Haven “Fallout” 

When we left off last season, I was dead set against resuming the story with barn-induced amnesia. It was one of my least favorite things about season two when alterna-Audrey was left not knowing who she was. So, I had dim hopes when Syfy starting teasing Audrey as Lexie. I think if we’d had that without Colin Ferguson in her arc, I’d have been really pissed. Since it opened the door for Ferguson to come play, I can get down with it. And so we begin season four of Haven with “Fallout.”

Duke is still inside the barn o’light but he’s yelling for Audrey and she’s nowhere. Then the white walls start to disintegrate into black holes and he’s sucked out and reappears inside an aquarium in Boston alongside the fishies. He’s hauled out by the police yelling about Haven and Audrey and we see a young woman watching his arrest on television and as soon as she hears what he’s saying, she bolts her apartment.

Duke’s on a 5150 in the hospital trying to explain to an unhappy detective what’s going on, and finds out six months have passed. The detective shows him all the fake IDs he had on his person and says as soon as the psych hold is done, he’s going to be arrested and he should have stayed in Haven.

The nurse comes in and tells him his sister, Audrey, is there to see him and he’s thrilled for about half a minute until a gal who’s definitely not Audrey pops in. Duke demands an explanation and she tells him that she’s Jennifer and her life was turned upside down six months prior when she suddenly started hearing voices–his, Nathan’s, Audrey’s, Agent Howard’s–lost her job, and then was medicated for schizophrenia.

He tells her she has to come back to Haven and she’s not buying into that since she just met him, but Duke being Duke, she’s talked into it and helps him get out. He calls the Teagues to find out why Nathan’s not answering his phone and Haven PD says he’s not there anymore. Dave tells him he’s changed and where to find him and that takes him and Jennifer to a biker bar where Nathan’s taking punches for cash. Duke sneaks up on with a $20 outstretched and when Nathan turns to see Duke he pulls him into a massive bear hug.

Back in Haven, a freak storm has shattered a bookstore and the Teagues are fighting, per usual, when the new Chief rolls up and it’s Dwight! They all chat about what excuse to make this time and “gas leak” is raised and shot down.

Back at the biker bar, Nathan has cleaned himself up and Duke drives them back to Haven while Nathan quizzed Jennifer (offscreen) on what she remembers. Once back in town, they’re met by the Guard and a super pissed off Jordan, wielding a huge shotgun. Turns out Nathan fled Haven because he was marked by the Guard when his shooting of Agent Howard kept the Troubles from retreating (that’s the theory anyway). Nathan tells them he’s back because if he finds Audrey and she kills him (as her own true love), the Troubles will subside forever.

The Teagues and Dwight arrive and plead for cooler heads to prevail, and the Guard retreats only to be replaced by a freak twister that wreaks havoc but then disappears before it touches down. The group reconvenes at the station (Duke, meanwhile, has been semi-narrating for Jennifer the WTH-ness of it all) and Nathan realizes all the freak storms are one Trouble–Marion Caldwell from the pilot. Somewhere in there Duke, challenges Nathan on the idea that Nathan may not be Audrey’s one true love and suicide is a capital bad idea, but Nathan is sure that he is. (See our interviews with Eric Balfour and Lucas Bryant for more on that).

Duke sends Jennifer to the Gull to keep safe and the boys go see Marion. Once inside her house, they find everything iced over. Nathan sends Dwight and Duke outside and rouses an unconscious Marion, who is livid when she sees Nathan. She tells him how disappointed they all were that their Troubles remained. He apologizes, and tells her she can’t keep hurting people. She doesn’t realize she’s been doing that outside the walls of her house, and Nathan gets it out of her that Conrad just died (he’s still seated in an adjacent chair).

He talks Marion down that Conrad wouldn’t want this. She slowly hears him and stops everything swirling outside. He walks her out where Dwight, Duke, and the Teagues wait. Dwight asks Nathan to stay on as a detective to help him manage the Troubles and take advantage of his resources at the department to locate Audrey, and Nathan agrees–just until they find her.

Elsewhere in the episode, we find Audrey. Sort of. We pick up at a dive bar where a frat boy cheekily requests a “screaming orgasm” because Lexie made it for him. The bartender turns to the a gal waiting tables to confirm that, and when she turns around, she’s Audrey, but with brown streaks in her (much longer) hair, a nose ring, tank top, and sassy demeanor.

In the course of her few scenes, we learn she arrived a month ago, never tended bar before and thought it would be fun, and she just wants to meet the right guy. That guy may be William (Colin Ferguson–again, completely misty at seeing him), who wanders into the bar and makes small talk and meaningfully locks eyes with Lexie a few times. He defends her when another patron pulls a gun, and then he tells her she’s not who she thinks she is, and the guy with the gun was there to stop him from telling her the truth. She tells him that’s super creepy but he’s not deterred.

Back in Haven, Duke finally makes it home to the Gull (in his Jeep!) and finds it packed. Jennifer stands up to greet him and tells him it’s great his brother owns a bar. Duke tuns to find Christian Crocker, whom we’ve not previously met, and the two exchange an awkward hug. This should be interesting.

And those are our puzzle pieces as we kick off this season.

I LOVE that we’re back and that it was a “gang’s all here” affair.

I DON’T LOVE that it’s apparently going to take a while to get Nathan and Audrey in the same city/room.  Good for Emily Rose, though, that she’ll get to go balls out for handful of episodes.

I’m fine that Duke wants to challenge Nathan on OTL because I think he’s wrong, and I know as a viewer that neither of the boys is going to be a sacrificial lamb, so if I had to lay odds now, I’m going to guess it’s William, and it’s taken him a few cycles of re-Audreying to finally catch up with her. And that’s OK with me. [I have no spoilers–that’s just me spitballing from the premiere]. I look at it as a Klaus/Caroline thing–William may have been Audrey’s first love, but Nathan will be her last. We’ll see if I’m right.

I really like the idea of Nathan and Duke putting a fork in their rivalry for the greater good.

I’m curious to see how Jordan fits here. She calls Vince on still carrying a torch for Sarah, and even hilariously tells him that she really doesn’t get Audrey’s appeal for Duke, Nathan, and him. We do learn from Dave that Nathan saved her life, though. After she was shot outside the barn, he got her to the hospital and told doctors about her Trouble, so she does owe him.

We don’t know much about Jennifer yet, but I like that she’s a mechanism for Duke to explain to new audience members what it all means.  And she’s potentially someone for Duke in all this.

Welcome back! Haven airs Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy.