Previously on Haven! Duke's contentious marriage! Freaky things happen in Haven! Like the Chief turning into rock and explode. Nathan doesn't know if he can hold it together like his Dad did. That's okay, Audrey's here to help the people of Haven! (Those of us who have seen the fourth season are laughing hysterically now.) And there's another Audrey! Well, shit.
All right, those of us who have seen up to current, go ahead and laugh it all out now as Audrey asks Vince if he knew her mother. Laugh it out. I'll wait.
(Those of you who are just now getting to seaon two, you really may want to stop reading. On the other hand if you've been reading this far, you know exactly how spoilery we are and probably most of the spoilers. Read on at your own risk.)
We start with a nice and deceptively calm flyover of Haven, as per usual, and move on to a guy clearing out the observers as he tries to fix a boat. Coffee should help! No, actually, there's no coffee that'll help this cranky boat. The initial cuts over to boat equipment, what looks like the netting winch? I'm making that term up because I don't actually know the vocabulary of fishing boats. Anyway, whatever that piece of equipment is, it's doing the ominous noises of Machinery About To Come To Life. And if we've all seen Maximum Overdrive the possessed machinery trope, we know exactly what to expect by the second cut over. The first one could be a distraction, sort of the on-a-fishing-boat equivalent of the cat scare. The second, not so much. On the third everything kicks into motion, because it's a rule, but in this case it's only a half-obeyed rule in the sense that we don't get the violent act, just the boat visibly moving by itself. In this case, the boat disgorging a fish. And then, the boat disgorging a shitton of fish. And then, the boat appearing to randomly send itself down the river.
Meanwhile, over at the Gull! Audrey is poking Duke about a sudden and mysterious rent reduction, which I'm assuming is due to Evi being back in town and which Audrey II is assuming is due to Duke having a criminal tending bar downstairs, and wanting a cop as a cover activity. I have to say, knowing Duke, she might not be wrong about that, either. Duke neither confirms nor denies, but I like how he seems to have separated them by "the blonde one" and "the brunette one." Oh Duke. Taking the weirdness in stride, as always. That's not a coping mechanism from childhood or anything. Both Audreys will now leave him to stand awkwardly and flip that mostly empty bottle of Stoli and talk privately out on the balcony! As you do. Audrey II wants to know what he knows about them, in the tone of someone who senses something suspicious. No, that's just Duke, he's just generally suspicious. I like the lighting they've got going on here, and in light of who Audrey really is, I also like them putting her sinister. The lighting is semi-reminiscent of red sky in the morning, sailors take warning, but also reminiscent of the sort of light that comes with a huge conflagration. (Don't ask how I know. There was a thing and a fire and standing in the backyard with a futile hose, it was bad.) They go over the last couple episode's worth of confusion in a couple sentences, the memory conjunction. Conjoined memories? And, in nice back-and-forth finishing-each-others-sentences harmony, give us another example rather than go on about how weird it was. This is nice, tight writing, guys. Take note. Audrey's accepted that she's the fake one at this point, and asks Audrey II if she's ever heard of Lucy Ripley. But there's no connection there to be found. Given the disappointment on her face, Audrey II decides it's the time to tell her what she has found in the mysterious cheap vampire novel! Latitude and longitude, and the words "Happy Birthday." That's not creepy at all. Kick 'Em Jenny Neck is what it's called. That's not actually creepy, that's just the way places tend to be named in more rural areas. Then again, I live near Bat Cave. Audrey gets a callout at that point, though, so Kick 'Em Jenny Neck is going to have to wait. Except, hey, why doesn't Audrey II go? Apart from citing the bond between them Audrey II is right that Audrey can't stop her. And also, sweetie, you don't have enough friends who are with you in this fight that you can afford to lose one. Recognizing that, Audrey heads off to work and lets Audrey II take Kick 'Em Jenny Neck. But not after some fun little conversation about the wind chimes. You think that's going to come back to haunt us? Naaaaah.
