Stan: “Miss Edwards thinks the Higgs kids stole her clam rake. Mr. Millikin and Mr. Nick want a noise variance for their party, and the Stanton kid, well, he got pulled over in his golf cart. I think I smelled weed.”
Matt McGuiness: “Oh this right here, those are the names of the entire Haven writing staff hidden in that speech; Brian Millikin, Nick Parker, Gab Stanton, Speed Weed, Shernold Edwards, Adam Higgs. The only name not in there is me.”
Commentary with showrunners and writers Matt McGuinness and Gabrielle Stanton
MMG: OK, you are watching the commentary for the final episode of Haven, which I think is called, Forever. And we are going to try to come up with clever witty insightful things to talk about.
GS: Which we have so far failed to do on every one of our other commentaries, but. This is the big one.
[As the Previouslies are playing]
MMG: So this was what we hope was the very surprising death of Duke Crocker. This scene here [Croatoan talking to Audrey and getting the aether cloud started] which was in the last episode, was originally going to be the opening of this one. And the opening of this episode you’re about to see was completely re-cut in the editing bay
GS: But it came out fabulous. This bit with Audrey and Stan.
MMG: Poor Stan. We have a lot of fun with the idea that Stan has been around for a great many Troubles and yet never quite figures it out. He’s kind-hearted, capable of greatness, but sometimes just a little slow on the uptake.
GS: So here Nathan is off in the diner, with Fake Audrey who he thinks is the real Audrey
MMG: Clevesmills there [where the diner is] is a nod to our inspiration, Mr Stephen King.
GS: Which book was that in?
MMG: A bunch of them I think. He keeps the same towns in a lot of his books. It was in the Deadzone for sure.
GS: Maybe It too?
MMG: And here’s where we’re hoping that Nathan kind of knows that something isn’t quite right.
[Audrey, about the bronco: It actually costs $300 a month just to keep it running]
GS: That’s probably true, actually. Production would probably vouch for that.
MMG: Oh yeah. The bronco is a very challenging vehicle. And here we get a tiny allusion to their sex life, which we really have not seen much of. And sadly the first thing we talk about is Nathan’s … challenges *laughing*
GS: Oh, she’s joking. And Croatoan left him some cash! You can get a lot of pancakes for $200.
MMG: We really wanted Audrey to cute and likeable there, and she is. And you really get the sense that poor Nathan is stuck.
GS: And poor really Audrey thinks that Nathan really did desert here.
MMG: A tribute to Brokeback Mountain there with the sniffing of the pillow. And things are grimm. But Vince has an idea. Was that place for sale, this location? [Where Vince and Dwight are hiding out]
GS: No, it’s actually a really old famous club there I think. And I think there were drapes over everything because it was supposed to look like their hideout, like it was closed for the summer. And this is the first time that Audrey’s seen Lizzie.
MMG: It is, and hopefully she’s thinking about Nathan with the other Audrey. I had some very interesting, fun conversations with Richard about how he was supposed to play the new, crystalised version of Vince. Because it’s a tricky piece of business.
GS: Did he have a take on it?
MMG: He did. He said it’s like you suddenly have a language that you don’t fully understand how you got it or why you have it or really what it means, but you have it.
[Opening credits play]
MMG: So that was all re-ordered.
GS: I think it works very well.
MMG: I do too. I can’t even remember what the original order was. Every time I see this dog in the credits, I remember that day we spent on the boat with that guy and I want to remember his name.
GS: Oh, I can’t remember his name. He was the actual owner of the Cape Rouge.
MMG: That was one of the wildest days.
GS: How many Slim Jims references do we make over the course of this series?
MMG: The Slim Jims manufacturers should send us a case.
GS: I know! I keep waiting for them to, because I actually really enjoy Slim Jims
MMG: Do you?
GS: Well I haven’t had one for a while but when I was a kid I loved them. Maybe that’s what I’ll do after this; go out and by a Slim Jim. Ah now, see Fake Audrey is starting to get a little suspicious about their situation too.
MMG: This was all shot at a restaurant called Boon Docks, on the Eastern Shore in Halifax. [“Developed for Television by Sam Ernst & Jim Dunn” comes up on screen] Sam and Jim; I actually just talked to those guys the other day. They’re doing fantastic. And there’s the aether cloud, that looks fantastic.
GS: It does. And the house looks great.
MMG: Very cool
[Dwight running through the hail of bullets]
MMG: This is an idea that we always have wanted to do, which is to take advantage of the fact that if you shoot a gun at Dwight, the bullet hits him in the chest. And so we thought; What if Dwight just had to run the gauntlet of tons of bullets? Because you can’t miss, basically. I kind of wish we had a shot of someone shooting straight up in the air and the bullets still hitting Dwight.
GS: Wow that looked awesome. And that vest is taking a beating!
[Croatoan: They landed in Haven Harbour; if they can’t swim, it’s on them]
MMG: *laughing* I always liked that line
GS: Here’s the citadel; very cool place to shoot [the old armoury]
MMG: Now this, interior of the citadel, we built on our stages. And those stone walls look great. I’ve done a lot of brick and stone walls in my day, and our art department and production design team did a fantastic job on those walls. I thought they really looked real.
GS: And now we’re inside the Barn.
MMG: That little fritzing out that’s happening to Vince there should look familiar - from what happened to Agent Howard.
GS: Oh with the broken aether core, yes.
[Croatoan; I do not volunteer]
MMG: Great work by Bill Shatner there. And cool camera work [as we come back into the old armoury]
[Audrey; I will do that, if you take all of the aether, all of the Troubles, and you put them in me now, and we leave Haven forever.]
GS: Now, she had to come up with this plan pretty fast. That’s pretty clever thinking.
GS: We talked about it in the last epeiosde, but let’s talk about it again - how great William Shatner was as Croatoan. He brought so much to a character that could have just been pure evil, but wasn’t.
MMG: He brought so much to the crew too - just having him around was fantastic.
GS: Wait a minute, is that Duke? Isn’t he dead? Why is he standing here?
MMG: Wierd, right? Poor Dwight.
GS: He’s been through a lot.
[Nathan standing outside the bronco]
MMG: This was our first exterior on the Eastern Shore. It was unbelievably cold. I’m a skier and I had every ounce of ski equipment on, and I was still cold. There’s a potential long board wave in the background there too.
GS: What kind of a wet suit would you need to surf on a day like that?
MMG: Oh I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to do it, but I’m sure people do. Nathan knows; she is not the right Audrey.
GS: Well, he knows something’s wrong. And this was tricky too, in writing it, because on the one hand you want to sympathise with her, but on the other hand you don’t want him to end up with her.
MMG: Yes. I like this little story. And she doesn’t know either.
GS: And when she finally realises, what is she going to do?
MMG: And here she’s starting to realise that there is something odd here. It’s so funny to see these roads this empty, because when we were there shooting, there were a hundred people, 40 vehicles on this road.
[The aether flowing down through the old armoury towards Audrey]
MMG: This has a bit of a look of Galaxy Quest about it.
Josh: Omega 13?
MMG: Yes!
MMG: And this is why Emily had such a rigorous two weeks, because normally when you cut away to a different story you cut away to a different actor. But here we’re cutting from a scene with Audrey to a scene with Fake Audrey. She just worked and worked and worked. And Lucas is doing a great job here too, as Nathan is trying to figure it all out. And you do feel it.
GS: You do, and you’re totally sympathetic to her, because it’s not her fault
MMG: Those tears could freeze on her face. So Nathan goes through the shroud and this was a chance for us to just do a quick, five season, re-cap. Which I love.
GS: Awesome. And now all of his memories are back. And then the Fake Audrey disappears and Nathan has to go straight from that to Dwight and a dead Duke talking to him. Like wow; That Is A Day. Because only Dwight can see Duke. And we thought this was cool, because the question was - Is Duke a ghost? Is it all in Dwight’s head?
MMG: And we felt that if Nathan saw him too, we’d be saying that he definitely is a ghost.
GS: And this way leaves it open to interpretation.
[Nathan; Tell Duke I said thanks]
MMG: At this moment particularly we thought about maybe Nahtan could see Duke . But then we thought that was a cheat, because we would be definitely saying Duke was really a ghost. And we kind of liked the idea it was all in Dwight’s head. This is a lot of aether. Audrey looks like a high priestess of aether there, I like that.
GS: My god that is a lot of aether. But here comes Nathan.
MMG: Oh that’s great! They cut it together well. And we’re back in our built set for the interior of the Barn/Tower. And Croatoan has had enough.
[Croatoan throws aether at Nathan]
GS: Uh oh! And now after Duke the last episode, people don’t know what’s going to happen! Maybe Nathan’s going to die too! Nobody knows!
MMG: This was an emotional tour de force by Emily here.
GS: I remember when we were shooting this
MMG: It was crazy. We have a wonderful hair person on the show, JoJo. And JoJo is a very sweet, emotional person. And our goal is to make JoJo cry, and thankfully during this take, she did. I always feel that if I don’t make JoJo cry, the scene isn’t right. We love JoJo for that.
GS: And for everything.
[Croatoan freezes Audrey]
GS: And this is the big turn. What is he going to do? Did she get through to him?
MMG: I think she did. Mr Shatner does some good hand jive here; there’s a good dramatic angle to it. And Emily cried a lot during this. And Nahtan’s back to life
GS: And Croatoan realises - he was wrong. Because every villain thinks he’s the good guy.
MMG: Oh I almost feel bad for our villain now.
GS: I know! He is making a sacrifice now.
[Lizzie playing with a dog]
MMG: That is executive producer Shawn Pillar’s dog. Who has been featured in a variety of Haven episodes. Also known as Cookie. I think, or Juicebox?
GS: Cookie, I think.
[Final shot of Duke]
MMG: Oh wow, that looks fantastic!
GS: We were so mad because Duke was supposed to flip him the bird, that was the way we shot it and we were all ready, and then Standards & Practices said no, that we couldn’t do it.
MMG: Yes, so we got in a big fight with S&P because we just felt ...
GS: It was so Duke
MMG: It was the perfect, correct, authentic payment for that character in that moment, and we really wanted it.
GS: And we kind of got it.
MMG: We did! That looked good.
[Vince talking about the Barn needing a catalyst, the same energy it needed when she went in to the Barn Lucy and as Sarah.]
GS: We set that up over the course of many seasons
[Audrey realising she has to go into the Barn]
MMG: Oh, so close!
GS: So close.
MMG: The music in this episode is terrific as well. Score by Shawn Pierce who has done all of the music for us since the beginning
GS: It’s always good but he really brought it here
MMG: This is world class, the score
GS: We were talking about Matt getting to write the scene were Nathan can finally let Audrey go. And we thought that was the big turn for this finale.
MMG: Yeah they’ve never accepted it before the way they do here. This was Nathan’s big scene. It’s interesting to watch actors on days before these scenes, I’m always wondering how they stay focused. But whatever his process was great, because he did a really good job.
GS: I think JoJo cried here too. … And now we’re just watching the scene and forgetting to talk.
MMG: Well we’d just make it worse. This is like perfection right here
GS: This actually was all shot inside. It looks like it’s outside [Nathan saying goodbye to Audrey] but it’s inside on the stage they built the doorway to the citadel.
[As we see Nathan walking down the old armoury steps away from Audrey]
Oh and here’s the big …
MMG: We called this run our civil war letter. We wanted to make it big and sweeping, so we bent time a little bit. So we know they’re still talking [we can hear Nathan still talking to Audrey] but we can look ahead a little bit [and see him walking down the steps]. I’m just going to watch this.
GS: That’s not what they bought the DVD for. There’s Marion Caldwell from episode one.
MMG: I haven’t heard this voice over before, it works great.
GS: There’s the reverend’s church. Ah and Mr Matt McGuiness is one of those mermen coming out of the water there.
MMG: And Sam Ernst.
GS: Yey, Kris Lemche! [Seth] And Jason Priestley. Oh that’s a cool effect, the light shining out of the tower
MMG: Just like the Barn
GS: Yeah. Because that is the new Barn.
MMG: Well, we worked really hard on that sequence [Nathan’s goodbye to Audrey]. And I think it shows, I think that came out great.
GS: Very romantic.
[a month later, Stan giving Nathan an update - Miss Edwards thinks the Higgs kids stole her clam rake. Mr. Millikin and Mr. Nick want a noise variance for their party, and the Stanton kid, well, he got pulled over in his golf cart. I think I smelled weed.]
