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Time travel is an important function of The Barn, though the mechanics of this functions are unknown. There are also two Time Travel Episodes. Audrey Parker's immunity to the Troubles provides her with a Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, letting her know when something has been changed so that she can Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Although time travel is a fairly frequent trope on Haven, Time Travel Tense Trouble is rarely invoked.


The Barn[]

The exact time travel mechanics of The Barn are unknown, but it seems to employ some sort of a Time Dilation. Duke Crocker's brief time in the Barn was equal to six months in the regular world.[1][note 1]


Time dilation would explain how the mysterious woman doesn't age between her appearances in Haven.[2] It would also explain Lexie DeWitt's experiences in the Barn. For DeWitt, time moved in an unusually compressed fashion-she'd think that she'd gone home, had dinner, slept and come back to work, but in reality no time had passed at all and these were just more Fake Memories. When DeWitt became aware that things were not what they seemed to be, this stopped fully affecting her and she became aware that time was passing differently.[3]


Little is know about the specifics of the how time works in The Barn but it seems to function on some sort of Celestial Deadline, given it's close ties to the Hunter Meteor Storm.[note 2]


The Barn's time travel also appears to be at least somewhat controllable. According to Agent Howard it came whenever the mysterious woman called it.[6][note 3] Howard is also able to use The Barn to travel to Haven outside of the 27-year cycle.[7]

Groundhog's Day loop[]

Anson Shumway's Trouble traps Parker in a Groundhog Day Loop. Shumway is the only Troubled person with the ability to affect time was does not have a ripple-effect-proof memory. Parker not only has a ripple-effect-proof memory, but seems to be reset-button-proof as well. Unlike other people who's injuries and deaths reset when the day starts over again, Parker's body retains all the wear and tear it went through. When she wakes up on the day the loop ends, she's already been awake for 17 hours and 44 minutes and has injuries from the previous loops.[8]

Ret gone[]

While not strictly time travel, Hadley Chambers' Trouble invokes Ret Gone as she makes everyone in Haven disappear one-by-one, leaving the remaining Havenites with no memory of their ever existing. The HPD class photo, the Haven Herald subscription list and the "Welcome to Haven" sign function as Ripple Effect Indicators. Unlike the alternate universes created by other Troubles, where everything resets if the Trouble person dies, the Chambers Trouble seems to actually have Ontological Intertia. When Arthur Chambers committed suicide, the people his Trouble erased did not return. However it's unknown if Arthur Chambers committed suicide *after* the Troubles left, something that may have given the world he created permanence.[9]

"Sarah"[]

In "Sarah", Stuart Mosley's Trouble sends Crocker back to 1955.[10] A Mister Sandman Sequence is used to demonstrate that he is a Fish Out Of Temporal Water, and he invokes What Year Is This?. He then Writes Back To The Future hoping that he can somehow get help Getting Back To The Future.


Meanwhile, In The Future things start changing, though only Parker is aware of this. Nathan Wuornos goes back to 1955 to find Crocker, invoking Weirdness Search and Rescue.[note 4] Crocker's unusual clothes attract attention, but Wuornos fits in perfectly, especially once he gets a Nice Hat.


Crocker gives his grandfather a gold dubloon that he'd inherited, creating an Object Loop.[note 5] When he tries to convince his grandfather of who he is, Trust Password is invoked. Meanwhile, Wuornos meets Sarah Vernon and embarks on a brief Time Travel Romance. This turns his relationship with Parker into a Reincarnation Romance and makes the two of them Parents From The Future.


This episode uses multiple forms of Temporal Mutability: a Stable Time Loop is created by a Reverse Grandfather Paradox,[note 6] and there's also an Alternate Universe affected by San Dimas Time. Parker's immunity to the Troubles again gives her Ripply-Effect-Proof Memory.[note 7]


Crocker is remarkably genre savvy and knows that he's not supposed to change anything, but he breaks his pledge not to change anything and tries to affect the future, invoking Time Travel For Fun And Profit. He turns out to be Wrong Time Travel Savvy — he and Wuornos had Already Changed The Past. His decision to Screw Destiny becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, directly causing the events he was attempting to prevent. You Can't Fight Fate, at least not when it comes to time travel.

Trouble-less altverse[]

When Cliff's wife, Susie, dies, his Make a Wish Trouble is activated and he wished for a Haven without the Troubles, one where Susie would still be alive. In classic Be Careful What You Wish For fashion, his wish creates an Alternate Universe where Haven has never been plagued by the Troubles. Unfortunately, that also means that while Susie is still alive, she's married to someone else.

