Appearances can be deceiving. A fresh start in a new town for the Garveys on The Leftovers doesn’t necessarily mean these people have changed. If anything, Kevin’s gotten even crazier since last season.
The backstory on Kevin, Nora, and Jill’s big move to Texas started by picking right back up where we left off with Nora finding a baby on their doorstep. A couple months pass after Kevin and Nora awkwardly confess their darkest secrets to each other, and soon enough, they’ve officially adopted the baby, which they name Lily.
It was nice to see Kevin’s dad again, as I was wondering if we’d get an update on him at all with the shift in setting. He’s been released from the psychiatric hospital and is moving to Australia. He’s not exactly cured of hearing “voices,” but instead, he’s resigned to listening to them. All throughout this episode we start to see Kevin’s mental stability isn’t all there. In fact, he’s got a lot more in common with his dad than he’d like to admit. By ignoring the ghost of Patty, who has been haunting him more and more, Kevin’s only making the problem worse. Distancing himself physically from Mapleton and even admitting his hand in covering up her suicide haven’t helped him escape her. He finds drowning out external noises with headphones and loud music works, but that won’t last long if Patty is capable of hurting him. It was pretty freaky that she was able to somehow knock his head down onto the stove.
Kevin and Nora might appear to be a happy little family on the surface, but once they arrive in Miracle, tension starts to grow. Nora was so quick to impulsively buy a $3 million house in Miracle, and what a dump that turned out to be. At least the restorations will give them all something to focus on. Kevin’s just got to be careful not to upset whatever ghosts are haunting him now.
The mysteries surrounding Miracle got even stranger this week, as we saw the extensive security process to even enter the area as visitors or residents. That said, we can’t complain or over-analyze every little thing anymore. I’ll choose to be patient and accept whatever answers The Leftovers does give us along the way, like what happened to Kevin’s dog and who left the baby on their doorstep. Seeing Kevin wake up in the dried up lake where Evie and her friends disappeared was crazy. He had a cement anchor tied to his ankle, so we can only guess what happened. Was he attempting suicide to get away from the torment of Patty? That’s my best guess for now.
I mentioned the new theme song (“Let the Mystery Be” by Iris DeMent) last week too, and I really love it even more this time around. It’s a good message to enjoy the ride and live in the present without getting hung up on questions we may never get answered.
[Photo credit: Van Redin/HBO]
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