seaoftroubles | Sins of the Fathers preplay

Danny arrives, maybe just in time for Audrey to realize that Duke is gone. She fills him in on the strange marks, the probable missing persons, and the ghost trouble. Nathan arrives to give them a ride to the gravedigger's house to interrogate him, perhaps Danny notices the paint on the gravedigger's wife's hand instead of Audrey, and he and Audrey play confused tourists together while Nathan waits in the car? They tail her into the woods, where the Rev's people have gathered with the kidnapped troubled people.

The Rev's people are heavily armed, with rifles and pistols. A group of people make molotov cocktails by a collection of gas cans. Two men with rifles guard the doors to a shed, while another set pull an unconscious young man out of the back of a van, keeping him quiet with chloroform. They put him into the shed with several other bound, unconscious people. They're troubled. The Xs marked the homes of the kidnapping victims. They're clearly planning to burn the shed down.

Before the cops can decide to take action, the Rev walks out of the woods, with Duke on his tail. Audrey can't see the Rev, but Danny and Nathan can. All Audrey sees is Duke arguing with empty air.

The Rev's men manage to get the drop on the cops, disarming them, and forcing them into the open.

Duke sees the troubled people in the shed and accuses the Rev of being insane, declares that he's going to stop them. The Rev says that he's here to "save" them. One of his men forces a knife into Duke's hands, which he brandishes at anyone who comes near him, including Audrey when she's led right up behind him. Audrey's shocked. Nathan accuses him of working with the Rev. Duke denies it and drops the knife.

The troubled gravedigger is the one holding the gun to Audrey. Nathan tries to tell him not to listen to the Rev, and Audrey tells him that he's troubled. Kyle tries to deny it, and Duke's dad appears, telling Duke that this is the way it always goes when people realize they're cursed. The gravedigger's pregnant wife is clearly horrified. The Rev points to Duke as the person who can save the gravedigger and his family.

Duke tries to refuse. Someone shoves a knife into his hands again. Duke clearly struggles with the decision as both the Rev and his father urge him to use his trouble to "save" the gravedigger's unborn child, and the gravedigger begs him to help. Audrey tells him not to do it, and the Rev calls her a liar.

That's the last straw. Duke shakes his head. She's his friend!

Duke's father tells him that Audrey's previous incarnations killed his grandfather, killed him. That Audrey will kill Duke. Duke turns away, still in denial, and the gravedigger takes the chance to run up and grab Duke's hand, forcing him to stab him in the stomach.

Duke can't do anything but stare as the gravedigger collapses to the ground. And THANKS HIM.

With the kill complete, the Crocker trouble doesn't come with the same side-effects. His eyes go silver, but he doesn't need super strength. There's not adrenaline rush or high. He's just shocked. He meets Nathan's eyes as Nathan stares back at him, clearly distrustful.

The ghosts get in some last enigmatic lines as they fade out with the dying gravedigger's trouble. Lots of comments about how Nathan and Duke are on opposite sides and will have to kill each other, all while Nathan and Duke stare at each other trying not to have feelings. It's super deep, yo. And extremely weird.

The gravedigger dies. The ghosts vanish. Audrey grabs her gun and shouts that EVERYONE THERE IS UNDER ARREST DAMMIT!

Nathan and Audrey have a bunch of paperwork to process, but also a date to prepare for! Yay! Duke goes back to his boat, Danny following along yelling, probably, and gets out a big ass bottle of booze to try and drink his feelings. He and Danny maybe have a heart to heart about killing in the line of duty? The ways it fucks with your head. How to avoid it as best as possible. Duke starts to calm down, says that he just wants to get back to Fandom, but Haven behind him again. Danny gets up to use the bathroom? I feel like he should be out of the way a little when Nathan barges in. Nathan barges in, demanding to know what Duke's done with Audrey. Duke's all "WTF WHAT DO YOU MEAN AUDREY'S GONE??" and they fight. Danny hears the ruckus, comes rushing back out to find Duke prone on the floor with Nathan standing above him, pointing his gun in Duke's face. Duke's reaching for the gun he keeps taped under the galley table, but is too busy staring at the fresh new tattoo on the inside of Nathan's arm to actually grab it.

And the season ends with an exterior shot of the boat along with a gun shot, because this show is the woooooooorst!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

betterthanaplan

The noise Duke made was halfway between a laugh and a sob. “I don’t know where it is.” He picked up his drink again. “I fucked things up with Octavia. Lucifer’s — gone. Nathan and Audrey both think I’ve gone off the deep end. I don’t know where to go.”

From:

hatesparadise

"You gotta focus on you here," Danny said with a plaintive look. "You're ripping at the seams. You know that, right? Focusing on everyone else isn't gonna help you feel better."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke scoffed. "Focusing on myself is how I ended up married to Evi."

He was not the best decision maker, no.

From:

hatesparadise

"No, that's still focusing on someone else."

From:

betterthanaplan

"It is not! I left Haven, went sailing off around the world doing . . . things. . . . And got married to a hot con-woman for shits and giggles. That's totally selfish."

From:

hatesparadise

Danny rolled his eyes at 'things' because c'mon now.

"And yet you're still defining yourself with her," he pointed out. "Selfish, yeah. Maybe. That's not the same as focusing on you. That's just more avoidance."

From:

betterthanaplan

Like he could think clearly enough for more plausible deniability right now.

"She's dead," he said, looking out the porthole again. "You know that? Got shot by one of the Rev's men. For trying to help me figure out what they wanted from me."

