TV PREP: The Leftovers – The Garveys Are Not at Their Best…Do They Even Have a Best?

Yep, there’s spoilers.

It’s pretty clear that the creators of The Leftovers are bent on tearing apart families, ruining lives, and generally just freaking people out. With that being said, I wasn’t completely surprised when this recent episode offered absolutely no explanation for the disappearances, no clues as to what the hell is happening, no nothing. The only reason people are not running through the streets naked and setting themselves on fire is because, although last episode gave us nothing, it somehow left us wanting more.

I think that it’s partially because we’ve all stopped dying to know the WHY. I still want to know the reason for the Departure, certainly, but the closer we get to the finale, the more I realize it isn’t going to happen. I don’t even think we’re going to get an answer to that question during the second season! But that doesn’t matter as much anymore, because now I’ve gotten more interested in who each character is as a person.

Y’know, newcomers ask me to describe the show, and usually I give them a pretty terrible plot overview about a town that lost a bunch of people. I mean, what else can you say without giving anything away?  Anyone who hasn’t been with the show from the start could see The Leftovers as essentially a drama at heart, focusing on the lives of several families in a small town. Pretty normal, I’d say. Everybody has crap, and not just any crap, but layers and layers of unimaginably thick crap piled onto their shoulders. It reminds me of a Stephen King novel, where you have all of these people living their lives, interacting with one another, and then BOOM, supernatural event stirs the pot.

An entire hour of getting to see our leads prior to what happened was beautiful. The most interesting part of this entire episode is its consistency with previous episodes. There are some characters like Chief Garvey (Scott Glenn), who completely did a 360 in terms of sanity. I was so surprised with his good advice and little combed-over hair. Not exactly the epitome of what I see as a grandpa, but he wasn’t the library-ruining, people-attacking, rambling madman that we saw a few episodes ago. Other characters, however, like Laurie (Amy Brenneman), have a shift that can be understood. Once you can see who the characters were before the incident, it’s clear to see how they became the way the are now.

I always knew Patti (Ann Dowd) was crazy as hell. You can’t just become crazy like that overnight. That is deep-rooted insanity. I mean, think about what the world must have come to if the only people that made sense were the ones rambling about the sky falling or aliens probing them in their sleep. I had no idea Laurie was a psychologist! That dynamic between her and Patti was really unexpected and eye-opening.

People keep saying that Kevin (Justin Theroux) may be a prophet. There’s a connection between him and his father. I call it craziness, perhaps schizophrenia, definitely some anger management problems, but in The Leftovers’ setting, it’s deeper than that. For starters, what the hell is up with the deer, or rather all of the animals? It seems like the dogs and the deer kind of go crazy, act aggressively, then end up dead (usually at the hands of Kevin or Dean, played by Michael Gaston). By the way, is Dean even a real person?

Even though they weren’t exactly happy, I liked seeing all the Garveys in one house. Jill (Margaret Qualley) freaking SMILED!!! It happened multiple times!

I’m a fan of a good show. You gotta fake it till you make it! We don’t know that Laurie and Kevin wouldn’t have worked it out. We don’t know if Kevin would’ve stopped feeling unfulfilled. They never get the chance to work out their issues. I wonder how Tommy (Chris Zylka) got mixed up with Holy Wayne (Paterson Joseph), and I want to see the exact moment when Laurie decided Patti made sense.

There are so many questions left. So. Many. Questions. But I can’t wait for the second season. I’m learning not to expect anything like answers or clarity or anything that isn’t just confusion. I’ll just take whatever they give us. Wow, so I guess I’m walking into the ending of season one with…defeat. This show has defeated me? And I’ve just resigned. Well, that’s a first.

If you enjoyed Keyoka’s review, you can find the rest of her work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow her on Twitter @keyokakinzy.

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