Shawn Hill" />
Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • BETTY WHITE VS THE STUPID WORLD: The Movie

      Shawn Hill
      January 17, 2022
      Fiction, PDI Press, PDI Press Writers
    Recent
    • BETTY WHITE VS THE STUPID WORLD: The Movie

      John E. Meredith
      January 17, 2022
    • Betty White Vs the Stupid World (Chapter Seven)

      John E. Meredith
      January 16, 2022
    • Betty White Vs the Stupid World (Chapter Six)

      John E. Meredith
      January 15, 2022
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • X (2022)

      Shawn Hill
      April 22, 2022
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • X (2022)

      Nate Zoebl
      April 22, 2022
    • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

      Nate Zoebl
      April 15, 2022
    • The Adam Project (2022)

      Nate Zoebl
      March 16, 2022
    • Books
    • Comics
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Shawn Hill
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      The Final Girl
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      Shawn Hill
      July 30, 2019
      DVD/Blu-ray, News
    Recent
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      psychodr
      July 30, 2019
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives on Digital 9/3 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 9/17

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 16, 2019
    • Avengers: Endgame arrives on Digital 7/30 and Blu-ray 8/13

      psychodr
      July 16, 2019
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • X (2022)
  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
  • The Adam Project (2022)
  • The Batman (2022)
  • Entropy (2022)
  • Killer Sofa (2019)
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Comics
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Reviews

The Leftovers 3.05-3.08

Shawn Hill
June 26, 2017
Reviews, TV

No, there’s no point for individual ratings. Despite each episode being a kind of individual character showcase, this was all one long unfolding story, full of interludes and asides and callbacks but adding up to one consistent whole. This was a devastatingly powerful final run of episodes as any season finale I can think of. It was fully conceived. It was varied. It was a chance to visit four main characters, each one central to the show at various points, and all of them central to each other, Leftovers who maintained connection despite the Sudden Departure. Each one has its own tone, and a sense of completion is reached. It’s like what was attempted with the final season of Lost, but not just through finding familiar faces in unexpected contexts (though there are a few surreal moments of that, too), but familiar faces who have lived through the original Departure and are now surviving its anniversary.

leftovers-307-kevin-jr-sr

Do we have any answers about what went on? Any religious pronouncements, any final judgments about the state of existence? Of course not, who were you kidding? In fact, we have a pretty complete refusal to accept Kevin as a new savior, despite his completely literal ability to survive multiple deaths, despite his utter surety that when he dies he visits another world (if not the world of the Departed exactly). We spend the final arcs of the season with Father Matt confronting his cruel mortality, Laurie tripling down on her therapeutic role with literally anyone she meets (as long as they don’t try to steal her lighter), and Nora pursuing what could either be an elaborately expensive suicide scenario or an elaborately convincing physics and science-based means of finding out the real truth (but not closure, because closure isn’t possible when her family are not dead but gone).

Matt’s journey involves a desperate race to Australia on a boat of hedonistic pleasure seekers, that don’t need the downer of Matt’s misfit disciples (Michael and John already aptly named, and Laurie playing either Thomas or Judas depending on the day). There’s a captive lion, a man who thinks he’s God, various scenes of bondage, torture, sex, and murder, and a completely biblical mauling to cap things off. The humor is both broad and snide, and there couldn’t be a better cast than this crew to confront the absurdity of their ultimately successful journey.

leftovers-season-3-episode-6-laurie

Laurie’s episode is more centered, less erratic and dramatic, though it does involve stalking, car theft, the Guilty Remnant managing to haunt and intrude as only they can, a murdered cop and another whacked with a shovel, all leading to a touching goodbye between once-marrieds Kevin and Laurie. Nora is delivered to the physicists that could make her dream come true, with Matt at her side as her loving family, and Laurie acts on Nora’s perfect suicide scenario to go snorkeling before the impending storm. The ambiguity of whether this is how she wants to spend the Anniversary (it is) or how she wants to escape it all is kind of beautifully open-ended, but there’s no reason to count out this woman who is so committed to leading others to reality she’ll sedate a whole family and once tried to single-handedly cure the Guilty Remnant herself (well, with her son Tommy as the snake oil).

Kevin agrees to drown for his father’s apocalypse, and to carry some messages to the Other Side (which of course end up garbled), as Kevin’s afterlife is a world of international assassins, paratroopers with rifles, and one where the Guilty Remnant has become the ruling world power by cleaning up their white-suited atheist act, destroying the family systematically, and offering a much more clear articulation of their pessimistic agenda. Why go active in the streets when you can write the fake news yourself? Someone will always believe you.

leftovers-season-3-episode-6-patti

In a Harry Potter type of moment, Agent Kevin can travel through mirrors to reach his counterpart, and he gets closer and closer to a very secure bunker where he must confront his own personal supervillains, Patti Levin and Meg Abbot, acting now as his Secretary of Defense and his Vice President respectively, and urging him to alternately blow up the world or kill his double or both.

