Previously on Haven! Duke. Duke and tattoos. Duke and Evi. Duke and his wife Evi. Also, the Rev, so our factions are heating up this ep. This is going to be fun and by fun I mean oh everyone. Except the Rev. The Rev gets basically no sympathy from me.
We open with a dose of Ordinary Sinister, happy guitar chords and a Little League game and everyone's there! Oh, and so is that bird that just got electrocuted by one of the lights and fell dead on the ground. I want you to note this is less than a minute in, including the previouslies, and we're getting a distinct Bad Shit vibe even beyond the Rev and Duke and Evi. No, of course they're not ramping up to something really awful, why would they do that, I'll be over here with the s4 finale rocking in a corner some more. Fortunately for us, Nathan and Audrey are still themselves, and she's still able to use him as one of her fixed points for self-identification. Right now that takes the form of giving him shit about stereotypical small-town macho-ish traditions, this one's in the form of everyone having to pick a side for the kids' baseball game. Audrey has about the same expression I get for anything to do with baseball, which is "really? seriously? you expect me to treat this as a sport? can't I just nap instead? or do anything more productive, like watching paint dry?" Okay, I might be projecting a little there, but seriously. And then they run into the Rev, which is the last thing Audrey wants to add to a day of what she expects to be utter boredom. Oh Audrey. You get no boring days in Haven, didn't you know? But in a typical demonstration of small-town weirdness over rivalries, Nathan and Driscoll are putting aside most of their issues with each other for the day, although we can see them tensing up and waiting to see if the other will start something. The Rev concedes first, and it's like a very bizarre sign and countersign of the SeaDogs' cheer. I'm with Audrey. I think my head just exploded, and I can explain the anthropological reasons why a small town would need one day for everyone to put aside their differences, pick a team, and cheer their hearts out without regard for who else is in their cheering section until I'm blue in the face. I think it's because the guys are doing such an excellent job with the physical tension-bordering-on-comedy.
The ceremonial opening pitch! One incredibly popular mayor, and one confused Audrey! Yes, Audrey, he's Troubled and it works on everyone in such a manner that they haven't stopped to consider what it's doing to them. Even Nathan. You should be creeped out. More cheering for a pitch that goes into the dirt over a yard in front of the plate, Nathan has his soon-to-be-patented man-crush face on and brought some more lampshades to this party. That would be Audrey's figuring shit out face were it not for the start of the game. The lights go sizzle-crackle-pop! Nobody notices. That's twice. First real pitch goes to a maybe home run goes to the coach for the Cutters getting pissy with the ump, oh look, coach for the Cutters is the mayor's kid. I'm having flashbacks to Fiddler on the Roof and the horse-no-mule bit in Tradition. And now Mayor Brody will use his powers for if not evil, at least severely questionable morality. Really? Influencing the outcome of a fucking baseball game with your Trouble? You are an asshole. The entirety of the crowd chants for the kid to be out, the umpire looks caught between the charisma Trouble and what he knows he saw with his own eyes, Nathan under Audrey's whispering in his ear is less vociferous than the rest of the crowd but still affected. This is going to be exactly zero fun to deal with! At any rate, kid's called out and now the lights start popping and crackling to an extent that people finally take notice. Drink for three! Cue a massive fucking electrical storm between… mostly the lights, actually, until the crowd's cleared out of there, and then we get the requisite one kid whose instinct broke to freeze rather than flight. Dammit, kid. Audrey rescues! The ump gets a chunk of metal flying into his arm, which makes him a great conductor, poor bastard. No, I would say that's not a part of Haven tradition. I would also say the crew had a grand old time with the firecrackers and whatnot that presumably went into part of the staging for this scene; I assume the lightning was all FX in post, but some of those sparks looked a lot like the Fourth of July.
Roll credits! We come back to some guy we've never met before but will get to know very well over the next two and a bit seasons. Hi Dwight! Hi Dwight with all your hair still! He proceeds to defy our expectations of someone who looks that big and burly at least in part, though the scientific explanation with lots of long words he's giving is in a blue-collar area of expertise. On the other hand, "get creative" seems to be code for "find yourselves a goddamn cover story," and that's not the kind of code you hear out of people not in the know about the Troubles. I will say that as a progression of acting ability, you can very much see where Adam Copeland's having to restrain himself and keep from overacting to the TV screen, since he's at this point still accustomed to wrestling style acting and the bugged-out crazy eyes. He's not bad at this point, and he has immediate chemistry with Emily Rose and Lucas Bryant (and much more with Eric Balfour dear lord), it's just that the comparison between this and how much better he gets is particularly noticeable coming off s4. Which is how it should be! Everyone becomes a better actor on this show. I'd be sad if they didn't. At any rate, the as-yet-unnamed Dwight explains that someone overloaded the grid until it found a place to ground, but how they got that much juice is a matter for creative explanations. I like him already. Nathan's prepared to deal with all the Rev's bullshit over this in tones and words that express exactly how little he wants to, and Dwight gives him almost a "really? come on, dude" look and says he can have it fixed up in a couple days, no worries. Nudge nudge wink wink your dad hired him to clean things up, didn't you know? No. No Nathan did not know, but thank for expositing that, and that explains a great deal about how Garland was able to keep things together as long as he did. Audrey seems to be coming to similar conclusions, if tacit ones, and no, Nathan, that did at least hurt if not surprise you. Quit lying, you stoic jackass. Moving along to working the Trouble, though! More important than Nathan's feelings. They theorize that maybe it was the ump, he had the crowd yelling at him, that's a known stressor for Troubles. I can't say it's a bad theory, and we've also seen plenty of Troubled people - even as recently as last ep - unable to fully control their Trouble and thus hurt by them. Amazingly, the ump isn't dead after that.
