HAVEN |
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Audrey Parker - Emily Rose Duke Crocker - Eric Balfour Nathan Wournos - Lucas Bryant Dave Teagues - John Dunsworth Vince Teagues - Richard Donat William - Colin Ferguson Jennifer Mason - Emma Lahana 
OTHER SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 5 OTHER ODD PLACES Eureka Roswell Point Pleasant Eastwick
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FALLOUTDuke falls out of the disintegrating barn to find that he has been missing for six months and Nathan is bare knuckle fighting to raise cash to find Audrey. They return to Haven to find the Troubles have not gone away. After Duke dived into the barn at the end of the last episode, simply having him fall back out again is a major letdown. That's it? Hardly seems worth the effort. He finds Nathan with ridiculous ease and they go back to the town where things go on pretty much as they always have, except with more suspicion and less Audrey. Ah yes, Audrey. She's been memory-wiped and is working in a bar when the sheriff of EUREKA shows up to tell her she's not who she thinks she is and there's a gunman after her. All seems a bit too neat, really. The first episode of the new season is disappointing considering the apocalyptic state of affairs that the climax of the last episode left. The barn was gone, Audrey was gone, Duke was gone and the town was being bombarded with meteors. A quick six months later and that's all been dealt with. It's almost as though the writers didn't know how to resolve those cliffhangers and so just made them go away. That's far from satisfactory. Far more satisfactory is the arrival of Colin Ferguson as a mystery man claiming to want to help the amnesiac Audrey. It's always good to see him and it wil be interesting to see how the character develops, as here he is just a plotting cypher. Emma Lahana's newcomer is bright and cheerful, but it remains to be seen how she will fit in now that she has resolved certain plot difficulties. We're back in HAVEN, mostly, and yet it seems like a retrograde step and bringing back a trouble from the past only undermines that fact. Hopefully, the future will get better. TopSURVIVORSPeople in Haven are being spontaneously combusted. Nathan investigates in a town that blames him for not giving up Audrey freely. She, meanwhile, learns a little something about herself. The 'trouble of the week' storyline is a rather dull and pallid rerun of so many other episodes and without the Nathan, Duke, Audrey triangle to give it some fizz it really fails to spark at all. A couple of other threads are set up, such as Duke's brother staying in Haven despite being in danger there and the Guard still not trusting Nathan. Then there's the continuation of the re-education of Audrey Parker thread, which is almost a straight copy of the previous episode except for one obvious wrinkle. If it's going to take a long time for Audrey to get back to Haven, then this could be a real problem. TopBAD BLOODNathan investigates a series of murders where the victims are drained of blood, whilst Audrey learns more about the bar where she works. The 'trouble of the week' storyline is pretty much the same old, same old, though the nature of the trouble itself is pretty neat. The continual hatred that everyone has for Nathan is getting a little bit old and repetitive, but in this episode it works. The real fun is to be had in what Audrey learns about her new persona and life where she is a bartender. It's in no way surprising, but it is very nicely handled and sets things up nicely for that thread of the show. TopLOST AND FOUNDNathan tries to recover stolen children whilst Duke searches for a door for Audrey to escape through. Bored now! Yes, the 'trouble of the week' storyline is every earlier investigation all over again. It is perhaps time to abandon that side of the show as it is an irritating distraction from the main plot. That, of course, is the story of Audrey's return. Involving mystical doorways through the barrier between worlds (their words not ours), it may not be convincing, but it is at least entertaining. The kicker in the tail is, though, pretty obvious. TopTHE NEW GIRLAudrey is back, except that she still thinks she's Lexi. This means that the plan to have her kill Nathan to stop the troubles won't work. Meanwhile, people are killing themselves all over. The forces that are revolving around the reappeared Lexi provide a backdrop of shifting power blocs vying to bring about the death of Nathan at Lexi's hand. This is the fun part of the episode, along with watching the gang from Haven interact with the new Lexi, but it is saddled with the usual 'trouble of the week' storyline that is as dull as ever. The show needs to learn some new tricks, and fast. TopCOUNTDOWNPeople in Haven see clocks counting down and then just ... stop. Nathan is the next victim. Can the gang find out who is troubled before time runs out. A ticking clock always ups the ante on a plotline and here it has the effect of making the 'trouble of the week' less annoying. That and the fact that it is actually woven into the overarching storyline of Audrey's return and the surprise emergence of Duke's brother as a bad guy. Emily Rose has fun playing Audrey playing Lexi and this marks a step up in the quality of the episodes with a couple of good twists along the way. TopLAY ME DOWNPeople are dying in impossible ways. The answer lies in their dreams. What happens in their nightmares is real. The race is on to find the Troubled person