An A-Ha Moment.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Kevin and Nora headed to Australia this week in the fantastic and frantic "G'Day Melbourne," each experiencing their own deeply personal existential crisis and then ultimately breaking up in the final moments. For good, we can probably assume (from the premiere's flash-forward and -- well -- the number of episodes left). I mean, there's a chance for reconciliation, sure, but having Ray LaMontagne's "This Love is Over" play un-ironically over this week's opening credits suggests a permanence to the split.
As much as I adore Kevin and Nora as a couple, and relish the season finales that came before this year where the two of them seemed to both find and embrace the idea of a reconstructed family in a broken world, they are both fundamentally shattered people. And the scab that got picked at back in "Don't Be Ridiculous," regarding Nora's ever-present longing for her lost children, was ripped off here as she headed to Melbourne with the intent of joining them -- AKA possibly being disintegrated by scam artists.
Sure, her story was that she was out to bust the scientists, despite having no jurisdiction, and the show played around wonderfully with the suspense of that idea, but last week when Nora agreed, on the phone, to head to Australia, she did it so quickly, with such intent, that it truly suggested that she was desperate to go through with the experiment. Kevin then wanted to go with her because he could feel her leaving him. He'd probably felt it for a while, ever since she gave Lily back to her real mother.
So this dynamic -- Nora leaving and Kevin worried about her leaving -- all played out down under in spectacular fashion. Kevin's dilemma shifted from him thinking he was seeing ghosts again to him believing he'd uncovered a conspiracy - all of it representing his underlying fear of Nora abandoning him because of his "specialness." Which is a nagging issue that's been amplified due to Matt's book. Meanwhile, Nora headed into her meeting with the scientists as a skeptic, but a skeptic who was still, most likely, ready to go through with the experiment.
Though, truth be told, we'll never know. Would she have put a halt to things at the eleventh hour? Was she there to take them down? We know how much Nora likes to bust scams and deflate false ideas. What Nora doesn't know, however, is that there's a high possibility that there's no experiment at all. That no one gets chosen to "go through." On the same episode that Kevin thought he'd discovered a main member of the Guilty Remnant alive in Evie, the viewers may have discovered a brand new GR-style of toxicity. Exploiting people's grief, making them desperate to die, and then rejecting them.
Last week, I mentioned how this final season is doing a great job at raising mysteries and then answering them a week later. We didn't get a full answer as to what the scientists are ultimately after, but we now know why the man in the desert lit himself on fire. He'd been rejected. Even though he gave the opposite answer of Nora's. There's a good chance they turn you down no matter what. Why would a medical exam be necessary? Or being put in a crate? Why is there any type of "criteria" for being bombarded with radiation? It might just all be about discomfort, trepidation, and then...the total let down. Every victim being someone who'd suffered a significant loss in the Departure and was probably, now, finally at a place where they were moving on.
Kevin easily sensed the distance between himself and Nora, even before they boarded the plane. Nora's head was already floating off, ready to be with her kids, and it was all she could do to provide a flimsy lie so that he'd be satiated for the few hours before she got her phone call. The sex the two of them had in the airport bathroom too was a way to distract, as well as be with him one final time (as she didn't know how much time they'd have once the plane landed.)
By the time the two of them met back up in the evening, having experienced separate days of panic and fear (Kevin went from thinking he'd lost it to thinking he was sane to...finding out he'd really lost it), everything in their relationship peeled back. Harsh words were said, Matt's bible was shredded and burned, and Nora was left smoking in a room getting doused with sprinklers. It was a devastating scene delivered by two powerhouse actors. The imagery, juxtaposed with A-ha's "Take on Me," painted a lavish and painful portrait of love conquered and defeated by the enormity of loss.
Leftovers leftovers:
- As stated, it's possible that people are still being disintegrated, though wouldn't it be funny for Mark Linn-Baker to get caught again - being alive?
- The opening credit song wasn't played for ironic layering this week, but we did get a terrific ton of "Take on Me," in different forms too. This show and Hulu's Handmaid's Tale are doing excellent work by pairing anguish with throwback '80s cheer (though Handmaid has way more agony to overcome).
- I feel like people calmly calling for security on Kevin and then nonchalantly explaining "He's being weird" could be its own series.
- With as much as the scientists know about Nora, it's totally believable that they were behind the woman and the baby, though it did seem like she was in there for a job interview. That being said, any good scammer would know about Nora and Lily and Nora's attempt to start a new life with a new child.
- Kevin thinking that Evie was still alive was a masterful way of playing into/praying on viewers' expectations and predictions about Evie possibly being alive after her brief appearance in the premiere.
- What's this "explosion" that's grounded all flights? I have a feeling we'll find out next week.
- That image of Nora sitting on the bed, getting soaked by the sprinklers, is devastating.
The Verdict
The Leftovers excelled with its disintegration of Nora and Kevin's relationship - this time using a big change of scenery to exacerbate their issues instead of mending them with a "miracle town." Carrie Coon and Justin Theroux were magnificent in their respective panics and plights as Nora gave in to her "cursed" moniker and Kevin spiraled in ways only Kevin could spiral.
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