So let's go to the hospital and visit him! Kunkel isn't very helpful or forthcoming, nor is he easy to anger like your stereotypical ump; no, this scene is here so that we can re-emphasize the fucking weirdness of Mayor Brody as he comes in to the poor guy's hospital room. No he's not here for you, Kunkel! Not that saying it out like a dick matters when everyone but Audrey acts like they expect the mayor to walk on water next. This is a bit heavy on the anvils, but remember that we're only in s2 here and sometimes the Troubles themselves come shaped like anvils, thanks ever so William and Mara. Brody would like Nathan to soothe the public's fears by making a statement at the press conference that it was a fluke electromagnetic pulse and nothing to worry about, nothing to see here, move along! Never mind that anyone with a high school science education could debunk that cover story; that's true of most of them. (Worst infrastructure in the US. I swear.) Audrey brought lampshades to this party! It's a good thing she got that big apartment to keep a stock in last ep, because she's gonna need a lot of 'em. Nathan does look confused once he turns away from the mayor, so now we have a general idea of what triggers the fawning levels of charisma, namely, line of sight. Doubly so 'cause he gets that dopey grin again when he turns back to look at the mayor. And may I just say Lucas Bryant does an excellent job of conveying the difference of dopey grin because whammied and dopey grin because in lurve with Audrey, as we see later on in the series. You'd think that dealing with the press wouldn't be necessary, right, because obviously the Teagues and their cover stories rule the roost, the coop, and the barn - okay maybe not the barn - in this town. Not to mention that Audrey would like them to be a bastion of, if not sense, then curmudgeonly banter same as ever when she tries to get them to explain about Brody, or theorize about electrical manipulation altering people's thoughts. Apparently his Trouble is powerful enough to make people forget that they acted out of character after he's left, too! That's kind of disturbing. It also probably speaks to a level of casual manipulation that makes me very uncomfortable with the good mayor. Turns out someone else is uncomfortable with the good mayor too, because he's definitely not the one with electrical powers on account of microphones shouldn't zap you to death. Oh, look, Chris Brody showed up just in time for the dramatic death sequence and his father's Trouble just landed square on his shoulders. I'll be over here alternately snickering and facepalming, because this really is an obnoxious Trouble and I kind of wish it hadn't been as long an arc as it was, but so it goes.
After the ad break, Duke's on his lonesome chasing down the location on that map Audrey II gave him last ep. You know, the one with the Guard symbol. I'm just glad there's no lighthouse immediately apparent; the three rocks are bad enough. Could be worse. Could be true standing stones; as it is they look a little like a fallen dolmen. Because what Duke needs in his life is more tomb imagery! Speaking of which, yes, let's trip and fall into the hole that he managed not to notice. Thanks, Evi! You've saved him some of the gruntwork, which is probably good because I don't want to think about what those two would do if they were digging a hole that deep for hours on end together. Besides inadvisable sex. Duke goes on a rant about not sticking her nose in things she doesn't know about and okay it might be a treasure map (like you might be a pirate, Duke) but what he really wants to know is how to keep the tattooed guys from killing him. Oh, yeah, and that was a vision a friend of his had right before she died just like she saw in her vision, see, this is all totally normal and your husband hasn't gone around the bend, Evi! The thing is, he's delivering this in tones of utterly normalcy such that it'd be hard to disbelieve him, or at least to miss that he believes what he's saying. And the wording plays into some of the sailor/con artist superstitions, but overall Duke's trying his level best to get Evi to leave town before she gets hurt. If it were that easy, Duke, you wouldn't have married her in the first place. I'm just saying. He's stuck with a partner! We're stuck with epic banter. I think we come out on the winning side of this scene.
