The Leftovers: Season 2 Review

The Leftovers: Season 2 Review

The Leftovers: Season 2 / 12 Dec 2015

The Leftovers' awesome, high-water mark second season earnestly asked "Where is my mind?" By Matt Fowler

Warning: Full spoilers for the season below.

As huge fan of the first season of The Leftovers, I still got why some folks weren't into it. I didn't quite understand some of the actual hate, but I totally gelled with why it perhaps wasn't someone's cup of misery tea. But something truly clicked this year for the series. And in a way that those who previously didn't like the show now thought it was spectacular. That's a rarity in TV. To turn that type of corner creatively for people. To get that second chance to make a first impression.

Season 2 doubled-down on the endearing Kevin/Nora coupling - taking them up and out of Mapleton, in fact, for a big change in location. All while exploring a totally different side of the Departure phenomenon in an examination of "those who were spared." Those who, maybe, weren't crumbling on the inside like the rest of the world. A small Texas town that suffered no departures whatsoever. A place that had become famous for being something mysteriously, nebulously "miraculous." It could have just been coincidence that no one vanished from Jarden, TX, but the world Damon Lindelof established back in Season 1 showed us that there was something going on just underneath the surface of our reality. There was a truth. But just like the characters on the show, we'd probably never fully know it. Or wholly understand it.

Kevin Carroll's internally-struggling, outwardly violent Jarden resident John Murphy liked to say there were no miracles in Miracle (the name of the park that surrounded Jarden). Though I'll offer up that The Leftovers' second season was the miracle to behold. A spectacular, swimming, beautiful, and - maybe most important - unforgettable season of television. I know for a fact that there are moments from this year's run that will stick with me forever. Sublime, haunting scenes that both moved and confounded me.

I wrote up a whole piece about how The Leftovers became a must-see experience in 2015, so I won't rehash too much of that here. Its use of a new location expanded the world and opened up the series to different opinions, angles, and debates about the Departure. New cast members Regina King, Kevin Carroll, Jovan Adepo, and Jasmin Savoy Brown also worked to improve the series, bringing us into the (painful) lives of another family in turmoil. A swept-under grief so piercing that not only did it shatter the family but - by the end - the entire town as well.

Carrie Coon's Nora continued to be a force this year - a stubborn, wonderful whirlwind bent on feeling secure while also secretly suspecting that she may have been the reason her family vanished practically in front of her eyes. And her final scene with King's Erika in "Lens" is one of those aforementioned memorable moments. Just two powerhouse actresses doing their thing, finding their truths. And while the wives clashed (though Kevin and Nora weren't married), the husbands wound up bonding in the end over the improbable, crazy chaos of the world. Two utterly perplexed, lost men crying over the miracle of Kevin's (second) resurrection. Wondering if anyone would be waiting for them when they got home.

The main mystery arc - the question of Evie's vanishing act - worked as a solid spine for the series as it hopped around, giving us character-centric episodes devoted to Laurie, Matt, Meg, the Murphys (which actually kicked off the season), and Kevin. And it was through Kevin's two-part other-worldly odyssey - "A Most Powerful Adversary" and the crazy-good standout "International Assassin" - that the series took its boldest risks yet in terms of hard answers about "what lies beyond." I suppose there's room for debate as to whether or not this was all in Kevin's mind (and that he'd somehow survived the poisoning and the gunshot wound on his own), but it's a thin argument. He'd never recover from those injuries as solidly as he did and the purgatory hotel contained things he'd never have known about (birds, burning Jarden bridges, etc).

Plus, the opening of the season - the amazing first few minutes involving the cave collapse and the primitive mother and newborn - was honestly trying to establish (without rugged details) that this town, this spring, was special. And had a mystical connection to the afterlife/other dimensions/what have you. A hot spot. It's not a place that guarantees your safety (no one gets "spared"), but it is special in ways that no one - except maybe Kevin, who by the end developed a cheat code for death - could fully comprehended.

Naturally, this being Lindelof, there was more than a little LOST in here. The slowly unraveling secrets (and "rules"), the episodes focused on individual journeys, the idea that there a special "pockets" of magic in this world. But - and this may just be a benefit from being on premium cable - the idea that our main characters could actually say things like "Are you f***ing kidding me with this s***?" helped a great deal when it came to selling all of it. Like when Kevin screamed "Motherf***er!" in the finale after he found himself back in the hotel. It was the perfect amount of humor needed to bring us back into this profoundly specific "backstage" element of the world. And one also needed to help put over his Simon & Garfunkel karaoke scene. A admittedly bats*** moment that was played straight to the point of becoming extremely poignant and heartfelt.

"International Assassin," on its own, probably offered up the most nobly transcendent experience of the season. Especially the back half, after Kevin discovered that the little girl who'd tried to drown herself in the pool at the beginning was Patti. That's when it went from being a galactic goose chase to something with soul and teeth. And the moment when Patti went from being an antagonist/pain-in-the-ass/malignant force to being one of the show's saddest stories (and that's some stiff competition).

I'm giving this Leftovers seasonal run a perfect score. The only other time I've done this with a full season of TV - I believe - is with Terriers' first and only season. So hate it, love it, Leftovers: Season 2 was moving and memorable in all the ways you could ever want from a scripted series. It was beautifully baffling until, somehow, it just all made sense. The use of The Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" (in song form, and as an instrumental backdrop) worked wonders, and also spoke to this season's incorporation of different musical sources. Max Richter's exquisite original score was still around, but not as bullying.

The Leftovers' Season 2, featuring a new location and cast, was memorable and magnificent. Powerhouse performancesEngrossing "spinal" mysteryProviding spiritual answers, but not all the wayMemorable, resonating moments"International Assassin"

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