Recap: Haven 2.6, “Audrey Parker’s Day Off”

Chris kisses Audrey awake at 7:34 a.m., the morning after. Audrey wanted to sleep in on her day off, but Chris has big plans. Well. Someone was confident. Audrey agrees, but she’s got one bit of official police business to take care of first. They try to sneak out, but Duke (who’s downstairs making a Taco Tuesday sign) yells after them that Audrey’s rent is due. Somehow I would’ve thought she’d be better about paying her bills on time.

Audrey lost a round of rock-paper-scissors to Nathan, so she’s got to make an appearance at Career Day at the elementary school. She nearly gets hit by a kid on a bicycle, and notices a couple arguing in their car in the parking lot.

Inside, Audrey’s having a bit of a rough time with the kids ““ first giving inappropriate details about police business, then getting bombarded with a bunch of questions she doesn’t know how to answer. She directs the kids’ attention to Chris, standing at the back of the room, and of course they’re mesmerized. Chris uses the opportunity to lecture them about his interests. Also, Vince has apparently been allowed to post his Twitter posters at the school. Audrey gets a call about a downed tree on Route 27. Chris is cranky because he put off a grant-seeking trip to a London symposium to take Audrey on a picnic, but now she has to work. Um, what part of dating a cop does this guy not understand?

Audrey gets a second alert, and responds to an accident downtown (I guess someone else is taking care of the tree situation). Nathan comes over carrying a small green, bloody sneaker in an evidence bag. He keeps Audrey from getting a look at whatever kind of accident has taken place, although she learns that a child died at the scene.

Suddenly Audrey’s back in bed. She’s immediately aware that something’s wrong, unlike most “Groundhog Day” episodes, where it takes at least a couple of runs. She wonders if she’s having killer déjà vu, or just woke from a really vivid dream. Option Three, which she fails to mention: it’s Haven, and weirdness is afoot. Downstairs, she realizes it’s still Taco Tuesday. She gives Duke the rent check. He really wants Chris to stay for breakfast, but Audrey rushes Chris out of there.

At the school, Audrey warns the kid on the bike to wear a helmet. Inside, she skips ahead to the Q&A, knowing exactly what the kids will ask. Again, she directs their attention to Chris.

Audrey goes to the station to tell Nathan that she’s living the same day over again. I absolutely love that most people in this town totally take your word for it when you tell them weird shit’s going down. Saves so much time and trouble. Audrey “predicts” that a tree will fall on Route 27 and a child will die downtown at noon, but she doesn’t know any more than that.

Then they both get the call about the tree. Nathan goes to take care of it while Audrey scopes out the scene of the crime-to-be downtown. Duke shows up to have her sign the rent check. She takes care of it and shoos him out of there. A bell starts tolling twelve o’ clock. Audrey notices a kid hanging out nearby and creepily staring at her (school let out early) but he’s not wearing green shoes.

Nathan calls, but Audrey doesn’t hear what he’s about to say, as she hears a car accident nearby and runs to find Duke twitching on the ground in the intersection. Naturally, all the looky-loos saw nothing. Audrey realizes Duke was only hit because he came downtown to talk to her. Nathan arrives and says an ambulance is coming. Yeah, we can hear it, Chief. Duke dies and both Audrey and Nathan are pretty disturbed by it.

Audrey wakes up again and rushes downstairs to find Duke. Chris is huffy, especially when Audrey hugs Duke. Duke is weirded out, but quickly distracted by the great Chris Brody, whom he asks to stay for waffles. Audrey asks them both to stay put, and tells them not to go downtown.

Nathan meets her at the school, where she accurately predicts the arguing couple, a jogger leaping over a hedge, and the kid on the bike. Nathan is snarky about Duke’s death; Audrey whacks him on the head and informs him that he was actually pretty upset. They try to deduce whose trouble they’re dealing with and how to stop it.

After striking out at finding a kid with green sneakers, they split up to case the area around the soon-to-be accident scene. The bell starts ringing, and a beige car comes around the corner, hitting Nathan and impaling him with a chunk of police barricade. He has the presence of mind to give Audrey a description of the car and driver. She screams for an ambulance. Nathan gasps out, “It doesn’t hurt. The only thing I feel is you.” Then he dies in Audrey’s arms. I smell fanfic. Lots of fanfic.

Audrey wakes again and notices her hand got cut on the broken barricade in the last go-round, and the injury is still with her. She realizes that if she dies in the time loop ““ since she’s the only one permanently affected by it ““ they could be stuck in this day forever.

She asks Chris to keep Duke at the Gull, although she doesn’t have time to explain why. She finds Nathan carefully blowing on his coffee at the station (it’s ridiculously cute) and after testing it, tells him to wait a minute. She can’t help staring at him. She catches him up on the time loop situation and shows him the cut on her hand.

They have people at the school checking for green sneakers, and are impounding and booting beige sedans. Audrey insists that Nathan stay put while she goes downtown to ask people to stay indoors. This town really needs some kind of emergency alert system. Audrey calls Nathan and learns that they haven’t found any kids with green sneakers, and people are pretty pissed off about having their cars impounded. She promises to be safe.

