Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Ahhhh... The Leftovers. It's funny, my previous show of choice on Sunday nights was Game of Thrones and although it is filled with as much or more vigor and violence, it simply can't match the gloomy atmosphere that surrounds Mapleton in a thick fog. In contrast to the previous two, this particular episode, "Two Boats and a Helicopter", is centered around one character - Reverend Matt Jamison (played by Christopher Eccleston). It actually allows us to take a deep breath from all of the goings-on and character development crammed into the first two episodes and follow just one set of footsteps.

Eccleston's portrayal of the Reverend is chilling - he seems to be trying so hard to do the right thing by his wife, by his congregation, by the town, etc but every time something good happens to him it is followed up by something much worse. Inexplicably bad, even. For example, in this episode he is told by the local bank that his church has been purchased by some kind of organization, but that he has a chance to buy it back if he can come up with the money in time. Sparked by some kind of revelation, Matt heads to the casino and turns $20,000 into $160,000. Nice roulette skills.

Unfortunately for him, his niceness and related inability to avoid confrontation get him into trouble. First, after leaving the casino with the money he needs in an envelope, someone who saw his winnings tries to steal it from him but ultimately ends up with his face bashed into the pavement. A surprising turn of events for Matt but he is prepared to do anything it takes at this point in order to preserve what little he still has.

Trusting in the pigeons, Matt? Just before he gets to the casino he sees (for the 3rd time) pigeons.. this time in a group of 3, sitting on top of a flashing red stoplight. He bets 3 times.. on red, at the same table that we earlier saw 2 pigeons on top of. I'm still struggling with the imagery here but it seems that Matt's relationship with Kevin's father (Kevin Garvey, Sr., played by Scott Glen) and the strange things that seem to be happening to both of them must be connected.

Anyway, The Leftovers puts on a happy face and it looks like there might just be a light at the end of the tunnel for at least one character when we get completely shut down. Surprise? Stopping to help one of the Guilty Remnant who were hit in the head with a rock from what appeared to be a group of teenagers driving past in a vehicle, Matt was hit in the head himself and wakes up in the hospital after a series of dreams (visions?) and flashbacks. He rushes to the bank to try and save his church, but when he gets there it is already closed. After speaking to Jim Lewis, whom he previously dealt with, he is informed that he was actually in the hospital for several days.. and the church has already been sold.

The organization that bought the church? Yep, the Guilty Remnant. And we see the powerful image of members of the group painting the stained glass windows stark white. And what about his wife, is she ok after Matt never returned home? Like so many things that have already happened in this series, any small semblance of joy or resolution that a character may try to latch onto is destroyed absolutely. Should we fear Reverend Matt Jamison now? I think so.. there is no telling what holy vengeance he may try to strike down upon the Guilty Remnant and others that get in his way now that he has lost almost everything that he held dear. At least he's got $160,000 and a really strange American accent. Good luck, Matt.

The Leftovers really puzzles me. I still can't figure out (along with everyone else, I'm sure) whether there is any sort-of of twist here (supernatural or otherwise), or if Lindelof and Co. are just winding us along this long road of miserable people and terrible circumstance. Either way, I can't stop watching this show because it keeps surprising me. Yeah, the surprises are mostly of a vicious and sadistic nature.. but hey, they say that art imitates life, right? I can easily see all of these events unfolding in modern-day reality after an event such as one that happens here. Maybe that's the whole point.

Anyway, "Gladys" takes us on a journey that centers around Patty and Laurie after the brutal murder of Gladys by stoning. The opening scene shows Patty nodding to Gladys in her office as if in silent agreement. We know that Gladys seemed to be higher up in the ranks of the Guilty Remnant but the whole order of things is very much left open to interpretation still. In my opinion, this opening scene is trying to make us believe that Gladys was ready for this and/or that Patty is actually behind the whole sequence of events that lead to Gladys's death. There just seems to be a general foreboding in the air and a heaviness to Gladys's nod. In addition, right before she was abducted from in front of the convenience store (they had gone to buy more cigarettes, it seems) Gladys took out a cigarette but hesitated in smoking it.. rapping it against her pad as if waiting for something. I'm not sure that I believe this to be the case, but we're still trying to piece together the motivations of these characters. The one thing that makes me think this could be a false path were Gladys's last words when she was near death in the woods. Spending your last moments begging for your life and breaking the vows of the Guilty Remnant are not the actions of someone who was fully aware of what was about to happen.

Patty takes Laurie out on an unannounced trip where they can be alone and have a private conversation. She allows Laurie to shower, dress in normal clothes, sleep in a comfortable bed, etc and even invites her to speak once more, over a french toast and scrambled egg breakfast. Ultimately, Laurie stays silent and seems to be praised by Patty for doing so. Patty says something memorable toward the end of their conversation, "Remember what you told me to do in the last session, before everything changed?".. this seems to allude to a previous relationship that these women had together. Perhaps Laurie was a therapist of some sort, or otherwise guiding or counseling Patty? Either way, it has something to do with 'Neil' and the doggybag that was delivered (presumably on his doorstep) filled with something (presumably feces?). Yikes. Basically, we learn that Patty may be even more nuts that we give her credit for. Looking forward to more on this.

Back in Mapleton, Kevin is once again faced with a personal crisis. Although we seem to learn that Dean is officially, in fact, a real person and not a figment of Kevin's imagination, the Chief's missing shirts send him into a tailspin at the end of the episode. Kevin actually physically threatens the employee at the laundromat and forces him to look more closely for his shirts. Wow, Kev.. looks like some anger management courses would be advisable. In the end, he does get his shirts back.. or are they actually his? I think we are to assume that they are his shirts. Every time it looks like the Chief may be crazy, he doubles back and reconfirms that he is not. We definitely need to learn more about his father and what happened to their whole family directly after the Sudden Departure. The way this show is going, maybe in The Leftovers Season 3?