Time to go find Chris Brody! I'm not quite sure why Audrey's taking Nathan with her since she's immune and he's getting in the way of the investigation every time he looks at the poor bastard wrong, but we do exposit on our way there that Brody Sr. traded in Chris' mother for a younger model and the two have never been close since. It also is a good indication that regardless of whether someone with the potential for the Brody Trouble has it activated or not, he's still immune. How useful! And horribly isolating at the same time. There's a handful of people, presumably the ones with lowest threshold, standing around watching Chris hang out in the tidewater with his marine biology equipment and trying to give him things. Or, well, past tense were trying to give him things, and unlike his father he's not sugar-coating the fuck you all leave me alone aspect. Where Brody Sr. may have liked people or at least liked having power over them, it's quite clear that Chris wants exactly none of this and is immensely frustrated by it. Also that he knows what the Troubles are, probably that he knows the specifics of his family Trouble given his attitude towards his father, he just doesn't want to talk to people period and probably doesn't want to talk to strangers until he knows what they know. And we all laughed semi-hysterically. Audrey, to her credit, recognizes all of this and steers around the fawning to something blunter and full of snark. I'd say banter, but banter requires a sense of goodwill that's missing as yet from their interactions. Nathan's mancrush look continues to be epic and a little less slackjawed than it was around the mayor; I think that may have to do with words at odds with the Trouble and/or a newly acquired Trouble that he's not accustomed to wielding. So! We have one inherited Trouble, one man fascinated and trying not to show it with the woman who's immune to his Trouble, one man trying to apologize and fawn and be generally very disturbing, and one something or another with electricity involved in its function. Hey! It's a clue in amongst all the interpersonal shit, how's about that.
Said clues are for investigating at the station, and dear god I'm terrified of how the drive back with that must have been. Either Audrey had to take shotgun, Chris Brody had to sit out of Nathan's line of rearview mirror, they took separate cars, or something. And now I'm imagining all the accidents Chris driving would cause. "Oh it's that guy! I love that g-HELLO TELEPHONE POLE." At least they somehow got him down to the station and Audrey managed to pry Nathan off long enough to get them into a private interview room. With the door open, so he doesn't feel any more defensive than he already does, though considering he's a right jackass that doesn't go very far. Audrey doesn't like people who manipulate others by their very being! Who could've guessed. I somehow feel like this was one of Mara's as a result, because poetic irony. Standard abrasive interrogation follows: he has motive, he has location, what they don't have is a certain MO for him to have committed the murder either intentionally or accidentally. Though that weird sparking inductor would certainly seem to indicate something's funky. As we go through it, we see Chris becoming more and more aggressive and more and more fascinated by this one person who's immune to his Trouble. Not that he's calling it that as yet, and he readily admits that he finds most people aggravating and unbearable. How perfectly prickish of him to decide that he will now try and convince Audrey to like him because she's immune. No, I don't like him very much. Everyone else sure does, though! This interrogation will be interrupted by Nathan with something that we certainly hope is data. Audrey, telling poor Stan to keep an eye on him is the opposite of not ending up with your prime suspect walking out of the station house "because he said it was okay."
Meanwhile out on that remote spit of land somewhere, Duke's taking primary turn at the hole, Evi's nowhere in sight, and of course it's the frustrated swearing jab at the dirt that gets him a hit, a palpable hit! Yes, I know the context. Yes, I did that on purpose. Poor Duke. Plank of well-preserved wood that's a bit oddly shaped says he should go back to the town proper and to Rasmussen House. Enjoy this treasure hunt, Duke, because I guarantee you're not gonna like where the information leads you.
Nathan's information leads to eight different cell phones. That's a lot, and while Nathan would like it to be crime of passion, that's also a lot of mistresses to keep tabs on. Unless all the cell phones for said mistresses were under Brody's name and he maintained a different cell for each one to call him, in which case… still a lot, not quite as brain-hurty in the "where do you find the time and the stamina" category. I'm just saying, okay? Nathan would also like to express his displeasure with having to be stuck in his office so he doesn't get affected by Chris Brody's Trouble. Dude. You could just sit in interrogation and not look at him. It's not like Nathan doesn't have remarkable self-control. I do take his point about how it was Chris' gizmo that fried Nathan's watch, not him-him, and usually if a Troubled person is Being Troubled around them with something that obvious, it's gonna leap from the person. Anyway. It's also a little too late for second thoughts about the interrogation, and I wonder if Stan went to tell Audrey on his own initiative or if Chris sent him to let her know where he'd gone. I'm betting on the former, because Chris is still a manipulative jackass have I mentioned in the last paragraph that I dislike him? I dislike him. Audrey, honey, you're supposed to be smarter than this about Troubled people by now. On the upside, he did leave a forwarding address of the wake for his father! On the downside, that's a large gathering of people all of whom will be willing to defend him over Audrey should she try to flat-out arrest him. I'm not sure he's thinking quite that clearly, though it's hard to tell by Priestly's delivery; I'd say he is grieving to some degree and knows he didn't do it and gives no fucks for, well, anyone's opinion of him. And now he has the power to not give any fucks! It's great! Sort of.
