Haven, Season 4, Episode 8: Crush

Duke buries his brother’s body with his father’s journal – it’s a moving scene in which Duke seems lost for words.

At the Haven Herald, Vince talks to Jennifer about the mysterious Agent Howard and the research he’s being pursuing on him and he has found the identity of Jennifer’s birth parents –well, one of 6 families. Dave runs in in a panic with Cabot’s journal (Stephen Cabot first came to Haven when it was Native American in the 15^th century) all worried about last week’s Trouble being contagious. Vince is less contained – it’s a Trouble, they’re troubling.

At Audrey’s place she and Nathan are all morning-after gleeful and Nathan has even softened on the idea of Lexi elements creeping into Audrey’s personality and they’re interrupted by Vince. Nathan sneaks out the back while Audrey delays him and Vince catches a fully clothed Nathan later, chiding him for not being with “Lexi” and making her fall in love with him so she can kill Nathan (the original plan to end the Troubles and why Audrey keeps up the Lexi pretence). Vince is sympathetic that Nathan may not want to die, but the Troubles are causing major problems and the Guard is getting all impatient and Jordan-like.

Duke meets Jennifer and asks her to move off his boat. He’s having a reversion of character – he always used to be the “businessman” who looked after his own issues primarily and now he’s running around putting everyone else first (which, it seems he is linking to his brother’s death) and now he wants to leave town and return to how he was. Of course Haven has other ideas and when he tries to leave, he runs into a Trouble problem – things imploding, his ears popping, a man collapsing and having to save a little girl from becoming crumpled like her ball.

He calls 911 to report it – and the dead man before his friend Jack shows up and the confirm there was some kind of pressure that caused things to implode and be crushed – and one man’s ear drums to burst: pressure that smashed car window glass. Dave and Vince stagger yup, both hallucinating and confused, suffering from the bends due to the pressure difference, just as if they’d been diving.

Time for the gang to arrive including the awesome pathologist Gloria who should have her own show and confirms that the whole area acted like it was extremely deep under water; she also explains the difference between implosion and explosion. And how tough the Teagues are for surviving at all (what is the Teagues’ story?!) The Teagues themselves are in a decompression chamber, babbling away either revealing Haven’s deepest secrets or just incoherent. Possibly both.

Back on Duke’s boat, Jennifer sees a horseshoe crab with human eyes. Icky, horseshoe crabs are ultra-creepy things already! Duke tells her about the newest Trouble and how he’s not leaving yet. She tells him he’s a hero and how ridiculous he is for rejecting that he is a hero who sacrifices himself. He’s not impressed – the little girl he saved could activate a Trouble tomorrow and turn the town into purple slime, saving people doesn’t make a difference, it doesn’t change things and he’s done. She wants him to stay and he doesn’t clue in to the epic crush she has for him.

At the Trouble scene, Gloria identifies the epicentre of the pressure near a dead woman called Jill Noonas – Audrey believes in the same car as her and Vince and Dave are likely witnesses.

As the Teagues emerge, Jennifer raises the possibility that Jack could be the Troubled person since he is a deep sea diver but Vince and Duke explain that Jack’s family, the Driscols has never been Troubled – Duke rather snarkily and she snarks back. No-one picks up new Troubles. Jack is also snarky at Duke for abandoning Haven since both their families have always defended Haven (for those with good memories – “Driscol” is the surname of the murderous anti-Trouble reverend in season 2 who wanted Duke to run around slaughtering Troubled people) and talks about Wade filling in the Crocker tradition.

Duke gets even more flouncy at that and storms off – raking Audrey and Nathan over the coals in passing for looking out for themselves and expecting him to pick up the pieces. They take that as an indication that Duke knows they slept together and Nathan wonders if they are being selfish (not killing him and all).

With Duke gone everyone gathers again to ask the Teagues who they saw in Jill’s car who caused the Trouble and they protest it was Jack – Driscol’s can’t be Troubled! They ask Jack about it – and whoa Trouble hits! Everyone is debilitated by the pain of it except Nathan (who can’t feel – but Audrey is immune to Troubles? Yet she still feels it) Jack runs to the decompression chamber and Nathan seals him in at Jack’s instruction. The pressure stops and Vince explains why Audrey isn’t immune to this (the Trouble isn’t affect her, the Trouble effects the area causing the pressure. In the same way a Troubled person could set Audrey on fire, but could set something on fire, throw it at Audrey and she’d catch on fire).

Jack is a little stressed since his whole family’s pride is based on them not being Troubled. Audrey asks if he was attacked – just like Carrie was when her Trouble changed – and he reveals he passed out drunk drinking with his brother Aidan and woke up by the side of the road. Audrey checks him and he has the same mark as Carrie. Jack calms down using a scuba-technique and Audrey reassures him – he knows how to control it now. Jack’s just happy it’s him not his brother who is going to be a father, so it won’t continue in the family.

Except his brother Aidan wakes up on a park bench, claiming to have been abducted by 2 men – and he gets arrested by an utter failure of community policing. Until the pressure ranks up with Aidan’s emotional distress. The chaos is radioed into the police central and they rush over with Jack as people collapse, their eardrums bursting.

Jack shouts at him to back off and then calls him on a mobile phone to explain he’s Troubled – but the phone breaks and Jack, Audrey and Nathan are driven back by the pressure zone. This is a problem, they can’t reach him to explain and the longer he is alone, the more agitated he gets and the wider the pressure zone becomes. Nathan and Audrey scrabble to have the area evacuated as the bubble expands, causing more and more extensive damage. Jack sees one solution – Duke. If Duke kills him he will save Haven – and protect Aidan’s baby.

But Duke isn’t taking any calls, he’s grieving at his brother’s grave. After Jack calls he returns but refuses Jack - he won’t kill him (it wouldn’t work anyway). He walks away and Nathan follows – and Duke lets loose with both barrels: Jack is willing to die to end one Trouble, Nathan could die and end every Trouble – and eh punches Nathan. Which is pretty pointless – but the blood from Nathan’s mouth on Duke’s hand confirms that his Trouble is gone. Nathan asks how – but Duke drives off.

Still, that puts the idea in Nathan’s head and he tells Audrey she could kill him; she refuses. Everyone despairs – and Duke drives up with some deep sea pressure suits. Awww, we knew the hurting rogue still had a heart of gold

Suited up, Audrey Duke and Nathan approach Aidan while Jack works the controls. But on the way Nathan’s line snags a park bench and leaks air – Duke hurries Nathan back out of the pressure zone so he can breathe and Audrey has to go on alone

While Nathan and Duke try to reach safety before Nathan dies, Audrey talks to Aidan about the good news of his impending child, that he needs to learn to control that – then she encourages him to use his diver calming breathing techniques. He calms down, the pressure drops.

What, you couldn’t find a loud speaker? This could have been over far sooner

Nathan gets his helmet off and breathes – and Nathan asks Duke if he killed Wade; Duke says he did but didn’t have a choice. And Duke takes it back, Nathan shouldn’t kill himself and Nathan confirms that Duke isn’t really selfish

Meanwhile, Jennifer is touring round families to try and find her biological parents. She reaches the last address on the list and is still being chased by the human-eyed horseshoe crab.

She returns to Duke’s boat since Duke has, obviously, changed his mind about kicking her out. And he kisses her –he has woken up and smelled the crush! And they sleep together. We also learn that Jennifer did go to her biological parents but they moved out some time ago; the new owner gave her the things they left behind. And Vince and Dave barge in (much to her embarrassment since she’s only wearing Duke’s shirt). Vince has read Cabot’s journal and wants to tell them all about the Troubles as recorded in the journal as known by the Mikmaw Native Americans.

The journal speaks of the darkest times in the Mikmaw legend when evil came through a portal of some kind which they had thought had happened when Audrey came back. But they’re confident they’re wrong because none of the omens have happened: like horseshoe crabs with human eyes. They laugh at the idea and Jennifer bursts their bubble.

The crabs confirm that the “soft spot” has been ripped open and a great evil is running about

At Audrey’s, Nathan brings up again that Audrey should kill them to end all the Troubles. Especially with the rules changing and the Troubles going out of control. He thinks of the huge number of people who died, of Duke having to murder his brother – it’s all their fault. Audrey points the gun at his heart, he tells her he loves her (oh that’ll make it easier)

Back to the Teagues, they know of one way to stop the great evil: “What was once your salvation, is now your doom”.

Cryptic? Maybe – but since this is interposed with Audrey about to shoot Nathan – the murder supposedly the salvation of Haven – I think Nathan just got handed a big get-out-of-death-free card. Duke and Vince figure it out – and Vince realises Duke called her Audrey and not Lexi (is it that odd? Wouldn’t Audrey still be a habit?)

Then they hear a gunshot.

Who bets she missed?

Duke’s grieving is hard to watch- but very well done, including all the misplaced lashing out rage. It’s a reminder that a character doesn’t always have to do what you want them to to be real.

Nathan represents an interesting moral quandary – where do we draw the line between a person being selfish and a person who cannot be expected to sacrifice to such a degree? Where does the “greater good” come on a personal level? And then we end up with very difficult places when it comes to the tyranny of the majority. Does Nathan have a duty to die? If we say no, do we put Nathan’s life over the lives of dozens? If we say yes then what does that say about personal autonomy that such an expectation is put on a person?

Am I the only one really really really creeped out by the horseshoe crab?

I’m interested in the Troubles in Haven changing, mixing things up, but I’m worried of us having ANOTHER crop of 3 or 4 Troubles of the Week, this time with the Teagues in the background yelling “that’s impossible!”