That’s it?
I put up with three seasons of this nonsense random
madlib and this is how it ends? Nothing is explained and explored
In fact, as I said last episode, this entire season has
kind of been a wallowing in Nora and Kevin’s brokenness. Which I’m not saying
is necessarily a bad thing – but the show was presented as a story about the
Departure and we’ve had weird acting dogs and bird and Matt the mystical
gambling and Kevin transporting to other worlds/dreams/hallucinations and
somehow not dying and we’ve had the Guilty Remnant and… we’ve just had a whole
lot of random STUFF that just. Doesn’t. Matter.
And this season finale just kind of confirmed that. The
whole last three seasons? Matt and his gospel, the boat with the lion, John,
Michael, Evie, Erika, Kevin senior and his dreams and that damn National
Geographic everyone was raving about, Patty and whatever on earth was going on
with her, the mystical hug guy – in fact everything Tommy ever did – Laurie, Meg,
Jill and her angst and all they did – even Mary waking up and being apparently
pregnant? None of it mattered. Nearly everything we’ve madlibbed through justfeels nonsensical, pointless. I mean, maybe it appealed to some or set up the
brokenness of the only 2 people who actually mattered – but we already
established how both of them were fraying in 3 episodes. That’s all it really
took to truly emphasise how both of these people were hurting and not doing
well – and no amount of lion sex cult or siege of Miracle of Matt getting naked
in the stocks, really added to that
So we had all this stuff that answered no questions,
added nothing to the world or the plot or, really, the character development
and, frankly, I just didn’t find anything entertaining. It’s not that the
characters were bad, they were compelling, had powerful emotional reactions and
all of it was excellently displayed. Over and over and over and ye gods I get
it they’re all broken, over again. I held
But let’s get to the gritty of this. Nora completes her
whole newspaper interview to tell everyone she consents to being zapped to find
her kids – and with much feeling and build up and nudity she emotionally and
painfully goes through the process of agreeing to use the machine. As ever with
Nora, her pain is palpable, her emotion incredible – right up until the moment
the machine activates
At which point we buzz to the future – to when Nora is
calling herself Sarah and apparently exchanging doves with a nun and denying
she knows anyone called Kevin. Nora definitely doesn’t want to meet him and
seems ready to do a runner when Kevin arrives at her door with an apparent case
of amnesia
Yes, Kevin says he doesn’t remember being in Australia
before or anything of the last 2 seasons really. He mentions having seen her
once for a brief moment and decided that since he happened to be in this out of
the way part of Australia and he happened to see her riding past he would
invite her to a dance
Yes, really, this is his story. And y’know, with Leftovers I’m happy to believe any kind
of utter nonsense and random amnesia just fits that endlessness. But this kind
of coincidence running into her? Nah, not buying this. Nor is Nora and she
tells him to sod off right now
The one person who knew Nora was still around with Laurie
so Nora calls her to interrogate her in her usual aggressive fashion but Laurie
is super calm and spies what she sees as the real reason for Nora’s call –
permission to go on the date. Of course Nora denies this.
But (after a scene of her struggling to get ready) she
does go – and finds out it’s actually a wedding (the couple is kind of awesome
and much much much more fun than Kevin and Nora). Kevin keeps up the amnesia
all night but Nora catches up on all the people she left behind (Matt is now
dead presumably from cancer). They dance, they cry and watch as doves are
released with messages of love and a goat with lots of beads around its neck is
released (it’s a biblical scape goat, the beads represent sin) before Nora goes
home – sick of Kevin’s amnesia act.
At home she finds her birds are missing. She also decides
to accuse the nun of a) stealing her birds (why she has carrier pigeons I don’t
know, it’s not explained and I don’t care) b) telling Kevin where she lives
(which she denies) and c) sleeping with a man who climbed up to her window by a
ladder. Why was he there? It’s just another random event – like the nun in the
first place. Or Nora falling off her bike because of the scape goat’s discarded
beads and her having to save it from where it had been entangled on a fence. Is
this deep symbolism? She lost her symbols of hope – her doves? She took on the
sins of others? She welcomed in the scape goat that has been burdened with the
sins of others? I’m sure it’s all very symbolic but, like everything with Leftovers it’s just laid on a little
thickly
She goes home and the next day she has her goat, a bucket
of messages of love, her doves are back – and so is Kevin. He admits that the
whole amnesia thing was a frankly bizarre act to try and reset the clock an he’s
actually been obsessively searching for Nora for years in a truly disturbing
way that deserves ALL the restraining orders.
Ultimately they agree with what Nora said – she did need
to be with her kids, that they would loom over here because she never ever had
closure (we also learn that Kevin isn’t immortal since he has a heart
condition). Which is why she used the machine
And it worked – she went to a world that was exactly like
theirs – only nearly deserted because only those who Departed are there. There
everyone is like Nora – because everyone lost everything and everyone. Laura
lost her husband and kids – but among the Departed they all lost multiple people.
Which means, when she tracks down her kids and husband (which takes a long time
because the sparse population hasn’t exactly maintained transport hubs) she
realises they are the lucky ones. Because nearly the whole family departed
together – and they’ve grown up, her husband has a new wife – and they’re
happy. And she? Is not necessary
Which, I guess, is closure.
With that new realisation she tracks down the guy who
designed the machine and asked him to make another one to take her home. And
lot it’s done and never with the Departure matter again
Never mind that we not only have a whole separate
dimension but apparently the means now for people to pass between the two. That’s
a whole world of cities and infrastructure, of farm land and resources:
everything on Earth is effectively doubled. What are the consequences of this?
Since Depatureland has only 2% of the population what scraps of society do they
even have left? Do they need help? Is there going to be a land grab? War for
these new resources? Immigration rush? Colonisation? Any Departed want to come back?
Ye gods Leftovers
there are massive ramifications for this and you’re just going to ignore it and
turn it into “And Nora saw her kids, now ignore this world.” Really? Really
really?
And her doves return! Behold not so subtle symbolism of
hope!
I mean, maybe it’s me – maybe it’s just that I don’t like
character development plots done over and over again. It’s a pet hate of mine
to constantly wallow in characters’ angst. I also don’t think imagery can
actually run a show – excellent aesthetics, theme and mood are great additions
but they need to be actually attached to a stable plot (no amount of ornaments
will make a difference if your Christmas tree is a small stick your dog dragged
in). Maybe my general dislike of Madlib Mystery shows that introduce an
intriguing, weird mystery and then don’t bother to provide any answers hit Leftovers which pretty much epitomises
all of that and my brain just can’t scream “NOPE!” Loud enough, Maybe because I’ve
simply got a limit to how much random, unexplained randomness before I’m done.
I know lots of people sang the praises of this show – but
I just do not get it. Conceptually a show lasting 3 seasons without really
answering any of the core questions but throws us “hey Nora and Kevin sorted
their shit out” as some kind of consolation prize? And don’t get me wrong the
acting and feeling and performance was amazing but this is what we’re focusing
on?
Diversitywise this show is beyond poor. There are no LGBT
characters and never have been (not actual characters). We introduced an entire
Black family in season 2 but they’ve been thoroughly sidelined and rendered
irrelevant in season 3. We saw some Aboriginal Australians but they existed
just for Kevin senior to be terrible to. It’s all just been very very very very
lacking.
