The episode starts off with a very heated dinner at the Garvey house. Jill has had a rough go of it since the Sudden Departure. Her mom abandoned her for the Guilty Remnant, her best friend is infatuated with her father, and her father is infatuated with the crazy lady. It's no wonder Jill is so skeptical of Nora's new found happiness. If Jill's life is so miserable after losing no one in the Departure, how can this woman be so upbeat? It's this confusion that leads to Jill's insistence on looking through Nora's purse. It's this confusion that drives Aimee away. It's this confusion that causes Jill and the Twins into breaking into Nora's house. When at first Jill can't find the literal smoking gun, hope seems like a real possibility. Maybe you really can move past all those years of grief. But then she goes looking for Trouble, and finds exactly what she was looking for. She finds the gun, and that finding drains the last bit of hope out of her. Jill Garvey lost no one in the Sudden Departure, yet she still managed to lose everything. Was this how her mother felt?
Laurie Garvey, in the mysterious absence of Patti, is now the de facto leader of the Guilty Remnant. Leadership looks good on Laurie. She slaps sense into Meg, she readies another one of Patti's masterful plans to send Mapleton into a fit, and she finally seems to be settling into her new life. But then Jill Garvey walks through her front door, looking for a place to stay. Laurie had to make so many sacrifices to get to this place and she can't let her daughter do the same. Jill's appearance upheaves all the emotional walls Laurie had put up. Little does she know that her daughter is just the start of her GR inner struggles. She's still yet to find out the sinister truth behind Gladys' death. No good day stays good in Mapleton.
The biting animosity between Kevin and Patti had been building since the very first episode, and eight episodes later they finally came to a head in a drunken, crazy night that had horrific ramifications the following day. Until now, Kevin Garvey's mental state could easily be shrugged off as a character trait. He found the bagels! He found the white shirts! Sure, he may not remember tying up a feral dog in his backyard, but has a feral dog ever hurt anyone? (Wait, don't answer that.) With "Cairo", the Lindeloffian mysteries begin being pushed to the foreground. Kevin's shirts are nailed to trees. He's sleep walking quite regularly. The assumed crazy ramblings of his visions are leading to real world consequences. The worst realization of all was the brutal extreme he went to in order to take down Patti. Ann Dowd and Justin Theroux are brilliant throughout the episode, especially as things come to a head in their final scene together. Kevin tries to atone for the previous night's sins, but Patti won't give him the satisfaction. She explains her cause, she explains why Gladys had to die, and she takes her own life.
Kevin Garvey has a lot to deal with when he gets back to Mapleton. His house is now empty, his mental state even hazier, and the Guilty Remnant are now a bigger and more dangerous threat than ever. What will Kevin do to stop them, especially when he finds out their new leader is wife and their newest recruit is his daughter? No good day stays good in Mapleton and the bad days just get worse.
"The Leftovers" has been a great ride from the beginning, but as it enters this final stretch of season one it's taken the turn toward amazing.
Excellent review of a show that has really grown on me. At first I didn't know if I wanted to watch it but I started out with the pilot and things slowly started to gel.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if Kevin has multiple personalities as he has no recollection of what happened with the dog and with Patti.