A man is mowing his lawn when he hears a baby crying. Curious, he looks around and falls over dead. Two men are playing tennis. They finish and congratulate each other, when the older one says he hears a strange noise. His partner says he doesn't hear anything, then the older man falls over dead. A teenage couple is washing a car when the girl says she hears something. The boy says he doesn't hear anything, then the girl falls over dead.
The heroes have taken Jennifer to a warehouse and have surrounded it with cops. Nathan reminds them that if William shows up: take him down without harming him. They are sure Jennifer and the book are the key to defeating William. Now, they have to find the Heart of Haven. Audrey receives a call about the three deaths, so she and Nathan leave to investigate. Jennifer tells Duke that the circular maze on the book is fading in and out. Duke says that sounds familiar.
Nathan and Audrey meet Gloria at the tennis court and she explains that the three victims died at around 10:15 AM, yet were very far apart and are not related to each other. The young tennis player explains how his friend claimed he heard a noise before he died. William casually walks up and greets them. Nathan prepares to arrest him. William mockingly surrenders, but warns that more people will die if he does, so Nathan backs off. William promises to explain this Trouble if Audrey will take a walk with him, alone. Audrey reluctantly agrees, assuring Nathan that William won't hurt her.
Duke and Jennifer go to the Haven Herald and Duke confronts Vince about his circular maze tattoo that he can make appear and disappear at will. Vince admits that lately, it has been fading in and out on its own, when he normally has full control over it. He pulls back his sleeve and they find that his mark and the mark on the book are fading in and out in sync.
William claims that Audrey Parker is just a shell, and he's working to free the real her. He says she created this Trouble, long ago, and he merely tweaked it. In the beginning, the two of them liked to create complementary Troubles. Audrey catches on, just like how Jordan McKee inflicts pain and Nathan can't feel, she would be able to neutralize this sound-based Trouble with a silence-based one. William smiles and says that once she creates it, her true self will awaken. She swears she will never curse anybody and that she will find another way to deal with the problem, but he claims that her usual tactics to deal with Troubles will not work. He points at a couple tending to their baby, and she is horrified to see a glowing hand print on the baby's back. The baby starts crying and a random woman in the background drops dead.
William leaves and Audrey and Nathan meet the baby's parents, Ben and Ashley Harker, at their house. Ben confirms that his son Aaron cried at 10:15 and sadly admits that Aaron has inherited his Trouble, when it shouldn't be possible. He explains that the Harker family Trouble is that whenever they cry, a random person in town hears it and dies. Normally, it manifests at puberty, so the family keeps it in check by teaching their children not to cry. They are in serious trouble because Aaron is only a baby and it's impossible to teach a baby not to cry. Audrey asks if there is any other option. Ben says his great-uncle had Down's Syndrome and couldn't stop crying, so the family had no choice but to sever his vocal cords, but he warns there is no way he'll let them do that to his son.
Ben checks on Aaron and Audrey explains to Nathan what William told her. She worries that she isn't worthy of Nathan's love because she's responsible for the Troubles. She also worries that she will revert to her original personality if she does create a Trouble.
Vince explains that his Trouble is to manifest the maze symbol. It is a birthmark, not a tattoo, as his ancestors were the Mi'kmaq Indians. According to their folklore, the symbol designates him as the Guardian of Haven. However, he has no idea what the Heart of Haven is. Jennifer asks why Dave doesn't have the birthmark. Dave explains that he was an orphan who was adopted by Vince's family a long time ago.
Nathan and Audrey try to find a pattern to the deaths, but get no results. Gloria arrives and comforts Ben. She explains that she is Ben's stepmother, having been married to Ben's father for a long time until he eventually died. Their marriage was difficult because Ben Sr. stayed stiff and stoic to avoid any possibility of crying, but they loved each other nonetheless. She says she has researched the Harker Trouble and has found no solution, and the deaths are completely random. During the 1901 Troubles, one Harker couldn't stop crying and ended up killing hundreds before his family was forced to kill him to save the town. Gloria warns that she will kill anyone who even thinks about killing Aaron and orders Audrey to solve this Trouble like she does the others. Nathan suggests that since Audrey is immune to the Troubles, she might be able to negate it by holding Aaron while he cries. The Harkers bring Aaron out and she holds him. Aaron wakes up and cries, and Ashley falls over dead.
