This episode begins In Medias Res as an area of Haven looks like a burned out war zone. Audrey, Nathan, and Duke work to get people to safety. A woman named Susie has been impaled by a piece of rebar, and her husband Cliff holds her hand as she is loaded onto an ambulance. Duke asks how this happened, and Nathan points to a grief-stricken woman named Doreen Hanscom. Her Trouble normally causes small things from her imagination to materialize. She enjoys reminiscing about her vacation to Hawaii, so she often gets sand in her shoes. Unfortunately, she got attacked by William and his thugs and was given the Trouble-augmenting hand print. When she tried to think of Hawaii, a volcano erupted in the middle of town. When they are sure they have evacuated everybody, Duke leaves to check on Jennifer. Audrey and Nathan return to her apartment. He points out that her hair is slowly returning to blonde. She worries about how they have no idea what William's plan is or how to stop him. He says they can worry about him tomorrow and they have sex.
Audrey wakes up on the floor and finds her apartment is now empty and dusty. Unable to find her clothes and shoes, she steps outside in her pajamas, calling for Nathan, and finds The Grey Gull has become Jojo's Bait Shop. Her car is gone, so she walks down the road, hurting her bare feet. She flags down a police car and to her shock, Officer Duke Crocker steps out, asking her why she is walking around barefoot and in pajamas. He has no idea who she is, and when she asks for Nathan Wuornos, he doesn't know who that is either. She figures someone's Trouble changed reality. He gets confused, but offers her a ride.
Duke makes a stop when he gets a call about vandalism at a clothing bazaar. A sign advertising real estate team Susie and Brad has Brad's face scratched out. As Duke takes a statement from the bazaar's owner, Audrey spots Vince and Dave (who has a full head of hair, while he is bald in the normal universe). She tries to greet them, but they don't know who she is and assume from her attire that she is a homeless person, noting Haven hasn't had one in ages. She tries to earn their trust by explaining she knows about The Troubles, but they don't know what she is talking about. She sees a sign that says "Welcome to Haven, the Safest Town in Maine", and realizes she is in a reality where The Troubles never existed.
Duke takes Audrey to the hospital for a physical checkup and psych evaluation. She is given some clothes and shoes. Duke checks a database and says there is no one in Haven with the last name Wuornos. He apologizes, then gives her his number and says she can call him if she needs help. She comments that it is hard to see him as a cop. He admits that he was a bit of a troublemaker when he was a kid, but his father Simon is the chief of police, and his grandfather Roy was chief before him, so it kind of fell into place. He leaves. She is taken to the doctor, and she's surprised to find he is Nathan. His last name is Hanson, and Audrey realizes that in this reality, Nathan was never adopted by Garland Wuornos and was instead raised by his father Max Hanson, who was apparently on good terms with him as Nathan is cheerful and upbeat, unlike the normal gruff and withdrawn Nathan.
After he gives her a clean bill of health, she tries to ask him out, but he is called to deal with an emergency before he can respond. Audrey watches from a window as he performs surgery. William walks up and says he's glad he found her. He still remembers the original Haven and explains that he is immune to The Troubles like her. He denies her accusations that he caused this change in reality, as he has nothing to gain from it and this now peaceful town is boring to him. Nathan saves the patient and steps out to greet his wife Marie and his young daughter. William laughs at how Nathan doesn't remember Audrey and is now with someone else, but Audrey says at least he is happy. He realizes she has no intention of restoring the original Haven and is disgusted, vowing to do it himself.
Later, Vince and Dave are at the Haven Herald arguing about what to put in their next newspaper. William walks in and asks for help in locating someone, but the brothers say they are busy. William gets annoyed...
Audrey calls Duke and they have lunch. Duke says he found an Audrey Parker in the FBI database, but she doesn't match Audrey's description. She tries to warn him about William, but he gets skeptical when Audrey can't provide a last name. Duke gets a call about a murder, the first murder in Haven in over 40 years. Audrey insists on coming with him. They go to the Haven Herald, where Vince and Dave have had their throats slit. Duke finds Dave's knuckles are bloody and figures that he managed to put up a fight against their killer. Dave is clutching a strand of hair, and it looks like Audrey's. She insists that she didn't do it, but Duke arrests her anyway.
Duke interrogates Audrey, who desperately tries to explain about The Troubles and about how reality changed. About how she figures that William killed Vince and Dave because they couldn't help him find the Troubled person responsible. Duke thinks she's nuts. She says in the original reality, he's a smuggler who lives on a boat, and one of her best friends. Duke gets a call about another murder victim, Doreen Hanscom. Audrey says William likely sought her out because he guessed that her augmented Trouble may have caused this, and then killed her when he realized she hadn't done anything. Duke has Audrey locked up while he investigates the new murder.
