Haven: "Magic Hour"

We’ve been watching the SciFi Channel series Haven.  Yesterday, we saw a particularly moving episode from Season 3: “Magic Hour: Part 2.”

Parts 1 and 2 of “Magic Hour” have a subplot about a lady named Noelle, who is able to raise the dead, as long as she does so before sundown after the person dies.  Her sister Moira wants to take advantage of Noelle’s gift (or, as it is called on Haven, “trouble”).  Essentially, Moira’s plan is to kill people who have money, and then for Noelle to offer to raise those people from the dead if the people’s families give Moira and Noelle money.

Moira has long been bitter towards Noelle because of an incident that happened when the two of them were children.  Noelle would resurrect dead animals, but she would not resurrect their father when the three of them were in an automobile accident.  As far as Moira is concerned, Noelle choked and panicked when she should have been trying to raise their father from the dead, before it was too late.

Well, a series of events happen.  Someone we thought was good turns out to be bad and kills one of the main characters, Nathan the cop, along with Noelle.  Audrey Parker, the main character of the series, loves Nathan and wants for him to be resurrected, but Noelle cannot resurrect Nathan because she herself is dead.  But there is another possibility: maybe Moira herself has the latent trouble of being able to raise the dead, since troubles can run in families.  Perhaps Moira can resurrect Nathan and her sister Noelle.  But something has to happen to trigger Moira’s ability.  Usually, what triggers troubles is some crisis that the troubled person experiences.

Audrey brings Moira the corpse of Noelle, hoping that this will upset Moira enough to trigger Moira’s trouble.  But it does not.  Moira is obviously a bitter and a jaded woman.  Moira resents her sister for not resurrecting their father years before.  Audrey speculates that maybe Moira cares only about herself, and that perhaps shooting Moira will trigger Moira’s trouble.

But Moira and Audrey discover something.  Moira remembers that, during the accident back when she was a child, she was knocked in the back of the head and became unconscious.  Audrey checks the back of Moira’s head and sees a scar.  Audrey then checks the back of Noelle’s head and sees the same sort of scar, in the same place.  The reason that this is significant is that, when Noelle resurrected people, she took upon herself their wounds.  For example, when Moira shot Noelle’s boyfriend in the head, and Noelle resurrected the boyfriend, the bullet wound that was on her boyfriend’s forehead also appeared on Noelle’s forehead.  That’s when Audrey and Moira realize that Moira was not just unconscious during that accident back when Moira was a child, but Moira was dead.  Noelle raised Moira from the dead.

But Audrey is curious: Why couldn’t Noelle have just raised both Moira and her father?  Moira informs Audrey that the reason was that their father repeatedly told Noelle that she must not resurrect two people at the same time, for that could be fatal to Noelle.  Noelle chose Moira, her sister.

Moira feels guilty, and that upsets her enough to trigger her trouble.  Moira then decides to sacrifice herself to resurrect Noelle and Nathan.  She does so, and, as she is dying, Moira asks Noelle why Noelle never told her what she did—-that Noelle raised Moira from the dead back when they were children.  Noelle replies that she did not want Moira to feel guilty—-to feel that their father was dead because Noelle chose to resurrect Moira.  Moira responds that, had she known, she wouldn’t have made life a hell for Noelle, and the two of them could have enjoyed their time as sisters.  Moira dies, but there is an implication at the end of the episode that Noelle will raise Moira from the dead.

I found this episode moving because it shows how a self-centered, jaded, bitter person can become loving once she realizes that she herself is loved.  From a Christian standpoint, this is an essential aspect of the Gospel: that we love because God first loved us.  Of course, Noelle was just a good person and loved her sister anyway, even when her sister did not love her.  I can find myself being more like Moira, though, in that I need to feel loved before I myself can really love.

I also appreciate the theme of someone loving another person so much, that she is willing to endure that person’s rejection while she is actually helping that person.  We see this sort of theme in other stories: I think of the show Roseanne, where Dan’s father was willing to endure Dan’s rejection, rather than telling his son the truth about Dan’s mother.  I have to respect that kind of love!