HAVEN: Are We Ready To Say Goodbye To Audrey Parker?

For three seasons we have pondered the mystery of Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) and her role in the mysterious town of Haven, Maine. The first season was just as much about introducing us to Audrey as it was to Haven’s Troubled and their unique Troubles. In fact, with each episode that first season we learned another small clue about Audrey, for it was obvious from the start that she had a special ability to reach out to the Troubled and calm their Troubles. But we really didn’t suspect that at the end of the season we would find out that she was not even Audrey Parker at all.

The biggest clue was when her partner Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant) discovered that he could feel her. Due to his Trouble, he could not feel anything – yet miraculous, he could feel her; that made Audrey special and a mystery herself. But when she came face to face with the real Audrey Parker, a woman’s identity with whom she had assumed and whose memories she shared, we suddenly realized that there was a lot more going on with Audrey Parker (or rather the woman we knew as Audrey).

Subsequently, the second season of HAVEN dangled the “Who is Audrey Parker?” carrot in front of us and we, along with everyone else in Haven, chased after it. But Season 2 only brought more questions. We discovered that the helpful local good-boy Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour) was also more than he seemed, as he had inherited his family’s ability to cure the Troubled, but only by killing them – which freed their heirs from their family curse.

Season 2 also teased us with more clues as to Audrey’s true identity, but boggled our minds even further with the discovery that Audrey had lived in Haven twice before, 27 years before as a young woman known as Lucy, and 27 years before that as a woman known as Sarah – yet the Audrey we knew had not aged a day and had no memories of those past lifetimes, just a scar on the bottom of her foot matching one received by Lucy years before. Apparently no one in Haven is exempt from the Troubles and no one is exactly what they seem.

Thus, as the third season of HAVEN began, we were just dying to know: Who is Audrey Parker? Yet because one mystery is never enough, this season also brought the mystery of “Who is the Colorado Kid?” back to the foreground and linked it to the mystery of Audrey. First thing, Audrey was kidnapped by someone wanting information on The Colorado Kid; for The Colorado Kid had no died as originally thought that fateful day 27 years ago, as depicted in the famous newspaper clipping from the Haven Herald. After digging up The Colorado Kid’s grave and finding it empty, Audrey found a handwritten note from herself as Lucy warning her that she had to find The Colorado Kid before the Hunter. Then with Duke’s handy help, Audrey found out that The Hunter is a comet which comes around once every 27 years, which coincides with the day on which Audrey/Lucy/Sarah disappears, and that The Colorado Kid is actually her son.

As if that were all not enough to make one’s brain explode, there were two more key mysteries thrown into the mix: (1) who is the Bolt-Gun Killer (the creepy guy running around killing people in Haven for body parts and who is desperately seeking The Colorado Kid), and (2) who is The Colorado Kid’s father? Incredibly, the mystery of Audrey Parker has swept up viewers into a vortex of entangled mysteries.

So as we face the final two episodes of this momentous third season, there are still so many burning questions to be answered. Yet while mysteries are all well and good, and getting answers will be very soothing and satisfying, the one thing we have yet to really confront is: are we ready to say goodbye to Audrey Parker?

With HAVEN receiving its 4^th season pick-up from Syfy, there is no danger that the show is not coming back and there will be a guaranteed 13 more episodes to explore the mystery of Audrey Parker and the rest of the unanswered questions next season. However, this season revealed that there is a clock on Audrey, and her time is running out — Audrey even in her past lives has never been given the luxury of time — she gets about 6 months every 27 years to come back and put things back together again in Haven, and what has felt like three years to the viewers has been only 6 months in Haven. Despite being distracted by the discovery of the Troubles and all the other mysteries, as well as the whirlwind romance of Audrey and Nathan thrown in the midst, things have come to a pivotal point and the clock has run out.

In searching for her true identity and her role in Haven’s Troubles, Audrey has discovered that in order to banish the Troubles from Haven, she must step into the mysterious disappearing barn and be transported (by portal, time suspension or some other time-travel device) to her next stop 27 years in the future. Yet like in her previous lives, Audrey has begun to put down roots in Haven, developing friendships and relationships that she wants to keep. She does not want to become a winkle in time in their lives; she wants to live out her life, enjoying it for the remainder of her days. So must Audrey really give it all up? Does she have to step into the barn and sacrifice herself for the greater good, or can she stay and live with the consequences of unleashing further Troubles on Haven? And will it create a time-paradox that rips at the fabric of time all around Haven if she does?

Knowing Audrey as we do, we can easily see her martyring herself and stepping into that barn. But are we ready for that moment? If the barn then disappears taking Audrey with it, will we be ready to say goodbye?

In last week’s episode entitled “Last Goodbyes,” we saw how Audrey convinced Will Brady that he had to sacrifice himself and go back into his coma in order to save his sister and everyone else’s lives in Haven. But Will was not being asked to kill himself, only to possibly be stuck in a coma for an undetermined amount of time, with the possibility that he may never come out of it. Yet he was willing to make that noble sacrifice to save everyone. It paralleled the same exact sacrifice that Audrey will be asked to make. She is not being asked to let herself die, but to give up living out her life with those she knows and loves. Time and time again, the Troubled have been asked to make extraordinary sacrifices for the greater good, and now it is Audrey’s turn. We do not doubt she will do the right thing. But our hearts will hurt no less knowing that she is doing the right thing.

For what would HAVEN be without Audrey Parker? Sure it would be fun to see Nathan and Duke forced to work out their differences, but we suspect they would be too broken-hearted to keep up their rivalries. It is entirely possible they would become the “Vince and Dave” of the next generation, awaiting Audrey’s return to steal a few precious months with her the next time she appeared – though she would not have aged a day and she would have no memory of them and how they felt about each other.

Season one ended on the cliffhanger of Audrey facing the real Audrey Parker. It was mind-boggling and teasing. Season 2 ended on the cliffhanger of Audrey’s abduction and Nathan and Duke facing off. It was heart-pounding and suspenseful. So where will Season 3 leave us? Will we be heart-broken having watched Audrey disappear and wondering how to get her back? Or will she stay and we will be left anxiously wondering what greater Trouble will arise if she does?

Knowing the writers of HAVEN as we do, it is more likely that we’ll be holding our breath wondering what happened to Audrey Parker and if she can found somewhere in time. With only two episodes left, “Reunion” and “Thanks for the Memories,” it is time to pull out the tissues and be ready. Savor every last second of this season, it will feel like a long wait until HAVEN Season 4 comes back around next Fall. Audrey Parker maybe the cure to the Troubles, but what is its trigger? The many mysteries of HAVEN continue to keep us entranced, but Audrey holds our heart. Let us hope this is not goodbye for good, and only goodbye for now; for we are not ready to say goodbye to Audrey Parker.

Where to find this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2012/12/14/haven-central-are-you-ready-to-say-goodbye-to-audrey-parker/

Holy HAVEN! Has The Colorado Kid’s Father Been Revealed?

After the now infamous HAVEN episode “Sarah” aired, all fans want to know is if Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant) did actually have intimate relations with Audrey Parker’s former self Sarah, when he was zapped back to 1955 – and better yet, if the offspring from that liaison is James Cogan, aka The Colorado Kid?

From everything we know so far, it is entirely possible because Sarah Vernon (Emily Rose) never told anyone who the father of her son James was before she vanished leaving James to be raised by the kindly June Cogan in Colorado. In addition, Sarah seemed only too willing to seize the day and cherish whatever sweet moments she could with Nathan before he returned to his own timeline.

Yet when the Bolt-Gun Killer told Audrey as he held her captive that she was not the only one who loved The Colorado Kid, it makes us wonder: why would the Bolt-Gun Killer love The Colorado Kid too? Or did someone else love The Colorado Kid who is using the Bolt-Gun Killer to track him down?

Surely it would be too coincidental for Nathan to be the father; so what if Sarah had met another person during her short stay in Haven and he were The Colorado Kid’s father? That may explain why Lucy helped fake James Cogan’s death in 1983, as depicted in the famous newspaper clipping showing Lucy standing by his lifeless body. It was also a day that everyone conveniently cannot remember. Someone may have used their “troubled” ability to help erase that day from everyone’s memories allowing the newspaper article to stand as a true accounting of the incident, giving James a chance to escape and live – free from whoever may be hunting him.