Nathan meets Duke at the park. Since Haven hasn't had a murder in such a long time, it doesn't have a coroner, so Nathan volunteered to examine the body. Duke doesn't know him, so Nathan reminds him that they used to go to school together, but then went their separate ways. He says he once broke his arm while sledding, and the pain he suffered inspired him to become a doctor so no one would have to experience what he went through. Duke asks him what he thought about Audrey, and he says he thought she was normal and sane.
Audrey is told that her lawyer is here, and William, wearing a suit, enters her cell. She tries to tell the guards that he is the murderer, but they ignore her and walk away. William, with no remorse whatsoever, says he killed those three people because they were useless. He concedes that his investigation of the Troubled person who caused this is taking too long and offers to free her if she will help him. Disgusted and angered, she refuses, and he replies he will just keep hurting people then.
Nathan and Duke find Doreen's corpse propped against a tree with "NOT HER" carved on her forehead. Nathan determines that she was killed somewhere else via neck snap and her body was dragged here. Duke notices that she has fiberglass under her fingernails. Nathan judges that she was killed four hours ago and Duke realizes this means Audrey couldn't have done it. Nathan gets a call from his wife Marie, but she apparently hangs up as soon as he answers.
Audrey is released from police custody and she finds Nathan's house. He steps out and says his wife and daughter are missing. He gets a call from Marie's cellphone, but it is William, who wants to talk to Audrey. He tells her to find the person who changed reality, or else he will kill Nathan's family, then hangs up. Trying to find a clue, she asks Nathan if he's seen anything strange lately, but he hasn't. She notices a flyer on the door identical to the vandalized sign, and realizes that Susie is married to Brad in this reality, while she was married to Cliff in the normal one. Noting it is her only lead, she asks Nathan to come with her to save his family.
At the police station, Duke berates the staff for letting Audrey go without an escort just because she was innocent, as they have lost their only lead. In his office, he finds that Audrey left him a list of William's potential victims. It lists:
- Nathan Hansen
Duke Crocker
Dwight Hendrickson
Claire Callahan
Garland Wuornos
Julia Carr
Eleanor Carr
Rudy Lucassi
Gloria Verrano
Jordan McKee
Nathan and Audrey find Brad and Susie hosting a new house to some potential customers. Cliff stares at them from the other side of the street, and the couple get annoyed that he is back. Audrey goes to him and he is happy that someone else remembers the old Haven. He explains that his family told him about his Trouble: if he made a wish, it would come true, but it would always have some kind of dark twist, so it must only be used as a last resort. Last night, Susie died of her injuries despite the doctors' best efforts. In desperation, he wished that The Troubles had never existed, as they were the cause of her death. He got his wish, except that Susie is now married to another man, doesn't recognize him, and thinks he is a creepy stalker. He admits that he vandalized the sign because he was jealous of Brad. Nathan interrupts and demands his family, and Audrey tries to assure that she is working on it.
Duke arrives, having used a locator app on Nathan's cellphone. While he and Audrey talk, they are surprised when Nathan suddenly drives off with Cliff. Audrey figures that William called Nathan and offered a deal. Duke says he believes Audrey and starts to track Nathan's phone again. He comments that he's willing to trust her because she said his alternate self lives on a boat, and he always wanted a boat as a kid.
Nathan and Cliff enter an abandoned warehouse to find William and Nathan's family. Nathan apologizes, and Cliff forgives him, saying he would have done the same thing if Susie was in danger. William releases Nathan's family, and the three of them leave. William orders Cliff to restore Haven to the way it was. He refuses, because if he does, Susie will be dead again. Angered, William punches him out.
Nathan drives his wife and daughter home, but then says he's going back to save Cliff, berating himself for selling him out and abandoning him.
Duke and Audrey arrive at the warehouse and find Cliff tied to a chair and beaten up. William ambushes them with a gun. Duke puts his gun down and kicks it away, and William immediately shoots him. Audrey gets pissed, but William retorts, "He doesn't matter. None of them matter!" He tells Audrey that long ago, the two of them created The Troubles together, and they enjoyed it. It's the reason why she was punished by being forced to forget and return to Haven every 27 years. He orders her to convince Cliff to wish for the old Haven back.
Nathan arrives and William doesn't see him. On the ground, Duke points to his discarded gun. Audrey stalls by asking William to give her time to consider. Nathan grabs the gun and nervously (remember, he's a doctor, not a cop) tells William to surrender. Completely unfazed, William instead shoots Cliff before anybody can react.
Audrey wakes up in bed with Nathan, still in the clothes she was given in the other world instead of her pajamas. She grimly says William has to die.
