Did you know that despite the fact that the show is filmed in Nova Scotia and funded in part by a Canadian cable company and the Nova Scotian and Canadian governments, the fourth season of Haven won’t start airing in Canada until December? (Sunday, December 1st at 9 PM for those keeping score at home.) I’m not waiting that long. Since I’m watching the show early, I thought that I’d also review them.

Last Friday, Haven returned for its fourth season with many questions left unanswered from the third season finale. Fortunately, my questions have been answered in the season premiere with a few more asked for the next thirteen episodes.

Spoiler Alert: This review will contain spoilers for this episode of Haven. By the way, this is a blanket warning for the whole season, I won’t repeat this warning for the rest of my reviews for the season.

This week’s episode starts with Duke in The Barn as we pick up immediately after the closing credits of last season’s finale. The barn is falling apart around Duke and Audrey is nowhere to be found. Duke gets sucked out of the barn and ends up in an aquarium’s seal tank in Boston. It turns out that he had jumped in time and space which Duke speculates is how Audrey is able to jump 27 years without aging.

In Boston, Duke meets Jennifer, a woman who seems to be Troubled since she could hear conversations in The Barn. Duke sees her as the key to finding a still-missing Audrey. He would take he back to Haven but everyone thinks he died at The Barn six months ago. It turns out that the Troubles never went away and Nathan was distraught over losing Audrey so he quit the Haven PD and skipped town.

So Duke decides that he has to get back to Haven with Jennifer and Nathan to set things right. It turns out that The Guard aren’t too happy with Nathan for his part in the Troubles not going away and plan to kill him. That’s where our (okay, my) favourite recurring characters show up to intervene. The brothers Teagues and Dwight, who is the town’s new police chief in Nathan’s absence, keep Nathan from getting blown away by The Guard because Dwight needs all the help he can get dealing with the Troubles. (Apparently spears, DDTs and electric chair drops don’t work as well on Troubles as they do in title matches.)

While the episode doesn’t follow the traditional Trouble of the week format that we’re used to from Haven (which is to the episode’s benefit), there is Trouble with Troubles. In a call back to the series premiere, Marion is back causing trouble around town with her power to cause bad weather when she’s upset. Nathan is able to calm her down without Audrey’s help by finding a common connection over lost lovers (Audrey in the barn and Marion’s boyfriend to a heart attack). Yeah, the Trouble part of the episode was status quo for Haven.

The end of the episode saw Dwight let Nathan back on the Haven PD to help with the Troubles and give Nathan access to HPD tools to track down where Audrey may have ended up. Meanwhile, Duke went back to his bar only to find it packed. It turns out that his long-lost, though not missed, from the look on Duke’s face, brother was now operating The Grey Gull.

I’ve gone all this way without saying what Audrey’s up to but Emily Rose is in this episode. Now, Audrey isn’t an FBI agent but a bartender in Parts Unknown named Lexi. At the bar, she’s held at gunpoint by a rather violent looking man but is saved by another man named William (played by Canadian actor Colin Ferguson of Eureka and Tabletop fame). It turns out that William knows about Lexi’s past which she finds quite odd since they just met… And cut to credits.

While the Trouble of the week isn’t anything new and doesn’t really add anything to the episode, the rest was just fine. Sure, the soft focus on Emily Rose during the bar scenes was a bit annoying since it contrasted so strongly with how the rest of the show is shot. I wouldn’t have tried that just to make Audrey/Lexi’s appearance seem like it’s “normal” in the course of the world.

Apart from that, and the fact that Edge didn’t give a great performance this week, I liked this week’s episode. The Trouble-light format puts a focus on the characters and giving extra time to Duke and the Teagues certainly tends to work out well. I’ll withhold judgement on the Audrey/Lexi storyline until we find out what William is up to. I’m guessing that it’s nothing good.

Other random points of note:

• Boy, Nicole de Boer sure looks different without her Trill makeup. At least someone remembered that she player Marion in the series premiere. Good job by the casting department.
• Everyone’s name was in the opening credits for this episode rather than just the regular and recurring characters. Sadly, that doesn’t give me a barometer as to how much of Dwight and the Teagues we’ll see this season but it looks like a lot based on this episode. I’m okay with that.
• Speaking of Dwight, Edge is billed as “WWE Superstar Edge” with “Adam Copeland” on the next line down. Is Adam still Edge if he’s retired from professional wrestling?

Next week’s episode is called Survivors. Nathan, Duke, Jennifer and Dwight try to solve a Trouble that causes people to spontaneously combust and get burned to ash. Meanwhile William/Sheriff Jack Carter continues trying to Lexi/Audrey’s past to her and the preview makes it look like she doesn’t like what he has to say.