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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?

So after last week surprised us with a crazy ending (both Patti stabbing herself with a shard of glass in an attempt to implicate Kevin and Jill turning up at the Guilty Remnant), I would expect nothing less of The Leftovers than to avoid the cliffhanger and throw us back into the past. It's really more of a move from Damon Lindelof's Lost, but certainly welcome here as it serves to build tension before the season finale which airs in two weeks. Anyway, on to the good stuff..

Laurie has been a bit of a mystery to us since she was introduced as Kevin Garvey's wife and one of the Guilty Remnant. Bits and pieces of information have been floating around though which you might have picked up. It is revealed in "The Garveys at Their Best" that Laurie was a psychologist before the Sudden Departure (I'm just assuming that's capitalized in this world) and, in fact, one of her patients was Patti who went on to become the head of the Mapleton chapter of the Guilty Remnant. Hearkening back (or forward, rather) to "Gladys", we gain a greater understanding of what was in the brown paper bag that Patti left on the doorstep of her [presumably] ex-husband's house. Shit. In addition, we see all of the build-up that caused Laurie to join the Guilty Remnant and leave her life in the first place. Not only was her and Kevin's relationship tumultuous to say the least, but she was pregnant with a baby that no one else knew about and who disappeared in the Sudden Departure along with the others. Not that the Sudden Departure wasn't bad enough already, but the thought of women at various stages of pregnancy suddenly losing their unborn children is a startling one. 

Elsewhere in Mapleton, we see a surprisingly lighthearted Jill (with braces, no less) who is as far as she could possibly be from the older, more jaded version of the same girl that we know now. We also learn that Tommy apparently gets loaded and heads over to his biological father's house quite often. Kevin spends the episode chasing an "unstable" deer throughout the city and trying to capture it alive, though it ends up dead at the very end of the show (and that series of events also leads Kevin to infidelity). The way that Kevin Garvey's past was portrayed in The Leftovers previously had led me to believe that he (and his family) were happy.. but it appears as though Kevin has never quite been happy, never found his true calling or reason for being. Foreshadowing all of the crazy events with Dean and Kevin Garvey Sr., at one point Kevin is on a run and sees a car with four women in it drive up to him. "Are you ready?" they ask him. When Kevin looks confused they seem to laugh and drive off only to have a sewer grate nearby blow off the street and into the air with a visible eruption of flames. This seems like the moment that the top comes off the bottle, so to speak, for Kevin. Whether the women in that car have anything to do with the more recent developments in the show or are even real at all remains to be seen.

Does the deer in this episode symbolize Kevin's sanity or how he thinks of himself? Is Laurie's baby really gone, and if so were Patti's words in the therapy session, "there's something wrong inside you" somehow related or just referring to the unsettling feelings that many characters seemed to have? When and why does Kevin Garvey Sr. go all nutty bar? Why would Laurie follow someone like Patti whom she knows is not completely well or mentally stable? Lots of questions posed here like usual.. thanks The Leftovers, I'll be not so patiently waiting until the season finale in two weeks!

This episode’s intro starts out with a flashback. We’re now inside of a flashback that’s inside of another flashback, for anyone who is counting. Can we go another level and see little Jimmy in grade school back in Cicero?

The intro flashback also features a clip of Chuck looking like a very young, posh lawyer, complete with electronic devices (though he’s ‘grounding’ himself to start the episode). We also get a shot of Jimmy, who apparently went and raided the wig department of “The Americans”.

Back to the main flashback (the show) and Jimmy is at his “office” late at night, enjoying some cucumber water and he calls his friend Kim (from the law firm) and just chats with her. We get some more insight into their background and Jimmy tries to warn Kim that the Kettlemans need to be careful, but he’s not great at being subtle or graceful and tries to write it off as being drunk.

Tune into the TV Soup Podcast (Episode 02: Better Call Saul, "Nacho" Review)

Jimmy is not a bad guy, ok. I think that the impression the writers are trying to make is that he, maybe unlike others in this world, does not want to hurt others along the way. His scams are always for money only and he only ever gets himself hurt. It’s this spirit in Jimmy that won’t let him sleep on this night. He knows that Nacho is planning something and he decides to try and warn the Kettlemans. One crazy phone call later (sex robot voice?) and Jimmy can finally sleep the rest of the night.

The following morning, after more courthouse frustrations (and hilarious television), Jimmy arrives at the Kettlemans empty house, swarming with police after the family has gone missing. The whole time, we feel like Jimmy is not giving up some important information, but really he’s just being a good lawyer and keeping his mouth shut until he really knows what is going on with the situation.

Jimmy is desperate to contact Nacho, and has many, many attempts to call him from a payphone. This scene builds tension and puts in on hold a few times, done wonderfully along with the music. Odenkirk's acting chops are really showing, as this entire scene he is alone. This might seem like an easy part - play a character you've already perfected, but younger and dumber. Looks are certainly deceiving as this acting job he's doing is really top notch.

Jimmy showed off his detective skills and discovers that the Kettlemans have kidnapped themselves. Jimmy still needs to convince everyone else of this though, as there’s overwhelming evidence to the contrary. At this point, nobody believes Jimmy, and this is a problem for him because Nacho is not having any of this nonsense and threatened to kill Jimmy if he doesn’t get him out of it, pronto.

