Haven's Founder's Day is coming up. Two boys are playing frisbee when they accidentally hit what seems to be a statue. They touch it and its arm crumbles into charcoal and ash. Nathan and Dwight investigate and find that it was a woman who spontaneously combusted. Dwight reminds Nathan to concentrate on the here and now and worry about finding Audrey when they have a lead.
William returns to the bar. Lexie says what he said the other day was total nonsense. She is Lexie DeWitt and no one else.
The coroner identifies the body via dental records as Sally Merigolds, the sister of Bill Merigolds, a firefighter, and daughter of the firefighter chief Frank Merigolds. Dwight explains that during the meteor shower, Bill tried to help, but was eventually found in a similar state to Sally. They assumed he had been blown up by an explosion, but now they think he and Sally were affected by a Trouble.
Jennifer tells Duke that she will continue taking her meds, even though it dulls her ability to recall the voices, because she can't stand hearing the voices and can barely hang on to her sanity. Wade walks up and they talk. When Wade heard that Duke was "dead", he returned to Haven and took over The Grey Gull to honor him. Wade reveals that Vince and Dave had tried to buy The Grey Gull.
Nathan visits the fire station, only to find that the firefighters all hate him and see him as a coward who abandoned Haven in its time of need. Nathan tries to offer condolences to Frank, but he angrily says it is Nathan's fault that his children are dead, because he stopped the Troubles from going away. Nathan tries to ask if Bill and Sally's Trouble is what caused their burning, but he angrily replies that his family is normal.
Duke meets with Vince, while Dave shows Jennifer a picture of Audrey and tells a little about her. Dave explains how Audrey, in any incarnation, helps The Troubled, and that he and Vince work to cover up Trouble-related incidents so the outside world doesn't know about them. Vince reveals that The Guard wants to eliminate Wade because he is a Crocker. Duke says that Wade doesn't know about The Troubles, so Vince tells him to get Wade out of Haven, fast.
William tries to remind Lexie about Haven, Maine, but she has never heard of it. She says she stumbled upon this bar when quarreling with her loser ex-boyfriend then got a job, and hasn't looked back since. He tries to explain that those were just fake memories and tries to remind her about someone she truly loved, but she just gets annoyed and tells him to get out when he finishes his drink.
Duke tells Jennifer that he has to convince Wade to leave Haven. Duke explains that Wade doesn't know about The Troubles and wouldn't be able to handle them. He recounts the incident where Nathan broke his arm sledding while they were little kids. While Duke calmly took Nathan to the hospital, Wade freaked out and threw up. Duke returns to The Grey Gull to find Wade heavily drinking. He had installed a hidden camera in his home in New York and found his wife cheating on him with a contractor. Duke tries to comfort him.
A woman finds a taxi driver has been reduced to ash and charcoal. Nathan and Dwight conclude that the Troubled person doing this is out there and must be found. Jordan shows up and orders Dwight to take Nathan off this case. Since they need Audrey to kill Nathan to end the Troubles, they can't afford to risk him getting killed. Dwight refuses, saying Nathan is too valuable in helping individual Troubled people.
Lexie gets annoyed that William won't leave. As a show of good faith, he disassembles the gun he took from the thug and puts the pieces in an ashtray in front of her. Suddenly, the thug returns, with a massive man as backup.
Jennifer gets a drink from a cafe. As she walks out, she notices she forgot her purse and goes back in, only to find everybody burned. She screams.
Jennifer is really shaken up, but tells Nathan, Duke, and Dwight everything she saw. There were five people in the cafe besides her, while there are only four corpses. They realize that the survivor was a firefighter and must be the one doing this. Nathan orders Jennifer to come with them to the fire station so she can identify the man. Duke protests about putting her in danger, but Nathan says they don't have many options.
The two thugs order William to come with them. Weaponless, William surrenders and walks with them toward the exit. Lexie realizes the thugs plan to kill him and asks the other bar patrons for help, but they just turn away and continue what they were doing. Just as the trio reaches the exit, Lexie suddenly reassembles the gun and fires a few warning shots at the thugs, forcing them to retreat. Lexie is shocked, saying she had never held a gun before in her life.
Jordan visits Vince and again voices her displeasure about Nathan being allowed to do what he wants. She also hints she doesn't want Vince to be the leader of The Guard anymore.
Nathan, Duke, and Jennifer go to the fire station and ask Frank to show them a roster of his men. Frank angrily says he owes them nothing. The firefighters all head to the town square to be honored this Founder's Day. Jennifer finds a group photo of the firefighters on a wall and sees the man from the cafe. A janitor identifies him as Don Keaton, the former partner of Bill Marigolds. While they were helping out during the meteor shower, Bill was blown up, while Don was protected by a wall. Don has been guilty ever since, to the point that he left Haven and only returned that day for the award ceremony. Nathan deduces that everybody who got burned had congratulated Don on being a fine firefighter and hero. The guilt over not being able to save Bill causes him to inadvertently burn the people who congratulate him. Nathan laments about Audrey not being there to help, saying he's had contacts checking all over the country, and wonders why she hasn't contacted them. Duke tells him to consider that maybe Audrey has new memories again and doesn't remember them.
Dwight has the other officers search the town square for Don. Duke and Jennifer help too. Eventually, they find him sitting on a bench, having ditched his colleagues. Nathan approaches him alone. Jordan shows up and tries to stop him, but Duke and Jennifer intercept her. Jordan says they have to stop Nathan from getting killed or else the Troubles will never end, but Duke pulls out a gun and makes her back off. Nathan tells Don what has been happening and he is shocked. Don says that everything is his fault because he couldn't save Bill. Nathan's arms start to burn, but he's able to withstand it. Nathan tells Don he lost his partner too. It hurts, but the best thing to do is to honor their memory and move forward helping others just as they would have done. Don takes this to heart and calms down, and Nathan stops burning.