It all makes even less sense than Kevin’s season 2 sojourns to the afterlife, but it’s very big picture, and the truth comes out when Patti (in the midst of ranting unconvincingly on the lack of God or an afterlife, despite being herself clearly a ghost) makes Kevin realize that all his suicides, asphyxiations, drownings and last-minute flights to Australia are escape attempts from what really scares him. Which is love, for Nora specifically. And she helps him finally kill (that part of himself) himself because (considering he pushed her into a well and drowned her own inner child last time) she owes him.  And she means that as a friend, delivered with all the ironic conviction of which Ann Dowd is capable.

leftovers-finale-dance

There are gratuitous murders this time around (poor Liv Tyler, killed twice this season), as we’re deep in Kevin’s own Inception, but ultimately the character beats are sincere and emotionally earned. His final trial brings us back to an Australia not devastated by flood (the shaman/Australian Ambassador Kevin contacted on the other side makes clear that Kevin Sr. was following a pipe dream), and a world with no further Departures and no new answers, anniversary or not.

So what’s left behind is the love story, and it’s one that takes decades, as we finally find Nora/Sara on her bird farm, and Kevin inviting her to a dance in town after knocking on her door as if he barely knows her. He wants to start over after their devastating last fight in the hotel, and truth seeker Nora puts up with as much of it as she can, clearly as drawn to him as ever but needing full disclosure or nothing. The party it turns out is a wedding, the one Nora was loaning her doves too, and love is all around in this episode (including for sneaky nuns apparently), so why not for Nora and her estranged husband? She has a story about her journey to the other world, and it’s best that she tell it. It doesn’t matter if you believe it. What matters is that she came back, and it looks like these crazy kids are going to make a go of it after all. The prospect of which brings a smile to Laurie’s face, tending her presumed grandchildren, when Nora calls to cuss her out. And to ask permission (if you believe Laurie) to dance.

(Visited 124 times, 1 visits today)
The Leftovers 3.05-3.08
5.0Overall Score
Reader Rating: (0 Votes)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Amy BrennemanCarrie CoonChristopher EcclestonJustin TherouxLiv TylerScott Glennshawn hillThe Leftovers

Sick Flix: Mexico Barbaro (2014)
All Binge… No Purge: Buffy the Vampire Slayer S2 Part One

About The Author

monsterid
Shawn Hill
Day Walker / Master of Arts

Shawn Hill knows two things: comics and art history. Somehow that led to him writing the Harvey Kurtzman entry for Icons of the American Comic Book: from Captain America to Wonder Woman (2013). He also writes art criticism and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), an NGO of UNESCO.

Daily Top Ten

  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • The Blacklist 1.06 "Gina Zanetakos"The Blacklist 1.06 “Gina Zanetakos” by Natalie Amato
  • Adventure Time 6.06 “Breezy”Adventure Time 6.06 “Breezy” by Dave Hearn
  • Lost in Translation 373: Neuromancer, the Radio DramaLost in Translation 373: Neuromancer, the Radio Drama by Scott Delahunt
  • Interview of the 50 Foot Cheerleaders!Interview of the 50 Foot Cheerleaders! by Jason Sacks
  • POPCORN CINEMA 23: THEY CALLED HER ONE EYE (aka, THRILLER: A Cruel Picture)POPCORN CINEMA 23: THEY CALLED HER ONE EYE (aka,… by John E. Meredith
  • Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Polar (2019)Polar (2019) by Nate Zoebl
  • Gender, Transformation and Mr. Angel: A Chat with Buck Angel and His Wife Elayne AngelGender, Transformation and Mr. Angel: A Chat with… by Nate Abernethy
  • EZMM Day 7.1: Night of the Living Dead (1990)EZMM Day 7.1: Night of the Living Dead (1990) by Paul Brian McCoy
400x400 GI Joe Funko Banner

Weekly Top Ten

  • Page to Screen: The Boys Season OnePage to Screen: The Boys Season One by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Adventure Time 6.06 “Breezy”Adventure Time 6.06 “Breezy” by Dave Hearn
  • Advance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-rayAdvance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-ray by Paul Brian McCoy
  • The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006)The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006) by Corin Totin
  • Drive-In Saturday: Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)Drive-In Saturday: Heavy Metal 2000 (2000) by Alex Wolfe
  • Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985)Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) by Corin Totin
  • The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Superman II (1980)Superman II (1980) by John Clark
  • Adventure Time 6.20 “Jake the Brick”Adventure Time 6.20 “Jake the Brick” by Dave Hearn
400x400 UA Affiliate Banner

FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK

Latest Reviews

  • X (2022)

    Nate Zoebl
    April 22, 2022
  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

    Nate Zoebl
    April 15, 2022
  • The Adam Project (2022)

    Nate Zoebl
    March 16, 2022

psychodrivein

Today at https://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: Unboxing Kotobukiya's Dawn Moreno (Snake Eyes II) & Mighty Jaxx's Off Werk Snake Eyes Vinyl!

Greg takes a quick look at two new releases in the world of GI Joe statues and collectibles!
---
Watch Greg at the link in our profile!

#GIJoe #AnythingJoes @AnythingJoesPod #DawnMorano #SnakeEyes2 #SnakeEyes #Kotobukiya #MightyJaxx #OffWerk
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transl Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 414: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! (2019)

The game has a heart, and that heart is Colonel Sanders.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#ColonelSanders #KFC #LostInTranslation #ILoveYouColonelSanders
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transl Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 413: Cloak & Dagger (2018)

Cloak & Dagger is a coming-of-age story with superheroes, a teen drama with superheroes, and works as such.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #MarvelComics #MarvelTelevision #CloakAndDagger #AubreyJoseph #OliviaHolt
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Popcorn Cinema Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Popcorn Cinema 48: THE MULTIVERSE IS MADNESS

POPCORN raises his hands, putting them together in front of his face. He then pushes his face slowly through them as if he's giving birth to himself. 
---
Read more of John's reviews at the link in our profile!

#DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness #EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce #SamRaimi #Daniels #BenedictCumberbatch #MichelleYeoh #ElizabethOlsen #JamesHong #JamieLeeCurtis #KeHuyQuan #StephanieHsu
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: S01E37 - G.I. Joe #12 / Three Strikes For Snake-Eyes!

It's the start of one of the most iconic Joe stories in it's entire history, and it includes the return of two pivotal characters from the past! Join Greg and Jaren as they venture into Rio Lindo to root out Cobra's next devious plot!
---
Watch Greg and Jaren at the link in our profile!

#AnythingJoes @anythingjoespod #GIJoe #MarvelComics #SnakeEyes
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transl Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 412: Good Omens (2014 BBC Radio Dramatisation)

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch was first published in 1990 and was a comedy about Revelations and Armageddon.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #GoodOmens #NeilGaiman #TerryPratchett #BBC #MarkHeap #PeterSerafinowicz #JimNorton #AdamThomasWright #JosieLawrence #Charlotterichie #ColinMorgan #CliveRussell #JuliaDeakin #BBCRadio
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: S01E36 - Lexington Comic & Toy Convention 2022

Greg & Jaren recount their experience meeting Larry Hama at the Lexington Comic & Toy Convention 2022. Plus, the latest news, recent acquisitions, and listener mail!
---
Listen to Greg and Jaren's podcast at the link in our profile!

@anythingjoespod #AnythingJoes #GIJoe #Mezco #LarryHama
Today at https://psychodrivein.com X (2022) Ti W Today at https://psychodrivein.com

X (2022)

Ti West is a director I haven’t fully enjoyed, though I would say X is his most accomplished film to date for me. 
---
Read more of Nate's review at the link in our profile!

#X #TiWest #MiaGoth #Slasher
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transl Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 411: The Secret of Marvel's Success

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been dominating the box office since the release of Iron Man.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #Marvel #MarvelStudios #MarvelCinematicUniverse #MCU #IronMan #Avengers #MoonKnight #WandaVision #Hawkeye #RobertDowneyJr
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Latest Columns

  • Anything Joes: S01E38 – Greg And Joel’s Favorite Modern Figures, Part 1

    Greg Engle
    June 24, 2022
  • Lost in Translation 415: Remaking Gilligan’s Island

    Scott Delahunt
    June 24, 2022
  • Anything Joes: Unboxing Kotobukiya’s Dawn Moreno (Snake Eyes II) & Mighty Jaxx’s Off Werk Snake Eyes Vinyl!

    Greg Engle
    June 15, 2022

TWITTER

My Tweets

Look Who's Talking

Oliver Ghingold
Oliver Ghingold - 2/18/2022
Muppet Madness: You’re the Director
Do you still have these tapes? I've been looking everywhere for them! I loved the Interactive Vision...
white swan
white swan - 12/22/2021
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
I enjoyed the article though I would never call brutality gorgeous.
Shawn EH
Shawn EH - 10/26/2021
13 Days of Halloween Day 12: Halloween Kills (2021)
Very disappointing, it's true. And very mean-spirited murders of nobodies. And I don't even see how...
RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

Large_rectangle_336X280
All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Comics
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: