Last season, Audrey (Emily Rose) had to learn a lot about her past trips to the island town, and while she seems to have come to grips with the fact that she shows up every 27 years without aging and with a new personality, name and set of memories, she still finds herself unsure about why she does this, what her past selves did in Haven over the years, and what her connection is to the mysterious John Doe death that happened last time around.
This season starts off with Audrey being abducted by a hidden figure and tied up somewhere out of sight. Meanwhile, the show's other two main characters, Nathan (Lucas Bryant) and Duke (Eric Balfour) have decided to go toe-to-toe as their various gripes with one another finally come to a head. What they don’t realize during their fight is that Audrey is gone. Thankfully, this realization causes them to stop their fighting and join forces to try and find her.
By the time the first episode ends, Audrey is safe and sound, but it is obvious that there is a new person in town, and he is much more dangerous than anything the trio has faced to date. They quickly learn that Audrey’s abductor is doing a lot of killing on the island. They dub him the Bolt-Gun Killer since he kills his victims with a tool used to put cattle down when it comes time to slaughter them. Tracking down this killer and determining exactly who he is and what he wants is this season’s overarcing story, but there are still plenty of one-off episodes as well.
If you are like me and you haven’t seen this show before this season, then there are a few things about the town that you will want to know. It seems the people who live in Haven aren’t like others. Every 27 years, an event called The Troubles happens. Troubles are abilities that are passed through families and can range in everything from needing to harvest family member organs, to causing pain when you touch someone, to having every piece of food you touch turn into cake (in the grand scheme of things, that one isn’t too bad - but it can lead to some weight issues over a long period of time). The only person who doesn’t get affected by these curses is Audrey, but again, no one really seems to know why.
This season’s 13 episodes cover a lot of ground. Not only are there two new characters in Detective Tommy Bowen (Dorian Missick) and psychiatrist Claire Callahan (Bree Williamson), but Audrey’s relationship with the Colorado Kid (the aforementioned John Doe) comes to light, and we even get to see a good bit about Audrey’s life from two-Troubles-back in 1955 as Sarah. Heck, this season even goes so far as to explain exactly what Audrey/ Lucy/ Sarah’s purpose is in Haven and how she can end The Troubles, both temporarily and possibly for good. Like I said though, just because it answers all of these questions, it doesn’t mean that everything is done. The season finale leaves viewers wondering what’s next and with the knowledge that everything will change.
Haven: The Complete Third Season has a lot of special features. One documentary focuses on the creation of the episode "Real Estate" and clocks in at about the same time as the episode itself, while another is the full New York Comic Con panel from just after the season premiere. There is also a slew of deleted scenes, a blooper reel, trailers for the episodes and a teaser for Season Four. In the DVD case is a mini-comic showing the events that happen just after the season finale, but nothing really gets answered. If anything, it will make the reader wonder even more about the upcoming season.
Rounding off the special features is three sets of cast interviews. The first and longest cycles between Rose, Bryant and Balfour as they answer various questions about the show and their experiences. Another interviews Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), the guest star from the episode "Real Estate" and a rather amusing segment where Rose interviews Nolan North about his time spent in the episode "Last Goodbyes." For those that don’t quite see the humor in this particular pairing, Nolan North is a well known voice actor in the videogame world. Arguably, his most notable role is that of Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series. Rose co-stars with North in most of these games, so the two have spent a lot of time together, and a lot of their interview is about their experiences on both sets.
While I didn’t watch Haven before, this felt like a really good place to jump in. I can’t say anything ill about the prior seasons, but from what I understand, they were more episodic and trouble-of-the-week driven and Season Three is where the mysteries really start resolving. I plan on picking up the first two seasons at some point and getting myself caught up, but I found that I was well versed in the oddities of this show by the season’s second episode, so I didn’t feel lost very long.
If you are looking for a good mystery-ridden sci-fi series, then Haven might be just what you are looking for.
