ParamountSpoilers ahead for Avatar: Seven Havens Episode 2.It’s been 12 years since the latest link in the Avatar Cycle was completed — at least in our world. Avatar: Seven Havens is continuing the story that began with The Last Airbender and continued in The Legend of Korra, but it picks up more than 200 years after Korra’s last on-screen adventure. The mystery of the show revolves around a conspiracy with an older Korra at its center, but Seven Havens otherwise feels like it’s softly rebooting the Avatar Universe for a younger audience. Its first three episodes reintroduce the world we once knew as a fractured, desolate wasteland, and trade familiar lore for brand-new spiritual threats.Take Seven Havens’ second episode, which pits our twin earthbending Avatars, Pavi (Saheli Khan) and Nisha (Aishu Devan), against a faceless, red-and-black entity. This strange spirit can phase through any physical object and, seemingly, possess its victims with a pall of paranoia. When it gets close enough to “touch” Pavi and Nisha, it briefly transports them to another realm where time moves very differently. And though it seems to disappear at the end of Episode 2, it’s clear this isn’t the last we’ll see of this spirit. Theories about its origins already abound — but according to the Seven Havens team, it’s not what (or who) we think it is.This spirit isn’t Vaatu, despite the similaritiesThe Anomaly in Seven Havens isn’t like anything we’ve seen before. | NickelodeonIt’s easy to look at a diamond-shaped spiritual entity and immediately think of Vaatu, the personification of dark energy that was imprisoned in the spirit world millennia before Seven Havens. Vaatu was one of many antagonists Korra had to face off against in her early years as the Avatar: in The Legend of Korra Season 2, she unwittingly released Vaatu into the physical world, where he fused with her upstart uncle to create a Dark Avatar. Korra literally had to go into Kaiju Mode to defeat them both, but it came at great cost. The Dark Avatar severed Korra’s connection to her past lives and nearly destroyed the Raava, the spirit of light that reincarnates with every Avatar.Vaatu was one of the direst threats that Korra faced; is there a chance he’s evolved (or devolved?) into a new threat entirely? The Seven Havens producers have already seen the fan theories: “People thought it was Vaatu,” producer Ethan Spaulding told Inverse at New York Comic-Con. “We call it The Anomaly.”And “The Anomaly,” apparently, is its own unique thing. “The best thing we can tell you is that it's not what you think it is,” writer-producer Sehaj Sethi told Inverse. “There’s more to it beyond that.” So, not Vaatu — but also, most likely, an entity we’ve never seen in the world of Avatar. Could this still explain Korra’s turn?The Anomaly might be the reason the world is in shambles. | NickelodeonThe Anomaly might present something very new to the franchise by splicing spiritual and dystopian themes, but there’s every chance it could answer Seven Havens’ biggest mystery of all: what happened to Korra, and why did she destroy the world? It’s hard to believe that Korra would willingly unleash the Cataclysm that sent the Four Nations back to a pre-industrial age. In all likelihood, the Avatar was possessed or coerced into shirking her duties and throwing the world off-balance — and maybe the Anomaly is behind it.In Seven Havens Episode 3, Pavi and Nisha encounter animals with glowing red eyes that seem possessed and afraid. It’s similar to what we saw in Episode 2, with Brigade Commander Bountan (Clyde Kusatsu). After coming into contact with the Anomaly, Bountan is aggressive and frightened. We don’t see what happens to him after this encounter, but this could very well have happened to Korra, too. Was she turned into a vessel for the Anomaly? Hopefully we find out very soon — but it’s intriguing to watch Seven Havens take such big swings, despite so much established lore at its fingertips.Avatar: Seven Havens is streaming on Paramount+.