Our plotlines will at least tangentially converge at the wake, thank you more rapidly intercut scenes that don't quite go by so quick that we feel there's Imminent Peril, because Duke and Evi have fallen straight back into plotting. Well, there's two Teagues and two of them, I suppose it makes sense. I'm still going to facepalm at the notion that they can get anything out of the old bastards, although to his credit Duke doesn't seem inclined to try so much as to be the distraction while Evi pries at the old farts. Okay, sure, that's one way of doing it! Hello, Rev. Hello, Nathan. Please don't get in a pissing contest at a wake? Also I swear to god if they'd cast Driscoll even ten years younger fandom would have gone NUTS for the hateshipping. Anyway, paying his respects to Brody's widow, with the Rev lurking over her shoulder, that's not foreshadowing a relationship of some significance or anything. 'course not. They would never. Nor would they smash the anvils on our toes by having her mention the Rev as a specific support in her times of trial and tribulation, yes I had to. Now we can have the dick-waving contest, in which the Rev would like to remind Nathan that the Troubles are getting worse and he's in over his head. And the Rev… isn't? Actually, who does the Rev think is suited to handling the Troubles besides himself? I bet the answer is me, myself, and I. Jackass. Nathan's got a very nice gunslinger-ish narrowing of the eyes in reply and will otherwise not dignify it. I approve.
On our note of semi-levity, Duke is indeed completely not trying to get any info out of Dave. I mean, really, he could be less subtle about it but not without telegraphing I'm The Distraction The Real Action Is Over There any further. It's the over the top sort of thing where Dave will hopefully assume that Duke wants something minor and he's got other ways of obtaining it, I will say. That also requires that the Teagues not trade notes on what con they tried to run, which ahahahahano. Cute, guys, but no. Evi does a halfway decent imitation of a good practicing Catholic; I will spare a moment to laugh my ass off and doubly so because, let's be honest, the Rev is far more in the New England Protestant/Calvinist (if we're getting specific here) tradition of fire and brimstone than he is anything Catholic. Vince seems genuinely sorrowful over Brody's death; hard to say how much of that is lingering brainwashing from Brody's Trouble, how much might be a good working relationship to cover up the Troubles in general, who the fuck knows. Clearly Vince isn't immune! By that eyedart he guesses she's trying to play him, too, though for what reason he may not be sure. Meanwhile Duke playing the distraction resulted in an instantaneous no and a bunch of snark! Aw, Dave, it's like you have no heart. Oh wait. Maybe that's his Trouble. Evi professes, in response to Vince pumping her for info, to be doing a graduate thesis on the founding families of Maine. That's adorable! It also gives her an excuse to throw out names Vince is unlikely to recognize before tacking on Rasmussen, and we may all drink for it being the third name.
Meanwhile on the case proper, Audrey will wander around the private study area until she finds the scorch mark behind a big wingback chair that's clearly telegraphed as Brody's. Uh-HUH. That's not good. That's her cue to wander out during the eulogy and update Nathan, who's still on the mistress theory. It's a good theory! This is one of the first times we've seen Audrey really thrown off balance and latching onto a theory because she dislikes the suspect rather than because of an overwhelming amount of evidence to support it, and it demonstrates how much she hates the notion of mind-control of any kind. Doubly so after Audrey II just got mindwiped and sent back home, and triply so because whether or not she's thinking about it consciously, she's got a lot of circumstantial evidence saying she was Lucy Ripley, she's got her friend and double who just got mindwiped because she was tracking clues Howard left for them. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility at all that she's made several connections about that already and isn't discussing them with anyone because really, would would believe her? (Well, Nathan. And Duke. But she's in that no-man's-land between FBI agent and Troubles Messiah still.) Aaaanyway. Here comes Chris Brody on the heels of talk of healing to startle the shit out of her and piss her off some more! I will give him some credit that in a very Tony Stark-esque sort of way he's trying to get her off somewhere private so they can talk and he's not affecting the entire room. Sadly, the fact that he's doing it like he's Stark means that she has zero interest in his offer of drinks. Also and more importantly, there's electricity buildup! Chris is shocked! Shocked to find a wine bottle oh oops. Mrs. Brody is shocked! Evi is shocked, thereby ruining her pretense with Duke of not knowing each other because his instinct is to rush to her side while shouting her name. Good job, guys. Audrey has a good solution called STOP INCREASING STATIC ELECTRICITY YOU FUCKERS.