While it is a sweet idea to imagine that Nathan could be the father of Audrey’s child from another lifetime, does it really explain the brutal precision with which the Bolt-Gun Killer (BGK) is tracking James down? Only two emotions drive a person so single-mindedly: love and revenge — and the BGK told Audrey that someone else loved James. What kind of love drives a person to commit such heinous acts of torture, mutilation and killing? The love of a father denied a life with his son perhaps? Does the BGK want to find his missing son and to punish the woman who separated him from James? Is that why the BGK is taking body parts and making a gory human mannequin that looks remarkably like Sarah?

Looking back at the clues of what we know about Sarah, one interesting detail emerges: from the episode “Fear and Loathing” in the first season of HAVEN, Dave Teagues (John Dunsworth) saw the face of Sarah when he imagined his greatest fear. Why would his brother Vince Teagues (Richard Donat) remember Sarah so fondly, whereas Dave remembers her with such fear? What did Sarah ever do to Dave to inspire such a powerful emotion? Because everyone seemed to have loved Sarah, except for perhaps the one man she continues to run from – the father of her son. Maybe Dave helped smuggle little baby James away from a now very angry father. It would help explain why Dave’s greatest fear is Sarah – he is fearful of that she could expose a crime he committed to help protect a child.

Yet it is all pure speculation. Especially to imagine that the BGK is The Colorado Kid’s father. But it does fit the clue being woven throughout this season. For why would the BGK love The Colorado Kid? Why would he be building a replicant of Sarah out of human body parts? Why would there have been an empty coffin buried where James Cogan’s body should have been? And why was the message “Find him before the Hunter” be scrawled in The Colorado Kid’s coffin by Lucy, if not to warn Audrey that Sarah’s son was in trouble?

The red-herring of this season seems to be the revelation that Tommy Bowen (Dorian Missick) was the Bolt-Gun Killer. But even Nathan discounted that when he pointed out that the video footage showed the arm of a white man with the Guard tattoo abducting the woman from the ATM machine; though Tommy did have a bolt-gun and he did try to kill Nathan when Nathan found it in the trunk of Tommy’s car. So what if Tommy was not working alone, or was a hired gun (so to speak) working for the Bolt-Gun Killer? Also that explosion of Tommy’s escape boat on the lake seemed too perfect a cover for Tommy to get away since no body was ever recovered. In Haven, all things are possible given that there is some supernaturally gifted folk roaming about. What if one of those Troubled had an ability that helped Tommy escape in order to carry out some greater dastardly plan?

With HAVEN counting down to its 3^rd season finale on December 21^st, there are only 4 episodes left to explain who The Colorado Kid’s father really is and why the Bolt-Gun Killer is on such a warpath to find him. Surely the true identity of the BGK and the role of Tommy Bowen will be explained, along with the all the other answers we are dying to find out.

So to find out the next piece of the puzzle, be sure to tune in for an all new episode of HAVEN, entitled “Burned” and written by Charles Ardai, on Friday, November 30^th at 10:00 p.m. on Syfy.

Where to find this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2012/11/30/holy-haven-has-the-colorado-kid%E2%80%99s-father-been-revealed/

The Future of FRINGE Claims One of Their Own: Saying Goodbye to Etta Bishop

In last week’s tragic episode, “The Bullet That Saved the World,” another character’s life was claimed in the fight for the future. It felt like we barely had time to get to know and appreciate Henrietta Bishop, affectionately known as Etta (Georgina Haig). She had only a few precious days with her parents Olivia (Anna Torv) and Peter (Josh Jackson). Yet in those few short episodes and that period after she rescued both of them from their amber graves, Etta became an integral part of the FRINGE verse. Five episodes is all it took to win our hearts and make us now wonder how Peter and Olivia will be able to face the future, especially now knowing that their daughter will not be a part of it.

