Haven! Dr. Who! Why does all the drama happen at the end of the season?
I'm going to spend this post shooting around some personal theories about the TV show Haven before next week's season finale. I invite you all to join me as I plot my way through the twists and turns that occur to me about this show.
Keep in mind that every time I watch Haven and think that I know what will happen next, I am wrong. And that, in combination with pretty cool characters, is why I love Haven.
Alright, to begin with, the town of Haven is in Maine. If we're breaking down the symbolism of this town, which I am today, then Haven is called Haven because it is supposed to be a safe place for the troubled families that live there. Not all the people of Haven are Troubled, capital T, but those that are Troubled are essentially cursed. They tend to have weird, random mystical abilities, some based on myth, some not, and most of these abilities run in families lines.
However, not all abilities run in family lines.
Okay, so we have segued from Haven the town, to the people that make Haven interesting, the Troubled. Many Troubles occur in adults and crop up in specific families. However, Troubles can occur outside of family lines. In fact, it seems like a person dealing with strong emotional issues can develop a trouble. The abilities of the troubled have a lot to do with how they feel about something. If an abused woman feels like her abuser has poisoned her, then she can spread that poison like a disease and so on. In the case of the abused woman, her traumatic emotions manifested. She is probably the first person in her family to have a Trouble, but this Trouble could crop up in her family now that she has manifested it. Some troubles skip multiple generations waiting for someone in the family line to share a similar experience.
The term Troubles means more than one thing in Haven. When someone in Haven is Troubled, they have an ability or are cursed in some way. However, the Troubles themselves roll in like waves. When the tide is out, no one who is Trouble manifests their ability or curse. When the tide of the troubles flows back into town, the curse or ability returns. The last time the Troubles occurred was sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. Twenty-seven years later, they've returned.
Enter Audrey Parker. Audrey began the show with the initiate hero story arc. Outside law enforcement wanders into town to help local law enforcement deal with mysterious occurrences. Call it X-Files-ish. Call it Eureka-ish. Call it predictable and over done. The story arc? Yes. Audrey Parker's version of it? NO. Audrey decides to stay in Haven. She pretty much has to. She's an orphan who has found a picture of her mother. Or so she thinks. Later we discover, that the picture, from sometime in the early 1980s or late 1970s is actually the same woman from the picture, that she hasn't aged, and that she doesn't have any of her old memories, and that all of her current memories belong to another woman, who is the real Audrey Parker.
Audrey is unique in Haven because the abilities of Troubled people don't affect her. The man with magical charm? She doesn't find him charming. The man who can't physically feel touch? He can feel her touch. Someone's abilities are out of control? She can talk them past the panic of creating Armageddon and help them make the world peaceful again. Audrey's mysterious past and unique abilities make her stand out in Haven.
My pet theory is that Audrey/Lucy/? our central character is literally tied to the Troubles and to the people who are troubled. As a police officer, her current role in town is to protect the Troubled. In season 2, she continues in that role, but the interactions between the Troubled and normal folks are becoming polarized, and Audrey sides with the Troubled. I think this is because Audrey, or whoever she is, was around when Haven was first founded. I think every time she comes back to Haven she brings the Troubles with her, and that a powerful Troubled person who can erase people's memories keeps wiping out her memory because they are afraid of what she can do.
There is more going on in Haven of course. Every character has a back story and mystery. Vince and Dave seem like a common old couple, made up of brothers, who are historians and newspaper men, always willing to help and do research. But they both know more about the Troubles then they are saying, and behind their bumbling amiability, they are working their own agendas. And those agendas are separate, the two brothers disagree with each other, almost violently. It is amazing how quickly they can go from bumbling and joking to vicious and threatening.
For some reason, the mysteries surrounding Haven keep making me think about the mark of Cain, and how Cain is the father of all monsters in some mythology. (I'm thinking of Beowulf here.) Like the people in Haven, the mark of Cain passed down through blood lines and revolved around the actions of an ancestor that cursed all of their descendants.
For lack of a better way to put this, and because I've never read Stephen King (who is responsible for Haven because it is based on his short story), I kind of think that Audrey was a witch or something, who the people of Haven were going to burn alive, and who cursed specific members of the town before her death. The problem with this theory is it doesn't take into account the way that Audrey protects and feels responsible for the Troubled people of Haven. For at least two of her life times now, she has been working with the local police, protecting the Troubled.
I'm guessing that her boss, the only man we know who knew that Audrey was never Audrey Parker, will show up again in the season finale this Friday. He's always seemed Troubled, and I suspect that he is the memory wiping guy.
The oddest thing about Haven is the divide between the guys in their 60s and the generation of 30-somethings. The 30 somethings are all dealing with the Troubles for the first time and know very little about them except the rumors behind them. But all of the older men in Haven seem to have some idea of the back story behind the place, and none of them are telling. (and yes, I am resentful that this is a conspiracy of old men that involves not one old woman. WTF show?)
In other news, my BBC America commercials tell me that next saturday is the season finale of Dr. Who, "The Wedding of River Song." I think I'm going to cry. Why is all of this drama happening at the end of the season? It only started a month ago! How do you folks across the pond (hee hee) live with these short TV seasons? 12 episodes per season seems reasonable, but 6? How do you live!
