havenfanrewatch

[havenfanrewatch]

Haven: SYFY’s Stephen King Adaptation Now on Peacock

[havenfanrewatch]

This has been a rewatch of the SyFy show Haven, which ran from 24th November 2023 to 4th July 2025. (That’s the rewatch, the show itself aired 2010-15.)

There probably won't be many new posts here, but feel free to interact with the existing ones. I'd still love to hear people's thoughts on any of the episodes!

I might also still be reblogging Haven content. Because what else is there to do when you get to the end of Haven but start right back at the beginning again!

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Haven DVD Commentaries - Highlights!

Having listened to all of the Haven DVD Commentaries, and watched all of the extras, I’ve learnt maybe not quite as much as I’d hoped about some of the plot choices in the show, but definitely more than the nothing I started off with about how TV shows are made. 

And I’ve often been amused, surprised, and occasionally slightly horrified by some of the stories told.

So here, in no particular order, are some of the ones that have stuck in my head;

The time they nearly did a ‘There’s Only One Bed’ plot with Duke and Nathan in Resurfacing. In fact, there were two possibilities - Nathan and Duke spending the night in a motel that only had one room left, or Nathan and Duke having to spend the night together in the bronco 🤣. In season one!! Ah, it could have been so good!!! 💕

The time Emily was incredibly sea sick and having to go lie down between takes when they were filming The Trial of Audrey Parker on the slightly dilapidated and rocky boat out at sea. 

The time Emily injured her knee, could barely stand up and was only able to walk around by clinging on to all of the actors she was in scenes with (luckily they were all taller than her with nice broad shoulders to hold on to 😆) 

The time Adam had to go lie down between takes because he was really ill with a high temperature (life before covid was wild, huh?)

The time Lucas fell off his bike one weekend in LA and gave himself a massive black eye and cut across his eyebrow a mere day or two before having to be back on set filming 🤕. Not only that but the hospital nearly shaved his eyebrow off to stitch up the cut - a fate from which he was only saved by his cosmetic surgeon friend finally getting off his surf board long enough to return his phone call and do the stitches instead. (Can you imagine Lucas turning up to set one day with an eyebrow missing? Sounds like his black eye gave the makeup people enough work to do as it was, and I don’t see any way they could have written any of this into the plot. He was so lucky 🍀.) 

The time there was nearly a Trouble that would have sent the whole of HPD completely feral to the extent of Gloria actually coming on to Duke and then trying to literally stab Charlotte with a scalpel 

The time Jess was originally supposed to get killed off, a fate from which she was only saved by the intervention of some senior executive at the last minute 👏

The time the whole cast, crew, and Nova Scotia weather went out of its way to support Lucas Bryant in his directorial debut  🎬

The time the location they filmed the haunted house episode in was an actual haunted house and the local paranormal society came out to set to warn them that they didn’t think it was safe for them to be there and gave them info on what they should do to avoid being affected by real life ghosts 👻 The look on Jason Priestley’ face (he directed the episode) when he’s being told he should maybe stop production because of ghosts is priceless 🤣

The time they took all of their sets apart in the middle of season five and moved them an hour up the road to Halifax, because Chester needed its ice rink back. This presumably-massive project was helped somewhat by the writing - for instance we never see the inside of Audrey’s apartment again, or the Rouge, and when we do see inside the police station it is either being affected by an earthquake Trouble or attacked by zombies, so there is a handy plot-related explanation if something looks a bit battered or different. But still - they dismantled all of their sets, cleared everything out of the ice rink they had been using to house them, transported it all up to the new site, reassembled some of them and built new ones (amazing ones like Croatoan’s flowery-wallpaper attic room and the inside of the old armoury) in the middle/end of a twice-as-long-as-usual season 🚛🔧 . That’s got to be a Lot of work, I’m tired out just thinking about it 

The way that some key aspects of backstory were much more flexible than I would have assumed - the story of how Nathan’s Trouble was triggered was changed at the last minute, and the story Duke tells Mara about his mom wasn’t mapped out ahead of the script actually being written 

The time a vital and unique prop nearly went on a comic con tour across the country when it was actually needed on set for filming 😆

And then, if you’re in the mood to get your heart crushed … read on for a couple of absolutely heart breaking possibilities for the second half of 5B that I personally am quite glad did not make it into the final version …

Keep reading

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"I don't know if love is something that can be erased."

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After the finale

There's only one thing to do after Haven's Now & Forever finale, and that is to watch this beautiful fanvid.

It just perfectly sums up Duke and Nathan's whole relationship. Wonderful.

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Okay, when are you gonna get past this whole ‘I hate Duke’ thing?

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HAVEN rewatch - the two-part series finale; Now & Forever

I've been having a pretty stressful, irritating and emotional few weeks, so what better way to cheer myself up than by watching the final two episodes of Haven 😬

NOW

“We’re going to get Duke back” - I love Nathan’s eternal optimism

Croatoan thinks he can design the whole world in a way that makes sense to him, including what other people do and say. It’s a nicely-done sinister kind of bad guy. The Troubles allow him to create things, and so he thinks he can create the whole world, including the emotions of the people already in it.

Croatoan is so angry when Nathan turns down his copy. The first real chink in his plan to remake the world to his will.

“I should have killed you when you were a statue” - a nice little reference there to a plot point that was drafted for Blindspot but (thankfully) not included in the final script. 

I find Audrey’s use of “destiny” in this Trouble-wrangling speech to Duke quite odd. She says she’s fighting her destiny, but she isn’t - she’s fighting the Troubles and that is her destiny. That’s what she was literally created to do, as she says so herself in this same speech. 

Duke never gave into his destiny either; he never killed for fun or for the high like Simon and Wade and who knows how many other Crockers before them did. This thing with his black eyes is something new; something Mara created, something she did to him. It’s not just the standard Crocker Curse that he was born with.

And then - that moment where Croatoan realises he’s lost Duke, where he realises that not only has Nathan turned down the ‘gift’ of a fake Audrey, but also Duke has turned down the ‘gift’ of the Crocker Curse. This moment, this frown where Croatoan’s faith in his ability to shape the world to his own liking is cracked a little bit more. He thought Duke - this mere Crocker - was his creature and nothing else could have dissuaded him of this notion that he can do what he likes with his creatures as much as Crocker turning this gift down.

“You have to let me help. I need to make things right.” / “You will.” I like to think that Audrey’s reply there was in response to Duke wanting to help, and not the needing to put things right because, he hasn’t got anything to atone for.

“What can we do?” - Audrey, you are the only person in the room who can control aether. Why are you asking the others what to do about the aether flying across the room.

Lucas Bryant’s acting is so spot on in this death scene. And after. That, “At sea” 😭😭😭

Such a fun scene of Nathan and the Audrey Copy in the diner.

And then Croatoan getting even more sinister. This ‘no one else loves you like I do’ nonsense; such a good Bad Guy.

FOREVER

I love how the Audrey Copy proves to Nathan she knows him, “... our sex life in the beginning was a little exciting, and for you, maybe it was a little too exciting…” 😆

And then the real Audrey challenging Croatoan over his manipulation of Dwight with the Lizzie Copy. Croatoan’s baffled frown as that crack in his faith in his plan gets a little deeper.

Dwight’s Trouble making him effectively invincible, love it.

I’m no expert but a tall thin tower like this seems a very odd design for an armoury. Perhaps there used to be more of it and this is all that’s left? The rest destroyed in some previous round of Troubles?

The inside of the Barn is such a good set. Very spooky and surreal.

Another crack in Croatoan’s faith in his plan when Dwight explains why he’s turning down his ‘gift’ of Lizzie.

I was watching Dwight wake up on the beach and I had actually forgotten what happens next …. DUKE! Looking even more stylish dead than he did alive.

I love this scene with Nathan outside the shroud. His “I feel something”, him remembering the warmth of the sun, remembering Haven even when he can’t remember it, remembering the real Audrey even though he doesn’t know she’s not stood right there with him. But then, ultimately she does do what the real Audrey would do; she steps closer and sees the shroud and remembers - and she tells him, just like the real Audrey would have done. “I was to be her for you” - what a plot twist - “you sensed that somehow”. The man who can’t feel anything feels that this copy isn’t perfect. And she takes him through the shroud, knowing that not only will that mean her losing him but will mean her dying, but she does it anyway because, “Because I love you.” And! Then! One of my favourite moments in the whole show, when Nathan remembers everything and he turns to the copy to thank her, and her response in the moment before she fades from existence; “We love you,” the only explanation she has for why she’s done what she’s done - a simple explanation that to her is more than enough reason for why she would choose to die, and the expression on Nathan’s face in that moment … that realisation, that … you can almost hear the penny drop when it finally, finally clicks and he truly feels it in his deepest heart that Audrey loves him the same way he loves her. In one way he’s had so much confidence in them for so long, but in another way that confidence has been really fragile. This nagging doubt that maybe he loves her more than she does him (that same doubt that William had about Mara), or that she would always put the Troubles before him. But now, in this moment when this almost-perfect copy tells him, as though it’s so obvious it hardly needs saying at all, that of course she would give her life for his happiness - this, I think, is the moment that he really truly feels that full faith in her love for him for the first time. (I’m not sure how much sense I’m making here but I’ve written a whole load of meta on this theme for anyone who’s interested;  https://archiveofourown.org/works/43553142 )

