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In the police station (AKA Laverne), Audrey and Nathan stand with guns at the ready, pointed at a wall that shouldn't be there. Vicky recreates the aether core in pencil on paper as Gloria provides moral support.
Vicky finishes the drawing, but before they can fold the paper to fix the core, Duke has found them. Nathan aims his gun as Duke walks towards them.
“Duke, stop! Don’t make me shoot.”
Even though Duke probably has a Trouble or two that would render the bullets harmless, Nathan knows he should still shoot; it might slow Duke down just long enough to let the others get away. He aims the gun, but he looks at Duke and his heart breaks a little and he just can’t pull the trigger.
Instead he shouts at the others, “Go!”
They run from the room as Duke pushes Nathan out of the way and heads after them. Laverne tries to slow him down, but there’s only so much she can do. Duke pushes a desk out of his way; it trips Vicky over and she drops the drawing of the core. When Duke tears the paper in two, the core crumbles to dust in Audrey’s hand; useless.
“I always liked your Trouble Vicky,” says Duke and his eyes turn black as he sets his sights on taking it from her. But Audrey and Nathan stand in his way.
“Are you going to tell me how much I mean to you? How we’re family? Hundreds and hundreds of your little speeches ... You must have something special in your bag of trick for me.”
But Audrey doesn’t rise to the bait. “I’m not going to beg for our lives, Duke.”
It is so hard for her to see him like this. Even knowing it isn’t really Duke saying these things, it’s hard to hear them. But it’s true; they had asked too much of him. She had to take responsibility for that.
“When we found out about the Crocker family curse I used it as a tool to stop the Troubles because that’s what I was sent here to do. But I didn’t think about how much it was going to hurt you. You were fighting your destiny, and if left alone you might have even won. But I didn’t know that and I set you on that path. And for that I am truly sorry.” She puts her heart into her words the way she always does, but this time it’s more personal that most. Not yet sure if she is getting through to him, she has his attention at least.
“I know how it feels, to be fighting to be the person that you want to be. I am so tired. But I can’t give up, because when I look in the mirror, I only see me. The person that I truly am; the only person that I want to be.”
She is stepping closer to him and Nathan tenses as Duke flexes his fingers around the knife in his hand, but he’s still listening to her. He is hanging on her every word.
“So tell me Duke; when you look in the mirror, when no one else is around; who, are, you?”
For a moment nothing happens. He reaches for her and no one breathes. She feels Nathan nervous behind her, but somehow she isn’t scared.
And then the knife finally drops from Duke’s hand as the blackness fades from his eyes and he answers the question. “I’m Duke Crocker, and I just wanna go back to being a pirate.”
Relieved, Audrey holds him close and he returns the hug, looking over her shoulder to lock eyes with Nathan. Nathan looks back; relieved, happy; almost proud. Then a thought something like “Ah, fuck it,” flits across his face and he takes two long steps forward to wrap his arms around both of them, his forehead against Duke’s as he holds them.
“I knew you could beat him,” he says before letting them go and taking half a step back.
“Yeah, not soon enough,” says Duke as he turns in frustration to look at Vicky’s torn drawing on the floor.
They stay close together as they talk about Croatoan, Duke ready to go after him and Nathan and Audrey keen to keep Duke away; to do everything they can now, to keep him safe. They stand close, Audrey with a hand on his arm, Nathan with a hand on the other shoulder. They do not want to let him go.
But then he jerks away from them, in pain. “He knows. Croatoan’s taking the Troubles; I can’t stop him.”
No one else can stop him either. No one has any idea how.
“There’s got to be something that we can do,” says Audrey, desperate.
“There is,” says Duke firmly. “You have to kill me.”
Audrey can’t believe her ears and is desperately searching for alternative ideas, but there aren’t any. Nathan feels his heart sink. He had wanted to kill Duke in the past it was true. But not any more, not after everything they had gone through for each other. Not the way he knew him now.
“No, Duke. I can’t.”
Duke makes his case pretty forcefully, but still no one moves. No one is willing to agree with him. No one wants to kill him and no one wants him to die.
“I have to choose my destiny. I have to show Croatoan that Duke Crocker is nobody’s bitch.”
Nathan searches desperately for a counter to Duke’s arguments, an alternative plan, something. But he starts to realise that there isn’t anything. That perhaps they don’t have any choice.
“You have no idea, the horrible Troubles that I have taken inside of me. And if I let Croatoan get them then he wins. That’s not my destiny. That’s not me!”
If Duke died now, he would at least be able to take back the control that Croatoan had stripped from him; he would at least die as himself.
“I know,” says Nathan at last. “Everything’s going to be alright.”
Duke turns in frustration as another Trouble flies from him and Nathan steps forward to grab him from behind, wrapping his arm and hand around his throat and mouth. They fall back onto the table and Duke doesn’t struggle. Nathan keeps expecting basic animal instinct to kick in and set Duke fighting against him, but it doesn’t happen. He just puts one hand on Nathan’s arm, unfelt fingers flexing in the corner of Nathan’s eye.