We don't learn much, but come away with the same sinking feeling in our stomachs as in the previous episodes. Really.. this show is like eating a really delicious, but really spicy dish. Once you've started you have to see it through but not without some degree of pain and regret. I hope, as always, that in addition to the jarring moments that fill the first several episodes, we can advance the overall story arc a little more next week. 

In typical The Leftovers fashion, any answers that we may think we're getting closer to actually just lead to more questions. Now I've been a fan of Damon Lindelof's work since his Lost days so this is mostly expected, but it does seem as though we're getting a constant stream of open-ended story arcs. The Guilty Remnant, Holy Wayne, Kevin Garvey Sr.'s (and now Dean's) mysterious voices, a specific issue of National Geographic, etc all twist and turn in an endless spin cycle of exposition. "We'll get to all of these things in time," The Leftovers seems to say, "but loose ends don't need to be tied up in the middle of a season."

Kevin Garvey is now becoming explicitly aware of his 'blackouts' and this awareness may drive him further into either aggressive, self-defeating behavior or perhaps (and I'm hoping) into accepting the unknown - specifically what his father, Kevin Garvey Sr. has been pushing him towards. Or maybe those are both actually the same path and there is no way out for the Chief. In "Cairo", Kevin falls asleep in his bed only to wake up at an old cabin - apparently some place that Kevin used to frequent when he was younger - with Dean. He discovers Patti tied up inside and we learn shortly afterwards that (according to Dean) Kevin had gone out, gotten drunk, kidnapped Patti and brought her here. 

The always conflicted Kevin Garvey tries to do what he feels is the right thing and let Patti go, but everything (and everyone) works against him. Patti maintains that she will report everything that happened if she is set free (which would certainly ruin his professional career and strain all of his relationships), and Dean physically restrains Kevin and tells him to go back to sleep so that the real Kevin (the one that supposedly spearheaded all of this craziness in the first place) might reappear. There is a lot of information to digest within these scenes at the cabin. First, the painting of the deer in the cabin closely resembles one that is actually in the National Geographic issue so prominently featured in the last episode. Second, Dean seems aware of the fact that Kevin doesn't fully grasp the situations that he continually finds himself in (to what extent, I'm not quite sure), and we also see Dean talking to "voices" at one point, much like Kevin Garvey Sr. One new question that presents itself here then is are those voices the same or are Kevin's father and Dean working on opposite "sides"? The way the show presents this information lends credibility to a few theories that I've heard about Dean being guided by "evil" and Kevin Garvey Sr. by "good". Or is it the other way around? Third, Kevin finds himself in the woods full of damning evidence that he has been here many times before - his shirts are bloody and dirty, hanging from the trees surrounding a well-used campfire. We also see quite a few dirty, used work boots - does this mean that Kevin may be leading a group of people, perhaps the same group that stoned Gladys earlier this season? That guy needs some sleep, for sure.

Something that I touched on in a previous review was that Patti and Gladys shared an "I'm ready" moment at the beginning of the "Gladys" episode earlier this year before she was stoned to death. In "Cairo", Patti eventually tells Kevin that Gladys had agreed to being martyred (presumably in that scene) for the cause and that she knew that her time was up as well. It makes you wonder if Gladys is somehow connected to what seems to be happening to Kevin as well as Dean and Kevin Garvey Sr. Certainly she knows more than she lets on. Going back to the stoning, something that bothers me is that Patti is talking when she is near death - begging her assailants to stop - perhaps this is just a natural reaction to being inches away from a cruel and violent demise, but one would think she would remain stoic if she had readily agreed. More than likely, then, she didn't agree so readily or there was more at stake. After entering the cabin to find Patti gasping for air under a plastic bag (Dean's doing), Kevin makes a decision to sacrifice his career and possibly a lot more by cutting Patti's bonds to set her free. Patti will have none of this, as it seems she has already set much of this in motion (including a larger Guilty Remnant plot to dress up Loved Ones versions of the departed in their stolen clothing for some kind of shocking demonstration), and kills herself with a shard of glass from Dean and Kevin's earlier physical confrontation. 

Here are Patti's parting words from a William Yeats poem called He Bids His Beloved Be At Peace:

I HEAR the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,

Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;

The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,

The East her hidden joy before the morning break,

The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,

The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:

O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,

The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:

Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat

Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,

Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,

And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.

Yikes, Patti. Thanks for the parting poetry - this seems to be referring to the four horsemen of the apocalypse while also expressing a new awakening (via the sunrise). I suppose Patti is alluding to what is about to happen in Mapleton (and perhaps across all of the chapters of the Guilty Remnant). Whatever the Guilty Remnant actually does with the fabricated bodies of the departed, it will surely be the most impactful thing that they have accomplished and truly have a lasting effect. We are already seeing more and more distraught people joining up with the Guilty Remnant (including Jill, although I think her intentions may be different). They may need to buy some more real estate.

As for Kevin, how can he do the noble thing now? Even with the best of intentions, he is obviously leading some kind of double life and exposing all of that (or even part of it) to everyone would only result in punishment for him. From the very beginning we see that Kevin is a good force in this town, and one of the only people who seem to have their head on straight (besides what happens when he falls asleep and/or blacks out, obviously), so is it better for him to plunge straight into chaos or give himself up to be locked away like his old man? The events of the next episode leading up to the season finale will no doubt be filled with fire and brimstone, and personally I dig it. Although obviously about the struggle between good and evil, The Leftovers exists in a time and place where morality itself is skewed, so who knows and who is to say which is which?