S03.E13: Thanks for the Memories

[Tabbyclaw]

Time is up for Audrey Parker as the Hunter meteor shower strikes Haven.

 

[Tabbyclaw]

As always, a lot going on in this season finale. Some answers, sort of. A lot more questions. And we finally get to actually meet the Colorado Kid, only to find out that he's played by the anthropomorphic personification of dullness. Yeah, James is a big part of the reason why I don't like season 3 as a whole. I was tired of him well before he showed up.

 

That said, there was a lot to like about this one. Seeing Sarah's memories inside the barn was tantalizing, and just made me want to see more of everyone she's been. And more things that will make Nathan cringe, because dear God his face during the sex flashback. I don't really have an issue with this having slept with Sarah, but the fact that he didn't 'fess up when he found out he might be James' father comes under the header of "Not cool, yo." I also continue to suspect that history will vindicate him for shooting Howard.

 

Speaking of Howard, knowing what we do now really changes my perspective on one of his lines. When he tells Audrey that the problem is that she is "very, very human," I initially interpreted this as sympathetic and referring to her capacity to love.  Now I wonder if it was meant more as "You are mortal and fallible, and you screwed up and keep on screwing up."

 

In the 'little moments that I have a disproportionate love for' category, I adore the choreography of Duke catching Nathan as he falls and shooting Jordan all in one motion. Very visually effective.

[Elsinore]

I like James. Pretty sure that once they'll do an episode where he's not ill or influenced by his she devil of a wife he'll be a lot more fun.

 

Oh My God, indeed. It always bothered me that they had to have sex right there. Made the whole thing kind of cheap looking. This is supposed to be Epic Love Across Lifetimes. Get a bloody room at a motel or something. 

 

Liked the other Sarah scene though. This is sheer speculation, but I'm betting that younger Vince and Dave totally met Nathan. Hence their faces when she said he hadn't been born yet.  

[BlueJay81]

James was extremely dull, whiny and gullible. All the mystery and intrigue hinted at in the 'Real Estate" episode was gone in this episode. Considering how much both Vince and Dave claim to have loved Sarah, that is seems there was actually some conflict between them over her, it doesn't seem like she was interested in either of them at all from the flashback.

 

About Howard, on reflection  if he didn't want  Nathan to shoot him, he wouldn't have just stood there, he must have known that Nathan could possibly do that. I think we'll see him again, could a supernatural being just be shot easily like that?

I do agree about his very very human line

It is open to either or even both of those interpretations

I remember in S1, when Howard was speaking to the Chief and said something like "Do you think she deserves all this? He really seems to be empathetic towards her plight.

 

With what we know now it's interesting that

the Lighthouse is always one of the first things to be destroyed. Who or what wants to destroy the heart of Haven/

[dargosmydaddy]

I thought the James actor was one of the weakest they've had on the show, and that's really saying a lot.

 

Still drives me crazy that Nathan got shot multiple times, to the point that he's incapacitated and sends Duke after Audrey, but

no mention is ever made of his injuries again!

[Shanna Marie]

About Howard, on reflection  if he didn't want  Nathan to shoot him, he wouldn't have just stood there, he must have known that Nathan could possibly do that.

That's what I'm hoping. Otherwise, this is a bad case of Idiot Plotting, in which the characters have to act like idiots in order for the plot to work. They'd already established that the Barn wouldn't go until Audrey chose to go in and chose to go, and she'd made her decision, so there was no reason for Howard to have gone out while she said her good-byes, and there was no reason for him to stay outside once she went in. So either the writers just made him be there because he needed to be shot for the story to work, he's actually evil or at least a jerk and was just staying out there to gloat to Nathan, or he was trying to make sure the Barn would be destroyed and hoping that Nathan was smart enough to think of the way.

 

I'm also a little irked with Audrey. While I can see her wanting to say good-bye, it's not like she would have remembered, and I'm not sure it did anyone any good. If she'd just left, Nathan would have been hurt and angry, but maybe being angry at her would have helped him move on and have a life. As it is, she just seemed to stir things up rather badly. She was yet again making decisions about Nathan's life without consulting him or even giving him the full information. They never said anything about why he couldn't have gone with her. She just acted like she didn't expect him to give up his life to be with her (unless maybe she was afraid that in the Barn he'd find out about the killing thing and want her to kill him there), and yet in saying they'd do it again in 27 years she was essentially asking him to put his life on hold for her and wait for her. So he's still giving up his life and he may as well have been in the Barn. But I guess if she'd just said "let's go" when she learned about the killing thing, the series would have either ended on a really downer note or we'd have come back next season with an entirely new cast other than the next version of the Entity, with a late middle-aged Nathan and Duke (played by new actors) as this generation's Vince and Dave.

 

I suspect they cast James for his looks, because he really does look like what you'd get from those computer programs where you take photos of two people and see what their child would look like if you put in photos of Lucas Bryant and Emily Rose. I'm not sure how much the problem was the acting or how much was that all he got to do was be sick or wounded and utterly confused.