Episode 10 is the last episode of the season and, most likely, the last episode I’ll ever watch.
Throughout the season I’ve experienced a series of emotions; from curiosity to confusion to frustration. The characters frustrate the hell out of me, the plot continues to baffle me, and I’m seriously not interested in how the people who didn’t get taken in the “disappearance” deal with losing their loved ones. I want to know what happened to the 2% of the world’s population that just vanished without warning. I want to know or even get hints about where they might be and why they were taken. I want a show that isn’t filled with so much pain, chaos and unexplainable scenes. I want some damn answers.
As exciting as this last episode was, it only seemed to portray what happens when people reach their tolerance limit. The show opens with a (once again) distraught Kevin who is wondering what to do about Patti’s dead body. For lack of better options, he decides to phone someone. After a while, a car pulls up and Pastor Matt comes out. He walks over to Kevin and asks to see Patti’s body. Apparently, Matt is the only one Kevin can trust to help him with his… uhh… “situation”. Matt does more than just help. When he arrives, he settles Kevin’s nerves by reassuring him that they’re in this together, helps him bury Patti’s body a few feet away from the dilapidated cabin, and gives him clean clothes after they’ve finished burying the body.
The only scene I don’t quite understand during their whole “bonding time” is when Pastor Matt asks Kevin to read a scripture from the Bible before they start burying Patti. Apparently, the words hit home for Kevin and he breaks down in tears. What was this scene about? Why exactly would Matt make Kevin feel worse about everything that’s going on? I thought his intentions are for Kevin to feel better?
Anyway, Kevin isn’t the only one going through a moment of despair. Jill, who so desperately wants to join the Guilty Remnant to be with her mother, is adamant on complying with the ways of the GR. Having unofficially taken over as leader of Mapleton’s GR chapter, Laurie knows what the GRs’ next move is and that Jill won’t be safe if she stays with them tonight. While Laurie is deliberating whether or not to let Jill stay, Meg urges Laurie to give the go-ahead for their possibly last mission. When Jill seems like she’s there to stay, Laurie nods for Meg to carry out the plan.
Remember the episode where Patti was in the church laying out a variety of clothes? I thought that this was another crude way of the GRs reminding people about October 14th. I was close but so wrong.
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The reason Laurie isn’t keen on the idea of Jill being with the GR at this moment is because the plan they concocted this time will create such a disturbance in the little town that Laurie isn’t sure whether or not any of the GRs would walk away from it alive. Unfortunately for her, she’s right. When the GRs trespass on people’s properties, steal their family pictures (once again) and put manufactured replicas of people’s loved ones in the exact spots in which they disappeared, Mapleton doesn’t take it lightly. The townsfolk retaliate by assaulting anyone dressed in white, burning the Guilty Remnants’ homes to the ground and destroying the heart-wrenching replicas of their loved ones.
I felt it for Nora the most. She lost her entire family in the October 14th event but is trying so hard to move on with her life in spite of it. When the GRs replace her family in the same spot where they vanished, Nora breaks down and mourns in such an obscene way that her pain almost looks physical.
While all this is happening, Tom and Christine are on the move and trying to deal with the fact that Wayne lied to and abandoned them. I know that somewhere along the way, Christine would lose her shit. I mean, this girl put all her trust in this one man and looked to him despite all the odds. Obviously, she isn’t going to take the abandonment lightly. She isn’t going to bounce back as easily as Tom and struggle to find a way out of the situation she’s found herself in. Worse yet, she’s already given birth to Wayne’s baby. With all this happening, I’m not in shock when Christine takes off and leaves Tom with the baby. Tom, being all out of options, decides to return home.