Hospital time for everyone! Audrey will take Chris and Nathan can take Felicia Brody for questioning, and note that they're shooting her firmly on the left side of the hallway to suggest she's compromised this time? 'cause she is, as Nathan reminds her. No she's not! Yes, you are. I mean, I'm right there with her about Chris Brody being a gigantic bag of dicks, but that doesn't mean he's a murderer. Nathan is deeply amused by this even as he's wary of it compromising the investigation, and I think also kind of doing a compare-contrast against his early dickish behavior to her versus Chris'. It's more different than I think Nathan thinks, but if I were reaching for some interpretations I'd say he's amused at how much this shows that Audrey hates, hates when people wield power over others without consideration for the responsibility of it. Everyone who remembers Mara is now cringing over dramatic irony in their seats. I need a minute. Oh, hey, yes, let's go have Duke fussing over Evi time! She asks what happened, Duke gives a mathematician's answer, and yeah, I bet she feels like shit. I also bet she's playing it up! A lot. They check in on their marks and I still believe Duke thought he was playing the distraction while Evi got the real answers, although he may also have been aiming for bumbling incompetence that gets Dave to let something slip. No reason not to play both sides of the possibility coin, after all! No, no, Evi got nothing, she can't pull off the grad student thing anymore, meanwhile I sit here going LIIIIIAAAAR and running around with crazy hair. (For the duration of this recaplysis Kitty is now Miracle Max.) (K: brb need a nice mutton lettuce and tomato sandwich) Oh, and she thinks she might be too old for all of it and she's sorry she hurt Duke but they were good together. Maybe just at the job, but good together. Duke, stop buying it. DUKE. Your soft heart is bleeding through. DAMMIT DUKE can't you tell when she's faking oh I give up. Faked spike of headache pain leads to an empty room leads to no more Evi in hospital, who clearly got information. At least Duke knows to chase after her if he wants to know anything more.
Nathan's line of questioning for Felicity leads to an empty hallway, statements about never seeing those scorch marks, she didn't go into Richard's study, and oh, yeah, he hasn't always been faithful. He had an affair with Felicity 27 years ago when he was married to his first wife, and she's the younger model he traded in for. I really wonder how long he's been mayor, or if that's just a thing he picks up when the Troubles arrive. What else he was doing during the interim. How bitter he was about not getting to keep the charisma all the time. So on and so forth, because really there are so many psychological ramifications to this shit that it's not even funny. Yeah, hands up everyone who thinks there's another woman now and Felicia's terrified he'll choose the younger woman again? Yes? Yes. My ramblings about Richard Brody's fucked-up manipulative psychology could fill an entire essay easy, but can be roughly summed up by the question Audrey has for Chris: did his dad milk his Trouble for shits and giggles? NO REALLY YOU THINK. To Audrey's credit, when the nurse comes in all nervous and probably more nervous than being around Chris really warrants at this point, and talks about a broken watch, hey, a clue fell on her head, she's not beyond seeing those! Which is good. It also gives her a chance to get a little of her own back, though I don't know what other machine she could have gotten the nurse to use that wouldn't risk electrocuting Chris instead of just causing him some temporary pain from the blood pressure cuff. Anyway! They linger on this so long it's really blatant she's the Troubled person, or rather, the unsub, and she will now freak the fuck out and run away. Like you do when you Trouble's uncontrollable. Did I mention she's young-ish and pretty and blonde? Just saying. An awful lot like Felicia might have looked, 27 years ago. Okay, fine, two seconds to release Chris from the BP cuff, a few seconds of delay in the hall as the nurse crashes into Nathan headlong and yeah, running into the chief of police looking like that is a good way to be considered highly suspicious. On the other hand, hey, wall of electricity makes for a great escape route! Even when you're not in much control over your powers at all. Someone get this woman to Xavier's, please, he's not that long a drive off. (It's just a step to the left…) (What.) No, not so much, and now they have a Troubled person with electric control issues loose in a hospital. As all the power goes out and the generators come online, huh, that's some decent UPS at least. That's pretty much the best upside I've got right now.