Later, Audrey, Nathan, and Duke meet. They learn that shortly after Susie died, William broke into the hospital, killed Cliff, and escaped. Nathan and Duke are a little amused and disturbed about Audrey's description of the alternate world and their alternate selves. Audrey remembers the alternate Duke mentioning the fiberglass under Doreen's fingernails. They figure William killed her in a fiberglass repair shop and decide to gamble that he is using one as a hideout in the real world as well. They check and find one that is no longer in use.
The trio enter and corner William with their guns. Unfazed, he starts to mock them and boasts that he and Audrey are connected. Nathan loses patience and shoots him. Audrey falls as well, with an identical bullet wound. Horrified, Nathan and Duke realize William and Audrey are literally connected. Duke applies pressure to William's wound, trying to stop him from dying and taking Audrey with him.
To Be Continued...
Tropes
- Agony of the Feet: Audrey wakes up in the alternate reality in her pajamas, sans shoes, and has to walk into town barefoot. It's not fun.
- Alternate Reality Episode: Due to a Trouble.
- Alternate Timeline: Dr. Hansen recounts the time he broke his arm sledding, which also happened to Nathan in the real Haven. For Nathan, this is when he realized he was Troubled, because he couldn't feel it. For Dr. Hansen, in a Trouble-free world, it "hurt like hell" and was the reason he became a doctor.
- Anti-Magic: William is immune to the Troubles, just like Audrey is.
- Awful Truth: Audrey keeps the information William revealed about her (and him, by extension) when Nathan asks, presumably because she doesn't want to believe it.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: William tells Stan he's Audrey's lawyer, and that Audrey is delusional, so anything she says about him can't be trusted. Stan falls for this.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The explicit Trouble of the Week is the ability for your wishes to come true but with unforeseen consequences. The plot happened because Cliff wished the Troubles didn't exist because his wife had recently died from one. She's alive in the new timeline without troubles, but married to someone else and doesn't recognize him. Cliff knew this but was too grief stricken to care, and is glad she's still alive anyway.
- Berate and Switch: Detective Crocker lays into Audrey about all the issues the town has been having since she got there and that he has no reason to believe her about William...but he does.
- By "No", I Mean "Yes": When Dr. Hansen acts Audrey if they've met, Audrey responds with "Technically yes, but actually not really, so...no."
- Call-Back:
- Detective Crocker found an FBI agent named Audrey Parker, but it isn't Audrey.
- Dr. Hansen talks about the time he broke his arm, which has been brought up before. However, since there were never any Troubles in this Haven, that story had a different outcome.
- The list Audrey leaves on Detective Crocker's desk about William's possible targets include many familiar names, including Claire, Jordan, Julia, Dr. Lucassi, and the Chief.
- William reveals that Audrey's original persona made the Troubles, and the repeating cycle is punishment for doing so. Audrey recalls a similar conversation with Agent Howard.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Dr. Hansen. Every single one meets a No-Sell, and then he has to explain he "likes to joke."
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Subverted. Dr. Hansen comes into the warehouse through the back and tries to save Cliff and Audrey by threatening William at gunpoint. William shoots Cliff instead, which resets Haven back to its original form.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Audrey insists she was walking up the road when Detective Crocker found her, not wandering as he told the medical staff.
- Dressed to Heal: Dr. Hansen while working in the hospital, though he does wear a regular suit when he's called out to be an ME.
- Embarrassing Pyjamas: Audrey gets pulled into the alternate reality after going to bed, meaning she has to deal with it initially in her pajamas. She's not embarrassed by the pajamas per se, but the fact that everyone she meets keeps commenting on them as a sign of her insanity.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Audrey has changed her hair to be less like Lexie's and removed the nose ring. Nathan points it out and says he's happy to see Audrey again.
- Foreshadowing: Of the musical variety. Donovan Woods' "Taft" plays in the background of Audrey and Nathan talking about who William thinks Audrey is. The refrain of I don't want to go can be heard most clearly, foreshadowing Mara's takeover in season 5.
- Evil Is Petty: William kills Detective Crocker for no discernible reason.
- Faux Affably Evil: William in this episode, like when he kidnaps Dr. Hansen's wife and daughter and tells Audrey she must find the Troubled person or they die. They're in the same room and hear that, and when he hangs up, he assures them with a grin that the conversation "went well!"
- Genre Savvy: Audrey wakes up in an empty room over a bait shop and immediately knows it's a Trouble. Mostly she's annoyed she woke up barefoot.Audrey: What kind of Trouble takes my shoes?!
- Gonna Need More X: After real Duke finds out his Mirror Self was killed by William at point-blank range, he resolves to get a bigger gun.
