S02.E01: A Tale Of Two Audreys

[Guest]

The Biblical Plagues of Egypt strike Haven, while Audrey deals with a woman who claims that she is Audrey Parker and Nathan copes with the death of his father. Meanwhile, Reverend Driscoll begins his plan to take control of Haven and eliminate the Troubled.

 

[Elsinore]

Can I just say that I loved Audrey II and her sass? Because I totally did.

 

 

[Tabbyclaw]

As should we all. Her sass is a thing of beauty.

 

This episode and The Prince of Egypt are the reasons nobody can stump me on the Plagues of Exodus. Ten years of Sunday school? Pfft, like that stuck.

 

I want to say upfront that I like this season overall, but it's chock-full of tropes I have no patience for. I'm not interested in yet another supernatural show where the church leader is trying to convince everyone that the supernatural characters are an affront to God, or yet another show where one of the characters is secretly married. (Although Duke is way up near the top of the list of characters whom I would totally believe have a secret spouse.)

Funny thing, though, I had no problem with the sudden appearance of Wade, and that's also due to this episode. One line two season prior about Duke knowing he has older brothers somewhere was all I needed to go along with that.

That said, while I don't think I am ever going to not dislike Evi, I dislike her less every time I rewatch.

I do, however, wish we'd gotten more background about her relationship with Duke; I felt like there wasn't enough information there for me to get properly invested in watching them together.

[Blue Girl]

I want to say upfront that I like this season overall, but it's chock-full of tropes I have no patience for. I'm not interested in yet another supernatural show where the church leader is trying to convince everyone that the supernatural characters are an affront to God, or yet another show where one of the characters is secretly married.

 

Yes, a thousand times yes...and for the Eleventh Plague tropes rained from the sky!

 

At this point I was starting to get a bit annoyed with the show but then they introduced Audrey II (and actually called her Audrey II which I loved).  I liked the twist they put on the doppelganger idea and I remember sitting up straighter in my seat as I watched thinking they can write cool stuff when they want to.   (But more often they write stuff that is so cray I'm not sure even they understand it.)

[Shanna Marie]

I love so much that they dared make the main character a fake. How often does that happen on American network TV? You just know that the newcomer guest star is going to be the fake. Even better that they actually ended up getting along and acting like sisters instead of being rivals or trying to get rid of or expose each other.

 

The whole bit in Nathan's truck where Audrey finds a way to casually clue in Duke about Nathan's dad and actually makes Nathan smile in spite of the dire situation is one of my favorite scenes in the series. And meanwhile Audrey II is freaked out by the idea that there's a dead body in the cooler in the back of the truck.

[Tabbyclaw]

I love so much that they dared make the main character a fake. How often does that happen on American network TV? You just know that the newcomer guest star is going to be the fake. Even better that they actually ended up getting along and acting like sisters instead of being rivals or trying to get rid of or expose each other.

 

This show is really damn good at subverting expectations like that. They did it with Julia, too, when they brought in a brand-new character, made it clear that someone was going to die in that episode, and then killed off someone we already knew and liked.

 

The whole bit in Nathan's truck where Audrey finds a way to casually clue in Duke about Nathan's dad and actually makes Nathan smile in spite of the dire situation is one of my favorite scenes in the series. And meanwhile Audrey II is freaked out by the idea that there's a dead body in the cooler in the back of the truck.

 

I love that, too; it's a beautiful combination of letting everyone know how serious this is while not letting Nathan drown in it. And I like that they called back to it

when Garland's ghost also scolded Nathan for wasting a perfectly good cooler. It reminded me of the bit in the pilot where she said that she wasn't there to walk all over him, "not in these boots," and his apparent appreciation of that. It makes me feel like he and Lucy might have had similar sense of humor, and maybe he was seeing a flash of the woman he knew 27 years ago.

[Shanna Marie]

One little thing that has always had me curious about this episode: When the first-born son plague hits and Nathan collapses, along with a lot of the Rev's people, the Rev stays with Nathan, fussing over him and acting really worried -- to the point that when things are resolved and Nathan is reviving, Duke pushes the Rev away and helps Nathan, himself, probably guessing (correctly) that Nathan wouldn't feel up to dealing with the Rev. So why does the Rev focus his worry on the guy he thinks is damned, the guy he didn't want his daughter dating, the guy he considers an enemy, instead of helping or being concerned about his own followers who are dying because he led them there? That's always made me wonder if there was something he knew about Nathan and his potential role in things. Then again, in later episodes

he didn't seem to have a problem with potentially killing Nathan.

[Carrie Ann]

I thought the Rev was sort of hilariously overacting in that scene, but not out of concern for Nathan. He was acting like an End-Times preacher, welcoming the plagues. I don't know if I'm making sense, but he's actually smiling like a loon at one point, holding Nathan up by the shirt. Doesn't read as concern to me, and if it's supposed to...well I don't really get it either way.

[Elsinore]

Because it wouldn't look too good to his parishioners if he'd give the suffering almost Chief of Police a sermon on how much of a sinner he is?

 

I loved the Audreys interaction when they were still in the bitchy stage.

 

Audrey II"Did I use my magic wand, or my tricorder?"

Audrey I: *irritated because duh* ; "First of all, tricorders, just for readings, now if you don't mind I have a lot work to do.

Audrey II does this hand wave thing that cracks me up.

[Shanna Marie]

I thought the Rev was sort of hilariously overacting in that scene, but not out of concern for Nathan. He was acting like an End-Times preacher, welcoming the plagues. I don't know if I'm making sense, but he's actually smiling like a loon at one point, holding Nathan up by the shirt. Doesn't read as concern to me, and if it's supposed to...well I don't really get it either way.

Maybe I've been misinterpreting it all this time, but his body language has always struck me as the standard TV "Dammit! Don't leave me now! Breathe, damn you, breathe!" behavior. You know, the thing that works miracles after CPR fails -- it's not the chest compressions that save the person, it's the frantic "breathe, damn you, breathe!" that does the trick. Only the Rev jumped straight to the "Nathan! Nathan! Breathe, damn you!" part without the CPR.

[Tabbyclaw]

In this instant, Nathan is worth more to the Rev alive than dead. Sure, if he dies then Driscoll gets to wave him like a "Look what happens when you defy God" banner in front of the rest of the town, but if he lives? Well, now Nathan knows firsthand exactly how dangerous the situation is and how much he needs the Rev as an ally, and there's no better PR move than converting the opposition.

[Shanna Marie]

I suppose the Rev also could have been saying, "Repent! Repent now while there's still time!"