You know what helps losing power? A cleaner! Hi Dwight. I don't deny that we became suddenly way more invested in this show with the addition of yet more competence porn. Not that we weren't already, but Dwight just makes it better, particularly since they didn't have any visible cleaning crew up until now. It's also kind of hilarious how much his body language is all "fuck off and let me do my job, Nathan." Nathan, be better at reading and acknowledging body language. No, Nathan, he does not want the so-called professionals helping, he wants them out of the way. You're really bad at this for someone who's used to hiding what he does and what he is from most people. Although I must say that despite that it's not something that's difficult to hide, and most of his hiding the Troubles comes from being a taciturn bastard. He's not used to treating it like a mission. Which is why he needs a Dwight! I appreciate the tentative understanding there, Dwight realizing that Nathan's not used to this and giving him direction in typical macho fashion of don't ask none, won't be none. No, you don't get time to process that or renegotiate your father's deal with Dwight, Audrey has a suspect! Also some French dooring, though this isn't too bad compared to how some episodes (not just Haven, in general) get when they're running tight on budget. Lori Fulcher! Unmarried, lives alone, has been frying electronics for quite awhile now including all eight of those phones on Brody's phone bill. Way-hey! An explanation. And a clue, because without security footage of her exiting the building they don't have anywhere other than her home address to start looking. If she doesn't have a car in her name, she lacks that traceable point as well. But there's a patrol car that was out there, and hopefully Lori won't have fried that, too! Fried watches are a good way to pinpoint your timestamp, that's helpful. Note that Nathan's leaning over and carefully not touching anyone right now, too, I think that's mainly so we can have the extra in there, but it's also very much a good part of blocking as relates to his character: looming and aloof. And they have a shot of Lori Fulcher with Felicia Brody driving the getaway vehicle. Yeah, this is going absolutely nowhere good, as Audrey's comment lampshades for us.
Next morning, or later that same morning, more likely, Evi's breaking into the Foggy Grog, which is one assumes a pub/bar that's what became of Rasmussen House. I have all the laughing. Poor Duke can never get away from bars. This whole intro to her climbing down into the basement is shot enough like a horror movie that it's only a jump-scare because they include the bass chord for it. (Also, seriously people, get over your bass chords for jump-scares; if they're really good you don't NEED it. Grump.) Evi does a good startled shriek! Turns out they both cracked their marks, I still want to know how Duke cracked Dave in the little time he had available. Dave's a tough sonofabitch for information when he wants to be, though this season he's definitely shoving Duke towards Being A Crocker, so that's probably why he coughed it up. Hypothetically, anyway, since nobody's coughing up the info for us on screen. I buy that Evi's routine worked on Vince, who tends to be more of a sucker, particularly for pretty young women. Duke knew she was conning him! But it worked anyway, more or less, inasmuch as he really was concerned even as him leaving the room was a test to confirm that she was conning him. Yeah, no, sorry, everyone believes that Evi was telling at least a partial truth, because the best cons are made up of some truth and some lie, and Duke's too pissed off when he insists that he doesn't believe her to be telling the truth. That's the way this works. It also works like Duke shrugging it off and playing mock-tour guide through the basement, which is all shrouded in dustcovers and cobwebs like a good horror basement should be.
Because we're ramping up to the end, cuts go a little faster between scenes again. Still. Dark basement to sunlit Audrey pacing in Nathan's office, for some extra contrast! Everyone trying to figure various things out; in this case it's the contrast between the one-layer-below Haven that Audrey and Nathan are operating on, and the layer below that which Duke's operating on. And Evi, to an extent, though she's more of a pawn than she knows. Speaking of being a pawn for things, Audrey thinks this whole thing stinks like rotten fish in Denmark, and Nathan will confirm that by informing us that the van was registered to the Rev. Uh-HUH. Back we go on that note to the Crocker who's the Rev's last best hope for cleansing Haven of its Troubled and the wife the Rev hopes to manipulate Duke into same. The board turns out to be the other half of an arrow pointing to a blank wall, how very Treasure Island of whoever hid this shit. Simon, was that you? Actually I bet it was the fucking Teagues, this kind of multi-layered giddy cackling schoolboy shit is right up their alley. We know that Simon arranged for the Cape Rouge on which the big box was hidden to fall into Duke's hands, we don't know for sure who arranged the small box. But we do know the Teagues, especially Vince, were close to Simon and that they own half of fucking Haven, and this gives him the next piece of the puzzle. HEY LOOK IT'S THAT FUCKING BOX. EVERYONE SWEAR. AND DRINK. COPIOUSLY. We may be duly grateful that thanks to the laws of narrative, Duke kicked in the wall right above the box instead of right at the box, thereby not kicking it down into the foundation or anything awful like that. It is a plain, dusty, silver box with no engraving on the outer lid and Omnia vincit amor on the inner lid, and I still want to know what the FUCKING HELL that means in relation to the Crocker line. And/or William and Mara. Assuming there's much difference; I haven't discarded the possibility that the Crocker line is a blood descendent of their child yet. For right now, we'll pause on the bitter irony of "love conquers all" in the face of these very broken con artists who definitely did not find that love conquered all. Oh honeys. It's a shame you're so fucked up, because you probably wouldn't have been awful after growing up some.