Gotta wonder how Nathan’s “she wasn’t real” lands with Dwight, given the whole Lizzie situation.

WHY CAN’T NATHAN SEE DUKE????????????? Is it just because they didn't have time in the episode to deal with Nathan having a conversation with him

Dwight’s “He says ‘go get her Nathan, save her’” I don’t think I’d realised before, that echoes Nathan’s words to Duke at the end of season three. “Go get her Duke, save her,” - that’s what the wounded Nathan says to Duke when he tells him to follow Audrey into the collapsing Barn. That exact same phrase, that has to be deliberate.

Fabulous look of horrified incomprehension on Croatoan’s face when he sees Nathan has rejected his ‘gift’ to come back to Haven for the real Audrey. Those cracks are really piling up now.

And then Croatoan’s big mistake, when he kills Nathan. Something Audrey is never going to let him get away with. And she turns on him and uses her words the way she has done for six seasons to get through to people and dissect their emotions. Those chinks and cracks that Duke and Dwight and Nathan have created, she hammers against them with her words until he gives in, but no amount of hammering would have worked if those cracks hadn’t already been there. It’s just her and Croatoan there in that moment (Nathan dead on the floor), but it was a team effort that brought him down; all four of them together.

“What about you, are you even real? Because I don’t think this is something the real Duke Crocker would do.” - come on Dwight, you’re smarter than that. Think about what he’s saying to you.

Gotta love William Shatner calling Vince by talking into the controller crystal like it’s a Star Trek Communicator 🤣

“We'll always want more time. The trick will be being thankful for the time we had.” 😭 but, you know, that is quite a solid philosophy for life. 

This goodbye is so beautiful, not just what Nathan says to Audrey, what it means between the two of them, but also what it means for Haven; the images of Marion Caldwell and Chris Brody, the Glendowers and Seth - everyone getting their lives back. Beautiful, beautiful.

And then, once all the drama’s over, these final scenes in the police station; Stan’s summary to Nathan with a whole list of names in it just so they could reference all the writers, love it.

Plus one final ‘gas leak’ 🤣

And, then, LAVERNE!! We actually get to see her face 😀

Some nice news from Gloria; the end to the Troubles. And is this the first time Gloria calls Vickie ‘Vickie’ and not ‘intern’? 

Sound advice from Gloria too; do what Audrey would want you to do.

Oh god this final scene, I can’t. It’s so well done. Lucas needs some award of some kind for this acting. Flustered and amazed and optimistic and overwhelmed. “I’m a Nathan.” Adorable. “Um humm. Yep.” Perfect.

And Croataon gets the perfect punishment having to spend an eternity in an empty room with Vince. (Though I do feel sorry for Vince in this scenario; he might not have been perfect, but he didn’t deserve that.)

Every time I watch these episodes I think I’m not going to cry this time.

And every time I prove myself wrong.

😭

There's only one solution of course - start right back at the beginning again!

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I wanted us to have more time.

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s05e26 - Forever

With Nathan sent outside the shroud with Croatoan's copy of Audrey, the real Audrey considers her limited options for how to deal with Croatoan and the aether that's flooding into Haven.

She talks to Vince about the possibility of Dwight handing over the controller crystal to Croatoan to save Lizzie, as they try to work out what Croatoan wants with it and whether it is still any use to them in building a New Barn with the aether core destroyed...

I'm not going to try and summarise the whole episode here. Suffice to say it's about as emotional as TV gets. I'll be back once I've finished sobbing 😭

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s05e25 - Now

So here we are at Haven's two final episodes!

