Recap: The Leftovers 2.7 "A Most Powerful Adversary"
This is my one and only spoiler warning!!!!!!
I have to constantly remind myself that this show (any show, really) is not Game of Thrones; not everyone you like dies and those that do die don’t really have the chance to come back. But surely Kevin, the main character and biggest driving force – though, an argument could be made for Patti – is not dead?! But then again, this is HBO and they are the honey badgers of television. They didn’t just kill Ned Stark, they beheaded him. So, is Kevin actually dead?
I say yes, he’s dead. He has to be. There’s no obvious way they can bring him back to life and not ruin the integrity of the show. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Patti tells Kevin she’s not being given directives by a man with a halo and she has no idea why she’s tethered to Kevin. I have a guess: Because Patti killed herself and Kevin could have stopped it.
Interestingly enough, Michael Murphy was at (his grandfather) Virgil’s house (who we found out was the man John tried to kill because he was molested by him!!!) when Kevin arrived to do himself in. Michael seemed upset with Virgil and stormed out. After Kevin kills himself, Virgil doesn’t give him the adrenaline shot like he promised, and blows his own brains out (what?!). Then Michael returns and drags Kevin’s body out of the room. Now, the clips for the next episode show Michael in the same clothes in the woods saying, “Holy s–t.” Now, either Kevin magically comes back to life – maybe there’s something in the water, literally – or, if my theory is correct, Kevin is now tethered to Michael the way Patti is tethered to Kevin. Perhaps Patti will be gone forever or Kevin will join her in purgatory – or Axis Mundi, if you will.
This week we also saw a big shift in Nora and Kevin’s relationship, which, ultimately, was the driving force behind his suicide. But we also see a shift in Laurie and Kevin after Laurie shows up in Texas looking for Tommy. Nora has endured so much with Kevin and Kevin has accepted so much from Nora, so I was a little surprised when she left him after he admitted he was seeing Patti. Nora has seemed like the “Nothing Scares Me” face of the show since before she met Kevin, so why is she squeamish now? When Laurie shows up, Kevin tells her, too, about Patti. We’ve seen Laurie judge Kevin in the past when they were married (like his smoking) and her struggle with accepting Kevin the way Nora did, but this time the roles are flipped. Laurie tells him people find something to believe in when their world has shattered; that’s why she joined a cult, and that’s why he’s seeing Patti. She debunks everything he says about Patti by reminding Kevin she told him those things before the Departure. She has a sound explanation, which makes us question (surprise, surprise) Kevin seeing Patti in the first place.
Perhaps Kevin’s death was the best thing for his family. Laurie was there for Jill, despite Jill not wanting to see her; Nora had left with Mary and Lily; and he was on the verge of becoming the prime suspect in Evie and her friend’s disappearance. It sounds like he dodged a bullet and, as Patti put it, is finally free.
Once, again, Patti sums it up in one of her to-the-point one-liners to Kevin: “It’s gonna be a hard day, buddy.” That it was, Patti. That it was.
New episodes of The Leftovers air at 9pm ET Sundays on HBO; Past episodes are available On Demand.