Well, that lasted one whole week. The secret about Charlotte not being from the Center for Disease Control, I mean.

So, the big question at the end of Thursday’s new episode, “Mortality,” was: who the heck is Charlotte and who sent her to Haven? Of course, that question should be answered next week … unless Dave is unable to get cell service or drive back to Haven on his own.

Charlotte and Dwight spent a bunch of time together, mostly with him trying to convince her that a thing called the Troubles existed in Haven. She wasn’t buying it at first–she suspected Dwight had hired a sniper to shoot him at the same time she took target practice–but finally caved.

Other than that, “Mortality” didn’t have a ton of reveals. Audrey picked up a dose of the contagion, meaning she has some sort of Trouble after all, Pete was the one spreading the contagion amongst the Troubled folk (stress will do that to poor Pete), and a guy named Kirby was able to see how people will die and told Audrey he saw how she and her “twin” will meet their dual demise.

Duke appeared to be firmly in the “bad guy” camp with Mara after she brainwashed him into thinking the town hated him–he even unshackled and allowed her outside on an emergency run to the hospital to try and get to the bottom of the contagion conundrum–but was in his right mind by the time she killed Pete to stop the contagion. Mara re-attaching the handcuffs and telling Duke she wants to help him was either the biggest play this season’s villain has or she is genuinely softening towards the big lug. I’m hoping the former over the latter because I just don’t buy them as a couple.

Overall, not the best episode of Haven in my opinion but I view “Mortality” as more of a transition episode to bigger things to come.

Notes and quotes

• “Easy on the turns, Thelma.”–Mara
• I would like a Grey Gull baseball cap
• Stan is the slowest cop on the Haven force
• I’d love it if anything I touched turned to cake

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

If only Chris Brody had flown to Haven, perhaps the town wouldn’t be in the pickle it is now. Instead fans had to settle for Chris (Jason Priestley) and his charms via Skype as he attempted to stop Dr. Charlotte Ross from investigating the weird wound on Dave’s leg. Dave rightly supposed that once Charlotte laid eyes on Chris–and was affected by his charm Trouble–she would lay off her investigation of the town.

And it worked. For awhile. Unfortunately, a double Trouble (the ghost of a dead father in a bear suit and bubbly lip disease) revealed the Troubles to Charlotte and she called the CDC to order a big “Quarantine” sign plopped down over Haven. Duke–with some help from an electrical Trouble–took out the cell tower and ended her conversation, but I’m not sure that will stop her for long. Again, if only Chris was there to apply salve to the situation. She certainly won’t be trusting Dwight anytime soon. And that’s too bad, because I really liked the fact that he and Charlotte were bonding over lobster and their military backgrounds (she from the Navy and he an ex-Ranger). It was definitely taking away the sting of Dwight losing his sister to her Trouble in Cincinnati.

Getting back to Dave for a second; his latest dream had him looking through the eyes of someone at the site of the tree carved with Croatoan, surrounded by dead bodies and a black smoke (the aether?) beckoning to a thinny shimmering in front of that person’s eyes. Are these dreams from the other side, or are they placed in the present’s past? There weren’t any answers to that one, and I don’t suppose there will be any soon, seeing as the major storyline will be the outbreak and Charlotte for the immediate future.

Meanwhile, Mara used her feminine wiles–and I think her first shower in weeks–to woo Duke. Duke, who is always left just on the outside of Haven’s in-crowd, fell for Mara’s body and her mind games. By episode’s end he had sided with Mara, who described them both as outcasts that should be taking down Haven together. Duke’s sudden switch to the dark side was stunning but not unexpected. As several readers have hinted over the past few weeks, Duke may have separated Mara and Audrey with the intent on keeping Mara for himself. If that’s the case, joining her in the cause to fight back against Audrey, Nathan, Dwight et al. makes total sense. And they would be a powerful pair.

I think the citizens of Haven has better watch out. The disease outbreak and the CDC may be the very least of their Troubles.

Notes and quotes

• Why did everyone run when the bear took his head off to reveal a blasted-off head? This is Haven and weird stuff happens all the time. Maybe they were tourists.
• “It’s the locals. They get upset when we run out of lobster.”–Dwight, after Charlotte heard screams
• Kudos to Dwight for still being able to eat after Charlotte talked about oozing pustules
• “You’re on with each other. And yes, it’s weird.”–Duke to Audrey and Mara
• “What if my bears expose us all?” Only in Haven

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

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.