The Rev's church is locked! That black and white facade seems even more poignant this ep. Emphasis on the facade. The day is gray and rainy and perfect for a thunderstorm, which is pretty much the opposite of what they need. I don't know what extra electricity in the air would do to Lori, but can we not find out? No, of course we're going to. Audrey has a theory, and it's definitely a demon. Or at least a very pissed off recent-widow. The report on the ground wire tampering on Brody's mic would seem to bear her out. Yeah, guys, Lori's definitely around here somewhere. Time to go find out where. After the ad break we come back to a car pulling up to the church and Nathan protesting that he doesn't want Chris around because he affects Nathan's decision-making. That's the first sensible thing you've said about Chris Brody all episode! Congratulations. Audrey's solution is that he should trust her, which while not a bad solution in no way is a helpful data point for Nathan. On the other hand, if she tells Nathan her real plan he's likely to blab it all over Chris, and that's bad too, so six of one, really. There's a time and a place for compartmentalization of information, and dealing with this particular Trouble I can see as a very good one. I will now be utterly distracted by rolling with laughter at Nathan trying not to look at Chris, the difficulty they must have had blocking this (it looks actually a little more stage than TV in places), and the deeply snarky response. I love you all. Hey, turning away from Chris has its uses! Like discovering the lightning flashing in the basement, that's a good use. Guys, if you want to keep your pet electrical storm a secret maybe you should go for the subbasement, I'm just saying. You suck at stealth. I have to go fall over laughing again because I guarantee Nathan's initial reaction was "the fuck you say you could get hurt," and because of the Trouble that focus shifts to Chris. Oh honey. Your brain to mouth filter, it's not so good sometimes. Chris seems to think he's there for the tech not the Trouble. That's really adorable. You're cute. Be oblivious harder, it's useful to Audrey.
As absolutely everyone at this point expects, except for Nathan and Chris who will be playing the part of Clueless Male and Grieving Son respectively, the scene we get laid out in the basement of the church. Whoever designed this set has definitely been in church basements, too, it's about as institutional and boring as every one I've ever been in. Normally they don't come equipped with a psychotic matron figure oh who'm I kidding, they totally do. Felicia seems to be talking poor Lori into how she's a monster, her life is in the basement now, she'll never leave, and the staging is very much that of Support Group Gone Horribly Wrong. Yeah, no, staying calm is definitely not on the menu today, freaking the fuck out when confronted with someone whose Trouble makes people love him and whose father she believes she killed is. So's zapping the shit out of Chris' clever first plan! No, sorry, your repolarization technical jargon bullshit will not help. Nathan will help by getting some cables out of the car and grounding her to the lightning rod, and I'm honestly amazed he can think that clearly. Maybe he's managed to work his way around Chris' Trouble to the point where he's seeking approval instead of seeking physical proximity, which just gives me all the sad Nathan-and-Garland twinging. Anyway, with Nathan out of the picture Audrey can focus on manipulating Chris into talking to Lori and hopefully talking her down. HEY. MORON. I know you hate people but for the love of fuck, asking if you're sure she loved your dad is an aggressive dick move. Audrey is less abrasive about it than I would be. Okay, I wouldn't be that abrasive about it in front of Lori, I'm going to pretend that's what Audrey's face says. So now we get what's probably one of Chris' few soft, tender memories of his father, and it's awfully sad that he has to go back to childhood to do it. It does help, and it's rather sweet, and it gives Nathan enough time to try and ground Lori. For all the good that does.
Audrey, I would like to note that I don't entirely approve of your decision-making process. Calming her down didn't work? GREAT LET'S BLOW THIS JOINT. On the other hand, nobody's really going to miss the Rev's church if it burns down, right? The rubbing hands together to build up more static electricity charge is a really nice touch, by the way, as Audrey gets the how did Lori's Trouble start story out of her. I'm going to go ahead and fill in some of these blanks, noting that my bias is that I really extremely hate Richard Brody and think it's for the best that he's dead, nobody ever accused me of not holding bloody-minded grudges: Lori wanted out of the relationship when she wasn't being influenced by the Brody Trouble, she went to him to talk to him about it, he seduced her into what was probably near-rape, Felicia walked in on what appeared to be consensual sex because seriously, man, I hate this Trouble. It gives me all the urges for steel wool showers. And that's how the scorch marks got into the study! Nathan is shocked, shocked to find lying in this basement. (And also not looking at Chris. Good man.) Audrey proceeds to lay out the facts of the case for everyone in the room, making this an interesting case study in people doing things they don't want to but deem necessary, starting with Chris' little speech to Lori and ending with this. No, Lori can't have deliberately killed Richard Brody, because she has zero control and her Trouble correlates to Big Emotions Of Doom. The groundwire, though? That was tampered with. Have some more Big Emotions Of Doom! Felicia was not just trying to get Lori to confess to a crime she committed, she was at least prepared for talking Lori into committing suicide. Chris, honey, please go get all the therapy ever from a blind/blindfolded therapist, your family is SO FUCKED UP. Completely and utterly. Felicia can apparently lie to everyone else about her intent but not her stepson, which means Lori will, in fact, proceed to channel all the electricity ever up the lightning rod. Sadly, this does not result in the church burning down. She should take lessons from Kitty. (K: I burned no churches. I was merely in the vicinity when they went up. For extra bonus fun, lightning strikes.)