Also, if Matt Smith goes away, I really will cry. He's my favorite Dr. so far.
Keep in mind that every time I watch Haven and think that I know what will happen next, I am wrong. And that, in combination with pretty cool characters, is why I love Haven.
Alright, to begin with, the town of Haven is in Maine. If we're breaking down the symbolism of this town, which I am today, then Haven is called Haven because it is supposed to be a safe place for the troubled families that live there. Not all the people of Haven are Troubled, capital T, but those that are Troubled are essentially cursed. They tend to have weird, random mystical abilities, some based on myth, some not, and most of these abilities run in families lines.
However, not all abilities run in family lines.
Okay, so we have segued from Haven the town, to the people that make Haven interesting, the Troubled. Many Troubles occur in adults and crop up in specific families. However, Troubles can occur outside of family lines. In fact, it seems like a person dealing with strong emotional issues can develop a trouble. The abilities of the troubled have a lot to do with how they feel about something. If an abused woman feels like her abuser has poisoned her, then she can spread that poison like a disease and so on. In the case of the abused woman, her traumatic emotions manifested. She is probably the first person in her family to have a Trouble, but this Trouble could crop up in her family now that she has manifested it. Some troubles skip multiple generations waiting for someone in the family line to share a similar experience.
The term Troubles means more than one thing in Haven. When someone in Haven is Troubled, they have an ability or are cursed in some way. However, the Troubles themselves roll in like waves. When the tide is out, no one who is Trouble manifests their ability or curse. When the tide of the troubles flows back into town, the curse or ability returns. The last time the Troubles occurred was sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. Twenty-seven years later, they've returned.
Enter Audrey Parker. Audrey began the show with the initiate hero story arc. Outside law enforcement wanders into town to help local law enforcement deal with mysterious occurrences. Call it X-Files-ish. Call it Eureka-ish. Call it predictable and over done. The story arc? Yes. Audrey Parker's version of it? NO. Audrey decides to stay in Haven. She pretty much has to. She's an orphan who has found a picture of her mother. Or so she thinks. Later we discover, that the picture, from sometime in the early 1980s or late 1970s is actually the same woman from the picture, that she hasn't aged, and that she doesn't have any of her old memories, and that all of her current memories belong to another woman, who is the real Audrey Parker.
Audrey is unique in Haven because the abilities of Troubled people don't affect her. The man with magical charm? She doesn't find him charming. The man who can't physically feel touch? He can feel her touch. Someone's abilities are out of control? She can talk them past the panic of creating Armageddon and help them make the world peaceful again. Audrey's mysterious past and unique abilities make her stand out in Haven.
My pet theory is that Audrey/Lucy/? our central character is literally tied to the Troubles and to the people who are troubled. As a police officer, her current role in town is to protect the Troubled. In season 2, she continues in that role, but the interactions between the Troubled and normal folks are becoming polarized, and Audrey sides with the Troubled. I think this is because Audrey, or whoever she is, was around when Haven was first founded. I think every time she comes back to Haven she brings the Troubles with her, and that a powerful Troubled person who can erase people's memories keeps wiping out her memory because they are afraid of what she can do.
There is more going on in Haven of course. Every character has a back story and mystery. Vince and Dave seem like a common old couple, made up of brothers, who are historians and newspaper men, always willing to help and do research. But they both know more about the Troubles then they are saying, and behind their bumbling amiability, they are working their own agendas. And those agendas are separate, the two brothers disagree with each other, almost violently. It is amazing how quickly they can go from bumbling and joking to vicious and threatening.
For some reason, the mysteries surrounding Haven keep making me think about the mark of Cain, and how Cain is the father of all monsters in some mythology. (I'm thinking of Beowulf here.) Like the people in Haven, the mark of Cain passed down through blood lines and revolved around the actions of an ancestor that cursed all of their descendants.
For lack of a better way to put this, and because I've never read Stephen King (who is responsible for Haven because it is based on his short story), I kind of think that Audrey was a witch or something, who the people of Haven were going to burn alive, and who cursed specific members of the town before her death. The problem with this theory is it doesn't take into account the way that Audrey protects and feels responsible for the Troubled people of Haven. For at least two of her life times now, she has been working with the local police, protecting the Troubled.
I'm guessing that her boss, the only man we know who knew that Audrey was never Audrey Parker, will show up again in the season finale this Friday. He's always seemed Troubled, and I suspect that he is the memory wiping guy.
The oddest thing about Haven is the divide between the guys in their 60s and the generation of 30-somethings. The 30 somethings are all dealing with the Troubles for the first time and know very little about them except the rumors behind them. But all of the older men in Haven seem to have some idea of the back story behind the place, and none of them are telling. (and yes, I am resentful that this is a conspiracy of old men that involves not one old woman. WTF show?)
In other news, my BBC America commercials tell me that next saturday is the season finale of Dr. Who, "The Wedding of River Song." I think I'm going to cry. Why is all of this drama happening at the end of the season? It only started a month ago! How do you folks across the pond (hee hee) live with these short TV seasons? 12 episodes per season seems reasonable, but 6? How do you live!
Also, if Matt Smith goes away, I really will cry. He's my favorite Dr. so far.