The old switcheroo? Oh please not the clichéd body swap episode!
Please no – that, the clip show episode and the “oh look evil person who looks
just like me” episode are a klaxon announcing you’re out of ideas.
Duke and Nathan are continuing to try and treat Mara like
Audrey, despite Mara’s insistence that she’s kill Audrey and generally not
making it easy for them. Plan B is to take Mara on a case to help a Troubled
person – because that’s what Audrey does and hopefully then they can treat Mara
like Audrey without Mara realising it and fighting them.
Vince has taken Dave’s adoption details to North Carolina
where he’s chasing down the mysterious scrawled “Croatoan” word from last week’s
stalled therapy. He’s found the Croatoan café – which is also a historical
society. He recounts the Croatoan legend – that an English settlement during
colonial times was abandoned, no trace of the colonists except the word “Croatoan”
carved in a tree; confirmed by Alison, the owner of the diner.
In Haven, Dave staggers and nearly falls, mirroring Vince
in North Carolina. Yes, it’s the body switch.
Both stagger around lost and confused and blaming the
other. Gloria arrives to snark at Vince (in Dave’s body), apparently Dave was
due to get her info. Gloria is, as always, awesome. Of course they both
discover each other’s secrets – that Vince is researching Dave’s origin and
Dave is hiding a wound on his leg.
Dave, in Vince’s skin follows his clues of Dave’s origin’s
to Alison’s house. He hits his head on a branch and meets Alison again and her
husband Skip (the music plays ominously when he says he hasn’t heard of Haven
so I assume it’s a lie. Alison doesn’t understand why her address would be in
the adoption file since her family has owned the property for generations and
had no adoptions.
Vince joins Dave in North Carolina and they snark at each
other as they do. Vince is much more suspicious than Dave and does more investigating
into Alison – he finds a random phone number on a random post it pad so,
naturally, writes it down, as you do. Actually there is some reason to it – the
area code is Haven’s. The brothers also have a bonding moment over the secrets
they kept from each other and the reasons for it. They call the number – and get
the psychiatric facility.
Random weekly trouble – in what looks like a residential
home for the mentally ill, one of the orderlies strangles a patient – and then
suffocates to death himself.
Gloria is called in and she’s hit by the same body
switching Trouble as Dave and Vince – swapping with Dwight.
Nathan arrives for the Trouble fixing, Dwight and Gloria
let him know what’s happening and we see the actors trying to play each other’s
characters. Dwight isn’t thrilled with Mara joining (and Gloria’s body means he
can’t hit Nathan properly) but Nathan has attached a stun belt to Mara in case
she gets out of hand.
The orderly and mental patient swapped bodies and since
the patient was violent he attacked his own body when in the orderly’s body (in
case we missed it), Audrey makes a brief appearance. Angst angst twu lub
Nathan. She begs Nathan not to let Mara know she was there – obviously.
At the autopsy, Dwight and Gloria (and the actors are
doing a decent job of the body switch) confirm what we’ve already guessed (or should
have) if one person dies in the body switch, then both die.
Duke and Nathan consider how hard it is to do the Trouble
hunting without Audrey – and Duke is again feeling terrible. He needs to
release a Trouble. Audrey ghosts in to give a clue – people switch when they
have a big secret (implied shared? Or kept from?) She also says she can’t go on
the case because it makes Mara super suspicious and super defensive – better to
leave her with Duke. So we have another memory montage and, again, Mara loses
her grip. More reminiscing including a
lot on the night in Colorado when they kissed.
On the investigation Nathan clarifies it’s keeping a
secret from someone (Gloria and Dwight claim not to be secretive. Uh-huh). Dave
and Vince call and finally tell Gloria and Dwight they’ve been switched and
that there’s a link with the psychicatric facility (they’re both stuck doing
background checks). They find a Jeffrey Doohan, probably Skip (Alison’s husband)’s
brother (or other relative) living long term at the facility (aha, ominous
music never lies!)
Nathan goes to check Jeffrey and he runs for it – and
Nathan is hit by the whole body switch: him and Duke. And he decides not to
tell Audrey that he’s switched so he can listen to Audrey talk more about
Colorado. And I think Mara’s back because she talks about there being something
between them
Jeffrey manages to escape while Duke is still dealing
with Nathan’s lack of sensation. He then calls Nathan to warn him that Mara is
pretending to be Audrey. At least Nathan doesn’t focus too much on the kiss
(the secret that switched them) but they do decide it’s Jeffrey’s Trouble. And,
of course, Nathan/Duke needs to let loose a Trouble (the eternally numb Nathan
should have a harder time of it – how would he have a pain threshold).
Back to Vince and Dave investigating Alison’s house again
when Vince (in Dave’s body) feels odd – like “water trickling down hill” a
feeling Dave remembers. He’s being pulled to a Thinnie (strange dimensional
gate) that is open.
Gloria and Dwight were kind of awesome (mainly because Gloria’s
character is awesome – and her unhealthy eating). But, in all honestly, the
whole concept is kind of clichéd and been done so often that I’m never
impressed by it. It’s interesting and good to see who has the greatest acting
chops (Gloria and Dwight? Good – Dwight especially. Vince and Dave were too
secretive and too much a unit to be noticeable separate personalities anyway) but,
on the whole, is very barrel-scrapy
I also think it was pushed with secrecy – why are Dwight and Gloria trying to hide from Vicky? It’s a Trouble, she knows Troubles.
I am not happy with Audrey and Duke – it feels like, with
Jennifer dead, they’re trying to rebuild the love triangle between Duke, Audrey
and Nathan. Please don’t – don’t drag that bag, we really don’t need it –
certainly not with extra Nathan jealousy. Bad storyline! Bad!
What we do need is for the whole Mara/Audrey thing to
move forward a little. Either let Mara advance her master plan or bring Audrey back.
Mara the prisoner while Nathan and Duke play act to her is getting old.
