Haven – Episode 5 “Ball and Chain” – review

The devilishly delectable Eric Balfour, for his own wicked amusement, sought to mislead his fans about Duke’s fate in this episode.  He was coy in interviews, and evasive on his Twitter stream about just what was going to happen to everyone’s favorite smuggler.

So needless to say, I went into this episode full of anxiety.

Audrey and Duke make a date for him to cook for her, but Audrey bails (thanks to work) and Duke is left to himself.  Being Duke he doesn’t stay solo for long, finds himself a tasty treat named Helena, and, well, as he says to Nathan later on, “we didn’t spend the night talking.”

Sadly, for Duke this turns out to be a really bad idea, and we meet the newest Afflicted. Helena somehow drains the life force from men.  For what reason we don’t know (yet); how she does it seems pretty obvious, but where she’s hiding is less so.  While watching this episode, it’s important to remember the tattoo on the first victim’s arm–it comes up again later in the season.

This episode is a race against time as Duke ages, and they rush to find the source and a way to fix him.  I give my props to the make-up team for this episode, as I think they did a really good and believable job showing us what Duke will look like when he’s like 70.  He does start sporting the “Fu Manchu” mustache (and eyebrows), which isn’t that attractive, but certainly makes sense since I doubt Duke is stopping for a preening session.

This is possibly the first episode to have a Troubles issue that doesn’t really stem from a real world issue.  Depending on what you think “triggered” the power to begin with, anyway.  The explanation felt contrived; it seemed rather extraordinary that a person with Helena’s inherited power would experience just that right trigger.  It was also just this side of creeptastic.  Especially since she got it from her grandmother.

It’s important to note that the restaurant Duke “bought” last episode from Bill has been retrofitted, renamed and become a smash hit as the bar “The Grey Gull.”  It’s true, Duke does need a legitimate business…all the better to do shady dealings if he owns the place he does them at, right?

On a plus side, we do see who owns that Lighthouse shown in the credits!  Nathan and Duke have about as close to a personal talk as they’re likely to have, which includes death threats.  Their exchange, and later on when Nathan clearly wants to enter the Grey Gull, but hesitates when he sees Duke, makes me wonder at their previous relationship.  Were they friends and something went wrong?  Enemies from a young age?  I wouldn’t say they’ve grown closer, but there definitely seems to be a relaxing in their animosity.  Duke at least seems to want to put the past behind them, but Nathan…well, change is hard for Nathan, I think.

For the ongoing storyline about Audrey’s mother, we get very little once more.  Audrey broaches the subject with the Teague brothers (who own the newspaper and are huge gossip hounds), but they cry foul and she lets them go.  That is the sum total of the ongoing story developments.

For cutesy sake, we see Nathan gibbering over a baby in a clearly affectionate manner, which Audrey teases him about.  And my man Duke gets a shocker in the form of his own paternity issues, though whether or not what he says he’s serious about is up to anyone’s interpretation.