In episode 1 we meet Audrey Parker, an FBI agent who perhaps is a bit out there in her investigation methodology. Her boss sends her to Haven, Maine to bring back an escaped convict. As we get a bit of a view of Haven on Audrey’s drive into town, I realise how much I have fallen in love with Maine, and mostly due to Stephen King. Since a lot of the town and coastal shots throughout the show are the same few, it’s obvious it’s not filmed in Maine. But I still think one of those gorgeous red brick farmhouses nestled sleepily into the rocky shoreline, with the windy sea air is just begging to be rented for a year long writing project. As long as they have internet, I can run my press from anywhere, right? Course, not in Haven. Somewhere less … troubled.

Agent Parker’s convict is found dead the day she arrives, in somewhat mysterious circumstances. And she encounters some other oddities – a crack in the road appears as she’s driving which causes her to have a dangerous accident, a local cop with whom she instantly establishes witty rapport can’t feel pain and an odd fog envelops them – that have her hanging around a bit longer than she expected. Agent Parker solves the episode mystery but it raises more questions than answers.

A random highlight is meeting Duke – “The guy’s not all bad,” she tells cop Nathan, “he saved my life and then he served me coffee.” And it should be pointed out, he made plunger coffee! Can’t be all bad at all. And he laundered her clothes. But … replacing her phone was just weird.

SPOILERS (from up to Season 3) BELOW:

So, now onto the broader picture. We’re left wondering just what is happening in Haven – a town with full translated name is “Haven for God’s Orphans”. I always remembered it as Audrey Parker coming to Haven having seen the picture in the paper with the woman who looks like her mother. But no, Vince and Dave totally plot to keep her there by planting the question in her head by handing her the photo of her the day the Colorado Kid goes missing/is killed. And they pointedly mention it was  “27 years ago”. They  know she appears every 27 years and they know that means the Troubles are back. You can see them, rather than rattled by her appearance, eager to pick up where Lucy left off. They ,issed their friend, and are eager to play again.

The Chief knows who Audrey is too. And I think he’s sort of amused that she’s back as an FBI Agent this time.

Agent Howard is all creepy with watching her from afar and calling, presumably the Chief … but maybe Vince? and saying, “She’s staying, maybe she can help you with your troubles.”

Questions. Howard arrives at Audrey’s place to kinda kick it all off. But where did she, and he, come from? Presumably they came out of the Barn. So why does Haven manage to manifest them both so far away from the town? That’s kinda odd considering the Troubles always seem implied to be a Haven only thing (even though it could be a haven *for* the troubled since people obviously come to Haven via the underground railway of Vince’s.)

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