In this Troubless Altverse, Haven is no longer "Haven to God's orphan's" but "The safest town in Maine", a town that hasn't has a murder in 42 years. Duke Crocker is not a criminal, but third-generation HPD Detective. Max Hansen was never a violent criminal and so Nathan Wuornos never existed—a happily married doctor, Nathan Hansen exists in his stead. Garland Wuornos did not become a cop. Vince and Dave Teagues still accumulated enormous wealth but did not need to resort to illegal means to hide it. While Troubless Haven does have major differences, it's largely a universe based on the principle of In Spite Of A Nail, mainly because it's an exercise in What If?.

Audrey Parker, William and Cliff all have ripple-effect-proof memories and are physically reset-button-proof as well.[11] Parker wakes up wearing her alternate universe clothes, and Cliff's death in the alternate Haven carries over.[note 8][13]

Ripple effects[]

People immune to the Troubles (the mysterious woman and William) have Ripple-Effect-Proof Memories and are able to notice that the world around them has changed. Sometimes the person who's Trouble is changing things also has a ripple-effect proof memory. Hadley Chambers is able to remember the people she's erased[9] and Cliff is able to remember the Haven that used to be.[13]

The Chambers Trouble leaves lots of Ripple Effect Indicators lying around. Some of these are only obvious to people with ripple-effect-proof memories: the changing population numbers on the "Welcome to Haven" sign and editions of the Haven Herald. Some of these are noticeably odd to everyone: abandoned cars, a several hundred page delivery list with with only a handful of names, a police station with dozens of desks for two cops.[9]

Reset button[]

Things created by the Troubles require the Troubled person's continued existence, to the extent that even alternate universes created by a Trouble have No Ontological Intertia; if the person who's Trouble caused the timeline change dies, the new timeline ends too. This means that most deaths in these alternate universes are generally subject to a Reset Button.[note 9] However a person immune from the Troubles who gets injured or killed in an alternate universe is in unusual peril because they would stay dead once the Trouble ended and the timeline was restored.[note 10] The Troubled person causing the changed timeline is also in particular peril. Shumway and Cliff both die in order to stop their Troubles and their deaths are the only deaths that carry over into the real timeline. Whether this is a side-effect of immunity to the Troubles/causing the Troubles or because Your Mind Makes It Real is unknown.


Notes[]

  1. The missing six months that Crocker was in The Barn is the only Time Skip that's happened in Haven.
  2. Celestial Deadlines also govern Moira and Noelle's Trouble.[4][5]
  3. While Howard is an unreliable narrator, the Barn did show up for Lucy Ripley when she called it for the Colorado Kid, lending credibility to his story.[6]
  4. Weirdness search and rescue is later invoked during their trip to rescue Parker from the Barn.[3]
  5. Crocker's gold dubloon exists only between August 16th 1955 when he arrives in the past and late 2010 when he's sent back. Try not to think about it too hard, it'll give you a headache.
  6. Duke gets sent back to the past by going to see Stuart Mosley after reading his name in the Crocker journal. But the Guard only knows about Mosley and only orders Roy Crocker to kill him after overhearing a conversation between Nathan and a Guardsmen.
  7. The world of Haven following multiple temporal mutability standards may be justified by Parker's immunity to the Troubles. Mosley's Trouble creates a Reverse Grandfather Paradox but her immunity lets her see Haven as it would be without this paradox.
  8. Wuornos assumes that William tracked down Cliff and murdered him again in order to keep his Trouble from being re-triggered, but the writers have confirmed that Cliff's AU death carried over.[12]
  9. The Chambers Trouble may be an exception to this rule. See #Ret gone.
  10. As the writers have not killed off Parker or William permanently, and as they can't kill them off permanently more than once, this is an assumption. However Parker's injury during the Groundhog's Day loop survived multiple resets as did her change of clothes in "The Trouble With Troubles".[8][13]

References[]

  1. "Fallout"
  2. "Sins of the Fathers"
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Lost and Found"
  4. "Magic Hour: Part 1"
  5. "Magic Hour: Part 2"
  6. 6.0 6.1 "Thanks For The Memories"
  7. "Lay Me Down"
  8. 8.0 8.1 "Audrey Parker's Day Off"
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Silent Night"
  10. "Sarah"
  11. When Parker wakes up in the Troubleless altverse, she has not been moved physically. She went to bed in her apartment above The Grey Gull and woke up on the floor of a storage room above JoJo's Bait Shop, which had replaced the Gull in the altverse. When Cliff is killed though, she's moved across town, and wakes up back in her bed. No explanation is given for this.
  12. Tweet from @bmillikin 16 Nov 13 - 7:00 pm EST
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 "The Trouble With Troubles
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