The Leftovers 3.8: The Lucky Ones
Given that the divisive Lost finale made him a figure of hate amongst a broad segment of the population, Damon Lindelof has done everything in his power to lower (and indeed kill) fan expectations for The Leftovers’ departure. From the outset, he promised that his HBO drama would not answer every question. He chose "Let The Mystery Be" as the theme song. He essentially wrapped up the arc of the main character, Kevin, in the penultimate episode of this third season, a season that - I would argue - the show could easily have done without. Season 2’s finale, which saw Kevin sing "Homeword Bound" in a karaoke bar before returning to his family home with a certain degree of contentment, was as good an end to The Leftovers as we were ever likely to see. As it stands, nothing has changed. The Book of Nora, while an intriguing above-par hour of television, will be remembered as one of this show’s least remarkable episodes: quiet, simple and lacking sensational revelation, this is a finale that tells us what Lindelof and co. believed were the key elements of the show’s thematic framework: the characters, their relationships and belief.
This whole season has acted as something of an epilogue to the rest of the show. A number of interesting hypotheticals have been explored - What if Matt met God? What if the Departed were out there somewhere? What if Kevin became a real-life Jesus? - but I was unsatisfied by every single one. I imagine that was the point. The Leftovers is no fantasy; there are no clean, clear resolutions in life, in death, in thought. It’s up to us to decide if Bill Camp’s character really is the Almighty. If the "International Assassin" world is a legitimate afterlife or merely in Kevin’s imagination.
The finale’s last scene went all-in on this concept of subjective plausibility, with Nora recounting to Kevin her visit to the ‘Other Place’, a mirror-world where the 2% experienced a far greater loss than the characters on this show. We’re shown no cutaways. There’s absolutely no reason to believe Nora. Kevin says he does. It’s a surprisingly obvious, very clever explanation for where the 2% went, if not why they went. Nora lost her husband and two kids, but in their experience of the Departure, only one parent vanished. The massive worldwide event that sparked three seasons of terrific TV was only a blip compared to what could have happened.
All those hours spent with the Guilty Remnant terrorising people, Holy Wayne’s magic hugs, Mark Lynn-Baker’s magic machine (presented in this episode as if something from Ex_Machina): imagine what was happening in the other place. That final scene, with Carrie Coon and Justin Theroux (ft. just-about-passable old age makeup) in the kitchen, as really well-executed. The hour beforehand, in which old Nora is visited by old Kevin in Australia, was quite weak. Kevin’s pretence of having forgotten their entire relationship, and their dance at a wedding, had serious vibes of the Lost finale.
Now I actually like the Lost finale more than most, but Leftovers was not that sort of show and did not need that sort of ending. Whether I would have been more satisfied with last week’s The Most Powerful Man in The World as a final episode, I’m not sure. I haven’t been entirely pleased with an episode of this show since Crazy Whitefella Thinking. But I don’t feel that spending an hour with old Nora, as marvellous a performer as Coon is (dammnit if she doesn’t get an Emmy nomination), seeing Laurie again or watching some birds landing has increased my understanding of, or love for, this show.