The EMTs take Ashley's body away and Ben sadly remarks that he can't even cry for her. Nathan sadly tells him to stay strong for his son, and gets a call saying that a man on the other side of town heard the crying and died at the same time as Ashley. Gloria's second husband Lincoln, who is partially deaf, arrives and comforts Gloria. He comments that he had lived in Haven oblivious to The Troubles for over 60 years, but when he married Gloria, she quickly brought him up to speed. Lincoln looks after Aaron while Ben estimates that they have an hour and a half before Aaron wakes up and cries again. Nathan leaves to check on the other man who died. Audrey calls Duke.
When Nathan arrives at the warehouse where the man died, he runs into William. William says the deaths will stop once Audrey makes the right decision and reverts to her true self. He jokes that because he and Audrey are linked, he's more intimate with her than Nathan can ever hope to be. Nathan warns that once they find out how to sever their link, he will kill him, painfully. William floors him with a sucker punch and Nathan can feel it, but he gets up and mocks him, saying his punch was wimpy. He says William will not succeed in turning Audrey into something she's not, but William counters that he's getting rid of her false identity and revealing the truth.
Duke tells Jennifer what Audrey told him about Aaron and say he needs to help. She assures that she will be safe in the warehouse with Vince and Dave, so he leaves.
Audrey looks over a newspaper article on the 1901 Harker incident and sees herself, with black hair and an old-fashioned dress, in the photo. Duke arrives and she says she can't figure out how to stop the Trouble, and neither could her past selves. She explains what William wants her to do. Duke says she can't give someone a Trouble, the risk that she will be corrupted is too great. Nathan walks up and tells her to do it. He believes that she won't change.
Audrey meets William at Haven Lookout and threatens to kill the baby rather than curse someone with a new Trouble. A little surprised at first, he calls her bluff and threatens to activate the Troubles of Aaron's eight cousins, who are all under the age of ten, if they try that. She relents and asks how she creates a Trouble. He says first she has to visualize it in her mind. Second, she has to find a person to would be compatible with it. Last, she has to crush one of the black beads in her hand and touch the subject. He hands her a box with one of the black beads in it. He leans forward and tries to kiss her, but she draws back and orders him not to try that again or she will make him regret it.
She returns and tells Nathan and Duke what happened. They discuss what the new Trouble should be and conclude it should be that the subject dampens sound around him. That way, Aaron's crying won't affect anybody. She decides Lincoln would be compatible with it, since he's partially deaf and hangs around with the baby a lot already. They tell the others their plan. Gloria is horrified, but Lincoln agrees to do it.
At the warehouse, the Teagues play checkers and argue over who is cheating. Jennifer notices that Vince's birthmark is moving. They realize the circular maze's top is constantly pointing in one direction like a compass, and find it is pointing at a lighthouse.
Audrey crushes the bead into powder and covers her hand with it, then touches Lincoln's arm, leaving a hand print. As she does, she briefly gives a sinister smile. Lincoln says the hand print tingles a little. The grandfather clock rings, and everybody except for Audrey covers their ears, saying it is too loud. Aaron is woken up by the "loud noise" and cries. Audrey and Ben take Aaron outside and calm him down, but she receives a text saying five more people died. William walks up and asks who she is, and is disappointed when she answers "Audrey Parker". She explains that her attempt created the opposite of what she intended. He shrugs and says she must be out of practice. He hands her a box with six more black beads, saying she should get it right after a few more tries, then walks away. Duke walks up and tells her to give him the box. He saw her face and realized her original self briefly emerged, and she liked it.
Jennifer, Vince, and Dave enter the lighthouse, but find that the stairs have rotted away. As the brothers discuss possibly hoisting themselves to the top, Jennifer suggests trying the trapdoor in the floor, but they can't see it. She touches it and it becomes visible, then they descend it.
Audrey reluctantly admits that when she was giving Lincoln his Trouble, she felt pure malevolence, and it was intoxicating. Duke warns that she can't do it again or she will lose herself. Ben walks up and asks Duke to kill him, so the Crocker Trouble can end the Harker Trouble.
