Moment of Goodness: Audrey Remembers in Haven “Enter Sandman” 

[Warning: Spoilers for the episode.]

“I’m keeping her.” With those words, the soft-spoken but seriously unhinged Henry (aka Sandman, played by Rossif Sutherland), threatened to take Haven somewhere very, very dark. I’m already on record with how I feel about hijacking Audrey’s body and mind, so that little nudge right of the gate made me queasy.

Thankfully, although we do have to watch Henry exterminate people who figure out the ruse. Audrey and Charlotte get out alive as Charlotte, within the dreamscape, and Nathan, outside it back in Haven, work together to remind Audrey who she is. Nathan sits by her side, holding her hand, and talking to her, “I’m going to stay right here. I’m going to keep talking to you about our awesome life here. Bit of a disaster movie except it’s real, but it’s OK because you and me, we’re the heroes.”

Charlotte tries to shake off the effects of entering Henry’s mind to remember why she’s there and Henry helps that along when he kills Grayson in front of them. Later, Nathan tells her how to reach Henry–to talk to him about his accident as a boy. And then we get a fantastic, teeny, tiny montage of magical moments from Audrey and Nathan’s romance, back to those early, goofy awkward interactions and Audrey’s first cheek kiss that clues Nathan in when he can feel her. Also in there we had the great kiss from “Business as Usual,” when she leaves him briefly and reassures him she’ll be back, and she was, but it was different.

“Nathan.” Finally, she remembers that she loves him and not Henry.

Looking back through those scenes, my heart hurt a little bit because I feel like we lost the thread of that romance somewhere along the way, and while it’s lovely to get it back before we bid them all farewell, I still wish we hadn’t gone around the world to in the process. Especially with multiple psychological/spiritual/physical/emotional kidnappings in the mix. Those took it too far for me. There’s heightened tension and then there’s just cruelty.

When Audrey escapes Henry’s mindscape after forcing him to accept he can’t have his perfect self and his perfect life, and wakes up to Nathan, she tells him she got out because he never let her go. I think that’s probably the key as the series comes to a close–they’re finally together, despite all odds, and that’s something that Nathan tells her while she’s locked away with Henry–they have survived so much. They’ve earned this now.

“Enter Sandman” was Lucas Bryant’s directorial debut, of a script by Shernold Edwards, and it was a lovely episode for him to helm as he captured an idyllic, light, un-Troubled, and dare I say, bubbly Audrey in an equally idyllic landscape, juxtaposed against the darkness in the school back in Haven, and in Halifax, where Duke is desperately trying to remind Seth who he is. We also have the darkness looming in the close quarters conversations between Dwight and Henry as an exasperated Dwight realizes how dangerous Henry is, and grows increasingly frustrated that he can’t lay hands on him no matter how much he wants to.

The light and dark were actually on the screen, setting the tone of the new normal in Haven–which Charlotte describes for Henry when she baits him–their current situation is bleak, and what he has to offer is so much better. Henry’s paradise is, albeit temporarily, a light that they haven’t been able to find in reality, and yet his paradise is the darkest of all. The scene on the bluff as Audrey stands bathed in sunlight, which Bryant chatted with me about, captured the brightest moment before Henry’s world literally crumbled.

Knowing how much love and care went into the episode, for everyone involved, made it a joy to watch on a technical level, because they were all so proud of Bryant, and everybody onscreen brought their best performances to it.

The episode closes with a reconciled Charlotte and Audrey pledging to wipe out The Troubles. Only nine episodes left.

Haven airs at 10/9c Thursdays on Syfy. “Enter Sandman” airs again at midnight/11c and repeats during the week. It will be online at syfy.com Friday.