The Leftovers penultimate episode of season 1 just aired on HBO. See what you missed with our full recap.
“There was a time where I told her everything, and a time where she told me everything.” The line stood out in Patti’s final moments last week and The Leftovers tells viewers everything about October 13. The brutal scenes of death and descent into insanity pale in comparison to the seemingly everyday normality of life before The Departure.
October 13
Normal Life, Normal Wife
Kevin Garvey has two vices. One: he secretly smokes cigarettes. Two: he fails to fully realize the wonderful life he has right before his eyes. Kevin and Laurie have their problems. Kevin does not want a puppy, Laurie is trying to use the puppy as a way to soften another introduction to the family. But in their home, they try to raise two happy and healthy kids separated from the troubles that haunt their pasts. For Jill, the occasional fights in the home and her mother’s frequent absences due to work are softened by the Top 40 hits of the week. Her upbeat attitude and unshakable smile brought the first wave of unsettling feelings crashing down as viewers heard Laurie speak for the first time all season.
Across town, Nora Durst is awoken by her two energetic children looking for breakfast. Nora prepares her family for the day and also preps to interview to be Lucy’s mayor campaign manager. When asked for her full commitment to a possibly failing campaign, Nora assures it will be unwavering. She needs more in her life than the knowledge that her apple juice is organic.
Nyan Cat:
Laurie enters her office to read: “The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. -October 13,” prior to her first appointment of the day. The patient, Patti, disheveled and cowering from her own reflection, worries that something terrible is about to happen, a concern she has shared before. Patti internalizes the pain from her broken marriage and refuses to let it out and leave Neil’s doorstep. The moment links to Patti’s pit stop to deposit a bag with “Neil” written on it on a doorstep. The first moment of Patti’s control of Laurie, pre-GR, follows her final line, “Something is wrong inside of you.”
Kevin drops Jill off at school after trying to understand what is special about a cat in the form of a Pop Tart pooping rainbows. A commotion at the elementary school breaks his deep thoughts on the subject and he runs to discover a deer, that he first spotted on his morning run, having trapped itself in the school, destroying the music room before leaping out of the window.
At work, Kevin Garvey Sr., in his place as Chief of Police, gathers the Mapleton department to go over protocol for the deer incident among other business. He gives them license to shoot the animal on sight, but Kevin interjects that tranquilizing the creature is the better option. Other members of the force do not seem to agree and Kevin is mocked for his compassionate side.
Kevin receives a call from Tommy, who attempted to visit his father and was taken into custody after he refused to leave. Understandably, Tommy would like answers after Laurie and Kevin broke the news of his true father’s identity. Kevin assures Tommy that no matter what the blood test says he is his true father. Kevin then proceeds to visit and punch Tommy’s father for laying a hand on his son.
What more do you want?
Laurie makes a pit stop before the party to visit the puppy breeder, Gladys. (Viewers are not allowed to get through this episode without exasperating, “Oh come on! Really?”)
The party scene, perhaps the most heartbreaking of them all, showcases the town of Mapleton at the height of its glory. Reverend Matt and his wife Mary dance into the night, Jill and Tommy laugh with their grandfather, Nora tucks her children in, and the neighbors raise their glasses to the Chief. Kevin toasts his father, the man who built his life and laid the foundation for his son to follow suit. As the party carries on, Kevin Sr. and Jr. steal a moment away. Kevin’s father did not buy the touching words of the speech and addresses his son, who looks right through the wonderful life he has in front of him for more. Enough is enough. It is time to stop looking for the greater purpose. It is already here.
October 14
The next morning, Laurie and Tommy discuss his visit to his father’s home. Kevin, out for his run, is approached by a car, whose passengers ask him, “Are you ready?” He isn’t the man they were looking for. As they pull away, a man hole cover explodes, missing him by 10 feet. When Laurie tries to bring it up with Kevin as soon as he walks in the door, the conversation spirals into the heart of the matter: “Is your place here, in this home?” When Kevin admits that she does not want him to be honest, he receives a call that the deer is trapped. His excitement is re-energized, but Laurie’s passive response leads him to yell, “Fuck you,” and leave.
The deer is trapped in the home of the elderly couple who are raising their son with Down Syndrome. The family cannot leave the house since their son is set on picking up the coins the deer knocked over on its rampage. Kevin stalks the animal, but it escapes from the room and is hit by a car. He shoots the deer and finds a balloon wrapped in its antlers, “It’s a girl!”
The Domino Effect:
Laurie sits in her car on the way to her appointment and the woman with the screaming infant pulls alongside her. As she waits in the office, Mary is seated near her waiting for Matt to emerge with the results of his PET scan. When he is free and clear, he insists they go for a drink and Nora agrees to drive. Inside the office, Laurie is examined and it is revealed that she is pregnant.
Nora, waiting for a call from Lucy, tries to deal with her screaming kids, who render her phone useless after spilling juice on it, and her unhelpful husband, whose care level is zero.
Kevin takes the woman who hit the deer back to her hotel and goes into the room with her.
Tommy and Jill participate in a human circuit at Jill’s science fair holding hands and lighting a bulb.
As the scene plays out, a scream erupts. Kevin searches the sheets for the woman. Nora’s house goes quiet. The heartbeat on the ultrasound stops. The light goes out.
The past can only remain buried for so long.
Watch The Leftovers finale, season 1, episode 10, “The Prodigal Son Returns,” Sunday, September 7 at 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO