Charlotte is dead, stabbed repeatedly and picked up by
Gloria. Who is using an ice-cream van to carry away bodies – because Gloria. Lots
of sadness all round, especially since Audrey has only just accepted Charlotte
as her mother (which we should have seen as a death knell right there).
Vince and Dave are still investigating Croatoan when a
raging Dwight rages in demanding that killing Croatoan be the new priority –
Audrey agrees (having lost both her mother and her son to him. Now that’s a
Jeremy Kyle episode right there). Which means having Dave produce another
vision
Which means booze and trying to get past Dave’s own
reluctance. He has a vision of seeing Charlotte – and a key to Charlotte’s “go-bag”
with her notes: but Croatoan also said Dave’s name and knows he’s watching.
Vince and Nathan want to talk to the dead Charlotte in
case she has anything more useful to tell them (and dramatic death scenes never
tell you all you need to know – the Grim Reaper times his scythe for dramatic flourish).
Thankfully death is a mere inconvenience and the Troubled Card Reader Lainy has
a sister, Ona, who can speak to the dead.
Nathan goes to see her – and she fails to contact
Charlotte. But he does meet Herb, Lainy’s dead husband (I would call
shenanigans on Nathan seeing a guy with a scar on his arm and saying “ZOMG DEAD
PERSON!” but this is Haven). Looks like Ona actually has a Resurrection Trouble
and is surrounded by a little group of dead friends.
Dwight is super-eager to bring Charlotte back while
Audrey sensibly thinks that every Trouble has a downside… so where’s the catch.
Especially since it’s a new Trouble and who knows what the downside will be?
Nathan sides with Dwight – they have to take the risk. So unwise plan it is.
Audrey also has Nathan hide the aether from everyone, including her, since
Croatoan is after it
Dwight goes to get Charlotte’s body after a nice moment
with Gloria (who I awesome). They bring her to Ona – and resurrection happens.
Charlotte has gaps in hr memory and Ona urges patience.
That fragmentary memory has sent Charlotte on the run,
possibly thinking Audrey killed her. Dwight rages
Audrey decides the best way to fix this is to go get some
more magical Troubled Tarot readings (worst idea ever! Where’s the upside?!)
Only she finds Herb eating Lainy – yup, we have ourselves a raging zombie
trouble! And bullets don’t kill him!
The Walking Dead comes
to Haven. Zombies are in. And all the other people Ona have resurrected have
also gone wandering. According to the notes Nathan has from the Crocker family
notes, the zombies get hungry when they learn how they died. And then they eat
the people closest to them
Unfortunately Charlotte is currently with Dwight who is
trying to get her to remember.
Nathan tells Dwight the sad truth – but that they still
kind of need Charlotte to remember if they want to make the new Barn and cure
the Troubles. Dwight is not a happy bunny about this since that means bringing
her to zombiehood (he is still clinging to the idea he can keep her human).
Which is when they have to barricade the police station
Night of the Walking Dead style because legions of resurrected zombies are
hammering on door trying to get to Lainy. Charlotte comforts her and tries to
tell her she did the right thing in creating a low budget horror movie.
To save them all Audrey wants to do her standard Trouble
solving thing – talk to Ona, let her connect to whatever inner issue is making
her Sad Panda and make it all go away (until she has another bad moment and
relapses, but that never seems to happen on Haven
– you have an issue, Audrey speaks to you and any mental, emotional or
personality ish that was troubling you goes away). Dwight objects because this
will make Charlotte vanish before she has chance to eat his face. Nathan agrees
Charlotte who has the veto says she’d quite like to
disappear before eating people’s faces/having her face eaten, thanks very much.
Ona just can’t accept her beloved Herb is actually dead
and would rather keep him around chewing on faces (which will make the next
Holiday Dinner hellishly awkward. Does one serve cranberry sauce or apple sauce
with faces?). Charlotte gets through to her, the zombies drop and Charlotte
gets extra time because PLOT REASONS, and to make a real goodbye (and tell
Audrey stuff about her evil dad).
She also tells Nathan the next piece for the barn is the
get a controller crystal from the void – which means they need a Thinny – from outside
Haven which they can’t leave
She then gets chance for a happy goodbye with Dwight and
eats his face dies. Also she tells them how she died
Meanwhile Vince and Dave go hunting Croatoan (this seems
silly but Dave’s reasoning makes sense –he thinks Croatoan is hunting him and
doesn’t want to cower in fear always waiting – but going alone makes less sense
unless Vince has hidden super powers). I do like these two (and kind of think
they were wasted)
They find Charlotte’s bag in their office which confuses
them – until Dwight, Nathan and Audrey arrive to say Croatoan didn’t kill Charlotte
and take her bag. Dave did.
DUM DUM DUM!
Outside of Haven, Duke is having an exposition fest with
a mysterious guy who seems to know everyone. He describes the Roanoke colony
(that vanished) as cursed – Troubled. All of them together attracted Croatoan –
he couldn’t escape the void then so he created the first Crocker, turning Duke’s
many times Powhatan Ancestor into a Trouble Collector who was then to slaughter
everyone in the settlement.
He then touches Duke’s forehead and in a flash of light
shows Duke a vision of Haven, helmet crabs and
Vicki, telling him everyone is dead. Except Vince who is blind and tells
Duke that Croatoan has won, everyone is dead ever since Nathan went into the
void.
He finds a bleeding tree – touches it and goes all Black
eyed. Then kills himself – his body tells him he’s the “fulcrum” who will
either kill everyone or save them all. Duke then wakes up and then
Duke and Seth continue on their mystery tour – and Duke
wants to go alone back to Haven
Am I really cynical for thinking that this Trouble is a
convenient way to cash in on the current zombie craze? That’s one of the advantages
of Troubles – you can tap into anything. But on the whole I found it a little
dull – with zombie saturation all around, these zombies were just too low key,
low drama and generally felt very unnecessary.
Really, all the pertinent elements of this episode could
have been covered by just having Charlotte leave a detailed notebook or linger
a little in a hospital bed before kicking the bucket. Instead it was just a
whole “yo, zombies!”
I also find Duke’s whole vision quest nonsense extremely
annoying. He needed to go through all this to decide he was needed to help
Haven? You mean he couldn’t have figured this out before? He couldn’t have
realised as the only one immune to the Troubles he couldn’t have helped? He had
to come out of town and have a bad trip before realising this – everyone else
is fighting and dying but he has to go baby his manpain on a Road Trip first?
Think of the last few episodes – how much easier they would have been if they’d
had Duke around to help?
See, this is why I don't like Manpain, because it allows a level of self-absorbed wailing that other characters would rarely, if ever, be allowed to get away with.
