I should have known the Darkside Seekers would be Duke’s last ditch effort when it came to solving the puzzle of Nathan’s … spirituality. Unfortunately, it was just Seth who arrived in town during Thursday’s episode, “Exposure” (no Anderson meant no possible Masterson family reunion) to communicate with Nathan and possibly cure what ailed him.

“I take it from your desperate phone call and baffled expressions that you are are in dire straits,” Seth began. “Fear not. The calvary has arrived.” He quickly explained that Anderson wasn’t there because of he’d become rich and moved on before the trio got down to business.

How far would you go to be reunited with the person you love? We’ve seen just how far Nathan will go, and “Exposure,” echoed his journey through Morgan, the dead guy who was supposedly helping Nathan get them back to the land of the living. I say supposedly, because Morgan had no interest in actually returning because it meant his cancer would consume his body again. So desperate to keep this from happening, Morgan killed Glenn and was focused on doing the same to Nathan. I definitely felt for the guy. Another sharp-eyed reviewer supposed that Amy, the woman taking pictures at the market, was not only behind the Trouble affecting these folks but was Morgan’s wife. That proved to be true on Thursday–the original Trouble had evolved from affecting an artist and his painting to photography–and Amy took a picture of Audrey so she could go in and help save Nathan.

“Why do you get to be with the one you love?!” Morgan screamed as his plan to reunite with Amy went downhill. It’s a fair point, and drove home to Nathan just how single-minded (and selfish) he’s been all along when it comes to Audrey.

Duke and Mara, meanwhile, had a drunken heart-to-heart discussion about the former’s memories of his mother so that the latter would reveal her take on the photography Trouble. And while I appreciated the writers giving us insight into Duke’s upbringing–his mom was a deadbeat who only showed up to collect welfare cheques–I was disappointed more time wasn’t spent on him. Duke is a fascinating character with a pretty screwed-up family (remember his serial killer brother?), and we haven’t had a lot of background into what really makes him tick. We did discover that he had to fend for himself from a young age, but that was pretty much it. How did he get his boat? Where does he get his black market supplies from? Does he have cable TV? Questions I wish we had answers to.

Maybe we’ll get more information later this season. “Exposure” was jam-packed with other stuff after all, including Dave and Vince freaking because the secrets of Haven may come out. Sending off a sample of Dave’s leg wound to a lab for testing prefaced the arrival of  Centre for Disease Control’s Dr. Charlotte Cross (Laura Mendell), who showed at the Grey Gull to lurch the Troubles story in a new direction.

 Notes and quotes

• “Here we are. Miss Marvel, Dave Navarro and the token geek.”–Seth
• Is Duke letting Mara change her clothes or shower? Isn’t she getting kinda funky by this point?
• I’m not sure I like the implications of Duke subconsciously saving Mara for himself. Wasn’t he madly in love with Jennifer, like, two weeks ago?

Haven airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.

Audrey may be back, but her return didn’t come without its complications. Sure, Nathan may be thrilled to be rolling around in bed with his favourite gal, but his guts were telling him Audrey’s split with Mara came with a price: Audrey was no longer immune to Troubles.

That was the least of Nathan’s Ttroubles, as it turned out. The problem of the week, a case of three people disappearing in a flash of bright light and leaving a shadow of themselves cast on a wall or floor, ended up happening to Nathan. The title of the episode, “Nowhere Man,” suddenly made sense. (I’d initially thought the instalment was going to be a Dwight back story, but no.) Nathan was trapped in some in-between world, still able to hear Audrey asking for him on the phone but her unable to hear his answers. And when he tried to touch the phone? His hand slipped right through it like he was a ghost.

“It’s Haven. It could be anything,” Nathan said in an effort to calm his nerves after Officer Rebecca entered his office and walked right through him. “What is this? What is this?!” What indeed? The negative of the situation was obvious, but it did have a few perks. Nathan was able to overhear members of the Guard discussing how they’d take care of Audrey as soon as she slipped up. Sadly, Nathan didn’t use his powers to prank anyone.

Despite a slightly disheveled dude named Glenn who could see and touch Nathan telling him they were both dead, I didn’t believe it. Sure, this is Haven and anything can happen, but making one of the three main characters dead didn’t make sense, even if Saving Hope has made a series out of it. Still, I did kind of wonder how long the story angle would go on, especially when Nathan was introduced to Morgan Gardener (Malcolm in the Middle‘s Christopher Masterson) at the cemetery. (Kudos to the Haven cast who had to ignore Lucas Bryant every time he spoke his lines. Not reacting to him must have been difficult to do. I try to ignore my cat all the time and it never works.)

Of course, the only living person who could see and hear Nathan was Mara, which not only confirmed Nathan’s suspicions that he wasn’t really dead but also compounded the problem. Now he had to work with her in an effort to shed the Trouble affecting him.

Alas, there were no answers by the end of the episode, just more questions. Nathan’s plan to have Morgan and Len help get them all back to the land of the living was thwarted when Nathan returned to the cemetery to discover Glenn dead–really and truly, it seemed–and Morgan missing. Was this the work of recently disappeared Guard member Reggie? We’ll find out next week.