Under the lighthouse is a cave. Inside, they find a giant circular maze symbol on the ground. The book has new instructions, and Jennifer reports that they need four specific people to stand on the symbol's four corners. However, it doesn't say who they need.
Duke asks Ben if he is sure, and Ben says he is. He explains that Gloria's family used to be Troubled, but one of Duke's ancestors killed one of hers and rid her family of it. Duke tells him to take Aaron inside. Audrey realizes that he wants her to give him his Trouble back, so he can fulfill Ben's wish. She protests, but he says their options are limited.
Ben tells the others his plan. Gloria gets really upset, asking if Audrey wants to kill off her family one by one, and asks why Audrey can't solve this Trouble like she does all the others. Ben reminds her about how Duke's ancestor ended her family's Trouble so long ago, to the point that she doesn't even know what it was, and says he wants his son to grow up not knowing what the Harker Trouble was. He thanks Gloria for raising him and tells her to raise Aaron after he is gone.
Jennifer calls Duke and they meet. She explains what they found under the lighthouse. After he explains what he wants Audrey to do, she gets upset and asks why he wants so badly to be the hero again. He says he is confident Audrey will get it right the first time, because she knows him and knows the Crocker Trouble well. She has her doubts, but says he can do what he wants.
Duke goes back to the Harker house, opens his shirt, and tells Audrey to get it over with. As the others look on, she crushes a black bead into powder, covers her hand with it, and reaches for his chest.
To Be Continued...
- Addictive Magic: The analogy, while present in previous episodes, is now made explicit by Duke telling Audrey that creating a Trouble would be like "sticking the needle" back in her vein.
- All Crimes Are Equal: Downplayed, and Played for Laughs. When Duke tells Vince that Jennifer is seeing the Guard symbol fade in and out on the book, Vince reveals that his Guard symbol has been doing the same thing.Dave: You never told me that.Vince: You didn't tell me you ate the last of the marmalade last night.Dave: That's not the same thing, Vincent!
- Amnesiac Resonance: William hopes to induce this in Audrey by creating a Trouble that can only be cancelled out by creating another Trouble, which he claims Audrey's original personality did.
- And I Must Scream: A relative of Ben's with Down Syndrome who could not be taught not to cry had his vocal chords severed to mitigate the risk of the Trouble. This horrifies Audrey, who had pushed it out of him while trying to find a solution for Aaron.
- Anger Born of Worry: Jennifer is upset when she finds out Duke is planning to let himself be re-Troubled, because of how his Trouble affected him prior to being Brought Down to Normal. Duke reassures her he's going to be fine, but she's still angry.
- Anti-Magic: William has it, too, meaning when he sucker punches Nathan in the face, he can feel it.
- Artistic License – History: Gloria claims that the last time the Harker Trouble got out of control was in 1901, and the Herald covered it up by claiming it was an outbreak of Spanish Flu. Except the term "Spanish Flu" was coined because of the pandemic in 1918, when Spain became the first country to report cases there. They were neutral in WW1 and their newspapers were not censoring outbreaks as other countries were.
- Birthmark of Destiny: Vince's Guard symbol is really a birthmark, one that has appeared on every Teague firstborn, and denotes him as the protector of Troubled people. Later, it's revealed that his birthmark moves like a compass when he holds Unstake My Heart, pointing to the "heart of Haven" mentioned in the prophecy.
- Brown Note: The Harker Trouble is a cry that can kill people. It usually manifests at puberty, so they've gotten around it by just teaching their children not to cry. William accelerates the Trouble and triggers it in Aaron, a baby.
- Buffy Speak: Audrey can't come up with a better description for the black orbs William's been using, so she stutters out at "black ball of...stuff."
- Building of Adventure: Subverted. Initially, Vince's birthmark points to Haven's lighthouse, and they assume that's the heart of Haven. But really it's a cave underneath the lighthouse.
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Chaotic Evil: William's crossed the threshold. - Dehumanizing Insult: William tells Nathan that trying to explain the "bigger picture" to him would be like "trying to explain physics to a goldfish."
