After ten weeks of two-part episodes, the gods (or whatever the supreme being equivalents are in Haven which is something they’ve never really gotten too far into) of Haven have graced us with a “one-part” episode that, while part of the overall story arc of the season, wraps itself up in one lovely self-contained sixty-minute portion. Trust me, Reflections is a lot better because of it.

Going back to the one-episode per story format was a good call with this week’s Trouble of the Week. From the moment that the diner owner was outed as bigoted against the Troubled, it was painfully obvious that her daughter was going to be Troubled. It gave the episode something of an after-school special feel as it gave the episode a bit of a deeper meaning, even if it wasn’t particularly impactful with its execution because the focus of that life lesson was a one-off character.

The real focus of Trouble of the Week was to further Dr. Charlotte’s story. While Vince is trying to get everyone to stop trusting her because she’s not from the CDC, it’s falling on Dwight’s deaf ears. And while Nathan is listening, all he’s doing is taking some of Charlotte’s hair to DNA test. Then he goes all hypocritical when he sends Audrey to Charlotte for medical care after she keeps on coughing despite the Trouble infection from the last two weeks disappearing.

And while she’s busy trying to learn about the Troubles in a lab, Charlotte is busy learning about the Troubles in practice. One of the things that keeps Doctor Who fresh is the ability to refresh the show with a fresh perspective from a new companion. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that bringing in a fresh perspective from outside Haven’s inner circle has livened up the writing of the show. Much like Mara’s been one of my favourite characters this season, Charlotte’s introduction has breathed new life in this show.

The real interesting part of this episode from an ongoing story perspective is the very end of the episode. So Charlotte wants more aether and she also has a folder full of pictures and info about Audrey’s past incarnations. Clearly she isn’t who she says she is. I’m not at the point where I assume that she’s evil because she’s not done anything evil yet. Unless she breaks Dwight’s heart. Then I’ll be pissed.

This week’s B-story was the continuing adventures of Mara and Duke. For some reason, they’ve run off to a cabin on the water, in perpetual fog and shot from a camera that’s had the lens smeared in Vaseline or some such that gives it some unnatural distortion.

The crux of the B-story was whether Duke could trust Mara and whether she was only looking our for herself or would she actually help him with his Troubles. They teased her turning heel a couple of times with her escaping when Duke was sleeping and hinting that her wanting the aether to help Duke fix his overflowing Trouble was a cover for opening a thinny and executing her original plan.

However, swerve, it turns out that Mara is a better Audrey than Audrey is right now. She actually helps Duke release a Trouble without hurting other people and doesn’t abandon him when he’s about to roast them alive. In fact, she’s able to pull an Audrey and talk him down from roasting himself to death with his released Trouble. And then you get the (literally) steamy make out session and PG love scene to close out their plot which also confirmed their coupling.

The question is still whether Mara can be trusted. Duke does and everyone else doesn’t despite the fact that she might be one of the few people left in Haven that is both competent and trustworthy. I’m not sure whether I like a white hat Mara as much as I liked black hat Mara but you’ve probably realized that I’m a fairly odd person so me liking villains is par for the course. It’s going to take me a bit to warm up to new Mara, even if she’s cementing herself as better than Audrey in almost every way now.

On a side note (separate of the random points of note), William is going to be awfully angry when he gets back from the other side, assuming he comes back from the other side. Writing future episodes in my head, there’s a big opening for angry William, a William we haven’t seen before, paying Duke a visit for stealing his woman. Of course, that’s working under the assumption that Mara won’t pull a double-cross. Either way, we have a future plot point for the Mara/Duke (Muke?) relationship.

Overall, I didn’t mind this episode. It wasn’t the best episode that we’ve had in the history of Haven but it was far from the worst that we’ve had this season though. I’d beg it at just marginally better than last week’s Morbidity because all the various subplots came together in a logical and cohesive narrative. When everyone is trying to tell various parts of the same story, those parts have to come back together to form the same whole. That was missing last week but fortunately here this week.

Other random points of note:

• I love that a couple of characters can have a same-sex relationship and it’s just steady as she goes. No one bats an eye. It’s just a matter of fact for everyday life. If only the rest of society can get to the point where it’s just normal.
• I know that there are all sorts of theories about what Dr. Charlotte really is but we can basically confirm that she’s the only one in the town of Haven that has any scientific inclination. I think that earns her a bit of slack from the citizens.
• If everyone suspected Duke killed Dr. Whats-his-face from last week, why did they just let him walking into the police station and back out again? Here’s a murder suspect. Let’s just let him go about his business. Did he Jedi mind trick them?
• Gloria was in the episode for all of one or two lines and it was magic. A little crack about Dr. Charlotte being too thin shouldn’t have been as fun as it was. Jayne Eastwood should win some sort of Canadian TV award for this.

Next week, it finally happens! Edge is joined by the man that he won seven World Tag Team Championships, two Pro Wrestling Illustrated Match of the Year awards and one Wrestling Observer best tag team award with. Christian makes his way to Haven and he’s teaming up with Edge once again. The two real-life best friends will test each other’s acting ability by playing on-screen best friends. And some other stuff happens but Syfy didn’t tease that because the episode trailer ran at 7:59 when everyone was tuning in for SmackDown so they just focused on a legendary tag team getting back together. Well, it got my attention.

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