If you haven't yet finished watching The Leftovers' final episode, "The Book of Nora," then you best not scroll below. It's filled with full spoilers.
Author Tom Perrotta's novel, The Leftovers, about a spiraling world in which 2% of the global population mysteriously vanishes, was turned into one of the most transcendent, unique, and touching shows of the recent TV era.
Perrotta, along with EP Damon Lindelof, adapted the book into a three-season journey of the heart and soul and now that it's all coming to a close I had the chance to speak with Perrotta about completing his story on TV, the ambiguities present in the finale, Nora's quest to save a goat, Laurie's miraculous return, and more.
Note: I also spoke to Leftovers EP/showrunner Damon Lindelof about the finale, and you can read it here.
IGN: First off, I just wanted to tell you how much I loved the finale. It was incredibly moving and satisfying
Tom Perrotta: Oh, thank you. I'm glad you liked it. I'm also grateful to you for all the writing you've done for the show. Your enthusiasm and your passion about it has meant a lot to us.
IGN: As the person who created this world and has now worked to extend the story beyond what you wrote in your novel, what are your feelings right now about this journey coming to an end?
Perrotta: Oh man, there are so many complicated feelings. Partially, I feel sorry to see it end but also I feel like we did it justice and I'm willing now to let it all go. For us, we filmed it back in the fall and the editing was done a couple months ago so in a funny way we've already all been through it so this is when we get to share what we've done with the world. Overall, I'm just happy with how it turned out and with everyone I got to work with.
IGN: Because we caught a glimpse of future Nora back in the season premiere, it's obvious that you knew more or less what was going to happen in the finale but was there anything the crept up on you, that surprised you, when you guys were breaking the final episode? Something you didn't expect?
Perrotta: Yeah, definitely. It's so funny because we started this year talking about what the last scene of the show was going to be. And we kind of conceptualized it, at an early stage, as this one-act play between Kevin and Nora. Which is was essentially became the last 10 minutes of the finale. We thought somehow we'd be able to make that a whole episode or the bulk of the episode and we quickly realized that it wouldn't be very dramatic that way. So what we realized when we started to write it was "Oh, some things have to happen in Australia." So we came up with the insane premise that Kevin was pretending not to know anything about their past relationship and then he takes her to a wedding. It was sort of a classic thing for The Leftovers in that the finale has a wedding in it, but it's not a wedding for the two main characters. There's also kind of an explanation for the Departure mixed in with all of it, but people will have to make up their minds about whether they believe it. But what surprised us was that, I think, the way that the wedding filled up the space of the finale. The messages of love and all that. And the poor scapegoat. [laughs]
IGN: When Kevin arrived and he didn't seem to know who Nora was outside of their initial first words to one another, was that also meant to make the viewer unsure of what reality they were watching? Because when I saw it, I still didn't really know where Nora was, dimension-wise, and him not having his full memory kept me wondering. Was she in our world? Was this the Kevin she knows?
Perrotta: Absolutely. Yes. Because I think, just from a dramatic standpoint having Kevin just show up and say "Here I am" and Nora says "Thank god you found me" - that wouldn't make for a very good meet up after this many years. [laughs] So you're right, we set up a context that was very disorienting for both the audience and the characters and it takes you a long time to find your footing. You're not quite sure what you're looking at until quite aways into the episode. And that's been a trademark for the show for a while now. We found it interesting here to do almost a romantic comedy scenario with the way he tries to win her over.
IGN: This episode primarily deals with, and features, Kevin and Nora. Everyone else, by the end, we just hear about. Kevin tells us who's still alive and who's doing well, so many characters get their story wrapped up off-screen. Even though The Leftovers is known for giving characters their own spotlight episodes, what was behind the choice not to include so many of them in the final episode?
Perrotta: This show has been about a whittling down as we've gone through this final season. Right from the opening moments of Episode 1 we see that Meg and Evie are gone. And then Kevin says goodbye to Jill and that's the last time we see her. And then in Episode 2, we see the last of Tommy. And so it's almost like one of those concerts where the musicians leave the stage at the end one by one until only the front man or lead guitar is left. And they're there with the microphones. I think we felt like the final episode had to deal with the central relationship of the show and the main two characters and that everyone would sort of shed away as we moved toward it.
IGN: Speaking of someone we thought we'd lost: What was behind the choice to have Laurie survive her episode when the ending made it seem, to most people, like she'd killed herself?
Perrotta: I think what really happened was that there was a big and notable split within the writers' room between people about Laurie having killed herself. I think that's where it started. And then there were a few people who were adamant about it and just couldn't live with that ending. You know, they became a kind of voice for the audience and must say that I was okay with the idea that Laurie had gone over. That she'd killed herself. But in a strange way, Laurie living allowed us to find the right mood and tone for the finale. It was almost like Laurie got resurrected from the dead because we were feeling like she was done but there were people who just couldn't live with that. Once everyone was convince though that she should be alive it brought a lighter spirit to the final episode. And I think it makes sense given that within the The Leftovers there are both casualties and survivors. We'd created a season where so many characters kept bringing themselves to the brink of death and then saying "No, I want to live some more." And so this wasn't a season about suicide but a season about people refusing suicide.
IGN: When Nora talks about going through and her experiences over in the other world, we never see any of it. It's all just her own words with no glimpses or flashes of her over there. Was that meant to create a mystery about whether or not it all happened?
Perrotta: I think so, for sure. And the way that I look at it is the show is very much about faith and religious narratives. The fact is that the essential part of a religious narrative is that it can't be proven. You have to take it on faith. Nora puts Kevin in that position. She basically says that she had this experience and it's either a true account of what happened to her or a kind of apology. [laughs] Like an elaborate apology for why she didn't get in touch with him. Because she was very busy was doing this thing. And Kevin's response is then "I believe you," but then even beyond that "Why wouldn't I believe you?" If the story gets you to a place where you can be with me then that's what I want. Yes, so I think it would have been very different if we had showed that world and Nora's journey the way we showed Kevin's journey in the Underworld. I think what you can say is that after all this time, Nora has gone from someone who has no patience for faith-based narratives that she's finally accepted that there is some use for a kind of healing fiction.
IGN: I like that Kevin's still cheating death by the way. He had a heart attack, but he's still around. He may even have gone back to his special place when it happened. Nothing can knock him down.
Perrotta: That's sort of a nice way to put it. It's like he can cheat death but he can't cheat aging and the normal deterioration of the body. It's very touching. But he also says that he's not immortal now and it does seem like he was probably successful in his efforts, from the previous episode, in destroying that realm and he's now at a place where he's come back to himself and knows that he's mortal.
IGN: Nora risked life and limb to save that goat. What was so important to her, in that moment, for her to climb up there and free it from its predicament?
Perrotta: First of all, I should say that the idea for the scapegoat came from one of the writers, Lila Byock, and it was a very inspired idea. One of the things, of course, is that the goat that was sacrificed in Season 2 was killed in such a powerful Old Testament way. It was a very primal image of what people used to do and it also represented what people were feeling when they were completely at the mercy of a hostile universe and they were trying to appease the gods in a way that we might think of as primitive. The scapegoat belongs to a kinder world where sins can be forgiven. For Nora to take those sins off the goat, I think, in some sense represented her guilt about how she left Kevin. I think for her to be ready to accept him she had to confront that guilt.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at http://ift.tt/2aJ67FB.
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