Down at the docks, Nathan and Audrey seem to have been talking about Audrey II, which takes a sudden right turn (explicable, but still sudden) for the nagging Nathan about his Dad's office. Audrey. Be nice. There's a crowd around the docks, as one might expect for the scene of an accident, and it's raining. For maximum misery. Oh, wait, no, there's more misery, the guy ostensibly in charge of the scene and most likely because he's in charge of either the docks or the boat or both, doesn't want the police there! He's doing his best to afford Nathan all due respect when he hears he's chief, albeit interim (and he's very careful about tacking on that 'interim' when he gives the okay to the injured guy to tell the cops what happened), but he's definitely throwing his weight around and acting the asshole. And yes, as it turns out, he's the guy who owns the boat and the three docks around. That's only a gesture, but we can assume at least one on either side. A bit of further dialogue tells us that he also owns a corporation, which is rarely a good sign in conjunction with that attitude, and that he's renovating the area around. Replacing a lot of things including, as he threatens, the crew. Oh goodie. I really hope something bad happens to this guy. And given that the boat starts taking off by itself, it looks like something's about to. That's also the injured captain's cue to say that there's something wrong with that boat, it tried to kill him. Given that it's now trying to take off by itself, I'd say he has a lot stronger of a case than he did a moment ago! The boat keeps moving, Audrey speculates wryly that it might be trying to escape, and we have a moment's fakeout of hey, maybe it'll kill the nice corporate bastard! No, it's going to finish off the captain. Poor guy. Everyone winces at the thud as the weight hits the body. Ouch. After that the corporate jerk continues to insist it's the boat, it's malfunctioning, and Audrey just plain refuses to believe anything but the evidence of her own eyes. Because fucking Haven. In this case, she is right to do so! She and Nathan talk it over some after, and Nathan rather humorously refers to the boat in specific suspect terms, with "Let's see if this is her first offense." I love it when the characters fully embrace the wacky that is Haven. Which is pretty much from this season onward. Roll credits!
Of course the wacky that is Haven includes the Revered Flagg. I'm so glad I wasn't at SDCC, I would have smashed that case and run off with that paper, cackling madly. So, okay, when you want research on things in town, you turn to the Teagues, because they know eeeeeeeeverything (up to a point) and are very spooky about that fact. Usually. When it comes to old boats they are forthcoming and come bearing folders of newspaper clippings rather than bizarre gifts. (Everyone remember the flight of scents they brought first season? No one can tell me they're not creepy.) So. Dave rattles off some specs, one of which pings Nathan's memory about wasn't that model of boat discontinued four years before she was named in big ceremony? Dave's "they renamed her?" has the hint of someone did something very sneaky, very taboo, or both, so digging further, in Haven that's certainly a reason for a boat to become murderous! Or a person to use a boat remotely as a weapon. Or something. We find out from Vince that renaming a boat is bad luck (if nautically minded people would like to chime in on this?) and then we find out from Dave that she's "the Sea Star." All we need is his and Nathan's reactions, even before we find out the history, to know that this is from bad to worse. Audrey is still the voice of all that is new to Haven, so she gets to ask the question that gives us a couple lines of exposition (only a couple lines, because it's Nathan) and we find out that there's one guy in town who probably could fix a boat that had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. To the tinkererer!