It was like a sucker-punch. Etta was supposed to be our heroes’ guide in the future and their savior to keep them safe from the omnipresent Observers. She was the lifeline to give all of them hope that there was a future worth fighting for. Etta was also their connection to the underground resistance movement. So the future is now uncertain and even more tenuous than before.

Our heroes, Peter, Olivia, Walter (John Noble), Astrid (Jasika Nicole) and Broyles (Lance Reddick), will certainly not back-down and will continue with their efforts to find a way to destroy the Observers, but at what cost? As FRINGE moves forward with Episode 5 of its final thirteen episodes, we are beginning to suspect that more precious lives will be lost along the way. The world is worth fighting for – now and in the future — but it is claiming a heavy price in the process.

Already robbed once of the chance to be parents, and assuming that both survive, would Olivia and Peter really want to have another child again knowing that the future could always be so uncertain and cruel?
FRINGE is a television show willing to take risks. It knows that the world it has created is lethal and dangerous. In the first season, Olivia lost her partner Charlie (Kirk Acevedo). Then last season, we watched with horror as Captain Lincoln Lee in the alt-verse was struck down. And while we had less time to get attached to Simon Foster (Henry Ian Cusik), it was still sad to see his final fate was to be decapitated and mercilessly experimented on by the Observers. So it should have come as no shock when Etta was shot and then sacrificed herself to blow up the approaching Observers in order to give her parents a chance of escape. It was hero’s death and one worthy of the daughter of Peter and Olivia Bishop; for time and time again Peter and Olivia have put their lives on the line in order to save the world and even the fate of two universes. But somehow it felt too soon and too wrong to lose Etta just as soon as Peter and Olivia found her again. 21 years waiting and surviving and she could only be granted a few days to be reunited with her family? So brutal and painful.

Etta was an anomaly. Born of a father who did not originally exist in our universe, who had been stolen by Walter Bishop and brought back, and then erased from existence – only to refuse to let go and find a crack in time and push his way back again – Etta is a miracle to have ever been born. She was also born of a mother who was prone to special abilities, abilities that may or may not have been inherited by Etta. Etta certainly demonstrated a special ability to cloud her thoughts from the Observers. That gift saved her and guaranteed that she would one day find a way to rescue her parents. Yet it was not just Etta’s ability to pass unnoticed by the Observers that made her special; she had the ability to draw people to her. She was a human magnet for the resistance and that skill combined with her natural intelligence made her an incalculable ally. The girl was truly a secret weapon in the fight against the Observers. So it seems ludicrous to kill off the one person that inspires Peter and Olivia to fight and who had such valuable abilities. Such a risk with nine more episodes to go in the final journey of FRINGE seems wasteful.

Is Etta’s death to be the catalyst that propels Olivia and Peter to make every sacrifice needed to destroy the Observers? Would they have been too hesitant to risk their own lives knowing that they had already been robbed of a life with Etta before and did not want to lose out on the opportunity to share a life with her in the future? Thus, must our heroes be stripped bare and rebuilt with tenacious resolve to make the Observers pay for their loss in order to succeed in their mission? It would seem that the answer to all these questions is a resounding affirmative. As much as Etta was a resource and a weapon to use in the fight, she was also a liability. Her presence alone would have bound the hearts of her parents and stopped them from doing anything and everything to win.

War is unpleasant, ugly, and cruel. It spares no one. Lives will be lost. Bodies will be broken. And families destroyed. It is the price of winning. Our heroes will win, of that there is no doubt. But the price they will pay will be irreparable. And that is what makes them heroes. They will have sacrificed everything just so that others can have a future free of oppression and a chance at happiness.

But for today, we weep for their loss. Etta was a child but for a moment in their lives; then she was an adult that they cherished for a handful of days. The Bishops lost a piece of their heart, but the memory of their remarkable daughter will be forever engraved upon it. To Etta: she may not be a bullet to saved the world, but she will certainly be the reason the Bishops save the world. A girl, a daughter, a grand-daughter, a friend and a human “bullet” to strike right into the heart of the Observers and crush them for eternity. May we remember her sacrifice.

Where to find this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2012/11/02/the-future-of-fringe-claims-one-of-their-own-saying-goodbye-to-spoiler-alert/