The Dark Man makes the light more than a little scary in the “Ain’t No Sunshine” episode of HAVEN. A nurse from the Hessberg Center is stabbed and killed by a shadow in the street and as Nathan and Audrey ask questions, some members of a grief therapy group run by Jess tell them about the Dark Man, whom they claim was responsible for the deaths of their cancer-stricken loved ones. When another person from the center is killed, Nathan and Audrey take the Dark Man seriously, especially after it stalks Audrey and the editors at the police station and attacks Jess. They learn that the cancer patients hadn’t been given their treatments, explaining the premature deaths, and that the two people killed were responsible. Thornton, one of the members of the grief group, is blind and missing a shadow, so Audrey and Nathan trap the shadow and put it and Thornton under quarantine.
One of my childhood fears was shadows, so this hits the creepy spot for me. Admittedly, the grief group members swarming Nathan and Audrey with their stilted “The Dark Man is real” is cheesy, but for the most part, the shadow itself is menacing enough, and I’m glad the editors saw it. The more townspeople who see the “troubles,” the better. I keep expecting the town to react as a whole to all the craziness going on, but there’s an odd calm. At the rate we’re going, half the town is going to be under some sort of house (or middle of the ocean) arrest and the rest of Haven will just be walking around whistling a happy tune while squirrels run around with machetes.
I wasn’t sure about Audrey when Haven started because she seemed a bit stiff, but I just love her now. I even think I could be her friend without making her want to freaking kill herself. Good running gag of her not knowing anyone’s name (“Eddie? Damn. That wasn`t even an option.”), but her practicing small talk with target dummies is even better.
I’m going to miss Jess. She loosened Nathan up and played well off Audrey. Her “I think we should get to second base first” after Audrey jokingly told Nathan to marry Jess” cracks me up. We even get continuity when Audrey tells Jess that if she thinks Nathan is cute now, she should see him with babies. Heh. I understand why she’s leaving–I would have run away long ago, but she was a good addition to the show.
Audrey and Nathan are now officially friends and their banter gets better each week. “Nathan Warnos promoting small talk. It’s like Superman trying to sell kryptonite.” They`re also much more in sync solving a case. Audrey tries real police work and Nathan trust her when she calls, interrupting him when he`s more than a little busy, to go to the police station and turn out the lights. Love Audrey possibly stealing Nathan`s theory and Nathan`s “We’re looking for a tall short thin wide dark man who may or may not be carrying a sword.” Nathan opening up to Audrey about his fear of sex post-becoming “not a real boy” is a surprise, but the bigger shock is that Nathan feels Audrey kiss his cheek. Here comes the Nathan-Audrey-Duke love triangle.
I know all the Haven cases have the same formula, but hopefully a pattern will help us better understand the “troubles”. Regardless, the dialogue is getting much tighter and the cast, especially Emily Rose and Lucas Bryant, are developing a great chemistry. I still wish Eric Balfour were in more episodes, but this is my favorite non-Duke episode yet.
What did you think of “Ain’t No Sunshine?” Will you miss Jess, or am I all alone in that?
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