Sunday, September 23, 2012

Haven: Season 3, Episode 1: 301




 A brand new series of Haven is starting – time to see if we get more meta, or more Troubled of the Week

Last season ended with 2 cliffhangers. Audrey being tasered and kidnapped by someone. And Nathan pointing a gun at Duke – and then we heard a gunshot. You’ll be utterly shocked, shocked to know that Nathan did not shoot Duke. Yes, I am completely surprised by this unforeseen turn of events, honest. Nathan and Duke wrestle over the gun and begin fighting. Nathan has the upperhand because he doesn’t feel any pain – but the minute a drop of his blood lands on Duke, his eyes go all swirly and grey – and he gets his super strength, allowing him to knock Nathan across the room.

Before more fighting can happen, everything metallic, including the gun they were reaching for, sticks to the ceiling. Ah, Haven. Always with something new. Both being pretty sure that this particular Trouble isn’t THEIR Trouble, they go back to discussing Audrey. As a show of good faith, when all the metal drops, Duke hands the gun to Nathan, insisting that he isn’t the same as his murdering father and grandfather.

The flying metal seems to have hit across town in a line – and Dwight the cleaner is already around, covering it up, blaming it on mundane excuses when Nathan and Duke tell him Audrey has been abducted – and another police officer tells Nathan another woman has been taken too.

Vince (my favourite character still) and Dave are still at odds – and Dwight even asks Vince is Dave may be behind Audrey’s abduction – which shows again how little we know about these characters (answers! I want answers!)

Nathan and Duke (I love how Duke gets to play road trip with the police so often) go to question the son of the missing woman at the Altair Bay Inn – and find Wesley who is eager to tell them about alien abductions – then run off on a bike when they don’t believe him.


Under the Inn Audrey is tied up in a warehouse somewhere, being hit by a silhouetted man with a disguised voice who wants her to tell him about the Colorado Kid. She tells him she never met him, that he died 27 years ago and she only saw a picture – he doesn’t believe her and he claims he also cared for the Colorado Kid. Through the wall, Audrey hears the other kidnapped woman, Rosalind and, after calming her down, finds out she was asked about the Colorado Kid too since he stayed at her inn years ago.

Nathan and Duke can’t chase the guy on the bike because their engine dies. As do all the phones. While trying to fix the truck they have an argument about Nathan being a lovesick puppy and Nathan tells Duke he can feel Audrey – right before an invisible force grabs Nathan by the ankles and drags him through the brush until they reach a perfect circle in the weeds and grass – with odd symbols inside it. Surrounded by many other circles just like it. That’s when the UFO shows up – a shiny metal ball – and plunges into the ground near the inn. Aliens? That’s a bit weird even for Haven.

Nathan, Duke, Vince and Dave check Wesley’s house after catching him and find lots and lots of UFO articles from less than reputable sources – but all of the events they described just happened in Haven. They suspect that Wesley may be Troubled and he is manifesting his fears and obsessions about aliens – which is worrisome considering 2 that haven’t happened yet – lights in the sky, and an entire enclave being destroyed.

The explosive impact did one thing useful – knocking over an oil lamp where Audrey is tied up. She extinguishes the fire and, using a shard of the broken glass, manages to cut her ropes while talking to Rosalind about her memories and how hard it is to distract herself from the cuts. But when she is freed, Rosalind has been taken somewhere by their kidnapper. She managed to find a phone and call Nathan, telling him where they are and that Rosalind is with them – and maybe if you show Wesley Rosalind hasn’t been kidnapped it will avert his Trouble – especially as lights have appeared in the sky.

They rush to the inn and meet Audrey – first Duke then Nathan (she goes to hug Nathan which I think is supposed to be a “look she chose Nathan not Duke” moment). They know the kidnapper is around – and hear something outside. They rush out to see… a body, with Rosalind’s prosthetic leg, burning.  They can’t convince Wesley that he’s Troubled and there are no aliens –  meaning the mothership arrives to do its mass destruction. Audrey desperately tries to convince Wesley that he’s Troubled. He can’t stop believing but Nathan points out Wesley’s grandfather, who was supposedly abducted by aliens, probably had the same Trouble and he didn’t destroy the town. Nathan convinces Wesley to go to the spaceship, to join his grandfather on board – he walks into the light and it all disappears.

Which creates a moral quandary that Duke confronts him with. Nathan was adamantly against Duke killing Wesley – but hasn’t Nathan done the same thing? Made him crawl aboard a ship that doesn’t exist? Nathan clings to the idea that when the Troubles are over he may be able to come back – and he confronts Duke with his willingness to kill, like his father and his grandfather. Those 2 are never going to get along.

And Audrey confronts Vince and Dave – she wants more answers. Is the Colorado Kid alive and did he love Lucy – or she when she was Lucy? Vince says they don’t know the second and as to the first he buried the Colorado Kid himself. Audrey demands to see the grave and Vince and Dave agree to put aside their differences until they find Audrey’s kidnapper – and why he knows so much. And guess which grave is empty? Yes – the Colorado Kid’s body. The coffin is weighted with bricks and on the bottom of the coffin is written “find him before the hunter”. In Audrey’s handwriting. Now there’s a mystery that fits so well with the amnesia.

Bonus mystery – forensics says Rosalind had been dead 4 hours in the fire, even though Audrey heard her talk an hour before.



So new season – and lots of mysteries. The tattoos, Audrey’s memories, the Colorado Kid finally becoming important and relevant, a missing body, Nathan and Duke on the morality question and Vince and Dave, as ever, guarding so many secrets.

If it can only keep up this pace of mystery, I’ll be extremely happy.