally, and Audrey agrees to try. It takes some groping around at the air, but finally she manages to get an arm, then a shoulder, then the rest of him. Good job she started at the arm, isn't it. It's a deeply emotional moment for Tracy and Brooke. Michael just seems to be staring in shock and a bit of "huh. cool!", and I honestly can't tell if that's an awkward child actor thing or if it's because this is how Michael could go someday, too. If I were him, I'd be quietly freaking out about that. James still looks exhausted. He was holding on to protect his family and say good-bye to them, and now he can do that. And then go. No one wants to hear this, and this good-bye and grief is a very private moment that Audrey seems to feel shouldn't include her, except where it kind of needs to in order to happen. On the long shots we can see her still holding on to James. Now Michael breaks down, clinging to his father and crying for him not to go, so, yes, shock and settling implications earlier, then. James promises he won't be really gone, and he'll ring the bell from his first ship, now on a stand in his office, so they know he's there. No one sees fit to point out that when he's in sped up mode he tends to knock things across the room when he tries to touch them; we can infer from this, though, that either he believes he's dying and it won't be an issue or he believes he'll figure out a way to control his power at least that much. Either way. Now he will thank Audrey for helping him the second time and segue rather neatly into a story about an injury Lucy Ripley sustained helping James the first time, a cut deep on the sole of her foot. We can see Audrey taking this in as though it's some shocking information, though we'll find out why after another quick trip by Nathan and Duke. In the meantime, James quietly disappears with his last I love yous, and the Garrick family collapses in tears. Poor, poor kiddos.


Back over at the Gull Nathan appears to be counting fake money and Duke is griping about how he's (not) going to spend it. I suspect when Duke says 'burn' he means that more literally than he would if it were real money. But, yeah. It's fake money. I'm pretty sure Nathan's actually legally obligated to destroy it after it's been discarded as evidence. In a moment of solemnity Duke says Nathan did good back there, and while Nathan scoffs this off, I'm pretty sure it also feels good to hear. The first real mending-fences moment we've seen between these two boys that didn't involve someone getting hurt or the town potentially getting wrecked, or a Trouble. It's so touching, and it's so good for them both, that when Duke suggests Nathan give up the law and order fetish (as he calls it, oh Duke) and come to the dark side because they have cookies, Nathan comments that he couldn't take the competition. A joke? Was that a joke from Nathan "The Stoic" Wuornos? I do believe it was! Oh, I see, they're playing poker with the fake money. Going by Nathan's stack, he's winning. Playing poker, easy banter, talking about Nathan's ass, it's all quiet and intimate and building a connection out of real feeling, and apart from the fact that Bryant and Balfour have incredible chemistry, it provides both a moment of hope and levity and a counterpoint to what we're about to see from Audrey. While these two are enjoying a rare moment of building camaraderie, she's on her own. Going over and telling Tracy she's fixing it up with the paper boys on her own, checking in on her, discovering that she's different on her own via Tracy's question about how come Audrey could touch James in full-on sped up mode but she couldn't, and watching the boys on her own and from a distance. The symbology symbolism here is obvious, Audrey is the one on the outside fixing things while everyone else gets to live their lives and be happy, but it's not for a while that we get the full weight of it all. (The lyrics underline this, in case you were wondering, since they're doing that bring out the music thing again, the song you're looking for is Dotted Lines.)




And now here it is, the big reveal that had some of us shrieking and some of us going I KNEW IT and some of us doing both when we first watched it in the first season. Before I get into analyzing the scene I just have to note the hilarious symmetry here, that Audrey's revelation about who she is is tied to a man named James. And in season three, Audrey has a rather large revelation about who she was and who she has been, tied to... her son James. It's not a direct parallel so much as it is a theme in this show. So, I guess, round up all the James-s in Haven and start quizzing them? No. Just maybe give them sideways glances when they appear in significant positions on the game board later. At any rate, it's a bright sunny day in Haven, as it is when we get all the really earthshattering (yes, I went there) revelations, and Audrey's in the place where the Colorado Kid was either murdered or stashed. Why out here? Well, partly for the solitude, so she doesn't have to deal with other people and so, again, we're emphasized how alone she is. Also because the Colorado picture is the only picture she has of her alleged mother, so it makes sense that this is where she feels the most connection to the woman in the photo. Finally, also, it's likely there's some out in nature component here, where there are fewer buildings but it's also more open and less sinister than in the woods, and where Audrey is taking a step towards getting back to her natural self. Sitting down, she takes a look at the photo again so it's all fixed in her and our mind, once upon a time and long ago there was a woman who looked like her named Lucy, who came to Haven and helped people. That having been established, she takes off her shoe and rolls off her sock. To no one's surprise, there's the cut on her foot. It could have been a lot of different Troubles, really, that left her scarred in such a way that it would carry over between lives. But it's interesting that it was someone named James, whose Trouble left him isolated from his loved ones while still able to watch and hear them, that did it. Not to mention the aspect of things being sped up or slowed down, since we now know that Audrey lives at a snail's pace compared to the rest of us. I'm sure that could be a coincidence, but it's not likely to be.

We're almost done with season one! Next one's the last one, and then we'll have ourselves a break while we deal with season four, and then come back and finish out season two. I'm really sorry about the scattershot order of the seasons, guys, but we couldn't manage it any quicker and still bring you two other analyzed-to-a-pulp well written shows. We hope you're enjoying the trip!

2 comments:

  1. This was an instance in Season 1 where I really liked that they referenced back to the Gull as an action spot. I liked the idea that Duke hired Tracy Garrick who was basically a town pariah and possibly was having trouble getting work elsewhere. It fit neatly into place alongside with him hiring and sort of looking after young Henry in Friend or Faux.

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    1. Really, it's an ongoing theme that Duke won't admit to, that he takes care of people who, like himself, are outcast for one reason or another. In trouble, outcast, at odds with something or someone in their life. For all that he's been complaining lately that he's not the hero everyone makes him out to be... yeah, he's got as much to do with that as anyone else asking favors of him.

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