If you’ve been following along
with my blogs, you should have this routine down by now. If you’re a first
timer, let me serve you up a warning. For all you that have yet to watch Friday
nights episode of Haven, the second
episode of season four titled ‘Survivors’, and wish to watch it spoiler free,
please exit the premises at this time. As always, this is not a spoiler free
blog. To reiterate, THIS BLOG MAY
CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Now that that is out of the way,
we’ll jump right into the review, seeing as I reviewed last weeks episode as
well there really is no need for a recap of it.
Survivors opens up like any
typical Haven episode, an almost
procedural cliché with a twist of paranormal. We don’t immediately see the
crime go down, but we do have the beautiful image of a victim almost first
thing. This episode is all about this guy who has a Trouble that makes his
guilt basically come to life and reenact what he feels so bad about every time
he’s congratulated. Not unoriginal, but not terribly refreshing. There’s
nothing much about the scenes that take place in the town of Haven that really
jump out at me and grab my interest. It’s not an overly bad episode, it just
isn’t great.
Nathan is usual gruff self, with
an undercurrent of grief for not having Audrey with him. I definitely that
progression with him, but there doesn’t seem to be much inflection when it
comes to the way he speaks. Dwight’s as two-dimensional as always, a much
better character way off in the distance that comes out in brief moments. I
love Vince and Dave, but I miss their bumbling, bickering selves. There really
wasn’t much of Dave in this one, and what we got to see of Vince wasn’t that
flavourful. I do love Duke, and all his snarky glory, but all his interactions
with this newly introduced brother character just don’t seem fully developed. I
really don’t want this guy in this show. Not only does he not look like his
brother, but he doesn’t even seem like they’ve known each other longer than a
few months at most. We don’t need another male character in Haven. And then we get around to
Jennifer. It almost seemed like they were trying to progress her character and
integrate her into the background rather quickly. This depth they’re trying to
create with her hasn’t been earned yet, so I don’t see why it has to happen so
rapidly.
Some of my favourite points in this episode
were probably the ones surrounding Audrey/Lexie and William. Maybe it was
because all the scenes that took place in Haven seemed to be coloured with a
blue light, and the overall glow in the bar was warmer than that, or just that
Audrey’s my favourite character. I really felt more with the characters in that
bar. It could also be because there’s a mystery when it comes to this place, in
this bar. Who is William? Why is he trying to get Audrey to remember who she
is? Who are those men that were trying to stop him? Why is it so important to
them to stop him from getting her to remember? There are so many questions
surrounding this place that just makes it so much more to me as avid audience
member. It could also be that I don’t hate this new male cast member. I mean,
Christian Camargo was good in Dexter,
but in Haven he looks sallow and
misplaced.
Being that this is only a eleven,
twelve episode a season show, I really these separate storylines don’t
completely drag on, but I do think Audrey being away from Nathan can go on for
at least another episode or two. Even when they do meet up, there’s still that
whole problem of her believing her name is Lexie, and she’d have to remember
Nathan, which I hope she eventually does do. But that progression needs to be
able to find a healthy balance.
A couple of overall issues with
this episode that I haven’t already addressed. One is rather small, but it was
the timing of Jennifer’s yawn and then apologizing to Duke. Did anyone else
even notice the yawning before she apologized? He hadn’t even given her a look,
or mentioned it before she jumped into apologies. Then there’s the issue, along
the lines of progressing Jennifer’s character too quickly, like they were
already fitting her with Duke. I think I mentioned not wanting that in last
week’s review, but thinking they were likely going there. It’s almost like that
relationship is already melding together, all in one episode. They keep Audrey
in this love triangle for three seasons, but almost immediately after, they’re
throwing Duke into this new thing, when I kind of saw her as a sisterly
character last week. I honestly can’t be the only one… Anyways.
My rating: 3 out of 5.
Best Lines:
“It’s like you actually enjoy upsetting me.” – Duke.
“Everybody needs a hobby.” – Vince, in an almost comedically
hostile way.
“If it makes you feel any better, I never thought you had
any authority.” – Duke, to Nathan, after the Fire Chief says he no longer has
authority there.
“I would’ve preferred it was still a whole gun.” – Lexie/Audrey,
after William takes apart the gun he had in his jeans, to make her more
comfortable.
All right, that’s all for now, kiddos. Check back in in a
few hours for my review of Dexter’s
series finale. I’m off to make myself some dinner, and savour the very last
episode of Dexter ever, at the same
time trying to remember it critically. Bye for now.
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