'The Leftovers' Season Finale: Answers and Miracles

The Leftovers reaches its second-season finale on Sunday night with an episode titled “I Live Here Now.” Written by show creators Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, and directed by Mimi Leder, it is another superb hour of television in a Leftovers season full of superb hours. And if you’re wondering, yes, questions to some of the show’s biggest mysteries are answered. And yes, some are not. It wouldn’t be The Leftovers if there was nothing left over to chew on, right?

After last week’s startling reveal that Evie is alive and a member of the Guilty Remnant, the finale comes to terms with the tensions between the people living in Jarden, Texas, and those kept at bay from Miracle on the other side of the bridge. I should also add that, for a show that some people find depressing, there are some very fine jokes in The Leftovers, including the finale, which features some of Justin Theroux’s best deadpan laugh-lines, as well as an excellent karaoke scene.

There are a number of stand-out performances in the finale. Regina King is exceptional as Erika, whose position as a mother and a wife has been tested again and again this season, and who is forced to make some wrenching decisions about those roles in the finale. Christopher Eccleston as Matt calls upon enormous reserves of physical expressiveness in dealing with sudden changes in his life. (Man, it’s tricky writing around spoilers.) Justin Theroux continues to do an amazing job of conveying Kevin’s bafflement, rage, and agony. And as Nora, Carrie Coon completely kicks butt in this finale, and leads me to think once again that Nora may be my favorite character currently on television.

I assume that one reason The Leftovers isn’t one of HBO’s biggest ratings hits is because it poses questions — is, indeed, built upon one enormous unanswerable, the Sudden Departure — to which there are no concrete answers. Or rather, questions to which each viewer has her or his own answer, and one can choose to compare it to what The Leftovers eventually reveals about that question. But nothing is settled. And the majority of people who consume entertainment want things settled; they want closure; they want answers. The Leftovers isn’t trying to pull a fast one on its audience — there are no fake-outs or deceptions. There is mystery. There is wonder. There is acceptance and there is a refusal of acceptance, both of which are the responses of thoughtful adults to different situations encountered in both life and art.

I’m usually resistant to shows that seek constantly to surprise you, to throw you off-balance, to pose mysteries to which you must pay close attention for clues and portents. I freely admit that kind of thing just annoys me no matter how well-executed and was one reason I was put off by one of Lindelof’s previous efforts, Lost, pretty early on in its run.

The Leftovers is different for me, though. I do not mind at all that, at the conclusion of any given hour, I turn away from the screen and say, “I don’t know what the hell happened there,” mostly because the words that follow it are, “but I sure enjoyed whatever was going on!” That’s because underlying even the most confusing moments on Leftovers — and I’d say this was true even of the season’s most neck-snapping head-scratcher, the Kevin-as-spy, “International Assassin” eighth episode — there is a foundation of love, love tested, death, and death defied.

In some ways, The Leftovers is the perfect TV show for this point in the life of America. At a time when we do not know what awful, death-dealing thing is going to occur next, here is a TV series that gets right down and lives in that place of fear, uncertainty, dread, and guarded hope.

I really hope HBO renews The Leftovers for a third season. Both because I really want to see it, and in a way I don’t intend to be pretentious, because I think we need it.

The Leftovers airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.