As Dwight comforts Don and leads him away, Jennifer bandages Nathan's arms. Jordan says what he did was stupid and reckless. Duke tells her to back off; he just saved everybody in the award ceremony. Jordan scoffs and says Nathan is no hero; every good deed he does is only for Audrey's sake. She says Nathan is a selfish prick and that she can't wait for the day when Audrey kills him. As she leaves, Duke says not to listen to her; Nathan had been helping the town long before Audrey showed up.
Later, an extremely drunk Wade throws a party at The Grey Gull, saying he's glad to be rid of his two-timing wife. He praises Duke and says he plans on staying in Haven indefinitely, worrying him. Vince and a few members of The Guard express their displeasure at this. Jennifer tells Duke that she's realized how important Audrey is to helping the town and throws away her meds. It will be unpleasant, but she plans to use every resource at their disposal, including her Trouble, to find Audrey and bring her home.
William confronts Lexie with the proof that she is really someone else. She was able to reassemble and use the gun like an expert despite having no memory of weapons training. She angrily asks him to tell her who he thinks she is supposed to be. He warns that once he does, there is no going back.
Tropes:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Wade finds out his wife is cheating on him with the contractor they hired to renovate their apartment, and suggests that his extended time in Haven might be a contributing factor.
- Accidental Pun:Duke: You know, if we actually do find this guy and explain to him what he's doing, he could very well have a meltdown.
Nathan: I know.
Duke: You know, I heard it before I said it, but like, literally. - Amnesiac Resonance: William disassembles a handgun to reassure Lexie he's not a threat. Later in the episode, as two men attempt to lead William away to his death, Lexie grabs the gun and hastily reassembles it, despite having no knowledge of firearms. This seems to remove the doubt for Lexie that William is telling her the truth about her identity, or rather, that she isn't who she thinks she is.
- Artistic License – Pharmacology/ Hollywood Psych: Similar to other episodes that involve discussions of the brain and psychiatry, there is a grain of truth and a lot of "huh?" involved.
- Jennifer is taking antipsychotic medication, presumably for a diagnosis of schizophrenia, based on her Hearing Voices. This is the typical and recommended course of treatment. But Jennifer doesn't have schizophrenia, and it's never explained why the medication works for her despite the voices she hears being real, rather than psychosis. Like other psychotropic medications, antipsychotics regulate chemical imbalances in the brain, an imbalance Jennifer wouldn't have because she's been misdiagnosed.
- Memory issues are mentioned as a side effect of her medication, which is not accurate.
- Duke also encourages her to just stop taking her medication, and she eventually does at the end of the episode, which is not healthy for the type of meds she's been taking, nor for how long she's been taking them.
- Duke tells her she didn't need to throw them away, that he could have used them for "recreational purposes," which is...not a thing.
- Blessed with Suck: Every time someone congratulates Don, it activates his Survivor's Guilt and he incinerates everyone in the vicinity.
- Call-Back:
- The newspaper article Dave shows Jennifer about Audrey appears to be about Louis Puhfal's machine Trouble.
- Duke tells Jennifer about the mermaids that live in Haven.
- Compliment Backfire: Jennifer asks Duke if he's an auxiliary police officer because Nathan automatically delegates tasks to him. Duke looks mildly offended and tells her she must still be in shock from the coffeeshop incident.
- Continuity Nod:
- The story Duke tells Jennifer about helping a kid who broke his arm sledding is the same story Nathan tells Audrey about the first time his Trouble was triggered.
- Wade is revealed as the older brother, which makes sense considering Duke was spared the firstborn death plague.
- Defensive "What?": Dwight gets a moment when he correctly identifies a piece of evidence as the "exact change you'd get if you ordered an Americano with a five-dollar bill" at the coffeeshop. Nathan and the ME just stare at him blankly. He shrugs and says he likes coffee.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Wade is introduced as more grounded and driven than Duke, complaining that Duke did not leave a will and encouraging Jennifer to get one.
- Founding Day: The town is celebrating Founder's Day.
- Hated by All: Nathan is Haven's town pariah, which he attempts to exploit by confronting Don at the parade. Nathan figures if Don's guilt is replaced with anger, it will keep him from accidentally incinerating parade attendees. He ends up taking a different, less confrontational tact that works better.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Jordan calls Nathan out for damning the town to the Troubles because of his love for Audrey.
- Medal of Dishonor: The major conflict of the episode involves Don being honored for his service during the meteor shower, along with the rest of the Haven FD. Since he has Survivor's Guilt, he feels he doesn't deserve it, and there is the very real threat of him turning the entire crowd into charcoal as a result.
- No Medication for Me: Jennifer decides to go off her meds so she can help bring Audrey back.
- Serendipitous Survival: Jennifer misses being incinerated with the rest of the coffeeshop customers by mere seconds, and only stumbles upon the carnage because she went back to get a bag of taffy she'd forgotten.
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: The Trouble of the week involves a man who incinerates people whenever he feels guilty about surviving the meteor shower.
- Surgeons Can Do Autopsies If They Want: Dr. Lucassi, a psychiatrist in his last appearance, is now Haven's ME.
- Survivor's Guilt: What triggers Don's Trouble.
- Two Shots from Behind the Bar: Lexie manages to pull this off with a weapon she has to assemble first, even if the weapon was supplied by William.