The tinkererer's name is Lewis, he is fixing a remote control car to "run like a dream again" and yes, he did fix the boat. He also is reluctant to say, but will eventually cough up because this is a TV show and because these are cops, that when the unpleasant dock owner floated the wreck there were still bodies at their posts on it. Naturally, this means ghosts. In Haven, this really could mean ghosts too! I would not put it past anyone, especially if they were all of the same bloodline and had a family Trouble. We interrupt this dire prediction for the lady in question! Not wife, it looks like, more of paramour, who courted him with a broken crockpot. Given his speciality and passion in life this is actually kind of adorable, and continues on with Haven's tradition of couples and old like-married non-romantic partners (Vince and Dave I'm looking at you) who know each other better than anything and are permitted to show it. One thing this show does write really well is relationships, both the ones that tear you apart and the ones that support you in the small ways as well as the large. So, anyway. Crockpot! Speaking of small ways, she's bringing him what looks like lunch. In the crockpot of lurv. Aww. Crockpot of lurv aside, the lady in question (Marcia. Marsha?) would like to speak to Nathan about a hot stove meeting that Nathan is very blatantly ducking. Audrey promises to get to it, and everyone separates, but this is clearly the point at which Nathan has to Live Up To His Father's Legacy. Or Cope With His Father's Legacy, one of the two. Mostly I bring this up because it's mildly annoying that it's never referred to again even in passing, but Nathan gives us the description: people sit around a hot stove and talk about their troubles. Sort of like a town meeting/bitchfest NATHAN DON'T SAY TROUBLES IN THAT CASUAL WAY. Jesus. Words mean things. Although I take it back halfway, Nathan could actually mean Troubles. Speaking of, Audrey goes back to the ghost theory, and Nathan opines/hopes that they just want to be left alone. Except now they're being summoned back to dock, so, vengeful ghosts it is.
Over at port, there's a cinderblock in a car. A big one. The cinderblock is taking up roughly the upper half of the driver's seat and into the passenger seat, that's how big it is. It's attached to a crane at the other end, but the crane operator hadn't even clocked in. I could nitpick here about how he could have smashed someone's head in with a cinderblock before clocking in, but we can all take it as read that that means the crane operator hadn't arrived for the day. We'll save that kind of nitpicking for the Teagues. And William and Mara and all the rest of them. Nathan calls over another guy, Curtis? The guy who was in the car at the time! And who was present at the other accident; turns out he's a union man trying to organize the dock workers. And while he could be desperate enough to arrange fatal accidents even subconsciously to try and scare people into stumping for better conditions, he doesn't seem excited enough to be Troubled, or at least to have it be active. Especially for someone who almost got smushed by a cinderblock, that's some impressive willpower. But you know who was excited enough to have his Trouble activated? Halsey! It turns out that he's had a history of screaming at the poor union guy, and he was previously yelling at the last guy who got smooshed. So, yeah, that makes a pattern enough to be a potential Trouble, deliberately aimed or not. Motive, opportunity, does he have means? Audrey and Nathan discuss whether or not he has deliberate means, inadvertent means, or no Troubles at all, leading to Audrey making the obvious if boneheaded leap to 'hey, let's provoke the Troubled person and see if the Trouble activates!' Audrey, sweetie, I realize this works pretty well because you're immune, but you're not immune to killer machines smashing your head in, and Nathan isn't immune at all. You wanna not taunt the happy fun technopath? Says Nathan's le-sigh facial expression.
So they go to taunt the happy fun technopath. With an endangered... weed. Audrey, Nathan. Are you threatening to close down the man over a weed? That you just yanked unceremoniously and un-scientifically out of the ground? You could be a little more provoking but you'd have to work incredibly hard at it. So, he's provoked, and in the background a forklift is operating by itself. Hey, Halsey. Go look at the forklift operating by itself. Very clearly operating, too, not just 'shifted into gear randomly and started coasting.' It's also doing a very good job of making those headlights look like eyes, heh. Audrey says she thinks Halsey's doing this as the forklift... menaces Halsey. You know, that's kind of a good indication that he's at least not doing it on purpose, and definitely that this Trouble is hostile to him. So is that propeller to the back of the head. Ouch. That's marginally more gory than Haven usually gets, just to let us know how dangerous this Trouble is. So, probably not Halsey then, yes? Yes. And another body on the ground. Also the machines working together, so whatever's either directing or moving the machines to act, it's an outside force that spans over most of Haven and not requiring the presence of the Troubled person at all. Unless someone was peeking through binoculars. All Nathan and Audrey get that we hear is that the machines are operating themselves in unison, but it's probably not a great leap for them, either.
