"The Trouble With Troubles" has me thinking about how short Haven's seasons are. Now I'm a fan of shows with short seasons. I think they often tend to be higher quality and I think dramas, particularly scifi dramas suffer more if they have to fill 24 episodes a year.
But if Haven did have 24 episodes a year they could have spent more time in a Trouble-free altverse. What happens if Audrey's stuck in an alternate Haven with no plans to change it back and William isn't an issue? What if William didn't go off the rails until a second episode in AltHaven? I'd have loved to see that. Audrey's always been needed by Haven and she's never been an actual outsider. Sure, she felt like one in Season 1 and some of Season 2 and was frustrated by being on the outs of that small town vibe but she was never actually on the outs. Most of the people around her knew her, and knew they needed her. Sure, they lied to her and pretended otherwise but she was never an actual outsider. And she's never, not for a day in her life (that she can remember) not been needed. So she's in altverse Haven and there are no Troubles. She checks around and everyone is alive and it's great. They don't know her and they're drastically different people but they're *alive* and they're *happy*. Where does she go? What does she do? For someone who's an orphan in more ways than one, we've never seen an Audrey Parker who's alone.
I'd have loved to see that. And then William could become a problem, and Audrey ends up behind bars and she once again has a mission: stop William, save a Troubled person. This could have given Duke time to track down the real Audrey, the only person who she would be able to convince of the Troubles without bodies dropping all over the place. I've always loved the real Audrey Parker and I adored their friendship. I'd have loved to see the two of the tackle this head on. Or the two of them and Duke. Can you image Duke listening to Audrey 2 interrogate Haven Audrey and hearing the whole truth? About Audrey, about Haven, about his family. Can you image Duke hearing Audrey 1 tell Audrey 2 how she was willing to sacrifice seeing her friends again for the sake of these versions of them she didn't really know?
Plus, being stuck in an alternate universe that you are trying to preserve is a complete subversion of the standard trope and one I'd have loved to seen explored. The standard trope is that someone gets stuck in an alternate universe where everything is worse. So they not only want to get back to their friends and loved ones, but they are going to change the timelines for the good of humanity. There's no real conflict here. Altworld is bad personally and in general and so motives are really simple. This quickly makes death cheap because they're trying to get back to another timeline, so they don't really care who dies in this one. Or they do, but as long as they fix the timeline it won't matter, so they don't really dwell on the deaths. The urgency is all about fixing the timeline in time, not about saving the people in this one.
Getting to explore an alternate universe where Audrey is fighting to save individual lives and save a Troubled person and stop William from changing things back--that would have been fun. Instead of giving people hope and telling them that there's a better Haven where their loved ones are alive, she'd be bringing the pain and trying to convince them that the worst events of their lives were a mere drop in the bucket. And it would have created an interesting conflict when William started to hurt and kill the people she loved. Audrey didn't really get to process Duke's death, much less be very conflicted over it. But what would have happened if she had time? If she had to personally decide between bringing back her loved ones by talking down (or killing) Cliff and keeping a Troubleless Haven?
William succeeding and actually restoring the timeline would have been so much more painful if it had taken time. If it had taken time Audrey would have had to get used to this new Haven, to believe in this alternate world, and having it hurt and then ripped away would have been so much harder. Especially because she'd have had time to properly miss Nathan and Duke and when she got them back she'd have had to deal with an ugly piece of guilt over feeling happy about that. And I don't think that she needs more guilt--far from it! But she tends to only feel guilty about things she did in a past life, which is a bit weird. She hasn't really been that morally conflicted about her decisions as Audrey Parker, largely because she's been in the middle of a war and hasn't really had time to be conflicted.
Also, Season 4 has been really fast paced, and the plot has been walloping the character development. We've only seen char dev necessary to further the plot and we've had almost no down time. And yes, things are super bad, but even in the middle of a supernatural war you take breaks to eat and sleep and shower and seeing almost none of that downtime has hurt the authenticity of the show a little. These small moments are one of the places where Haven really shines. They've always been beautifully written and they've felt so real and authentic that they really ground the supernatural aspect of the show.
If they'd have had the time, what would you have liked to see in a Troubleless Haven? SingingEarth ✉✎ 01:13, November 17, 2013 (UTC)