Haven Episode 5.22 A Matter of Time

William and Nathan are still trapped inside a cave and Nathan's not doing so well. He's been stuck in The Void for too long. Damn that human body! Also, William is pinned under a rock but somehow he still has enough strength to be annoying. For some reason - maybe it's The Void air, or maybe it's a case of the denials -- William thought that Mara was still trapped inside of Audrey but not like, dead dead. Nathan clears this up for him -- Mara is D.E.A.D.

Off William's sad face, we find Duke and Audrey also looking sad because they know that without Hailie Nathan will be trapped inside The Void forever. Things take turn for the worse (again) when they find Hailie, and she's managed to impale herself on a gate. She's still alive, barely, and the despite the fact that Hailie's a brat, we feel bad for her.

At their wits end after Dave/Croatoan killed Boyd in the last episode, Vince and Dwight call in reinforcement in the form of Maddie "The Iron Maiden" from Season 5's "Much Ado About Mara". She successfully hypnotized Dave once before and helped him realize that he was somehow connected to the monster from the great beyond. This time around, Maddie tells Dave to imagine his "mind palace", a place where he feels safe and strong. The hope is that Dave will be able to find Croatoan in his safe space and then figure out what Croatoan's next move is, giving Dwight and Vince a head start. Sounds sweet, but Croatoan don't play that and promptly kills Maddie. Even worse is that Croatoan made Vince and Dwight lose time, so they didn't even see him coming. Meanwhile, Dave is still somewhere in la la land...

Back in The Void's grotto, William continues to be in denial about Mara, so Nathan fills him in on Charlotte's visit to Haven, how she chose Audrey over Mara and how Mara only wanted to rescue William from The Void so that she could find his stash of aether. We're finally able to move on when aether, The Void's gross national product, starts oozing from the walls of the cave. With William pinned under a rock and Nathan struggling to stay alive, William proposes that he give Nathan a new Trouble; a Trouble that will keep Nathan alive so that he can help rescue them both from the cave. Nathan doesn't trust William and neither do we, but really what choice does he have? He can either die listening to William talk or get a brand new Trouble. Decisions, decisions.

Back in Haven, Duke asks Hailie to use her power one last time to open up a thinny and save Nathan. Hailie has been pretty unreasonable since she showed up this season so the fact that she tells Duke that she'd rather die impaled on a gate instead of saving Haven doesn't surprise us much. Audrey proposes, in the nicest way possible, that Duke kill Hailie and use his Crocker family curse to absolve the Trouble and create a thinny. And despite the circumstances we side with Duke, who's feeling used again.

Over in Dave's mind space, which has a Twilight Zone feel, Dave has a chat with the evil voice of Croatoan. Off their disturbing discussion Dave learns that: Croatoan's been using his body as a host between worlds because Dave is a Halfling; but now that Croaton's gained a boat load of strength by killing Troubled people, he's ready to pour out of Dave's body and into the world on his own, soon.

Meanwhile, on the other side of hypnosis, Dwight and Vince are at each other's throats and there's a pistol on the floor that's pointing towards Dave. But, why? What? Apparently, Dave has been multi-tasking. While fighting off Croatoan in his mind, he also managed to leave a message on Dwight's phone, urging Vince to shoot him in order to kill Croatoan, who's inside of him. It's a lot to take in and understandably Dwight and Vince don't know if it's Croatoan who's messing with them or if it really is Dave trying to send them a message from the other side.

For a brief moment Dave comes back from his hypnosis to tell the guys everything that he's seen. During the retelling, Dave realizes that he saw a bunch of clocks on the wall of his mind palace and that's how Croatoan has been causing everyone to lose time. Dave theorizes that if he can travel back to his mind palace and destroy the clocks, then it'll be a win for the team. Vince looks worried.

Later, Duke and Hailie make amends and Duke puts her out of her misery and absorbs her Trouble. He doesn't like it, but then he realizes that it's a part of his destiny and he has to stop running from it.

And speaking of destiny, a sickly Nathan decides to put his fate and some aether into William's hand. William gives thanks by bringing one of his goons, the aptly named "Heavy", back to life. Heavy unpins William and then chokes Nathan. Great.

Nathan talks his way out of the situation by telling William that Mara slept with Duke and used him as her puppet, just like she once used William. This pushes the right buttons and William calls off his goon. On the other side, Duke is putting his newly absorbed Trouble to use and creates a thinny. William lets Nathan leave as a way to defy what Mara would have wanted him to do. As a mea culpa, Nathan gives William one of the magic rings so that William can hitch a ride back to his dimension.

Just as Nathan comes out of The Void... Dave decides to go back into his mind palace to destroy the clocks. Vince reluctantly obliges Dave's decision and uses Maddie's hypnosis device to send his little brother back to into an unfair fight. When he gets back to his subconscious, Dave takes a golf club to the clocks and has words with Croatoan who ...kills Dave.

As we collectively weep with Vince, Dave's head pops up and his eyes open and we think for just a moment that maybe...possibly...but then all hope is lost when we hear the evil voice of Croatoan saying, "It's time." Faster than we can ask, "Time for what?" a tornado of aether comes out of Dave's mouth and into Haven. After the dust bowl of Croatoan exists the building Dwight and Vince notice that Dave has something carved into his arm, a final message of warning -- Croatoan is coming for Audrey.