With Croatoan!Duke collecting Troubles and Dwight processing the resurrection of his daughter, Audrey asks Vicky to use her Trouble to fix the broken aether core. Vicky's drawing is almost complete when Croatoan!Duke catches up with them in the police station.

Buckle up folks because things are about to get a lot more emotional.

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The Widening Gyre - s05e24

It's kind of crazy how, with only two episodes of the show to go, the founding mystery that drove much of the first three seasons - how and why The Colorado Kid died - is waved away in a sentence or two from Croatoan;

If I hadn't killed him, Lucy would have, and then all of Mara's work, your work, would've been undone. Worse than that, the Barn would've sent you home, and I would've lost you forever.

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Haven Rewatch - The Widening Gyre, s05e24

Looking back through the ‘previously on’ to Blind Spot, I love that though we never see Laverne, we see a whole episode through her eyes 

I'm not sure I understand why Croatoan is so willing to accept Audrey as his daughter. She's not Mara - wouldn't he see her as a different person? Or does he just want her for her connection to the aether and ability to work with the Troubles.

Croatoan is such a wonderfully evil character; he pretty much says ‘look at what you made me do’ and William Shatner brings a very appropriate kind of arrogant creepiness to it.

I love Nathan's stubborn optimism in this conversation with Duke, and the way he sees through the posturing of Duke trying to make him angry.

And then alongside Croatoans creepiness we have Eric Balfour giving Duke the same vibe, very nicely done.

Howard: “I can't remember them any more.” Is this the same “them” he was just telling us about?

They really should have more Guard guarding Duke. Like how is sensible for Nathan to be alone with him.

Croatoan’s “your mother gave birth to you but I created you” is just so … there's so much going on there, especially in a show which has consistently ignored or minimised mothers throughout the seasons. But it's so patently untrue it just makes him sound even more unhinged than he did already. (Also kind of love the accidental swearing with the V-sign he offers along with “twice”, though I know that's probably an interpretation only a British person would put on it.)

It occurs to me that the reason Croatoan accepts Audrey as his daughter is because he doesn't care who she is; it's not about her personality or their history together or anything that might apply in any real life father-daughter reunion. It's simply the fact that “you're my creation” - proof of his work with the aether, proof of what he can do and why he shouldn't have been banished. That's all she is to him.

This moment towards the end where Duke has Nathan by the throat gives me chills every time: “You wanted a Crocker, well here I am.”

Another yellow house! Someone on the locations team likes yellow houses.

Strong final line from Vince there (“I know exactly what we need to do to send Croatoan screaming back to hell”) but I'm not sure things look so clear cut come the next episode.

Only the final two episodes to go, omg. 

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s05e24 - The Widening Gyre

While Croatoan tries to turn Audrey to his side, Nathan tries to turn Duke, or rather to find the real Duke in the creature he has become.

Meanwhile Vince discusses the Barn with Howard and takes a drastic step of his own.

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Haven - Blind Spot, season five episode 23

Love Nathan's optimism

Love, love, love this Nick McGuiness story. Not long ago Nathan was reassessing his whole relationship with Garland (after a conversation in the 1980s), now he's reassessing his whole relationship with Duke. And there's so many implications to it, from their friendship, to the fact that (given the road to end the Troubles ultimately starts when Nathan shoots Howard) Duke keeping Nathan in his job might have made all the difference in saving Haven. Also a nice touch that the name Nick McGuiness is based on two of the writers.

Poor Vince :(

The security camera vibe is so effective and I love this Trouble and I love that it's Laverne.

“We've dealt with your Trouble before, we will be able to get you separated from this building” - nice sentiment Audrey, but don't forget that the last time you dealt with this Trouble it was by blowing up the building 😆

One of the few moments in the show I really don't like here where Nathan threatens to blow up the door (ie Laverne) to get to Audrey, even despite Audrey telling him she's fine, and she then tells Laverne to give in and open the door so she doesn't get hurt. As though it's entirely reasonable that the only way to stop a man from hurting you is to do what you're told, and as though his threat of violence (against an ally) is reasonable or proportionate.

lol at Howard's grudge against Nathan for shooting him.

Eric Balfour does such a good job being super creepy as this black eyed Croatoan!Duke

Croatoan! We meet at last. Love this casting.

This scene is just perfect;

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523: Blind Spot

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523: Blind Spot

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looks.

523: Blind Spot

Nathan Wuornos