The Breakdown

Okay okay we’re back in Haven land now.  It’s been a couple of weeks so just remember that we left off with a heart-eating rougarou coming after Jennifer but since she was holding the book when it touched her, it evaporated or disappeared or something.

This episode starts out with random people dropping dead after hearing some strange sound.  The people they are with do not hear the sound.

When the Bough Breaks

The gang (Audrey, Jennifer, Duke, Nathan) is discussing the book and what it means, figuring it’s some other worldly instruction manual to help them deal with William.  Officer Stan and others are outside policing and watching for William in order to keep Jennifer safe.  Since Jennifer can summon the door between worlds, Duke calls her “Obi-Wan” (she’s the only one who can do it).  They decide Jennifer is the only one who can banish William from this world.  Jennifer opens the book, “Unstake My Heart”, and reads the first glowing passage that only she can see.  It says, “Find the heart of Haven”.  That’s the first riddle they need to solve.  Of course, right then, they get the call (the text rather) about the random people dropping dead so they need to go solve that mystery, figuring it has something to do with William.  Nathan and Audrey (or Nadrey or Authan..Maybe that won’t work with this couple) go off to do their cop thing while Duke and Jennifer continue trying to figure out the book mystery.  Jennifer says the guard symbol is fading in and out and it reminds Duke that he knows someone with a tattoo that does the same thing.

Audrey and Nathan investigate at the crime scene and William shows up.  He claims he healed Audrey and himself.  He says he sort of killed the three people and that the bodies will start stacking up.  Nathan wants to arrest him for the admission of guilt but William says people will keep dying if he does.  He tells Audrey to follow him alone and he will show her how to solve the current Trouble that killed the three people.  Of course Nathan is not happy about this but what choice does he have?

At the Haven Herald, Jennifer, Duke, Dave, and Vince continue putting their heads together.  Duke points out that Vince’s tattoo fades in and out just like the one in the book.  Vince says he normally can control when his symbol fades in and out but lately it has been doing that on its own.  Dave and he have a little spat.  He didn’t tell Dave about what’s been happening with the tattoo lately and Dave didn’t tell Vince he ate the last of the marmalade the night before (Brothers!).  Vince holds up his arm and Jennifer sees that his tattoo and the symbol on the book are fading in and out in sync.

When the Bough Breaks

Audrey learns from William that she (the real her) caused the Trouble and he just tweaked it.  He goes on to tell her that her usual Audrey tricks won’t work and she will have to give someone a new Trouble to fix the current one.  He believes that when she does this, she will remember who she really is.  He tells her they used to give people complimentary Troubles to see how they interact (like Nathan who can’t feel and Jordan whose touch gives pure pain).  So in this case she will have to give a silence Trouble to cancel out this sound Trouble.  He points her toward a couple with a baby.  The woman picks up the baby and Audrey sees that hand print Trouble mark on the baby’s back.  The baby starts crying and William points to someone who falls out at the sound of it.  He says Audrey was always clever with giving Troubles, “baby cries, someone dies”.  Wow.

Audrey doesn’t want to give anyone a Trouble so she seeks to find another way.  She and Nathan question Ben Harker, the father of the baby, Aaron.  He is aware of the curse but says it doesn’t usually start until puberty.  Audrey figures William triggered it early in the baby.   Ben says he hasn’t cried since he was 11.  The Harker’s have taught each other throughout the generations not to cry but Aaron is only 4 months old.  Audrey questions been hard, pushing him trying to find out a way to help.  Upsettingly he tells her he had an Uncle with Down Syndrome and since they couldn’t teach him not to cry before puberty, they cut his vocal chords.  Nathan pulls Audrey aside and asks what’s going on, wondering why she is acting such a way.  She tells him that whoever she used to be, loved William and they started the Troubles together.  She tells how William said about if she gives a Trouble she will remember who she is.  He tries to reassure her that she is Audrey Parker and she doesn’t give people Troubles, she saves them.

Vince is explaining to Duke and Jennifer that the first born in his family has always had that mark back to the founding of Haven.  He says it’s a birthmark and a birth right.  It designates him protector of Troubled people (which is why he leads the Guard).  He still doesn’t know what “the heart of Haven” means but starts to suspect maybe it is him.  Jennifer asks what mark does the second-born get and Dave admits that he was adopted just like she was.

When the Bough Breaks

It turns out Gloria (the M.E.) is Ben’s step-mother.  She explains that she’s tried to figure this out for years because she didn’t want to teach Ben not to cry but they never found any patterns.  She says it was so bad at a point that hundreds died and the old Herald (in 1901) had to run a bogus story about Spanish Influenza.  It was only stopped because a Troubled person was killed and there is no chance Gloria’s is letting anyone hurt her Grandson.  Audrey holds the baby to see what would happen if he cried while she was holding him, since she is immune.  The baby starts to cry and his mom drops down.  Dang, that’s quite a blow.  Ben has to try harder than ever not to cry now that his wife is gone.  As her body is taken away, Nathan finds out another guy dropped from the baby’s cries.  Gloria insists to keep helping.  Her boyfriend walks up (I notice he is wearing a hearing aid, I’m getting inkling).  He says he will take care of the baby while Gloria does her thing.  Ben thinks they have 90 minutes before the baby wakes up.  Audrey goes to the Haven Herald to do more research.  Nathan goes to the crime scene of the other death to see if he can learn anything.  Gloria fears if they don’t figure out something soon there will be another plague like in 1901.

At the crime scene, William walks up to Nathan in his annoyingly cheerful way, as if people aren’t dying in droves because of him.  He even makes jokes.  He tells Nathan that this will all stop when Audrey makes the right decision.  The two face-off with a bunch of words.  William throws his connection to Audrey in Nathan’s face and Nathan vows he will break the connection and put William in the ground…and make it hurt.  William punches Nathan to prove a point.  Nathan feels the punches just like he would if they came from Audrey.