Over to the Gull! For some relative light-heartedness that Duke will provide by his little cleaning dance. Aww Duke and your adorable little cleaning dance. You so cute. And Evi would agree! We have a little domestic conversation in which it is revealed that Evi neither cooks nor cleans habitually or perhaps well, and he still enjoyed her company and definitely is not wanting it right now, by some of those looks he's giving her. Still thinking she's about to bite, say those looks. And he would like to know how she knew he was here, yes? The bartender downstairs! See, it's not that hard to find out information if you ask, Duke. (I love that she gives an utterly prosaic answer to a question that sounds like it should have a conspiratory answer.) The bartender also told her that Duke's looking for a tenant, and she is quite willing to provide herself! Yeah, no, Duke is not so willing to accept, and metaphorically puts the Audreys between himself and her. Which is hilarious not only in that he's backing away from her, but also that a self-professed I-hate-cops smuggler is renting part of his commercial space as living quarters for law enforcement. Heh. This is not lost on Evi, who pushes into his space some more and comments on his unwillingness to deal with her or even be around her with deep amusement. Right up into his personal space, too. Equal parts seduction and, what, harrassment? Given the comment about not trusting himself around her and, rather than at least try to respect that, only finding it as encouragement. Uh-huh. Duke doesn't look pleased, more like he's determining which of his options to go with. Even less pleased when Audrey II clears her throat across the room. The bartender told her he was up there! He's really going to have to talk to that guy. On the other hand, Audrey is providing him with a convenient out of dealing with Evi! Which Duke will now proceed to openly smug about. Oh both of you.
Back at the station! Oh, hey, there is a box marked 'hot stove' with a little brass plate, indicating that whatever this is, it went on long enough to have a box of honor; you don't spend the time and money to get a brass plate engraved for something that everyone considers a harmless, occasionally useful joke. Also that's a good reminder of Nathan's responsibilities to his people as police chief right in frame at the start of the scene, so that we don't forget now that Audrey's going on about the unrelated machines killing people at multiple scenes. Which she will do! In case any of us were in the bathroom or hiding behind our fingers. I would never do that. Shut up. (Not for Haven, anyway.) They also note that it seems to be moving inland, though given that they have a sample size of two or three I'd label that as probable but inconclusive. Still. As with medical dramas, they have to be wrong a certain number of times (usually three) before they're right. We interrupt this case working for some comic relief as the fax machine goes off and spits out a piece of paper, causing Audrey and likely Nathan to jump. I would, too, if machines were coming to life and killing people! She doesn't jump when the phone rings, though. If I were going for communication devices killing people, I'd distrust the phone first. She identifies the caller first as Marcia with the Hot Stove meeting, causing Nathan to once again decide that he is not his father and he is not having with this. The funny thing about the way this is played is, given the script thus far this could just as easily be played for Nathan rejecting his emotionally distant father's legacy and his need for his father's approval and becoming his own person, as it could be played for Nathan rejecting the good parts of his father's legacy and the caring relationship the last police chief had with the people. It's played more for the latter than the former, and for comedy, but there's a touch of the rejecting the emotionally distant father in the way he comes to it on his own terms later. And now I wonder if Dwight is continuing the Hot Stove meetings. Anyway. Marcia has a thing with a puck shooting machine that's shooting pucks at people of its own initiative now. Isn't that just what happens in hockey?