Audrey walks up to them and takes Duke’s other hand in hers, wrapping all ten fingers around his. We see their hands pressed tight together as she looks down at him.
“Hey, Duke. It’s gonna be OK, alright. We love you.”
Duke looks at her and their hands squeeze together.
“You’re the bravest man I ever met, Duke Crocker. You always have been,” Nathan tells him. “So much we’ve done together. So much we couldn’t have done without you. I owe you so much. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to repay that debt.”
Duke turns his eyes from Audrey, trying almost to look around at Nathan, but he only gets as far as the Guard tattoo on Nathan’s arm before his eyes close.
His hand finally falls from Nathan’s arm, and Audrey lets the other hand go as it turns to a dead weight in hers. Duke’s gone.
-
Dwight, desperate to keep his daughter and under the belief that there is now no way to use it to build a new barn, agrees to give the controller crystal to Croatoan.
-
Nathan is still refusing the offer of a new life outside the shroud with an aether copy of Audrey. Croatoan, annoyed by Duke’s decision to “walk away from greatness” and frustrated by Nathan’s refusal to co-operate, lies to him as he will lie to Audrey and sends Nathan away.
“Isn’t this what you want?” he tells Audrey as he tries to convince her Nathan chose to go. “Nathan’s far away from the terrible dangers he would have faced. Once we begin our experiments, things will become volatile.”
“I’m not helping you,” says Audrey.
But Croatoan is still convinced he can manipulate her into doing what he wants; that he can control her and that he can change her mind. He sees nothing wrong in forcing agreement from her and he doesn’t intend to stop until he has it.
“This is what you were meant to do. Nathan abandoned you, but not me. Your life is with me now.”
-
While Nathan battles with a feeling of unease outside the shroud, Audrey is talking to Vince about the controller crystal and Croatoan’s determination to get his hands on it.
Audrey goes to see Croatoan, as Dwight faces the Guard’s bullets on his way towards them.
“You’re a bastard,” Audrey tells the man who thinks he can control the whole town.
“At this point I’d argue I’m a saint,” he replies, mystified.
“We’re not giving you what you want,” she says to the sound of gunfire from outside. “You may have broken Dwight, you may have gotten rid of Nathan, but there are still people here who are willing to fight.”
Croatoan and Audrey follow Dwight and the crystal into the old armoury, where Dwight springs the trap by throwing the crystal to Vince who creates a new barn around them. Croatoan is momentarily thrown, but his unwillingness to power it means the new barn fails. When it and Vince fade from view, Croatoan sends Dwight away, grabs the controller crystal from the floor and sets the hole in the sky raining more aether down on the town. “I will force you to use aether on these people,” he tells Audrey, “You will remember who you are.”
Audrey agrees to help him use the aether to get back at the people who banished him from his home, provided that he leaves Haven in peace. While she is prepared to leave with him to save the town, she wonders whether she will have a chance to use the aether to power the new barn herself. At her father’s instruction, she starts to pull the aether rain into the old armoury.
Audrey’s copy brings Nathan back inside the shroud and he remembers everything. Before she fades away, he tells her ‘Thank you,’ and she replies ‘We love you,’ as though it is the most obvious thing in the world and all the explanation needed. Nathan finally realises in that moment exactly how much he means to Audrey and exactly what her love for him is.
Dwight and Duke arrive. “Duke?” asks Nathan incredulous, looking around at the empty coastline.
As Dwight and Duke talk, Nathan tries to follow the conversation from the half he can hear, following Dwight’s gaze to the spot Duke apparently seems to be, willing himself to see what Dwight can, believing it to be possible, believing anything to be possible in this crazy town. And then he hears an echo of Duke’s voice, He has to go to her now.
“He wants me to tell you Audrey’s in the old armoury,” says Dwight. “She needs you.”
Nathan looks back towards the coastline again, willing his eyes to see. Slowly at first, a person-sized black shape coalesces into Duke Crocker. Nathan is amazed and relieved, happy to see him, but his faces clouds over as he starts to talk. “Duke, I ... I'm so sorry …”
It’s OK, Nathan. Duke’s disembodied voice says. It doesn’t matter now. You have to go to Audrey; she needs you.
Nathan looks Duke in the eye one last time. There’s so much more he could say but really, all the words in the world wouldn’t be enough. Finally he nods an acknowledgement. “Thank you,” he says.
Duke makes a little nod of the head back. Go, he says, hurry.
-
Nathan arrives at the armoury as Audrey is pulling more and more aether into the building. She is overjoyed and relieved to see him. “You didn’t leave me,” she says as they hug. Croatoan is dismayed and angry that he is back, hardly able to believe that Nathan would return to this place when he didn’t need to.
In a rage at his plans being disrupted, Croatoan takes some of the aether still floating above them and hurls it at Audrey. Nathan steps in front of her and the aether hits him, leaving him dead on the floor.
Croatoan is stunned that Nathan would do such a thing and tries to deflect Audrey’s anger. “He did it to himself.” When she tells him to fix Nathan he is mystified, “Why?” he asks.
