The Leftovers (Season 3)

I can't believe I'm already done with The Leftovers, it's such a short show! But to be perfectly honest, I didn't love Season 3 as much as its predecessors. It's still a great season of television and a satisfying resolution to the show's story, but it wasn't as cohesive as the first or as successful in its experimentation as the second.

Season 3 takes place three years after the events of Season 2. The world is scared that yet another supernatural event is going to happen on the looming 7th anniversary of the Departure, Kevin is unsure if his immortality makes him a/the Messiah, and Nora goes to Australia where she learns about a machine that can take her to where the Departed went. I'm going to be honest here, this season didn't make the best first impression on me. If you know me, you know I dislike time-jumps for skipping past potentially interesting developments and leading to exposition-filled openers, and the one that kicked off Season 3 is no different. The premiere spent a lot of time catching us up everything that had happened off-screen (most infuriatingly the abrupt deaths of the Guilty Remnant), which bogged down an otherwise pretty solid. It also didn't help that the religious symbolism was cranked up to eleven this season, reminding me a lot of Lost's own final season, which I pretty vocally didn't like. Add in an episode entirely focused on Henry Sr, the character I care the least about, aimlessly wandering around doing tribal dances, and it started to feel like the show was losing me.

However, Season 3 did have a lot of elements I really liked, even early on. Nora, who was easily one of my favorite characters, got a lot of focus here and her storyline about the machine lead to that same kind of ambiguity and philosophical discussion that made the Miracle storyline from last season so great. The writing, acting, and visuals are still as on-point as always, and the second episode in particular had a pretty stellar trampoline-related scene. And just like in its predecessor, I think the second half of Season 3 was far superior to the first. The storyline about Kevin thinking he's a Messiah gets a bit more depth when it's made clear that other people are projecting that onto him, It's A Matt, Matt World and The Most Powerful Man In The World were two of the most brilliant weird episodes in the show, Certified was a devastating depiction of what brings someone to kill themselves, and the series finale, while as ambiguous as I expected and fairly small in scale, was a great summation of the show's themes and a satisfying farewell for Kevin and Nora. Unfortunately, unlike in Season 2 where the payoff retroactively made the slow start better in hindsight, Season 3's ending wasn't really able to make the time-jump feel less intrusive. And even with the better second half, I still had some gripes with the season like Henry Sr's increased role, Laurie's farewell being slightly mishandled, and a decent chunk of the cast not showing up in the finale.

Highlights:

It's A Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World: This episode was surreal as hell, and I adored it. The way it distorted religious symbols and then threw Matt head-first into those distortions, from a ark filled with sex freaks to a "God" that committed a murder, was as darkly funny as it was cruel, and yet Matt came out of it with a better sense of clarity than before. I also like how it crammed some of the cast in a single location and made them reveal some secrets, like how the Murphys learn Kevin thought he saw Evie, and Matt revealing his cancer was back.

The Most Powerful Man In The World (And His Identical Twin Brother): On one hand, it's hard not to feel like Lindelof noticed people loved International Assassin and decided to do it again with this episode. On the other hand, International Assassin slapped and so does this. The premise of Kevin trying to kill his twin brother who he repeatedly body swaps with is so weird but also really fun to watch, and while it's not as emotionally impactful as Assassin, between Kevin realizing he regrets screwing up his relationship with Nora and the long-awaited rainstorm that predictably wasn't actually apocalyptic, this was a fitting climax for the season.

The Book Of Nora: I have my gripes with this ending. It's a bit overlong, some of the cast members didn't show up, and Laurie's ambiguous fate in Certified isn't ambiguous anymore, but it's hard to complain too much. Because just like with Lost's divisive finale, The Book Of Nora works on a fundamental and emotional level. As mentioned above, Nora was always the strongest character, and the simplest example of someone affected by the Departure. Having her finally figure to move on felt like the perfect end of the show, and with Kevin having done similarly in the previous episode, seeing them end up back together is heart-warming. And just as I was hoping, the ending is ambiguous as hell. Nothing is confirmed, yet all of the pieces are there for you to make your own conclusion. 

Overall, Season 3 was easily the weakest of the three for me, between the fairly frustrating time jump and the extra focus on Kevin Jr. However, with a great final batch of episodes, some of the weirdest experiments in the series, a strong farewell to Kevin and Nora, and a fairly satisfying ending that solidfies the show's themes.

4/5 Stars

My ranking of the seasons of The Leftovers is:

1. Season 2: Has a bit of a slow start but the payoff in the second half is masterful, a weird and wonderful season filled with experimental and strange thematic conflicts 
2. Season 1: While a bit dark and not as experimental as the other seasons, Season 1 is a fantastic exploration of a small town dealing with grief, with the strongest overall narrative
3. Season 3: The time jump makes it really hard to adjust but the final few episodes brings it back home for a very satisfying ending

My ranking of the finales of The Leftovers is:

1. The Book Of Nora: Flawed at points but emotionally and thematically satisfying, and the final sequence is perfection
2. The Prodigal Son Returns: A very satisfying and rewarding ending that takes Season 1's disparate threads and ties them in a neat bow
3. I Live Here Now: Very similar to Season 1's finale, equal parts satisfying and derivative

Favorite Episode: International Assassin