She calls Duke and learns that the Red Sox just won a game, and Chris left the Gull. Of course he did. She calls Chris, only to find out he’s right behind her. He’s brought first aid supplies for her hand, which is dumb. Sweet, but dumb. He bought get-well stickers and everything. She begs him to leave. He agrees, but he’s all cranky about it and throws the first aid stuff in the trash as he walks away. “Today wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he pouts. Audrey’s all, yeah, no kidding.

As the bell starts ringing, Audrey spots a twitchy sort of man standing on the corner. It looks like he’s doing some sort of OCD ritual, making repetitive motions and counting under his breath. Audrey makes him wait until 12:02 to cross the street, then guides him across. It’s pretty obvious that this is the Troubled person they’re looking for ““ people probably never have garden variety mental illnesses in Haven ““ but it doesn’t occur to Audrey. She calls Nathan to give him the all-clear, but then a blue car comes speeding around the corner. It’s headed for Audrey, but Chris jumps in front of it and dies. The hell? He seriously came out of like nowhere. It’s almost comical how fast he jumps in front of Audrey. Was he circling the block or something?

Anyway, yeah, he dies saving Audrey’s life. I keep thinking he’s a total asshole, and then he does things like this. The twitchy man says, “I did this. I made you cross the street.” Audrey recognizes him as the man who was arguing in the school parking lot.

Then she wakes up again. She tearfully asks Chris to stay put, then rushes out to try to stop the cycle ““ again. At the school, Audrey approaches the twitchy guy ““ who we learn is named Hanson Shumway ““ who’s sitting in his car alone. Audrey learns that he was late to pick up his daughter, Jeannie, because he got trapped doing an OCD ritual at home. He’s worried because his ex is threatening to take away custody. His ex pulls up to bitch him out because it’s Jeannie’s birthday, and also because his ex is horrible. She accuses him of forgetting and calls him “neglectful.” Lady, he was late to her house. It’s not like he left her standing on a street corner at midnight or something. Damn. Audrey asks the ex if Jeannie wears green sneakers, but she doesn’t. Audrey turns away to yell at the kid on the bike about wearing a helmet, and Hanson takes the opportunity to speed away.

Again, Audrey catches Nathan up. She realizes that Hanson is the key: his guilt over failing his daughter is making him reset the day. Audrey grows despondent but Nathan reassures her that she won’t fail this time. They get a call saying Hanson used his credit card to buy green sneakers, presumably for Jeannie. Haven PD works fast. Audrey and Nathan realize that if they do succeed in stopping the cycle, Jeannie is the one who’s going to die.

Audrey thinks, for no reason, that this is her last chance to stop the reset. While Nathan tries to track down Jeannie (whose horrible mother isn’t answering her phone), Audrey finds Hanson and coaxes him into her car. She tries to explain to him that he keeps resetting the day. He tries to explain his OCD to her. Audrey tells him that if he can control it, he can keep Jeannie safe. At 11:49 AM, Audrey learns that Jeannie is at the ice cream shop with her mother and asks Hanson to stay put. She “predicts” the score of the Red Sox game on the radio to show that she’s telling the truth and tells Hanson that a car is going to kill someone at noon. She asks him to believe her. Audrey then takes the shoes while Hanson sits and struggles not to touch the radio knob.

Audrey delivers the sneakers and dials Hanson on speaker phone for Jeannie. He struggles with his compulsion to touch the radio knob while the phone rings and rings, but he’s finally able to pick up. He explains that he hasn’t been feeling well, and for a kid, Jeannie is surprisingly understanding and compassionate. Guess she didn’t get that from her mother. Hanson and Jeannie exchange I-love-yous. He tells her to be free, and says, “I know what I have to do to save everyone.”

Audrey goes running down the street to stop Hanson from putting himself in the path of a speeding (beige) car, but she’s too late. She begs the day to reset, but of course nothing happens.

Later, Nathan and Audrey learn about the driver, a confused old man who mixed up the brake and the accelerator, then got scared and fled the scene. The blue car was his wife’s, borrowed when his beige sedan was booted (which is why that particular accident happened a bit late). Audrey is very upset by Hanson’s death, believing she could have saved him if she’d just had one more chance. She thinks she failed. Nathan tells her, “You never fail me.” Then Chris fucking Brody shows up. Nathan steps aside. He takes pity on Duke and explains that Chris is troubled and Duke should look away from him if he wants to avoid a “man-crush.”

Chris is sorry about the man who died, but still pouting about the big day he had planned. Friend, it was a picnic, not a trip to Paris. He wants to take a rain check, but Audrey tells him she doesn’t get days off. “It’s been a really long day,” she sighs. She tells Chris to go to London and get his grant money. Chris kisses her goodbye (for good?) and leaves. The pathos is broken a bit when both Nathan and Duke studiously avoid looking at Chris. Audrey stands in the doorway, watching these three men. She and Duke exchange a look of some sort. Then Nathan looks, but Audrey isn’t standing in the doorway anymore. She’s outside, huddled and miserable. Poor Audrey.

On the bright side, though, this has been an entirely Evi-free episode!