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Haven: Butterfly

"Every town’s got a few skeletons in the closet. Well, this is a big freakin’ closet."

The second episode of Haven was not as interesting as the first. It seemed to act mostly as a vehicle to provide us with information about the larger story.

The butterfly story was somewhat entertaining, especially the symbolism of the one butterfly with the huge iron ball. All I could think of was the “butterfly effect": that the flap of one butterfly wing can start a chain of reactions that ends with a hurricane. I found it particularly interesting to watch the reaction of the townspeople as a huge metal ball rolled down their main street. It says a lot that they weren’t particularly surprised by it. The butterflies and the metal ball were the product of a young boy's (Bobby’s) dreams. After the traumatic death of his family in a car accident, whenever he sleeps his dreams become reality. This is a bit tricky when he is dreaming about crushing people between cars or electrocuting them in school hallways during the school science fair. I didn’t find this particular mystery very engaging or believable. I was particularly annoyed by the resolution which had Audrey and Nathan interacting with Bobby in his dream. However, it did introduce Bobby’s foster grandfather, the Reverend Driscoll, a mostly ex-alcoholic who is going to be an ongoing piece of the Haven puzzle. Stephen King does have a soft spot for crazy, somewhat evil preachers.

The bigger mystery is moving along.

Audrey is staying in town to find out about the woman in the picture, who she believes is her mother. The chief has offered her a job and help in solving her mystery if she will stay. We found out that “the troubles” have happened before around the time of the murder of the Colorado Kid in 1983. Only certain people have the troubles and they manifest in different ways. Often people don’t know they have a special power/gift/problem. Eleanor didn’t know she could control the weather, Bobby suspects his dreams but doesn’t really understand what is happening, and Nathan only found out he got his (not being able to feel anything) when he was seriously injured in a toboggan accident as a child. Of course, the Reverend sees those with the troubles as the product of the devil--but how could that be when it would put some of our good guys on the wrong side? Something big is up in Haven. It is manifesting itself through the troubles and is linked in some way to the woman in the picture.

Bits and Pieces

Of course a sea town will have a bar called the Rust Bucket. And why wouldn’t a huge metal ball roll into it?

Haven has a moose farm as a tourist attraction. Down east where the show is filmed tourists do like to see the moose but locals see them mostly as a driving hazard.

Nathan used to be a bit of a ladies man - a nerdy ladies man. He asked the Reverend’s daughter to the prom without her father’s permission. When the Reverend found out and forbid her to go, Nathan took her to see a meteor shower instead.

Quotes

Audrey: "That’s it, that all I get, the folksy, local cop brush-off?"
Chief: "I was shooting for civil."

Audrey: "I’m just looking for a little quid, pro quo."
Chief: "Oh, that sounds illicit."
Audrey: "I was shooting for civil."

Audrey: "You don’t mind do you, that I invited myself along?"
Nathan: "It’s a huge metal ball. Who can resist that?"
Audrey: "Exactly."

Nathan: "Meteor showers are better naked."

Audrey: (To the butterfly on her hotel bedspread) "Polyester is so beneath you."

Nathan: "The troubles are back, and I’m afraid they won’t go away this time."

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