- Have We Met?: Dr. Hansen to Audrey, mostly because she can't stop making doe-eyes at him.
- I Have Your Wife: Subverted. William kidnaps Dr. Hansen's wife and daughter, but the point is to play on Audrey's weakness for Nathan, not Dr. Hansen's for his family.
- I Never Told You My Name: A literal example happens when Detective Crocker finds Audrey walking down the road, and she greets him by his first name. A figurative example happens later, when Audrey tells him about Troubled Haven Duke, who lives on a boat, and Detective Crocker takes this as proof her Cassandra Truth is real, since it's something he's always wanted but never told anyone.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Dr. Hansen is married with a child in this Haven, and although Audrey looks absolutely devastated to find that out, she tells William she's glad he's happy and genuinely means it.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: William blackmails Audrey into helping him find the Troubled person who stranded them there by threatening to start hurting people she cares about. Or rather, the Mirror Self identities of people she cares about.
- Idiot Ball: Audrey keeps two vital pieces of info from Detective Crocker that could've gotten him to trust her, specifically that Dr. Hansen was threatened (and his family kidnapped) by William (whom Detective Crocker had dismissed as imaginary) and that Cliff could back Audrey's story up (which might get Detective Crocker to consider her story more carefully). Fortunately, she also mentions that Troubled-Haven Duke has a boat, which gets Detective Crocker to trust her since he's always wanted one.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Susie, Cliff's wife, dies after being impaled with rebar due to a Trouble.
- Insert Song: Donovan Woods' "Taft"
plays in the background and then the foreground of Audrey and Nathan in her apartment. - The Lava Caves of New York: The episode opens just after a volcano has erupted in Haven, Maine. Justified in that it was Trouble-induced.
- Mirror Self: The alternate Haven's residents are in most ways the opposite of who they are in actual Haven. Duke is a police officer (and is third-generation Haven PD), Nathan is a Hansen (not a Wuornos) and is a doctor, and Dave has a full head of hair.
- Myth Arc: William reveals that he and Audrey's original identity made the Troubles. She returns to Haven over and over because she's being punished for doing so.
- No Ontological Inertia: As soon as William fatally shoots Cliff, the reality caused by his wish is undone.
- Plot Hole: The episode skirts the line between Alternate Timeline and Alternate Continuity, and creates quite a few plot holes. It makes sense that Nathan would not be a cop if Max Hansen hadn't gone to jail and he hadn't been adopted by the Chief. But it doesn't make sense that Garland isn't in Haven working for the PD, since he was raised in Haven and was working as a detective long before the last round of Troubles. There's also no explanation given for how/why Roy Crocker went from being a bartender to a police officer; it really only serves to make Detective Crocker's backstory more like real-Haven Nathan's.
- Power Incontinence: William is now not only making Troubles contagious, but augmenting them, making them more powerful and harder to control. Doreen Hanscom's Trouble involved thinking about her vacation in Hawaii and getting sand in her shoes. Thanks to William, it turned into a volcano erupting in town.
- Precision F-Strike: Audrey calls William a "son-of-a-bitch" after he shoots Detective Crocker.
- Product Placement: The GPS in Audrey's car is prominently run through Bing.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Three people have knowledge of how Haven originally was. Audrey and William for the usual reasons, and Cliff as the cause of it.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is one to a Star Trek episode.
- Detective Crocker accuses Audrey of thinking he's Barney Fife because she is FBI.
- Dr. Hansen remembers when Detective Crocker stole his Han Solo lunchbox in the third grade.
- Slashed Throat: How William kills Trouble-Free Haven's Vince and Dave.
- Surgeons Can Do Autopsies If They Want: Dr. Hansen is a Swiss Army physician, it seems. He's shown doing Audrey's psych evaluation, attending to a medical emergency and prepping that patient for surgery, and is called in to be the ME on Dective Crocker's case.
- Synchronization: William warns Audrey, Duke, and Nathan that they don't want to shoot him. He needles them until Nathan does, and it's revealed why: he and Audrey are connected, and an identical gunshot wound appears on her.
- Terms of Endangerment: William calls Audrey "hon" while he holds her and Detective Crocker at gunpoint.
- Waking Up Elsewhere: Played With. Audrey wakes up in the same place she went to sleep, but because this is the alternate Haven, her apartment is just storage above a bait shop and she has no bed.
- Wham Line:William (to Audrey): The real you? You made the Troubles.
- Wham Shot: William sneaks up on Audrey in the Trouble-Free Haven.
- The X of Xs: The Trouble with Troubles.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Audrey throughout the episode, bordering on Cassandra Truth.