• “Right. Because that’s going to make you smarter.”–Nathan watching Duke pour himself a drink
• Mitchell and the Guard are getting a tad stale. The tough looks, the bully posturing and the empty threats. I understand them being upset thinking Audrey was still Mara and their bud Reggie disappearing, but geez. Lighten up.
• Also, how much time passed each time Nathan had to get somewhere? Morgan said he’d be doing a lot of walking, so he had to hoof it everywhere he went. And yet he was never tired or sweaty. Guess that was a side advantage of the Trouble. No eating, sleeping aging … or sweating.
• Is Duke letting Mara pee?

Haven airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.

When we last left the fine folks of Haven–in last week’s “The Old Switcheroo”–Gloria and Dwight had switched bodies, as had Nathan and Duke and Dave and Vince; a situation that had everyone reeling. Nathan had just found out about Duke and Audrey smooching in Colorado, and was rightly POed. Problem was, the man responsible for the Trouble was on the run.

“The Old Switcheroo Too” picked up with Duke and Nathan (still “all Freaky Friday” as Duke/Nathan said) realizing that Mara had been playing the two by acting like Audrey had fought her way to the surface. That cagey chick. Again, I’m thrilled that the producers decided to lighten things up with this Trouble. It’s allowed all of the cast involved in the story to flex some comedic muscles. And while the Dwight/Gloria switch is the best ever, Nathan and Duke have been pretty fun too.

“Your whole body is numb!” Duke marvelled, slapping Nathan’s face repeatedly. “Yeah? I didn’t realize you went … commando,” Nathan grimly observed. (I’d love to know how many takes that scene took to film.) More seriously, though, Duke was getting ready to explode and needed to expel an old Trouble. The two came up with a novel idea: release a reincarnation Trouble that would bring Audrey out of Mara. It was at this point I got a little confused. Not with the idea, but the fact that I sometimes lose track of who’s really speaking. Regardless, the plan sounded good to me.

And the boys were right: Mara had been acting like Audrey as a ploy to escape. Problem was, Nathan was too weak to unleash the Trouble and things looked like they were headed back to same-old, same-old. When Duke said, “I’m sorry that we can’t all find TRUE LOVE like you, Nathan,” I almost slapped my forehead. If Nathan has to jump through this many hoops for true love, maybe he should give it up.

Vince and Dave attempted to right everything down in North Carolina, but the thinny was making it hard for them to reunite the Doohan brothers and reverse the Trouble. After a few tense seconds they managed to save each other from entering the portal and resolved never to go near it again. I have to assume that at some point a thinny will end up sucking in Dave. His “other side” and adoption background is revving up to be one heck of an intriguing story and I’m glad Haven‘s creative team have decided to give the Teagues’ some quality airtime. I was particularly excited about Dave/Vince’s vision of a man running through the forest and carving “Croatoan” into a tree before being touched by an unidentified hand that released black smoke from his eyes.

The Doohan brothers’ reunion reversed the body swap Trouble, opening the door for Duke to release a reincarnation Trouble to rid Audrey of Mara for the last time. Did it work? After a massive flash and sound blast, the answer came in the form of a nekkid Audrey arriving at The Gull. (As if Emily Rose didn’t have enough on her plate, twisting her face and adjusting her voice to play Mara, now it looks like she’ll be going full-Orphan Black by physically playing the two women.)

Meanwhile, the revelation that Dwight’s sister was killed when her Trouble activated in Cincinnati opens the door for his storyline to expand. That’s good news. Like Vince, Dave and Gloria, learning more about Dwight and the supporting citizens of Haven just adds to the show’s appeal.

Haven airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.

After a week away from new episodes of Haven, I was antsy to get to the latest in the Audrey-Mara-Nathan saga … and to see what the heck was hiding under Duke’s ball cap.

The first part of Thursday’s “The Old Switcheroo” delivered on both counts. Duke’s new ‘do is a tidy little swept back mane that really frames his face well. Yes, I am having a little bit of fun at Duke’s expense, but geez, I was wondering what was going on under there.

Meanwhile, the mystery with Vince and Dave continued, with the former investigating “Croatoan,” the word the latter had scratched onto a piece of paper. That led Vince to The Old Croatoan Cafe in Manteo, North Carolina, and I groaned. Would a real-life mystery I hoped would be explored within Haven’s mythology be relegated to a place you could grab a lobster roll and soup of the day?

The answer remains unanswered, though there are hints to a tie between members of the Doohan family and what they have to do with Dave. Things were waylaid a bit by the Trouble of the week, which saw Vince and Dave swap bodies and Gloria and Dwight do the same as both pairs shared secrets that made the Trouble manifest. Jayne Eastwood is hilarious as Haven’s coroner anyway, but it was great to see she and Adam “Edge” Copeland swapping bodies so he could mug for the camera for awhile. That darned Dwight has so many responsibilities that Copeland never gets to show the comic side WWE fans know him for (crotch grab, anyone?). Their back and forth about muscle size, going to the gym and taking on each other’s mannerisms–especially Copeland’s take on Gloria–was a welcome respite from the oh-so-serious stuff regarding Mara.

Speaking of Mara, the battle between she and Audrey is going into extra innings. Audrey bled through during the switcheroo investigation and pleaded with Nathan to keep addressing her as Audrey, something he’s more than willing to do. But it was Duke who had the special connection with Audrey (or was it Mara faking?) this episode, as the two recounted their kiss in Colorado and discussed who pulled away from who first. Unfortunately, that little secret between the two of them caused Nathan and Duke to swap places so Nate learned of the smooch. Not good.

Was Mara faking? Will the thinny claim Dave? Hopefully we’ll find out next week.

Haven airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.