The Leftovers - Where The Fuck Is My Bagel?

Last night after the end of the Leftovers I tweeted out “Previously on LOST…I mean the Leftovers.” I was just referring to the fact that I havent seen a show with this sort of paranormal vibe since Lost. Garvey’s “crazy” father talking to people who aren’t there. The Mystery Man – is he in Garvey’s head or not? The Guilty Remnant remind me of The Others. All sorts of questions and parallels about life and death and shit. The Leftovers is showing all the intrigue Lost had. It had nothing to do with the finale of Lost and the disappointing conclusion.

But automatically people are telling me they’re “out” on this show because there’s too many story lines and too much confusion and not enough answers. Answers! Fucking answers? Its episode TWO! The second hour in the history of the series and people are Twitter are complaining they can’t keep up and they need answers. “Not gonna let Lindleof do this again!” Its fucking bonkers. I’ll admit I didn’t like episode 2 as much as the premiere, but certainly didn’t turn me off to this series. If anything I thought it kind of roped me in further. We got further insight to Garvey and his father. Got inside the mind of Liv Tyler and Laurie and the Guilty Remnant, and saw some shit from Nora – the woman who had her whole family raptured – that I thought was fascinating. We’ll get to that in a little bit. First, we’ll talk about Garvey and his bagel, since that was the main focus of the episode.

The first episode hinted that Kevin Garvey might be losing his mind, just like his father did. The beginning of the second episode laid in on thick that he was losing it. The therapist and his deputy both openly questioning whether the Mystery Man was real. The pick up truck ending up in his own driveway. The thought that Garvey was just a fucking maniac running around shooting dogs became very realistic. And then his daughter took the 6 pack out of the Mystery Man’s hands and asked her father “Who was that?” and quickly put that to bed. In my mind that confirms he’s real. I don’t think this isn’t a Tyler Durden situation. Unless Jill and her sexy ass friend Aimee can also see this figment of his imagination, I’d say he’s actually real. But that doesn’t mean there’s not some paranormal, supernatural vibe to him. We visit Garvey’s father in the mental hospital and he begins talking to people who aren’t there, but what he’s saying makes sense. Someone was sent to help Kevin, just a night after Mystery Man shows up at his front door. Can Garvey’s father communicate with the Departed? Some other ghost-like people? Like some sort of gift or 6th sense type of shit like Walt had in Lost? Maybe the Departed aren’t fully “gone” and are still influencing the living? Maybe the Garvey’s aren’t crazy. Maybe the rest of the world has gone fucking crazy after the Departure and they’re the only ones who can see clearly. Perhaps Kevin’s dreams are his subconscious actually being very aware and understanding of this fucked up world they are in, and whoever sent the Mystery Man can recognize that. Kevin finding that bagel that seemingly disappeared is maybe the first step to recognizing he’s not crazy too. It seemed like he was as unsure of his own sanity as the viewer at times. Finding the Mystery Man and finding that bagel I think reassures him he’s still with it.

We got a glimpse into Laurie’s mindset as she recruits Liv Tyler (I’m going to just always call her Liv Tyler) and that kinda lets us inside the Guilty Remnant for a bit. There’s a bit of pain behind Laurie’s eyes, as she explains through the GR’s dumb ass loophole of writing down everything on paper, that she does miss the feeling of emotion. But I think its pretty clear for her that the notion of “surrendering,” as she put it, is easier for her and the rest of the GR. Its easier to shut down completely. Forget about any relationships, any communication, any feelings at all. Give up on trying to make sense of life and the Rapture and just smoke like a chimney until its your time to go. Stop “wasting your breath” and trying to cope with this loss and just realize the bleak reality of it all and accept it. As depressing and cowardly as it is, its a peaceful way to deal with a tragedy of that scale. Thats why Liv Tyler is pulled in. She doesn’t care about her fiance or her wedding anymore. Doesn’t really care about anything other than the fact that her mother was taken away from her. Rather than deal with this loss, just give up. On the flip side we see Kevin Garvey, a man of the law still trying to help everyone still here on earth, going “crazy” trying to make sense of this new world they live in. He and Laurie are a husband and wife dealing with this tragedy in polar opposite fashion. One seems to be at peace with her misery, while the other seems to be completely overwhelmed by it.

And then we see Nora, who I think it sneaky the most interesting character in the whole series. She’s the mother who lost every single member of her family. Right now she seems like the most tragic case of the entire Departure. But is she really? Bitch does whatever the fuck she wants. Carrying around a gun as casual as can be. Throwing coffee cups on the ground just to watch the townspeople give her a free pass and sympathy. It seems as she sits with that old couple who lost their retard she’s working a job based on the Rapture. She’s almost like celeb status based on her family disappearing. I joked last week about how many guys would secretly wish their wives were raptured. But it kinda begs the question – who would you rather be? Someone who lost a single family member – or maybe none at all like the Garvey family – who are left broken trying to put the pieces back together? Or a person who kind of has a clean slate? Obviously its a morbid thought. Not saying anybody would wish their whole family disappears. But I just got a Kevin McCallister vibe from Nora. “I made my family disappear!” That moment you realize you’re completely free from the shackles and responsibility of your previous life. She’s getting a free pass from the rest of society, and as sick as it might sound given it came at the cost of her husband and children, she can do whatever she wants. She shares a moment with Matt – the preacher who’s been handing out flyers essentially explaining that not everyone who was taken away deserves to be mourned – that made me think maybe the Departure wasn’t as tragic for her as people would believe. I might be looking into things too much only 2 episodes in, but I hope the Nora story line goes down the road of “would there be people happy that this tragic event occurred?” Its depressing but its brutally honest. Some people out there would probably benefit from the disappearance of certain people in their life.

Not even going to get into Wayne and Tom Garvey yet, because I think thats been by far the weakest story line of the show. But I think there’s a lot more to come with them, so give it time to develop. Wayne seems EXTRA creepy. Kissing dead dudes and fucking Asians and trying to get all up on Tom. There’s a lot more to come with him. Again, we’re only on episode 2 folks.