directed by Keith Gordon
This is the best episode of the show yet. It answers a lot of questions, while deepening the ongoing mysteries. It’s more informative than frustrating, offering a window into one character’s world since “October 14th.” Ostensible main character Chief Garvey (Justin Theroux) makes one short cameo, coming into Matt’s life at a point that makes sense, trying to help, being rebuffed, doing what he can and moving on. I’m not sure I’ll ever watch it again, but it was well done, surprising and masterfully acted.
Basically, Christopher Eccleston was given the ball and he ran with it all over the field. I don’t seem to be able to stop with the sports metaphors, so I hope I’m using them right. Reverend Matt Jamison’s journey since the Sudden Departure has been one that would impress Job. We get a shout back to the first episode, when the mom in the grocery store lot lost her baby. Behind her on the street was a car crash. Matt was in that car, with his wife.
Unlike his sister Nora (who lost her husband and kids), Matt didn’t lose his wife. Or rather, she didn’t disappear. She suffered a massive brain injury and has been paralyzed ever since. That is probably just one of the reasons he puts out his flyers denouncing the flaws of the departed.
He’s also in a struggle to save his sparsely attended church. He’s also bereft of the funds needed to acquire it when another offer comes along. The bank manager is sympathetic, but still a bank manager. Matt goes to his sister for help (Nora (Carrie Coon) received, apparently, the kind of death benefit she now offers to other survivors of the Departure), but she has a price. Stop maligning the missing, and she’ll help him keep his church. Which neither she nor most other people want anymore, but she does love her brother. At least she did until he confesses her husband’s damning secrets.
Of course, he’s unable to compromise on any point. And he also has enemies he doesn’t yet suspect. Though he may also have spirit protectors, or at least it seems that pigeons really like him.
Strokes of amazing luck and stunning setbacks come his way in a manner that would be complete overload, almost comical, if not delivered in the spooky way so characteristic of the show. And if not so carefully delineated each step of the way by Eccleston. His commitment to his role is absolute, so much so that his suffering is painful to watch. There’s something going on about the case that left his invalid wife’s care underfunded and a corrupt judge whom Matt especially hates. He also catches Laurie (Amy Brenneman) in a compromising position, hanging out in her own back yard watching her former family in secret. He needs something buried in the yard, which he carefully explains to her was left there for him, and they come to a mutual ignorance pact, silently on her part. Which is just one of the fucked up relationships in this post-Departure world, and also hints at more going on with Laurie and Patti (Ann Dowd) than we first expected. One particular setback, between Matt and a would-be thief, goes especially badly for the would-be grafter.
And almost consequence-free for Reverend Matt, who has bigger problems than such a low-life could imagine. While the Reverend is comatose (for four days), a dream sequence of surreal proportion ensues that enfolds in lucid detail, and seems to tie in somehow with Kevin’s equally spooky visions. Of course the question of whether those left behind are really experiencing tribulation lurks under it all, but by the end of the episode I’m guessing Matt has found a focus for his rage. More power to him!