Spoilers Ahoy!

In between my early mornings, late evenings and interesting/amusing experiences working with people upon people upon people during the holiday season, I did get a chance to watch the S5 finale for Syfy’s Haven.

Duke is now a Trouble giver rather than taker, but he has no choice in who he gives the Troubles to.  These spells come out of him as black tears that settle on the human/s nearest to him at the time.  And Mara is right: These Troubles are much worse, in one case causing near instantaneous death and destruction.

Vince and Dave are on a hunt to discover whatever or whoever Dave is remembering from his time in the lighthouse in S4.  Also, the infection on his leg is getting worse, and it appears that his attacker may still be in Haven.

Charlotte Cross appears to be a kind mother, loving enough to have tried to discipline her daughter (albeit perhaps a bit too harshly).  She and Mara come from another world like Earth, but more advanced and “developed independently” – whatever that means.  She is also a thousand some years old, while her daughter Mara is 600 years old.

Dwight is understandably upset that Charlotte was not completely honest with him.  He did not realize he was under the power of a major cougar. 😉

Audrey/Mara – Finally, finally, push came to shove and the writers decided to get rid of Mara.  The sad thing is, they gave her such a reason to hang around before they did it: Redemption.  Charlotte sees all of the maliciousness and anger  in Mara and realizes that through Charlotte’s punishment, Mara has become worse, not better, and in fact seems to have no goodness or love in her at all.  But that’s not necessarily the case.  When confronted by her mother, Mara recalls her father and when she would like to do to get him back (hopefully Papa Thinny’s story will be detailed in S6), and the emotion in her voice and eyes show a hurt that runs very deep.  Mara’s hurting doesn’t excuse her actions, but it’s a sign in my mind that she’s not merely an uncaring devil who wants to take the world to hell with her.  She had something good (possibly the unconditional love of her father, and maybe mother) and desperately wants it back.  That’s what I saw, anyway, and a motivation like that seems like a good way to start a cool redemption story.

Charlotte says that Audrey is essential all of the rightness and goodness that used to be in Mara.  She hopes by using her Thinny powers to combine the two beings that it will make Mara whole again.  Well, as I said before, Char decides against that and instead kills her daughter, choosing to leave Audrey behind in her place.  Audrey’s great and all, but she’s already sweet, smart, good, etc., no redemption needed (though likely if S6 resolves around Papa Thinny, she’ll have some daddy issues to deal with).  So I’m a little miffed that Mara’s just gone (if indeed she is) because it appeared as if the character had room to grow and Emily Rose is so good at playing her.

Nathan is Nathan.  He doesn’t really have anything interesting going on with him aside from being there for Audrey (and sometimes Duke) and helping with the Troubles.

The Troubles – S5 ended with a bang!  With Mara’s death, her Duke curse was ultimately released on Haven in the form of massive quantities of those Trouble tears erupting from the lanky antihero’s mouth like flies from the mouth of a possessed person.  The last couple of minutes evoke good horror genre imagery, and no doubt that angle is a nod to one of Stephen King’s tomes (if you know which one, let me know.).  So an apocalypse is upon Haven with its citizens Troubled ten times over and unable to leave the town.  Hopefully the solution will involve a cool trek to Charlotte’s world.  And the Colorado Kid.  Whatever happened to him?  Sounds like I’ll have to rematch the whole series before the next season airs.  🙂