Over at the Gull, Audrey II is delivering ultimatums to Duke: take her to Kick 'Em Jenny Neck. We have a nice subversion of the and what favor are you going to do for me trope, especially given that it's a man saying it to a woman, when Duke follows that immediately up with "by paying me." Heh. And now we have a somewhat questionable subversion of Audrey II as a woman of the law, both in the fact that she's essentially blackmailing Duke and in that she's agreeing to look the other way on evidence that could make an arrest. Or that's the implication anyway; we don't see what's in the folder. We do get to see Evi overhearing this, which means later there's an argument over whether or not Duke should go through with this. Evi loses the argument but is still giving Audrey II's car looks, and so is the camera, which means that file or something else important is likely to disappear out of the car sooner or later. Remember guys, camera focus means something important, like those weirdly sharply colored pixels in a video game. Just in case we didn't get that message, as Duke and Audrey II head off towards the boat we get a nice, lingering close up on an exasperated Evi turning and heading towards the car. Lady, at least wait until they're out on the water before you go breaking into a federal officer's car. Please?
Over at the Haven ice palace! A warehouse shaped building that looks semi-familiar, did this get repurposed as something or have I been watching Haven too long? Turns out Marcia had asked some guys to come in and help her close up for the season and the puck machine started going crazy. Oh joy. It turns out not only is there a demonic independently puck-shooting puck-shooter, this has happened before! And not only is she closing up for the season, she's closing up to move to a place where there isn't any Troubles. In this case somewhere over the rainbow is Florida. Nathan manages to sneak, for a very non-sneaky value of sneak, over to the hockey puck machine and turn it off. Won't that just turn itself back on again? No, maybe not. At least it's taken the immediate damage out of the area, but almost spookier and less harmful is the auto-play piano playing songs that were never loaded onto it. Oh, she's had buyers in to look at it, so she does own the place. The piano stops, let's all note, when Audrey sits down at it. Doesn't even sound like the end of the song. Nathan pokes the piano while Audrey starts playing absently, and they discuss the previous rounds of Troubled objects they've dealt with (Fur 1x06, Sketchy 1x07). Troubled objects are never Troubled on their own, though, there's always a Troubled person involved. So who's the Troubled person linked to all these objects? And now there's enough of them that they should be able to cross-reference! Yay! Audrey has no idea how she knows how to play piano. Semi-yay? Neither of them is too happy by this, especially not when Audrey spells out to Nathan that Audrey Parker, original flavor, never learned how to play piano. If Lucy Ripley (or previous incarnations) did learn, though, that would at least somewhat explain it. Muscle memory and all that; physical gestures and movements tend to store themselves in a different part of the body even as we remember that we should make this sequence of movements to do a thing. She would have had to do it for long enough to have her body remember that sequence of notes, though. Difficult to say. Audrey pulls back from the piano like it might bite her, though.
As they're heading out they advise poor Marcia to just close up and leave the wacky machines to their wackiness till they get it sorted out, to which she responds she needs to get on Lewis to fix her houseboat (so she can live on it? oh god, given what's going on that sounds like a bad idea. so she can leave sooner? even worse.) and ah-hah! Jinkies! A connection! Fortunately Audrey does not in fact betray the connection with anything other than the fact that she asked about it; she and Nathan wait till Marcia heads off to determine that yes, Lewis is the common denominator and likely the Troubled person. Also, given what we've seen of his personality so far, either he's harboring some as yet unspoken rage (remember the Dark Man? Ain't No Sunshine 1x08, though even that was hinted before we saw it) or it's inadvertent and, most likely, uncontrolled/uncontrollable. That doesn't bode well at all.
Over on the boat Duke's driving, Audrey II is giving Duke a semi-compliment by calling him the most normal person in town. Everyone who has seen from the end of this season onward is now laughing their asses off. Duke also points out the perfectly valid argument that there's another person wandering around with her memories in her head, and does that sound normal? Well, no, but given that Audrey Parker has Lucy Ripley's scar on her foot, safe to say she's the weird one and Audrey II is the normal one. If there is a normal one. They talk some about Audrey II's personal life, which indicates that her personal life is going to be significant later given the depth with which they discuss it. The personal life in question's name is Brad, so we all remember. It concludes with Duke asking her (probably yet again) what's out there. She has no idea. Ask her when she's back! Which is also one of those things you should never say if you're in a horror movie or a TV show influenced by Stephen King. Anything to do with coming back. Just don't do it.
