‘Haven’ 2.04 Recap: “You Got Electrocuted by a Credenza”

This past Friday’s episode of ‘Haven’ featured guest roles from both former ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ heartthrob Jason Priestley and WWE wrestler Adam “Edge” Copeland. Gosh, how much star power can one little cable series take?

From the title ‘Sparks and Recreation’ alone, you should be able to glean what the case-of-the-week is going to be. That’s right, one of the town’s “Troubled” has the power to manipulate electricity. Actually, there are two powers at work this week. Beloved Mayor Brody can brainwash anyone in his vicinity into adoring him and agreeing with every word he says. He has played this for much political advantage. The only person in town not affected, of course, is Audrey. Everyone else falls to fawning adulation at his feet.

A freak electrical storm at a Little League game sends the umpire to the hospital. While speaking to the press, the mayor is electrocuted through his microphone. The two events are obviously related. When she notices that the mayor’s power of persuasion has fallen to his bitter, grouchy son Chris (Priestley), Audrey naturally suspects him as the culprit. It turns out, however, that Chris doesn’t want people to love him. He’s quite annoyed by it, in fact. He just wants to be left the hell alone.

Further attacks, including one at the mayor’s wake, lead Audrey to a nurse at the hospital, with whom the mayor was having an affair. She’s the one with the power over electricity, and she’s having trouble controlling it. Manipulating her is the mayor’s own wife, who wanted her cheating husband dead.

After the Little League game, “Edge” shows up as a mysterious guy named Dwight, who used to be the sheriff’s “cleaner.” Remember Mr. Wolf in ‘Pulp Fiction’? Same deal. He cleans up after Troubled events, and makes them go away. Now he’s more or less appointed himself to work for Nathan, whether Nathan wants him or not.

I don’t know about this Edge guy. He’s not a terrible actor, I suppose. I mean, he delivers all of his lines without blatantly reading them off cue cards, which is better than many other WWE stars. But he doesn’t look like an actor. He looks like a wrestler pretending to be an actor. He just seems awkwardly out of place.

Both Edge and Priestley appear to be set up to have recurring roles in the series. We’ll see how that works out.

While Audrey and Nathan are dealing with the electrical problem, Duke returns to the island with the vanishing cabin and digs up an old placard that reads: “Town of Hayven, Rasmussen House.” I guess that’s supposed to have something to do with the long-hidden origins of the town. I’m not sure what yet. Later, Duke and ex-wife Evi go snooping around in the basement of the town wine shop and find a jewelry box hidden behind the wall. Inside is inscribed “Love Conquers All” in Latin. On top, Duke’s last name “Crocker” can only be seen under certain light. Duke hasn’t noticed that yet, because he was too busy having make-up sex with Evi.

Honestly, ‘Sparks and Recreation’ is kind of a lame episode. The visual effects for the electrical surges are incredibly cheesy, the case-of-the-week isn’t all that interesting, and I’m bored to tears with any storyline involving Duke. I already miss Audrey II. That mystery livened up the show. I hope the series finds something else to fill that void.

1 comment

  1. Bryan

    I’m definitely not a fan of wrestlers turned actors (with The Rock being an exception to the rule), but I kind of thought that “Edge” did a pretty decent job. Besides – I somehow just find it incredibly amusing that the town of Haven has/needs a “cleaner.” 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *