Contributor: J.M.
Written by Brian Millikin and Shernold Edwards
Directed by Steven A. Adelson
After an action-packed and answer-filled episode, things quiet down for Audrey and the gang, with the focus on the quickly degrading mental and emotional state of Audrey in light of her impending disappearance. Intercut with the main plot are flashbacks from the previous day as the gang attempts to determine the identity of the Skinwalker.
The focus of this episode is Audrey Parker, plain and simple. Her mental and emotional states are all exposed through the Trouble-fueled isolation, and it’s pretty clear that Audrey is not OK. She’s somewhat justifiably paranoid, given the fact that the Skinwalker could be anyone; but beyond that she cannot figure out what to do about her impending disappearance and ‘death’ at the hands of the barn. Throughout the episode, she experiences many alternatives by and through the amnesiac, waking coma patient Will Brady. Her struggle between her desire to flee the barn for selfish reasons wars with her compassion for the Troubled and the willingness to sacrifice herself so that they can once again be normal is all over the screen. Compounding this emotional turmoil are her romantic attachments to both Duke and Nate and her struggle to express her feelings.
The plot is relatively disjointed, mirroring Audrey and her occasional paranoid overreactions to the perceived threat of the Skinwalker. The flashbacks were a bit of an odd narrative choice, as they tended to tell a different story rather than a parallel one thematically connected to the main plotline. They don’t appreciably harm the episode; it just seems an odd choice intended to allow the writers to tell both stories at the same time rather than just move from point A to point B. But the story of Brady and his growing friendship with Audrey over the course of the episode was quite an unexpected highlight. Nolan North did a great job portraying a confused but good-hearted man who struggled with his own condition and, when push came to shove, was willing to sacrifice himself naturally so that Haven could be saved. Credit to everyone involved for making this storyline much more emotional and well done than could have been otherwise.
Ultimately, events from the episode united again in a disjointed fashion to the big reveal that Claire was the Skinwalker. This was a little confusing, and depending on the actual conclusion could lead to a disappointing head-fake on behalf of the writers. The scene where Audrey interrogates Claire seemed to establish pretty clearly that she was at least the same person since she had arrived in Haven. There are two alternatives: the first and easiest is that the Skinwalker killed Claire between their interrogation and the ending scene; the second and the one that I think is the most intriguing is the possibility that there are two Skinwalkers. One was the man we eventually got to know as Tommy Bowen, while the second was Claire. This would allow everything we saw to be true, and give us some very creepy implications for their actions over the course of the season. The only disappointing aspect is how occasionally comical the Skinwalker(s) behavior could be. For creatures who are supposed to be able to seamlessly impersonate people, they sure did not do a good job of hiding their more personal traits.
Score: 8/10