MMG: Oh this right here, those are the names of the entire Haven writing staff hidden in that speech; Brian Millikin, Nick Parker, Gab Stanton, Speed Weed, Shernold Edwards, Adam Higgs. The only name not in there is me.
GS: That’s because you wrote it
MMG: Ah look, Lizzie did stay. That’s a nice shot out across the water
GS: Haven looks so happy.
[Stan asking Nathan what to tell the historic society about why the old armoury collapsed and his general confusion]
MMG: Come on Stan. Oh Stan. It’s a good job you’re handsome buddy. He was a real treat. So Laverne we have not seen in six seasons. Played by our producer Stefani Deoul
GS: And we thought you should finally see her here. Because we were talking about Cheers and all these shows where you talk about a character for years and years and … So we decided finally it was time to see her, and because she got out of the building.
MMG: And here’s Gloria. MIddle of the day and we find her in a bar. Not a big surprise
GS: It’s kind of her off site office. And the Troubles are gone, it’s amazing.
MMG: We should have had Gloria call Vickie ‘Intern’ there, I don’t know why we didn’t do that. But Molly Dunsworth was great here, such a big important part of the show for us.
GS: This was actually filmed in the bar that’s connected to the Boondocks diner, but it looks totally different.
[Nathan walking up to the parked/broken down car on the side of the road]
MMG: Could it be?
GS: I love the look on Nahtan’s face when he’s under the hood.
[Nathan; Parker?]
MMG: Tip of the hat to Rodney Dangerfield for that dialogue there, but I like it.
GS: I remember when Matt saw Emily dressed as Paige for the first time, he was afraid that no one was going to recognise her, that no one was going to get what was happening.
MMG: She really looked different. And Emily was, to her credit, very invested in the character of Paige and what Paige was like and how she was going to look and act and be different.
GS: Aw, that’s a cute baby they picked
MMG: That baby was unhappy. It was cold.
GS: Don’t insinuate that we froze the baby. No babies were hurt in the filming of Haven.
MMG: I think the baby cried less than everyone else. I mean look how cold Lucas looks - it’s not his fault, he’s doing a great job.
GS: That’s the look [on Nahtan’s face when he’s hidden behind the hood]. Like; OK, I can do this.
MMG: It’s great.
GS: And a lot of this is call backs to the first episode
MMG: The meet cute of the first episode. But this time when his fingers get caught in the car door it hurts. And this is the same music that came on the radio in the first episode.
[Paige; Do you like pancakes?]
GS: And with that we know, that this relationship is going to work out.
MMG: Now for those of you keeping score at home and wondering how this happened - what happened is that Croaotoan developed enough love in his heart for Audrey - genuine love - that he was able to power the Barn and she was able to go free. And be off with Nathan, as they drive off into the sunset
GS: Awwww. Yey! Thanks for watching everyone
MMG: Thank you.
Which are very interesting to me because I somehow had it in my head that the writers knew they weren’t getting any more seasons when they started making 5a - but apparently not:
“We are looking at our final episodes coming up. We approached as if it was going to be our final season, so we were ready for it story-wise. ... So we really looked at these 13 episodes as if… If we were indeed going to end, what would be the best ending we could possibly do for Haven? ... We left it open but if it is the series finale, we think the fans will be satisfied. We didn’t want to leave it on a giant cliffhanger, just in case we didn’t come back. We didn’t want to leave fans going, “Wait a minute!” because I’ve seen shows do that, and as a viewer, it’s just so frustrating. So as a writer it was kind of nice to say, ok, if this is the end, how can we leave this world in the most satisfying way possible?”
And very interesting in terms of how the actual ending compared to the ending the creators had planned:
Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, who created the show, have talked about knowing what the ending of “Haven” looks like. Is that the ending we will be seeing?
“That’s an interesting question. I think parts of it are. Haven evolved so organically over the years, things happened that creators couldn’t really anticipate, so I think some of the stuff is new. We definitely did some stuff that they saw from the very beginning in terms of thematic closure and relationship closure and stuff like that, but as our mythology expanded over the years, I think we ended up taking it to maybe a deeper level than we would have thought we were going to in the pilot.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
AKA the most realistic/plausible alternative happy(ish) ending I could think of. New Haven fix-it fic; the few little changes that I would love to have seen to the final two episodes to make me not cry quite so much.
Although I totally made myself cry again writing it.