“Because I love him. Because he loves me. He is my family. You say that you would do all of this for me, that you would sacrifice for me. But everything you have done, you have done for yourself. You want to talk about my potential; it is here, with Nathan. I have found someone who loves me, who would do anything for me.”
“I would do anything for you,” Croatoan replies.
“Really,” Audrey says, disbelieving. “You would give your life for me. Like Nathan. Like Duke? Would you do that, Dad?” she asks, but it is a challenge more than a question. Croatoan falters in the face of her anger and they both realise that he wouldn’t. He is not up to the challenge.
She shouts in anger and makes to charge towards him, but he reaches out a hand to freeze her. He seems shaken, concerned and truly unsure of himself for the first time. He is realising perhaps that these people have a love for Audrey that he doesn’t. Nathan’s willingness to give up a life of happiness for her, and to die for her; Dwight’s willingness to risk his daughter, and his own life; Duke’s refusal to be controlled, and determination to give his life to protect his friends. All of these things help Croatoan to see not only what self-determination means to these people, but how much they want to use it to help Audrey Parker and this little town called Haven. He doesn’t have that in him, he realises. He had seen their actions as cowardly and foolish, but now he realises they were all walking not away from greatness, but towards it.
He steps past Audrey to Nathan’s body lying on the floor, bringing his hands together and then pushing them apart to set Nathan’s body glowing in lines from the inside out. He starts to walk back to Audrey, then seems to think of something else. He moves a few steps away and closes his eyes, concentrating, then repeats the same movements with his hands.
-
The morgue is full of loosely-covered bodies. Near the door, one glows in lines from the inside. With a sudden breath in, it sits up and then Duke is pulling the cloth from off of him. He looks around surprised and then stops, apparently waiting for what might happen next. After a moment when nothing does, he stands up and makes his way out of the building.
Back in the armoury, Croatoan is unfreezing Audrey and showing her a recovered Nathan. They are relieved and as they hug, a shaken Croatoan says, “You’re right. I would not die for you like Nathan, or like Duke. But I will leave for you. I will power the barn and end your Troubles forever.”
It’s not that simple of course. Vince tells them now that Croatoan isn’t enough; the barn needs love that he doesn’t have. Audrey will have to go with him. But she will leave love behind her as well. Nathan will hold onto her love for the rest of his life, more sure of its meaning now than ever.
Nathan and Audrey say their touching goodbyes.
“I’m sorry. I wanted us to have more time.”
“The trick will be in being thankful for the time we had. You are an amazing person, Audrey Parker. I never felt anything until I met you. You saved me. I will think about you every minute of every hour of every day; and that’s why I’ll be OK.”
Nathan walks to the bottom of the armoury steps and Audrey goes inside to stand with Vince and her father. Vince takes the crystal and we see aether leaving Nathan, Marion Caldwell and Troubled people all over town. As more and more aether streams up into the sky we see Duke, on his way to the armoury, suddenly stumble as aether starts streaming out of him. He looks up to see it join the trail in the sky and realises something different is happening than when Croatoan was pulling Troubles out of him one by one.
Nathan stands at the bottom of the steps and watches as the armoury starts to implode. As it does, we see Duke running up the road behind him, just in time to see the last of the aether vanish with the old building.
-
It’s a month later and Stan, back in police uniform, is giving Nathan a summary of the day’s issues. But Nathan just smiles at the news, “Cats in trees, Stan; cats in trees.”
Laverne tells Nathan that Gloria is looking for him and when he speaks to her she says the Troubled DNA marker is gone; the Troubles won’t be coming back. Vicky has a drawing of Audrey for him and Gloria has some wise words about keeping her memory alive.
Then she asks him, “Have you heard from Duke?”
“A postcard from Thailand. I don't think he'll be back in Haven for a while.”
“I can't understand that,” she replies.
-
On an empty and exotic looking beach, Duke flows through the final few moves of a yoga routine, coming to stand upright, his hands in prayer position in front of him, eyes closed as he takes a deep breath in and out. He opens his eyes then and looks out across the beautiful view in front of him. He looks serene and relaxed and we see the smallest smile start to tug at the corners of his mouth.
-
On his way to meet Dwight, Nathan stops to check out a car on the side of the road. He knocks on the window and there she is, just like the first time they met.
“Parker?”
“I didn’t ‘park her’ as much as I ‘broke her’, but …”
Except it's not the same of course. She is not the same person. But then, he realises as he feels his heart try to beat its way out of his chest, neither is he.
Even so, he has to take a breath when he's hidden from view trying to look at the engine. He'd like to be able to fix it, but there's no way he can concentrate.
Can he really be this lucky? The Troubles are gone, he reminds himself; Gloria checked, she just told me. He presses his hands against the metal, feeling the smooth, cold surface against his skin. He can feel the car; the Troubles are gone. This is something different. The Troubles are gone, it's over, it's over.
“Can I at least buy you breakfast?” she asks him. “Do you like pancakes?”
Or maybe, he thinks as they grin at each other, it's just the beginning afterall.