Seven Year Itch.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
"I can't afford to have this place explode again."
So it's the end of the world as we know it, huh? Do we feel fine?
The Leftovers is back for its final run -- only eight episodes in this last hurrah -- and it's setting the table for an apocalypse or two as a big time jump has now taken us up to the doorstep of the 7th anniversary of the Departure. Similar to the Season 2 premiere, "The Book of Kevin" superbly shuffled us sideways a little bit, moving us ahead with the intent of filling in the gaps later. Because, coming out of this premiere, not only do we still need to find out what happened to baby Lily and Regina King's Erika, but that gripping and scary final jump, right at the end, has to explain a hell of a lot.
Was that a future Nora in Australia? Did the world end or did more people just get taken, making the plant even more barren than usual? As predicted, there's a benefit to this being the final season - to knowing that the story's wrapping up for good, and in a timely manner. We're kicking off the endgame and we're already being shown pieces of where the story's headed. It's all about signs and salvation and how we choose to interpret things. The opening tag, featuring the very sad and soggy story of a devout woman woman in past times determined to be in the right place when the world ends (complete with "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" AND a smidgen of somber Leftovers score!), was a terrific thematic lead in for a saga all about trying to be ready and prepared for...something.
For Kevin -- who's now in charge of law enforcement in a hectic, open-to-the-public Jarden -- this is his day-to-day life. Preparations and precautions. Instead of trying to come to terms with the miracles he's personally experienced in Miracle (after Season 2, the town has seemingly granted him the gift of immortality), he's buried his head and dug into his work - focusing more on the people around him and the possible unpredictability of the populous. Much like he did back in the first episode of the show.
Both Tommy and Jill appear to have stabilized and normalized while everyone else also seems to have landed in a better spot. Again, questions loom about Lily and Erika, but Kevin's now happy with Laurie (who's using her shrink powers to run a new version of the cathartic palm print psychic parlor) and everyone seems more or less content now living in a savage new world of confusion and chaos. All the more chaotic too because the biblical "seven years of tribulation" is almost up. The clock's ticking and people have to decide if they're going to get up on that rooftop in the rain, arms outstretched, or if Gary Busey's coming back to make the world groovy again. "Nothing will happen on the 14th unless everything happens on the 14th."
As we move forward, and Kevin discovers that he's been modestly deified by those around him for his handful of resurrections, the show also wonderfully moves us back to the start as well. Not only is Mary leaving Matt and moving back to Mapleton, but a mysterious cog from Season 1, Michael Gaston's Dean, returned as well. Now believing that the "not our dogs" have started taking covert human forms, Dean was a nice cyclical symbol of Kevin's life, which had reached an acceptable amount of normalcy (I'm grading on a curve here), coming face to face with bats*** turbulence again. Dean actually trying to kill Kevin toward the end of the episode, like a thunder crack, also seemed to suggest that we'd all reached a crucial tipping point.
The Leftovers is back in a big a beautiful way, unraveling a story filled with heartache and pointedly self-aware humor. Kevin -- who's currently dabbling in death the way Nora once did with bulletproof vests and hired escorts holding loaded guns -- may get dragged kicking and screaming into martyrdom while society begins to collapse around one of the larger, popular doomsday theories. Also flowing underneath this tale, like a current, is the push and pull between story and fact. What will Kevin's story be as opposed to what really transpires? Like with that government strike against the Guilty Remnant. How will Kevin Garvey's life and history get repackaged for the world?
The Verdict
The Leftovers jump starts its final season with a time jump, a flash-forward, and a gorgeous and clever tale about a possible End Times scenario. A potential apocalypse that, perhaps, doesn't adhere to all the rules and regulations that people would like it to. The characters are rich and rewarding, the music delightfully sets the stage ("Sign of the Judgement" by The McIntosh County Shouters was on full display here), and the story oozes freshness and fierceness. The Leftovers inhabits such a wonderful space, showcases cracking confidence, and exhibits perfect pitch.
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