Finally, we get an actual scene with Mike, when Jimmy tries to go back to the courthouse and is denied entry by Mike, the toll booth troll. Jimmy pokes him in a brief altercation and Mike has no problem taking care of him. Inside, where Mike may or may not press charges, the cops from the kidnapping case try to get Mike to lean on Jimmy to get him to give it up, but the condescending cops are too much for Mike. He believes Jimmy's story about the kidnapping and doesn't press charges. Finally, someone believes Jimmy.

Couple notes on Mike - he's the only character we've seen who looks older now than in Breaking Bad, which takes places about 7-8 years after BCS. It's also been 3 episodes, and they haven't said what his name is yet. He's well known to BB viewers, but he's really just the toll troll up until now for viewers of only BCS.

And what's that, an entire episode without a montage? Scoff at the idea! We find Jimmy on a trip through the woods where he's quite ill-equipped, but after what seems like most of a day of walking, he stumbles upon a tent full of the Kettlemans singing "b-i-n-g-o" and we get Saul barging into the tent with a very theatrical "Here's Johnny!".

As Saul tries to drag them out, a fight over a bag ensues and all the cash comes flying out, leaving off at that moment. We’re left on a classic Vince Gilligan cliffhanger, Jimmy is in the middle of nowhere, he’s already alerted people that he found them and now he’s standing in front of a big pile of money. I can’t wait until next Monday, but I’m sure at that point I’ll just have more questions than answers.

This episode starts off with another flashback. This time we're in Cicero (immediately recognizable due to the Daily Herald newsstand, ok, yes I live in the suburbs too). I really like it when shows play around with the timeline, and I think now we're going to get a little bit in each episode in order to show more back story of Jimmy. This time around, we see him in his prime as "slippin' Jimmy". Since it's not winter, we're getting a scam that's a bit more complicated than just falling on ice on Michigan Ave.

Jump back to the main timeline and we're still in the woods, just after Jimmy has scared the crap out of the Kettlemans. They plead with him to leave them alone, but really, they're terrible criminals (as in they're terrible at it). They had no plan aside from running after the warning call they received the previous evening. Jimmy tries to take control of the situation, but all the Kettlemans want to do is put some money in his hand and get him to go away. This, of course, won't solve their problem, but Jimmy will gladly oblige them and walks away with probably around $35k.

Tune into the TV Soup Podcast (Better Call Saul, "Hero" Review)

The end of this scene is a revelation for Jimmy. He tells the Kettlemans he can accept their money if it's a retainer to make him their lawyer, but they still won't go for it. The words are like a dagger to Jimmy - "you're the kind of lawyer only guilty people hire". This is probably two clues to Jimmy - criminals are stupid and they're probably the only people who are going to hire him. Anyone who is familiar with the character can see that this is another piece of the puzzle falling into place in the creation of the Saul Goodman that we all know from Breaking Bad.

So, Jimmy hatches a plan, but it's really more of a fight than a plan. He's pissed at Hamlin for trying to squeeze his brother, Chuck, out of the law firm. Jimmy gets himself made up to look exactly like Hamlin and puts himself on a giant billboard, complete with a rip-off of the HHM logo and the "Hamlindigo blue" color. This leads to one of the funniest scenes in the show in which Jimmy defends himself against the cease and desist while dressed almost exactly like Howard Hamlin.

"This is a classic david vs goliath story" is the line that Jimmy tries to feed to reporters, leading to everyone's favorite moment in any episode, a montage. We're fed all kinds of fun quotes "I'm talking woodward and bernstein here", "It's a miscarriage of justice" and "the war is an important story, as well". The presence of strong show runners like Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould ensures that even though we have a different writer and director for every episode so far, the show has had a consistent voice so far. I suppose it doesn't hurt that it all relies on a backbone of awesome montages every episode.

The episode gets its title from perhaps the best scam we've seen Jimmy pull so far. When it's all said and done, Jimmy looks like he was two steps ahead of everyone the entire time. This is a really fun one to watch unfold, and I didn't see it coming until Jimmy was way up on the billboard. Upon a second watch, however, you can gauge reactions and how it all unfolds and see Jimmy's big sigh before he has to run up the ladder.

Hamlin (and probably Kim) are the only ones who can easily see through this stunt (when looked at as a whole, it's pretty easy). It's also not surprising that early in the episode, when Jimmy says "upon this rock, I will build my church", he comes up with a pretty good scam to give himself a jumpstart.

So finally, we see Jimmy doing what he doesn't want to do - lie to his brother. Jimmy's face is plastered all over the front page of the Albuquerque Journal, and while that's good for business (7 phone messages!), it's bad for his relationship with his brother. So, Jimmy hides the paper, drops off his provisions and bolts without so much as looking Chuck in the eye.

Chuck, being not a stupid man, sees that all of his neighbors got their paper like they always do, so he dons the space blanket (side note: why wouldn't someone with this 'illness' live far away from civilization) and heads out into the terrifying world of electricity in order to get a copy of the paper, and he knows what's up right away.