It Still Stings: The Leftovers Answered Questions It Shouldn’t Have
Photo Courtesy of HBO
Editor’s Note: TV moves on, but we haven’t. In our feature series It Still Stings, we relive emotional TV moments that we just can’t get over. You know the ones, where months, years, or even decades later, it still provokes a reaction? We’re here for you. We rant because we love. Or, once loved. And obviously, when discussing finales in particular, there will be spoilers:
What would you do if 2% of the world disappeared? It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when looking at the number 158 million on paper, the weight sinks in. That’s nearly twenty times the population of New York City, or eight Mexico Cities, or four Tokyos. It’s statistically likely that if you didn’t disappear, some of your friends or family did. The most important people in your life are gone in an instant, and no one can explain why. Would you pick up the pieces of your life and live it as normal, or would you hold onto those lost and remain shattered?
That’s the central question at the heart of Damon Lindelof and Tom Perotta’s HBO drama The Leftovers. It’s one without an easy answer, but by golly did Lindelof try. Based on Perotta’s novel of the same name, the show follows Justin Theroux’s Kevin Garvey, police chief of Mapleton, NY, and his family: Laurie (Amy Brenneman), his mute and cult following ex-wife; Jill (Margaret Qualley), his rebellious daughter; and Tommy (Chris Zylka), his estranged step-son who works for a self-proclaimed prophet in the desert. The ensemble is rounded out with Kevin’s friend-turned-love interest Nora Durst (portrayed beautifully by Carrie Coon) and her hyper-faithful brother Reverend Matt (Christopher Eccleston).
Let me say, that first season? It’s some good shit. It’s “peak TV” good, so good that it’s the first thing I recommend to people even if I haven’t talked with them in years. The tension is squarely focused on Mapleton and its residents, specifically on those within the town who want to move on from the Sudden Departure (which is what they call the disappearance) and the nearby cult of the Guilty Remnant, who feel it is their job to make sure no one ever forgets. Kevin tries to balance being a good father with being a community protector, even as his own mental state denigrates to the point that he blacks out, waking up with no memory of what occurred in the interim.
The show is unafraid to pull punches, forcing us to watch our ensemble constantly pull up their bootstraps and keep going against piles of adversity. In one episode, Matt goes on a wild, highly anxiety-inducing rush for money to save his Church which ends with him nearly murdering an unsuccessful robber, only to get knocked out by rock to the head and miss the deadline. At another point, we learn that Nora lost her entire family in the Departure. Even Laurie, who spends most of the season as a cultish stooge ignoring her still-whole family, is revealed to have lost the child she was carrying due to the Departure. These characters are tragic to the highest degree, so it makes seeing them persevere that much more rewarding.
All throughout the season Lindelof, who also created Lost, does what he does best: he keeps asking questions. Viewers are taken on a whirlwind journey, constantly placed in stressful and unsafe situations, and often forced to question what is real or what is not. It leans into the ambiguous and supernatural; Matt believes he is being tested by God while Kevin gains a haunted connection with the Guilty Remnant’s leader Patti (Ann Dowd) after accidentally killing her. The series thrives in this gray middle ground where viewers know as little as the characters, oftentimes even less. Questions like this make for juicy, provocative drama; their answers simply do not matter.
Until they apparently do.
Venturing away from Perotta’s novel, which was the basis for the first season, Season 2 of The Leftovers ditches the woodsy and perennially autumnal Mapleton in favor of the haven of Jarden, Texas. Nicknamed Miracle by those within it, the town acts as a holy site because not a single person departed. The Garveys are nowhere to be seen; instead we follow The Murphys: the volatile patriarch John (Kevin Carroll), his skeptical but determined wife Erika (Regina King), their devout and compassionate son Michael (Jovan Adepo), and his idyllic twin sister Evie (Jasmin Savoy Brown). It’s just as we are feeling accustomed to the new family that the show pulls the rug out from under us—the Garveys (with Nora and Tommy’s sorta-child in tow) are here, too. They’re neighbors, as chance would have it, and Evie’s sudden departure ties the two families together as they race to figure out what happened.