On The Leftovers, you can’t choose what is important
“We gotta work on our story,” Kevin says to Nora about their romance. The two were confused on where they first met nearly four years ago, the start of events that led them to where they are now in Jarden, Texas. Kevin gets the detail wrong while Nora remembers it right. The couple then get into bed after a long 25th birthday party for Tommy, Kevin’s step-son from his first wife, Laurie, who was there at the party and was at one time part of a cult called the Guilty Remnant that eventually recruited the daughter of her new husband, John, who once shot and killed Kevin until he miraculously came back to life like Jesus Christ. All of that happened three years ago. All of those people were in the same house. But it seemed like it never happened at all. At least to Kevin.
When Kevin wakes up, and Nora leaves to ride her bike, he opens the closet, grabs a box labeled “cuff links” and proceeds to tape a garment bag around his head, breathing in deep to suffocate himself. Nothing indicates that this is a first time offense, it’s all habit. Kevin chooses to remember the past — his story — only when he’s alone. Indeed, Kevin needs to work on his own story, not him and Nora.
Denial works wonders for Kevin Garvey, a man who has died three times and come back to life and pretends it wasn’t a miracle. At Tommy’s birthday party, Kevin mentions “divine intervention” when he tells the story of how he met Laurie and Tommy — a totally random car accident. For a person who can accept the meaning of a simple coincidence leading to a marriage and a family, it’s startling he can’t accept the meaning of his own resurrection. In a Post-Departure world, ignoring the significance of something could lead to the discovery of everything. Kevin’s learned to turn off the buzz from this world. It’s the only way he knows how to survive.
But that all comes to a head when a man from Kevin’s past reintroduces himself into the story. Dean, the person Kevin spent time with the most during his first psychotic break killing dogs and sleepwalking to upstate New York, meets with Kevin to talk about something big. Something unbelievable. Dean has significant evidence that an upcoming politician has canine DNA inside of him, evolving from the dogs that used to attack residents after the Sudden Departure. Dean believes that the cross human/dog population is something to be concerned about, and that what him and Kevin were doing four years ago was the beginning of something sinister.
Kevin dismisses it.
Given what The Leftovers has provided to Kevin and his extended family, what Dean presents doesn’t sound outlandish. Dog DNA infiltrating higher-up officials, resulting in some sort of post-apocalyptic chaos? And there’s evidence to suggest this is definitely happening, nevermind the paranoid conclusion? Kevin says not to believe it. “It’s all in your head,” he tells Dean, ignoring the fact that Kevin once had to die and push a little girl into a well to get rid of a ghost that was following him around. To Kevin, everything is in your head and should stay there. It doesn’t mean anything.
After a baptism protest, Tommy begins asking questions. According to the protesters, a massive government cover-up occurred in Jarden three years ago and everyone deserves to hear the truth. A drone strike happened and innocent people were killed. We should remember their deaths and take action against those above us. Tommy considers what they say to be the truth but Kevin doesn’t in the slightest.
“On the morning of October 15th, three years ago, there was an unexpected gas leak at the visitors center. At the result of a cigarette being lit by a member of the Guilty Remnant, who were occupying the center at the time, the gas ignited, and the building and the people inside were incinerated. We pray for the families of those that were lost,” Kevin tells his son in a cold comfort. We, the audience, know what truly happened on that day, therefore we know that what Kevin chooses to believe is false. The truth doesn’t matter to him, though.
However, that belief system turns when he hears John’s take on the incident that had his daughter killed. John is under the assumption that Evie escaped the drone strike and disappeared because she’s done it before, so why rule out that she didn’t do it again? When John voices his belief, Kevin can only stare in dismay. What he sees is a man choosing to comprehend a situation so it benefits his way of life. What Kevin sees is himself.
This conversation between John and Kevin occurs inside of a church, where Matt is standing up and preaching a new gospel about Kevin’s life, Kevin’s story. The Book Of Kevin, he calls it, an entire outline of everything that has happened in Kevin’s life, death, and onward. Kevin claims it to be utter bullshit but Matt thinks otherwise. “It happened,” he says, “It’s still happening.” Kevin becomes furious about this plan to preach his life as something with intense meaning when, in actuality, Kevin is in denial.
Earlier when he explains the psychological consequences of killing someone, he’s remembering the time he spent in the hotel, a mysterious purgatory he found himself in when he died. In the hotel, he killed a lot of people. If it didn’t mean anything, if it had no significance upon his life, then why share the story as if it were true?
Kevin can’t pick and choose what is important and what is not, which is why he can’t burn The Book Of Kevin outside of the church. Deep inside, Kevin is aware that this all must mean something. Now, whether or not it involves the end of the world or him being the new Jesus, that’s up to interpretation. That’s his story to figure out.
