The Leftovers thus far has been very good at showing us how the people of Mapleton cope with their loss – some shoot dogs, some drink, some pay $3,000 to get shot. “The Garveys at Their Best” did an excellent job of showing exactly what Mapleton lost. It was an hour-long flashback, but it didn’t feel like fan service; The Leftovers isn’t really interested in that anyway. It sounds like a cliche to call the city of Mapleton another character in this story (and don’t get me wrong, it is a cliche), but if I could think of a better phrase to use, I would.
The most shocking thing about “The Garveys,” to me, was hearing Laurie speak. Amy Brenneman’s voice came as a genuine shock, as did Margaret Qualley’s easy smile and teenage blushing. Qualley acquits herself nicely as fourteen-year-old Jill; it’s amazing how braces – not to mention a smile and a laugh – make her look so much younger. Tom shows up, all smiles, and helps Jill with her science project. This, The Leftovers wants to tell us, is the Garveys at their best.
But as with everything in Mapleton, there is a darkness bubbling under the family’s surface. Kevin and Laurie are increasingly tense with each other, and the first thing Tom did when he came back to town was drunkenly confront Michael, his biological father. At a party for Kevin Sr, who’s just won Mapleton Man of the Year, Kevin confesses to his father that he’s not satisfied, that there must be something wrong with him. Sr. tells him that this is it, and he should just cut the shit. Neverthelss, Kevin can’t help but see parallels between himself and a deer who keeps getting trapped inside buildings; director Daniel Sackheim (The Americans) shoots the deer in a succession of bloody scratches and flailing antlers. It looks downright Satanic, and it’s death, at Kevin’s hand, is jarrnigly abrupt. (Nora Durst and her family serve as a kind of B-plot, and it’s deeply unsettling to see her husband casually texting at the breakfast table, when we know he’s most likely talking to his mistress Kylie.)
Not a whole lot happens in “The Garveys,” but I think that’s the point. This is small-town life, and something isn’t always happening. But you don’t always want to lose that nothing. Do you know what I mean? The last five minutes of this episode are a real gut-punch; you have expected the hour to be building to the Departure, but when it hits, it’s still shocking. There’s Nora’s breakfast table, suddenly with three fewer people around it; there’s Laurie, looking at an ultrasound that has suddenly become blank.
Some people have criticized Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta for saying that they don’t intend to reveal what was behind the Departure. But you really want that? The Leftovers, to me, is about the people of Mapleton who still remain. Even though some of them are departed in their own way.
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