Duke tells Jennifer what’s going on with the current Trouble and she insists he go help.  Audrey is looking at an old article about the Spanish influenza and sees herself (her face anyway) in the photograph.  Audrey shows the photo/article to Duke and tells him she must have failed even back then to stop this curse.  He figures out that she and William created the Troubles and she admits to it.  She fills him in about the silence Trouble he wants her to give.  Duke tells her she can never do that because of how deep and strong the Troubles are.  He compares it to shoving a needle back in the vein.  The main question being whether or not Audrey can hold on to herself if she does it.  Nathan walks in (to the Herald) and tells her to do it.  This is because the last thing William said to him referenced that Audrey is stalling because she thinks doing this will change her.  Nathan tells her she is strong enough not to turn into whatever William wants.  Duke tells them he believes in her but if she turns into a female version of William, they are all screwed on a whole other level.

When the Bough Breaks

Audrey goes to find William at “their spot” on the hill.  She tells him she decided to kill the baby instead of give a trouble.  It throws him off guard for a second until he decides she is bluffing.  He tells her Aaron has 8 cousins under 10 and if she kills that baby, he will activate them all.  He says he loves her and has to corner her into making a trouble.  She agrees to give the trouble knowing he would activate all those kids.  He tells her giving a curse requires three things:  strong intent-what kind of curse she really wants to create; the person she chooses-what kind of person they are in their heart; and the charcoal looking marble thing he used to turn all her friend against each other a few episodes ago (in William).  She threatens to punch him if he comes with her, saying it will be worth getting her own black eye.

Audrey, Nathan, and Duke try to come up with a plan of the type of Trouble to create.   Duke brings up how Nathan wasn’t the most emotional expressed kid in school and now his Trouble makes him numb.  Nathan yells back that Duke was a sponge.  Breaking up the argument, Audrey tries to figure out what personality or type of person should get a silence Trouble.  She thinks maybe a Mute person until she looks up at Gloria’s boyfriend who can barely hear.  Gloria protests but her boyfriend seems open to the idea when Audrey explains the idea to them.

Meanwhile, Jennifer walks to the table where the Teagues are playing checkers and when she brings the book near Vince’s arm, his birth mark starts rotating.  They figure out that it’s pointing toward the lighthouse and think maybe that is the heart of Haven.

Audrey turns her hand black with that black goo thing and puts the Trouble mark on Gloria’s Boyfriend.  Briefly it looks like something comes over Audrey; a dark feeling perhaps; recognition?  Suddenly sound is amplified and hurting everyone’s ears.  The baby wakes up and cries loud and a lot so Audrey takes the baby out of the room with Ben.  Audrey gets a text about five more bodies dropping.  William walks up.  He asks Audrey her name and is unpleasantly surprised when she still says Audrey Parker.  He truly expected her to be changed and remember her original self.  He asks if it felt great.  She says all she felt was bad about giving a Trouble.  She explains to him that the Trouble she gave went wrong, but he is excited about her actually giving a Trouble.   He gives her another box with 6 of the black goo balls.  He says creating a Trouble is more of an art than a science, which is why they liked doing it so much.  He tells her to try again.  Duke, always the perceptive one, walks up and confronts Audrey, forcing her to admit she felt her original self and liked it. She admits that it was terrifying, that it felt like a jolt of evil hit her when she touched Gloria’s boyfriend and she thinks part of her did like it.  Duke is concerned that the temptation will be too great if she keeps going.  Ben tells them he knows about the Crocker curse and asks for Duke to end the Trouble through him.   Duke agrees and when Ben walks away Audrey argues with him, realizing he wants her to give him a curse again.  He reasonably tells her she knows him and his curse already but with other people it would just be guessing and she can’t keep troubling people hoping to get it right.  It’s either curse him or kill the baby (those are some harsh terms…sheesh!).

The Teagues and Jennifer go to the lighthouse.  While the boys argue about how to go up, Jennifer sees a trap door that goes down that nobody else can see.  They go down and find a large guard symbol on the ground in a cave like setting.  Jennifer reads from the book that they need four people to summon the door, one for each spot.

Gloria begs Audrey to find another way and doesn’t understand why she has solved so many Troubles but cannot solve this one.  She begs Ben not to go through with this as well.  Duke tells Jennifer the plan and she asks why he has to be the hero this time.  He explains that he’s not a wildcard like Gloria’s boyfriend.  That the Crocker you see is the Crocker you get.  She tries to talk him out of it but it doesn’t work.  She gets upset and walks away.

Nathan, Ben, a tearful Gloria, and an upset Jennifer watch as Audrey crushes a black goo ball that blackens her hand.  A very emotional few seconds pass as she slowly reaches out to put the mark on Duke’s chest.  And we all will find out what happens next week during the season finale (don’t you hate that)!

My Analysis

What a warped mind it takes to make such a Trouble…..a baby cries and people die.  Yikes!  William seems to enjoy loving toying with people’s lives just as much as he claims to love Audrey.  I can’t wait to see what kind of warped person she was.  We’re finally getting to know more about the Teagues and their tie to Haven and it’s about freaking time.  I do wonder if Dave’s adoption will hold any significance though.

Haven – Syfy Channel on Fridays, 10PM EST; 9PM CST

After this episode, some of the cast and crew did a live stream.  Click the Play button below to see them answer questions and show some of their goofy sides.  I’m thinking some alcohol may have been involved, but that’s just me..hehe.

[fresh_video url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHtBGxYN8qU&feature=share”]