before the main characters fall asleep. Oh dear, but this is a dull episode. The Trouble of the Week is impossibly ordinary and could have been so much better. That said, Nathan's erotic dream of Audrey and its inevitable physical consequence is very funny, which is fortunate because there isn't much else going for this side of the tale. The other side is Duke finding out about his brother's murderous ways. This brings a major storyline to a close only a few episodes after it was introduced, making the whole introduction of Duke's brother seemingly irrelevant. It has consequences for Duke, but seems to be an afterthought, tacked on for no particular reason. TopCRUSHPeople are being crushed to death in plain sight. Pressure from the depths is threatening to destroy the whole of Haven. Another uninteresting Trouble of the Week dominates the episode. It is becoming plain that someone is changing people's Troubles, mutating them into something even more deadly. Who and why remains to be seen, but this more interesting plot arc is drowned (pun intended) by the 'been there, done that' plotting. HAVEN used to be so much more fun than this. TopWILLIAMThe people responsible for the change in the Troubles show up in Haven and they have Audrey's saviour from the bar/barn, William, as a hostage. There's a big twist at the end of the this episode and it's a shame that you can see it coming from a mile away. As for the rest, well it's far less interesting than it ought to be. The villains are utterly invincible and that makes them far less interesting. There are only so many times that the same trick can be used to outmanoeuvre the heroes before it becomes boring. The season plot arc is revving up, which is to be welcomed, but the rest of the plotting is faltering. TopTHE TROUBLE WITH TROUBLESAudrey wakes up in a Haven where there is no crime and no troubles. Duke is the sheriff and Nathan is a doctor. It seems perfect until people start dying and Audrey, as the newcomer, is the obvious suspect. Alternate realities are usually fun episodes and there is a certain amount of pleasure to be found in seeing alternative versions of Duke and Nathan, but the storyline doesn't make the most of the situation and the banter and fun that first attracted us to the show is suspiciously absent. Sure, the central mystery around Audrey's nemesis William continues to come with surprises built in, his revelation about the source of the Troubles being a particular high point. That doesn't fill up the whole episode, though. TopSHOT IN THE DARKWhilst Audrey lies in surgery, the others try to find out what is eating the hearts of people born on a single day, all whilst being filmed by online ghost hunters. The pov camera, online ghost hunters thing has been done before and a lot better than this (SUPERNATURAL for example). There's very little wit in this episode, relying on the gimmick and lots of running around in the dark with a half-seen creature. That it comes down to a personal friend of the main cast being the next potential victim is tediously predictable, but the deepening mystery about just who Jennifer is and the nature of her link to both Audrey and William proves to keep interest going, just. TopWHEN THE BOUGH BREAKSAudrey is given the choice between visiting a Trouble on someone or killing a baby, but she is not the only one having to make difficult choices. HAVEN finally comes back to life with a vengeance in this story that has a brutal, hard edge and a vicious cold villain that the show revels in. Colin Ferguson's William is a brilliant nemesis, delighting in his own evil ways and piling the emotional torment on Audrey and her friends with glee. And what torment. William's plan is twisted in the best way, from the revelation of the Troubled person, to the death of a significant other, to the task that Audery must undertake, making her do the opposite of all that she stood for, and finally demanding someone else to make a sacrifice. The Trouble is integral to the plot rather than just being bolted on and that lifts everything out of the mundane and into the exciting, riveting. In one episode, the show shoots right back to being unmissable. The finale is set up and for once the penultimate episode is a joy to behold in its own right. TopTHE LIGHTHOUSEIn order to save lives, Audrey has to give Duke his Trouble back. This triggers memories of what Audrey was to William. She dedcides to use this link to trick William into a trap. William tries to force Audrey's base personality, Mara, to the surface, whilst the inhabitants of Haven search for a fourth person from beyond the veil. The season finale throws everything at the wall and, to be fair, most of it sticks. The reTroubling of Duke and the task he must undertake to save lives is one of the most powerful moments in the show's history. Unfortunately, the personal impact on him is rushed over to get on withs the rest of the plot. The physical escalation of his Trouble takes precedence, which is unfortunate. The battle of wills between William and Nathan for Audrey's soul takes a few twists along the way and remains the centre of the storyline, though it is less tense than might have been expected. The hunt for the fourth person needed to create the portal to send William back through leads to a revelation that is surprising and not surprising at the same time. The last episode brings together the plot strands and deals with the current plotline in a satisfying manner, but it also creates a cliffhanger that will inform the next season. Top |