Nathan is about to get the list of equipment Pfuahl fixed when the radio shorts out right after Laverne says that it's a long list. Apparently that list includes the radios. Yes, Nathan, I think it'd be safer to assume, whether or not it's correct, that they can listen and communicate. Especially since you already have evidence of a coordinated attack and murder.
Audrey II has found the barn with a GPS! It looks so normal. Our first clue that it isn't is the ominous music. Actually, that's pretty much our only clue for this scene; when she walks in all she says is 'what the hell?' and the lighting is about what we'd expect for that barn, so it could mean that it's a completely ordinary barn and someone's put something terrible and weird in it. That's not actually the case, but we won't find that out for a good season, season and a half. The inside of the barn door even looks like a barn door! It really, really isn't.
So, along with the trend of stepping ominously from the light into something dark and scary and unnatural, Nathan and Audrey are making their way into Lewis's workshop. This is such a bad idea you guys I can't even begin to tell you. Lewis isn't there, the lights are off, which means they can't see how many machines are in there. Which means that of course the doors slam shut ominously behind them and then the lights come on so they can see just how fucked they are, this is standard horror movie fare. Ominous piano riff! Ominous machines gearing up! Shit like this is why I do not have a garbage disposal in my sink, you guys. Audrey knows what's what, she opts to leave, but something that looks like an earth tiller? Comes towards them, herding them away from the door. The saw starts up too, but at least it's a table saw, no moving away from that table for it! The nailgun next to it, not so much. Audrey tries to take comfort in that the machines can only do what they do, they can't move if they don't have wheels, etc, but Audrey, that is a nailgun. Eventually it's going to run out of ammo, right? Not before it puts a couple nails in a gas container oh hey there goes the blowtorch. These are some very unhappy machines. Nathan does manage to find a very small piece of metal, really, about big enough to cover their important bits if they duck, and they do manage to run out of there right before the big explosion, but not before he gets a few nails shot into his shoulder. Which, being Nathan, he doesn't notice until Audrey points it out. Oh Nathan. You are so lucky you have a partner to perform your self-checks for you. Seriously, folks, not noticing pain is not a super-power, and people who have that actual disorder have to check themselves over regularly to make sure they don't have an unnoticed cut that might go septic and kill them. I'm not even kidding. I mean, he's got a point about they'll bleed less if they stay in, and they don't look rusty or otherwise icky, but come on, Nathan. Oh, but before we leave we have to have one last scare: the van that turns out to be nothing more than equipped with an automatic key fob. Because tradition, and also jump scares.
So, they should go find Lewis before his machines hurt more people. Like, say, Lewis? Oh god he's in the kitchen this is why I don't have a garbage disposal you guys. Too many scenes like this. He's moving the toaster when the microwave beeps, then knocks his keys down the goddamn sink. And yes, the disposal revs angrily when he goes to get it. Oh god my poor hands. No, don't do it again you idiot! At least nothing actually does get him, I might have to stop blogging at that point. The TV clicks on, the recliner leans back, the remote control car closes the door and refuses to let him open it again, while the TV chants ominously over a commercial saying something about never leave home again. They are hammering all the horror movie tropes on this one pretty hard. These aren't the usual ones that we see, either, these are direct, unsubtle, B-movie type tropes with a solid monster (or monsters) to fight rather than the usual psychological what-you-are-in-the-dark type horror tropes that Haven usually employs. It's an interesting change, but I'm glad it's only once in a while and doesn't stick around.
