In my reviews of The Leftovers, I talk a lot about Kevin Garvey losing his goddamn mind. But just as compelling is his daugher Jill losing true north. “Cairo,” in my ways, was a “Jill” episode, and while her scenes are often uncomfortable to watch, the episode serves to show how a woman like Laurie, or Patti, or Meg, or, as it turns out, Jill, can end up joining the Guilty Remnant.
Jill spends much of “Cairo” lashing out. First at Nora, whom Jill interrogates over dinner about the gun she carries in her purse, going so far as to rifle through Nora’s proffered bag to confirm that it’s gone. Later she asks Aimee point blank “Did you fuck [my dad]?” Aimee admits that she did, but it’s tough to tell if she’s being sincere or just defensive. Later, Jill and the twins break into Nora’s house to find the gun – which Jill does, hidden symbolically in a box of Trouble – before leaving. Near the end of the episode, Jill lets loose the tied-up dog in the Garveys’ backyard and goes to stay with the GR. The Leftovers is a show about grief, but it’s also about depression, and Jill’s actions in “Cairo” are a perfect example of that. It’s easy to see why she would be tempted by the rigidity and certitude of the GR. If you have nothing, you have nothing to worry about.
The Guilty Remnant looms large over this whole episode. Meg proves to be a pretty shitty member, as she attacks Rev. Jamison for distributing COME HOME MEGAN fliers. She breaks the GR’s no speaking and no violence rules, and somewhat hilariously acts indignant at the Reverend’s actions, as though his fliers were an invasion of her privacy. Okay, Meg, so it’s acceptable to follow people around town and break into their homes to steal pictures of their loved ones, but fliers are crossing the line? The Guilty Remnant are despicable and barely human, and it looks as though Laurie will be taking over in Patti’s stead.
Patti says goodbye in “Cairo,” and Ann Dowd’s performance is raw and brilliant, like looking into a festering wound. She’s been abducted by Kevin (in a fugue state) and Dean (who was totally lucid) and tied to a chair in a cabin in the titular city. She and Kevin have a great tete-a-tete, and hearing Patti’s voice and the effect it has on Kevin is pretty remarkable (we heard her speak in “Gladys,” but that conversation was very one-sided). While Kevin might have a grudging respect for her, she has none for him. She mocks him, saying he doesn’t have the balls to kill her, before doing herself in with a shard of glass. It was easy to hate Patti, because she wasn’t as intimately tied to the main cast as Laurie is; but now with her gone and Laurie seemingly next in line (the end of “Cairo” finds Laurie sitting in Patti’s chair), things are about to get a lot rougher for the Garveys, and for The Leftovers.
Who is Kevin while he’s “asleep”? It’s revealed that he made a bet with Dean that he could domesticate one of Mapleton’s stray dogs, which explains the dog in the backyard. And the brief flashes of Patti’s violent abduction show the simmering rage lurking constantly beneath Kevin’s surface. Justin Theroux gives a tortured, intense performance. It’s remarkable that The Leftovers can be so relentlessly bleak, and still keep me coming back for more.
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