Meanwhile, Kevin has one of his usual realistic dreams. He dreams that Matt double-crossed him and brings him to the same mental institute where his father is staying. He dreams that he gets the same copy of the National Geography magazine that his father was trying to get him to take. Only, this time there’s a note inside which says if he remains quiet, the asylum will allow him to watch TV. With nothing better to do, Kevin does just that while he finally reads the National Geography magazine. Eventually, they allow him access to the TV room where he meets his father. After a few minutes of discussion, Kevin’s father starts arguing with whomever he might be seeing and tells Kevin not to turn around. That’s when Kevin hears her. Standing behind him is Patti. His dad tells him that if he chooses to take Patti’s help in getting out of the asylum, he also leaves with her. After disturbing threats, Patti screams for Kevin to wake up. When he does, he finds himself in Matt’s car and they stop at a restaurant for cheeseburgers.
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Over lunch, Matt interrogates Kevin on what Patti said before she killed herself. Kevin is reluctant to answer the pastor’s questions but, after coercing, he does and then breaks into tears. After a while, he excuses himself and goes to the bathroom where he finds a dying Wayne. I’m not sure what could have happened to Wayne, but his lower abdomen is bleeding profusely. Kevin decides that he needs to get Wayne help but all Wayne wants is for someone to be there with him when he dies. Kevin complies and kneels beside him. Wayne asks Kevin if he could grant him a wish. He says that Kevin doesn’t even have to say the wish aloud; he just has to think it. Wayne says that he wants to do this for Kevin to prove that he wasn’t a fake all this time. I guess when you’re faced with your own mortality you can’t ignore the truth staring you in the face.
When Wayne finally dies, a squad rushes in, tackles Kevin to the ground and interrogates him. Eventually, Pastor Matt interrupts the investigation, informing the cop doing the questioning that Kevin is a police chief in Mapleton and that he and Kevin were only at the restaurant for lunch. The cop carrying out the investigation immediately lightens up and excuses the two men from the scene. Matt and Kevin head straight for Mapleton without any more detours. When they do reach, they find that the entire town is in utter chaos. The GRs are paying for their crude and insanely offensive latest activity. In the morass, Kevin and Matt find a bloody Meg and ask her what the GRs did this time. When he gives her a Sharpie and notepad to write her response, all she says is that “We made them remember”.
Immediately, Kevin snaps into Chief of Police mode and looks for his crew or anyone who could help him control the situation. He finds the Mayor, but all she can say is that Kevin was right. He finds one of his policemen and he tells Kevin that the fire department is there to put out the burning GR houses but can’t find a clear path. Kevin asks why the police didn’t clear all the cars from before, and the policeman replies that no one wants to help the Guilty Remnant.
After witnessing the bonfire the townsfolk made to burn all the replicas of their loved ones that the GRs placed around the town, Kevin spots Laurie being dragged out of one of the GR houses. He accosts the man and rescues Laurie. She’s screaming at him like she can’t quite remember how to speak. Eventually, Laurie’s screams becomes coherent and Kevin realizes that she’s trying to tell him that Jill is still inside the burning house. Kevin doesn’t even blink as he dashes into the burning building for his daughter. After a while of running through smoke and bursting down a door, he finds Jill. He picks her up and makes a hasty escape. As soon as he reaches outside, Jill becomes conscious and starts hugging him.
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Meanwhile, Nora is sitting with her artificial family and finally comes to a decision. She writes Kevin a letter, telling him that she can’t stay in the town any longer because it’s a constant reminder of what she lost. She puts the letter in an envelope and heads over to Kevin’s house when she finds Christine’s baby on Kevin’s porch. When Kevin and Jill return to the house, Nora stands in front of them with the baby and says, “Look what I found”.
In the last seconds before the show ends, Laurie walks to a rocky seaside and just stares out. After a while of mindless staring, she notices a car that’s pulled up behind her and Tom gets out. And the both of them stare at each other for a while.
When I first saw the preview for The Leftovers, I thought that this show would be a brilliant depiction of something everyone has at least thought about once or twice before, but I was sadly disappointed. It’s also depressing to watch the characters suffer through such an experience. With season one proving to be a drag I dread what season two will be like.
Rating: 6.5/10
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