Dwight's on cleanup detail again, and the Rev would like to come pull his surly macho separatist bullshit at them both. Aw, that's cute. I love the implied threat in "gonna get done one way or the other." Best Dwight. I don't know how out of order they filmed these scenes in, but I feel like we can already see Adam Copeland learning to hold back, be reserved, let his posture and tone of voice do most of the emotional lifting for him. Nathan is enjoying having leverage to hold over the Rev… I'd say a little too much, but no, I think it's exactly the right amount. As long as it doesn't lead to underestimating the bastard. There really isn't anything about this I don't love, though, Nathan's increased confidence, the ways he's growing into Garland's role, the ways we see the edges of his fanaticism that show up in s4 coming out to play as singlemindedness now. The gobsmacked "the fuck just happened to me" look from Driscoll, fading into reevaluating Nathan as a potential threat to be worried about instead of pawn to be moved. (K: Also that second one wasn't a church, it was a jesus statue.)
To finish our cleanup, Audrey has a really bad pun about Lori's need for a fresh start and grounding. Really? Did you have to? She's not wrong, though this would be very much in the Guard's wheelhouse. I wonder if that's part of Dwight's cleanup op after this, is getting Lori to Vince. We do not get to find out! We get Audrey checking on Chris instead, and I can kind of understand why she goes for him. She takes care of people, she's recognized that he's been very badly hurt in the last three days (drink!) and she's willing to admit she's misjudged and give him a second chance. And, frankly, he's safer for her emotionally than Nathan is, which is a stupid reason to turn around and date someone you're not already ridiculously tangled with emotionally, but people do it all the time. I can totally get the emotional logic behind it! I'm just also going to facepalm at the clueless. They presumably go have that drink, and after the big Little League game happens now that there will be no freak electric accidents (while this plays over the entirety of the last couple minutes, for maximum facepalm), let us note that I'm pretty sure we get an overhead shot of That Graveyard with the Guard/Teagues tattoo, or at least A Significant Graveyard to remind us how grounded (heh) Haven is in the past. Audrey comes in wearing Chris' colors while Nathan looks at her in betrayal oh my god it's high school all over again. Did we not get enough of this last time? Though I appreciate the symbolism of how Audrey was in Nathan's colors last time, and she is here to take not a side but every side, and see it from all points of view. Which is how she knew Felicia was responsible. Nathan will go sulk by talking to Dwight, offering a sideways compliment on the job he's done with the field, aw boys. At this angle we can also all giggle some about just how much Dwight towers over everyone, though at least they've got enough tall men on the show that framing shots is easier. Dwight offers a more genuine compliment of his own, that Nathan did good with the Rev, reminded him of Garland, and it looks like that might be the first time that doesn't only hurt. Oh honey. That "us" about people fighting for them from Dwight has a lot more resonance to it after two seasons of him, the Guard, and the Teagues, too. Damn. I think its main purpose right now is to serve as an admission that Dwight's Troubled, too, just not what that Trouble is, particularly judging by the look Nathan gets at it. But it carries a ton of weight, two seasons on, now that Dwight's become very entrenched as one of the people fighting for them.
Cut to the Gull, where Duke and Evi are having drinks of their own! Speaking of people fighting for them. My head hurts from all the anvils. Cleaned up, the box really is quite pretty, and Evi's sorry he didn't get answers. It's not okay, but he's pretending very hard which means she has to pretend too, because they're not that kind of close anymore. I'm pretty sure the black light lantern on the railing means she already looked at it and saw the Crocker on the lid, but we'll set that aside for a moment of Duke waxing painfully nostalgic and wistful. Which, of course, is Evi's cue to seduce him. You two are awfully fucked up, can I just say? And yet I absolutely believe in their attraction to each other, they're just stupid about it. I think every supposedly factual statement in this scene is a lie. Especially the "it wouldn't mean anything." Maybe at one point between leaving Evi and now he could've said that and had it be the truth - I doubt it - but definitely not now. Which means it's time for some ill-advised sex on the back porch of the Gull, leading to the black light getting knocked onto the box, and now we can see that it says Crocker. I would just like to ask, a perfectly smooth lid like that that's framed by ornamentation and you didn't think maybe it was hiding something? It was part of a treasure quest. Ah well. Morose Duke is morose and not thinking straight, and the lantern bobs off with a soft electric buzz on the water. Because water's not significant to Haven or anything, nor are lights on water or near water.
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