Meanwhile! Speaking of the psychological tropes. Over on the island of hate and fear and weirdness. Duke is looking for Audrey II so they can get off the island before it gets dark. Audrey is... running around with a gun. And a very scared expression, scared and trying to hide it. She doesn't actually look as though she recognizes Duke or knows where town is or any of it, though she pretends to go along, probably because it seems safer. Duke, oddly, doesn't recognize that something's going on where when she says "What file?" not in a tone that indicates she's been playing him, but like she genuinely doesn't know what he's talking about. To go with her tone of 'yeah sure okay I'm going along with this' when he talks about things she should know and remember. He goes off ranting, and it's not until she starts fumbling to put her gun in her holster that he realizes something is very, very wrong. Good job, Duke.
Audrey and Nathan come up to the house just in time for Lewis to come tearassing out of it and staring at it like it's going to come after him. Which, the robotic contents of it might! That car, for instance, I don't trust that car. First this leads them to the conclusion that he's not controlling the machines, then, over talking through the list of victims, they discover that the machines are going after anyone who would pull him out of Haven: a man who had a job for him in Alaska, a woman for love of whom he was prepared to leave. So, okay, hopefully Robbie's fine, but what else did he fix? Apart from, you know, half the mechanics in Haven. This could take a while. For them, anyway. For us, we're treated to a nice ominous picture of a zamboni going after Marcia. Evil Zamboni! I'm sorry, I just can't take seriously, even if it is dangerous and potentially deadly, anything called a zamboni. Zaammmmboni. It sounds like a pasta. There's no one word for it that I know of but there's a well-known and somewhat-documented phenomenon where certain words inherently sound funny. Which words depends on the culture and dominant language(s) in the culture, but this is why 'death by zamboni' in fiction is always used as a punchline. Zamboooooooni.
Anyway. When our heroes and this week's Troubled Person get there, Marcia is in the process of being crushed by the zamboni against the wall of the rink. Yeah, that's not good. And trying to push the damn thing out of the way is not going to work, you guys, you are not stronger than a zamboni. Nathan does have a pretty good point, though, this thing could kill her and it's not. It's being very, very menacing, though! Audrey concludes, probably rightly, that it's sending a message, and the message is "Today the part of the abusive ex will be played by the zamboni." It sounds hilarious but it really isn't, the damn machines basically are acting like an abusive ex-lover, throwing tantrums, destroying Lewis's work, and threatening the people he loves in order to get him not to leave them. This is severely abusive behavior. If anyone is behaving like this to you, I cannot stress this enough: Police. Help lines. Friends. Do not try and help the person exhibiting this behavior, because you can't. Protect yourself. I've gone off on a tangent. Anyway.
At any rate, Audrey has figured out what the living machines want, which is to keep Lewis all for themselves. I really have to wonder how this Trouble manifested in the past, and how bad was it then, and... well, a lot of things about the history of this Trouble. Right now, she shoots the zamboni, and tells Lewis to go fix the stupid thing so that it'll back off everyone else and leave Marcia alone. Not in those words precisely, but that's under the tone, there, and the basic gist of her speech. And, sure enough, once he does fix the machine and Nathan gets Marcia away from the zamboni, everything calms down. Except that Lewis's first instinct is to go to her, and that will just set the machines off again. I can't say I like the conclusion of this episode arc for several reasons, primarily being that this conclusion goes for the appeasement of the abuser(s) and is not any kind of healthy resolution for Lewis. And on the other hand, given that this set of abusers has a much greater capacity to damage people and property around it than your typical human abuser, I can see this as a short term solution? Only we're not given to understand that this is a short term solution. And on the other other hand, it's been made pretty clear by now that the Troubles are the problem this series has set Audrey/Lucy to solve. So. I'm not all that happy with the conclusion of this episode arc. But it's about as good as we were likely to get without a, pardon the phrase, Deus ex Machina. I'm so sorry. A little bit. (A: No you're not.)