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Duke expresses concern about Audrey dabbling in creating Troubles, because he's concerned it will bring out her evil original personality, and Audrey will be lost. Audrey doesn't disagree, but doesn't see another way to fix what William has done.
- Evil Feels Good: When Audrey creates the silence Trouble and gives it to Lincoln, it triggers a flash of her original personality. She brushes it off, but when confronted by Duke, she admits that it felt like "just the worst jolt of evil," but that some deep part of her enjoyed it.
- Gas Leak Cover Up: The last time the Harker Trouble was this bad, the Herald had to run a story claiming the mass deaths were caused by the Spanish Flu.
- Genre Savvy: Jennifer's catching on. When she, Vince, and Dave go to the lighthouse, Vince and Dave try to figure out how to go up it without a ladder while Jennifer suggests using the trapdoor on the floor. When Vince and Dave tell her they can't see the trapdoor, she determines that means they definitely need to go down it.
- Good Stepmother: Gloria is Ben's.
- Happily Adopted: It's revealed that Dave was. Duke says this "explains a lot."
- I Always Wanted to Say That: William comes up to Nathan at a crime scene and asks "What've we got?" His deadpan lasts about two seconds before he cracks and gleefully quotes the trope. Nathan is disturbed at his level of callousness.
- If We Get Through This…: Jennifer tries to reassure Duke that she'll be fine if he goes to help Nathan and Audrey. She tells him tomorrow they'll wake up, have breakfast, and do the crossword. Duke teases her about her plan for a "flavored coffee commercial" morning.
- Internal Reveal: Audrey tells Nathan what William told her about creating the Troubles. Duke figures it out on his own, and Audrey confirms it.
- Insecure Love Interest: Audrey feels she doesn't deserve Nathan because of her supposed past. William, meanwhile, pushes all of Nathan's buttons about his own insecurities.
- Magic Compass: Vince's birthmark is this.
- Malicious Misnaming: William is now doing away with treating Audrey like her own person, instead using the name dismissively and speaking as though it is separate from her.
- Mindlink Mates: William claims he is this, or close to it, with Audrey's original persona. They created the Troubles together, and like to create complementary Troubles to see how they would interact with each other.
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Moral Event Horizon:- William has taken a level in evil this episode by using his powers to manipulate a Trouble in a baby and making the victims of his Trouble completely random, in order to manipulate Audrey into creating a new Trouble. It's bleak as is, but Gloria mentions that the last time this happened, the only way to get it to stop was to kill the Troubled person.
- When Audrey tries to bluff him that she has now reached a Moral Event Horizon of her own by telling him she plans on killing the baby, he sees through it and threatens to activate the Harker Trouble in all eight of Aaron's cousins under the age of 10.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: This episode is made even more dark by the fact that Gloria, usually an even-keeled Deadpan Snarker, is increasingly upset and emotional as the stakes get higher for her family.
- One Head Taller: Duke and Jennifer's height difference is more noticeable than usual while they discuss the Harker Trouble. They have a rare conversation eye-to-eye—he's sitting down and she is standing.
- Personality Powers: Discussed, when trying to figure out how to fix Aaron's Trouble by Troubling someone else.Nathan: Jack Driscoll is a deep-sea diver, he developed a crazy pressure trouble. (at Duke's muttering) What?Duke: Well, you weren't exactly the most emotionally expressive kid in school. Now you're numb.Nathan (annoyed): And you're a sponge.Duke: It wasn't derogatory, I—
- Pragmatic Hero: Discussed, when Jennifer demands an explanation for Duke's plan to Shoot the Dog. He doesn't want to do it, but knows it must be done.
- Rule of Three: Creating a Trouble requires an "alchemy of three things" according to William: a strong intention, the match of the intended person to that intention, and one of the black orbs that he's been using.
- Secret Underground Passage: The "heart of Haven" is located in a secret underground passage beneath the lighthouse.
- Shoot the Dog: Duke and Ben agree that rather than try to find someone to Trouble who can cancel out Aaron's Trouble, that Audrey should re-Trouble Duke, and end the Harker Trouble altogether.
- Shout-Out
- Wham Episode: This episode is probably the darkest in the series' entire run and packs a sucker punch emotionally.