From:

hatesparadise

"Duke, I'm sorry." In the middle of all the bad blood with Rachel, something like that would have gutted him.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Still almost listened to the bastard about killing that guy," Duke said. He let out a sharp laugh and took another swig of his drink. "Maybe I have gone off the deep end."

From:

hatesparadise

"Or maybe you've run yourself into the ground and just a break," Danny said, bringing it back to his original point here.

From:

betterthanaplan

"You know, I said something like that to Audrey once. That she needed to learn how to 'clock out'." He shook his head. "Troubles don't take breaks."

It was possible that he literally didn't know how to properly center himself in a conversation. Claire had been banging her head against this kind of thing for weeks.

From:

hatesparadise

"Life doesnt take a break, no," Danny agrees. "But you wanna get shit together and find something stable? You have to do that. I can't do it for you, no one can. You have to want it."

Advice that could apply to probably a lot of people.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Man, I'm not sure I'm even sure what stable looks like."

He lived on a boat, Danny.

He finally managed to take another bite of that taco, at least.

"I should just -- head back to Fandom. Even if Octavia and Lucifer are gone. Lived there now longer than anywhere else since I was a kid. It's probably the closest to 'stable' I'm going to get."

From:

hatesparadise

"Wanna know some advice my pop gave me?" As Danny was possibly the only person who came from a healthy, stable home environment. On the whole island maybe.

From:

betterthanaplan

"If it doesn't involve murder or two-dollar hookers, it'll already be better than anything mine ever told me," Duke said. "Shoot."

From:

hatesparadise

Danny was graciously letting that one slide. "You can't build your foundations on other people. They can help you, but they can't be all that holds you up."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke let that sink in for a long moment, thoughtfully chewing his taco.

"You'd think that'd be easier for a guy who couldn't count on anyone but himself for most of his life," he mused, then set the taco down again and rubbed his hand down his face with a long sigh.

"Something I've been figuring out lately. About -- relationships with people. I'm kinda." He waved his hand around his temple, not quite the full gesture for 'crazy'. "I'm not good at halfway. Like . . . I'm either all-in, folding myself in half for people, or I'm the dickhead who doesn't think about other people at all."

Edited Date: 2020-10-16 06:38 pm (UTC)

From:

hatesparadise

Look at him being emotionally aware!

"Well, there's the thing to work on."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke gave him a little smirk. "I should introduce you to Claire while you're here. She's Haven's trouble therapist. You'd love her."

She was the one who'd helped him figure out the all-or-nothing thing.

From:

hatesparadise

"Thanks, I've got a shrink on this coast again," Danny replied dryly. "Finish your food and then we can discuss meeting your shrink. I gotta freshen up after getting held hostage by crazy cultists. Again."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Yeah, man, that's fair." He twisted in his seat and pointed down the galley. "Head's through there, on the right. Have a ball."

From:

hatesparadise

"If I'm spending the night, you better have a spare room!" Danny called back as he went to go investigate.

From:

betterthanaplan

"They're called cabins!" Duke replied, and settled back with a smirk.

Which quickly faded as he sipped his bourbon, and his thoughts wandered back to . . . everything.

He looked up with a frown as Nathan came storming into the galley.

"Where is she?" Nathan all but growled.

Duke stood. That look on Nathan's face had never boded well for him. "Where's who?"

"Audrey." Nathan stalked towards him, murder in his eyes. "What did you do with her?!"

"She's missing?" One of these days Duke would stop feeling like he was playing catch-up, right? "Nathan, I swear, I didn't do anything to her."

"You were in her apartment."

"No. I wasn't."

Nathan pulled something from his pocket. It was Duke's whistle, the leather string it hung from broken like it'd been yanked off. Duke swallowed and started backing up.

"Now think," he said. Nathan threw the whistle aside, and Duke backed up faster. "Think. Why would I hurt Audrey?"

"You got five seconds," Nathan said, his hand landing on the butt of his pistol. Duke looked away with a snort. "Four." Nathan pulled the gun from its holster and stepped closer.

"Nathan, if I was going to hurt her —"

"Three."

"— I would have been waiting for you." Duke took a chance and grabbed for the gun. There was a short tussle as they struggled for the gun, and then Nathan managed to swing Duke around and throw him to the floor. Duke reached for the pistol he kept taped under the galley table even as Nathan aimed his own for Duke's head.

Duke froze. There was something on the inside of Nathan's left forearm, something that hadn't been there before.

A fresh tattoo. Of a maze. With little people at all the compass points.

When you die, it'll be because I killed you myself.

Looked like Duke's time had come. Figured it'd be because someone decided to frame him.

He swallowed, staring up at Nathan in confusion. Nathan scowled back.

"I'm done counting."

From:

hatesparadise

You know what? Danny knew Wo Fat and you were still the most needlessly dramatic idiot around, Nathan. Still.

"Weapons down," Danny said, aiming his gun at Nathan with the most annoyed expression possible. "Now."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Stay out of this." Nathan turned that death glare on Danny next. "Audrey is --"

Duke gave up on reaching for the pistol under the table and just grabbed for Nathan's again while he was distracted. Nathan jerked away, sending the gun across the room, and jabbed his elbow at Duke instead. Duke blocked him and rolled to his feet, only to get grabbed by the collar and shoved back into the stove. He came back swinging.

The two of them were the same height, similar build. And they'd been fighting with each other since they were children. They knew all each other's moves, and had counters for all of them.

But Nathan couldn't feel it when Duke hit, and Duke was only trying to buy himself some distance while Nathan was still intent on taking Duke down.

Edited Date: 2020-10-16 08:31 pm (UTC)