Oh, hey, speaking of crappy endings, let's go back to Audrey II! Who has been amnesia'd, no one knows how or why, Duke's got nothing. Off she will go, although there is some hope that she'll regain her memory and her identity back given that she seems to recognize the love interest described earlier. I'm not happy with this, either, though I somewhat understand that she needed to go, and this does set up the memory fuckery that happens later in the series. Still and nonetheless. Audrey sits down with her and tries to find out what she knows, and then calm Audrey II when she understandably freaks out about not being able to know anything. Though, initially, she handles it with some considerable humor, which goes to Audrey Parker also dealing with extraordinary personal circumstances with humor. Aw, ladies. She tells her a bit about herself, which is all the more poignant for knowing what we know about Audrey. And she says she's her friend. Her name is Audrey, too, in the way of two women bonding over having the same name, which is an acceptable non-freaky-shit variant of two women bonding over having the same memories, I suppose. I'm not sure if the actresses played it this way, but there's a similarity here between Audrey talking to Audrey II, and Lucy Ripley, Original Flavor, talking to Audrey. That same maternal/older sister vibe. At any rate, that may well be a factor of calming her down to prepare her for Brad, and the memories that seem to be returning there, so at least her unhappy ending is mitigated somewhat. And for a new mystery, Duke will say that it's just like when they found the Colorado Kid, and how no one can remember what happened then? Knowing what we know now, again, I can only conclude that the Barnvatar did something there. At any rate. Duke recalls the love interest, they bring him in, the official story is that a boater found her. He comes in late enough that they've had a chance to have a doctor look over her, or maybe that was before the first scene? So. That's not terrible. And she seems much relieved to be able to recognize someone who means a great deal to her, who knows her. That's going to be a theme later on, as Audrey deals with her own identity issues.
Meanwhile Duke is morosing on the porch of his bar, as you do, when Evi comes up to ask how it went with the FBI girl. We can tell immediately from her tone that something's coming, and it turns out this something is an angry tirade about how she was trying to help him, she thought he was in trouble, and he should appreciate that. Speaking of bad relationships with exes! This is not, by the way, to compare her to the machines. She's not destroying anything of his, she's not threatening him. But she is imposing her own expectations of their relationship on him, and that's not a good thing to do. She expects him to appreciate that she did something with the selfless intent of helping him, and she probably does think that, but judging by her reaction she also did it with the expectation that he would be grateful in some way that he isn't right now, and that's never a good thing to do.
Over on the island of freaky barns, Audrey and Nathan are talking over the Audrey II business and wishing they could have done something more to help her. Well, Audrey is, Nathan is talking her out of her tiny tree. This of course leads to Audrey fussing over that's what she does, right, help people? (Everyone who has seen the season four finale right now is laughing their asses off.) She doesn't sound very confident in her abilities to do so, though; we can interpret from this that she's not very happy at the conclusion of the Audrey II arc in her life, either. Not enough to question that that's her entire purpose in life, but enough to make her unhappy. We then rehash that the key to unlocking the mystery of her identity is here in Haven, and Nathan tells her with perfect surety and one of the sappiest in-love stares he's given her yet by this point in the series, that they'll figure it out. Oh Nathan. His lovesickness will be interrupted by the GPS beeping to tell them they've arrived at. Nothing. The barn's disappeared.
Concluding montage! With appropriately woeful music. Not directly woeful but definitely on the sad end of contemplative; we start with Duke looking at the file, which includes a transcript of a phone call I can't identify as being from the show at all (the tone looks like one person trying to strong-arm another) and a hand-drawn map of Haven. With the people in the maze symbol we've come to associate with, well, a lot of different things at this point. At the moment Duke just associates it with his death, so his is understandably cranky. Marcia brings another crockpot to Lewis to fix or eat out of, it's hard to tell, but the heartbreak is plainly writ in her body language and in the closing shot of the Closed sign. Nathan is coming to grips with his own role in Haven by looking into the Hot Stove box, and he seems more relaxed, now. The wind chimes, which are of course forks, are hanging where Audrey II suggested, and she's either moved a piano in or uncovered it from where it was buried and is playing. Re-learning to play. Something.
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