'The Leftovers' - Review: "The Book of Kevin" (Spoilers)

Hey everyone. Long time no see.

The Leftovers is back with its third (and final) season premiere. We have bearded Kevins, doomsday cults, and giant inflated Gary Buseys to cover, so let's get started. My spoiler-filled thoughts are after the jump.

So, pardon me first for how ramble-filled this post is going to be. It's going to take some time before I am back in the swing of things. As we start the season (and before the plot really gets going), I want to talk a little about my thoughts for the themes this season may explore.

The Leftovers is by far the most underrated show on television. Season 1 was ambitious and thought provoking and season 2 is one of the best seasons of television this golden era of scripted television has given us. Season 3 has a lot to live up to, while also wrapping up one hell of a central premise.

So where do we begin? I guess we can begin with the cold open, which shows us what seems to be a doomsday cult in 1844. This immediately starts the show off with an interesting new tone and purpose. The show has previously hinted at Christian doctrine based reasons regarding the cause of the "Departure", but it has always been more focused on the other ideas, notable the other cults, that

sprung up in response. As as result, Matt almost seemed to be an outsider to this world even though he is a minister for one of the biggest religions in the world. But starting off with this brief prologue with a village dealing with dwindling faith is an interesting allegory for this season. How strong can one's faith be in something when it continues to offer no proof for its existence? One by one, members began to stop awaiting this "doomsday" because they felt ridiculous and cheated. The final woman standing on the roof of her church awaiting her ascendance is mocked and ridiculed once she comes back down once again. Perhaps this is how modern Christians feel? They find themselves being the ones being marginalized by clinging on to a belief that seems to be more and more arbitrary with each coming year? Now, I can go on a rant about how seeing Christianity as marginalized is a ridiculous claim given how many other groups that are actually marginalized and persecuted  there are, but I cannot ignore that someone facing a crisis of their faith could feel this way.

I feel that this is going to be the biggest thing with this final season of Leftovers. Yes, something did happen. 2% of the world's population is gone, which is indisputable. However, there is not a single explanation for this event. Not even Christians can prove it to a rapture of some kind, with Matt even trying to dissuade people of that idea back in season 1. So in come the cults that became the focus of season 1. After they could not come up with answers, season 2 found people believing in folk-lore style reasonings, complete with Holy Land, for comfort (which eventually found cults from season 1 making as bigger statement as a sort of allegory for the Christian crusades in my opinion). Now in season 3, we find people coming back to the idea that Biblical events are to blame and that more are to come. There are even those praising the departed Gary Busey and erecting giant inflatable monuments to him. People are ready to stand back up on their churches and await their judgement day's arrival once more. But as the newly bearded Kevin says to Matt after his pulpit speech to his new congregation: "nothing's going to happen on the 14th unless everything happens on the 14th." What is going to happen if everyone has to climb back down from their rooftops in shame? One wonders if the world of The Leftovers could even handle such a hopelessness on top of everything else the world has already dealt with.

It is even going as far as someone like Matt deciding to add to his own faith by crafting his own gospel based on their new reality; something that could possibly bring some order to the madness. People want some sort of finality or reason to these seemingly random events, and Matt believes he has found it in the seemingly immortal Kevin. I sincerely believe that this train of thought is not going to end with Kevin stealing the "Book of Kevin" away. This new doctrine, as it were, is going to spread. Amusingly like Monty Python's Life of Brian, we seem to have someone being put up as everyone's savior without his say so. It is going to be fascinating where this all leads, but the only thing for certain is that this all leads to an older Nora in the future living in Australia (possibly), where Kevin's father is. I believe blood is going to be spilled in Miracle over this new fight for reason, and perhaps even more of it if nothing happens on the 14th. Whose it belongs to, we are yet to see.

Next week I will talk more about the actual characters and plot details when we have a little more to digest (where is Erika? WHAT HAPPENED TO BABY LILY??), but for now, let's leave it there with the same sense of existential dread and uncertainty that is still very much a part of the fantastic Leftovers. Already from the first episode, this looks to be the most ambitious and thought provoking of the bunch. This is going to be quite the final ride with the Garveys.

Grade: A.

The Leftovers airs Sunday nights at 9 PM PST on HBO.