The Leftovers: The Prodigal Son Returns

For a television show that's about a biblical event, The Leftovers has always been fairly quiet about its religious roots. A priest here, a biblical allusion there, episodes about churches or the Baby Jesus... okay, maybe it hasn't been all that quiet. To wrap up its first season, it leans heavily into religious themes, beginning with a title based on a biblical parable, and featuring a priest, confessions, plenty of baptism imagery, and fire, fire, fire.

Somehow, it manages to feature those themes without being too heavy-handed, probably because we are so invested in these characters. They are not names in a parable; they are characters we've come to know and understand, and all of the events in the episode flow naturally from the events of the past.

I'm no Bible expert, so I initially assumed the "prodigal son" of the title referred to Tommy, a wandering son who finally returns home after a season in the proverbial wilderness. Some googling tells me, however, that the parable is about a man who wanders down the wrong path, literally and metaphorically, and returns home, full of guilt, only to be met with love and forgiveness that he had no reason to expect. Sound like anyone else we know?

"The Prodigal Son Returns" is Kevin's episode, Tommy's return notwithstanding. It picks up right where "Cairo" left off, with Kevin's face reflected in a pool of Patti's very fresh blood. I had anticipated more suspense related to the practical consequences of Patti's abduction and suicide, but I should have known better. That's a question for a conventional show, which The Leftovers is not. In a normal world, consequences would be more likely, but for the chief of police in a town that almost universally hates its local cult members (who are about to become even more hated), Patti is likely to be forgotten, unmourned, and her death is unlikely to be investigated.

Instead, the plot moves quickly past the practicalities (call your buddy, bury the body, problem solved!) and into its weightier themes, as Kevin is brought to tears while reluctantly reading a Bible passage:

God has made my heart faint.
The Almighty has terrified me.
Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

This is followed quickly by a dream sequence that seems to represent Kevin's own personal hell: trapped with his madness, with the inescapable and very corporeal ghost of his nemesis, with his father confirming his worst fears: "The bad men end up here", he explains, and then confirms that Kevin, too, belongs there. "There is no leaving here."

Kevin, mercifully, wakes and arrives at the pivotal scene in the episode, in which Kevin confesses everything to Matt: his wish for freedom from his family, his adultery, and finally his grief at losing his family slowly but surely in the aftermath of the departure. Has he spent the last three years pushing them away because he felt he didn't deserve them? Because his luck in their survival felt unearned? Has he been acting like a jerk because he already felt like a villain?

Is he a good guy?

I would say that Matt listens to Kevin's confessions without judgement, except that he does judge him:

"You're a good man, Kevin".

"It's not your fault."

So, after a season of being a semi-competent cop with a drinking problem, who treats his daughter like dirt and strangers even worse, Kevin finally voices his guilt and is answered with...forgiveness. He and Matt return to find their town on fire, but at long last, Kevin steps into the role of a hero, immediately taking charge of the riot, intervening to prevent further abuse of the Guilty Remnant members, and finally walking through literal fire to save Jill.

After a season in the wilderness, having found a forgiveness he never hoped for, and maybe even a blessing by "just another asshole who thought he was God", Kevin returns home, with his no-longer-estranged daughter, to find his new partner, a newer child, and a loving pet that had been disguised as a vicious, feral animal the whole time. With the wreckage of their town all around them, it may not be a completely happy ending, but it feels like a happy beginning.

Leftovers:

— After last week's "Girl from King Marie", a cheerie but eerie song about a beloved who was gone in a flash, we opened this episode with Nina Simone's mournful rendition of "Ne me quitte pas", or in English, "Don't Leave Me":
Don’t leave me, we can forget
Everything can be forgotten; look, it’s gone already...

— Kevin's first clue that he was dreaming should have been his father watching the 1980's sitcom Perfect Strangers. Kevin had walked in while Aimee was watching Perfect Strangers in "Solace for Tired Feet". Unless Mapleton has a severely limited selection of TV stations, the coincidence seems pretty unlikely. I am always a little annoyed when dream sequences are too realistic, but that's just the kind of odd echo that would happen in a dream. (Also? Perfect Strangers had one of the catchiest theme songs of all time. I miss theme songs. The Leftovers' credits would be much improved by a catchy theme song. May I suggest "The Girl from King Marie"?)

— Have we seen the last ghostly vision of Patti? For Kevin's sake I hope so, but for the sake of everyone in the Ann Dowd fan club (myself included), I hope we haven't seen the last of our favorite silent villainess. Leave it to Patti to win a round against Kevin even after her own suicide. Long may you haunt.

— With apologies to Taylor Swift, it appears that Kevin and Laurie are never, ever, ever, ever getting back together.

Quotes:

Kevin: "If you touch her, we're in this together."
Matt: "Then let's be in it."
Anyone who will help you bury a body is a true friend.

Kevin, Jr.: "I'm not fucking crazy."
Kevin, Sr.: "Neither am I. But I am a bad man, son, and the bad men end up here."
Kevin, Jr. "Dad, you're... look, you're a good man."
Kevin, Sr.: "I most definitely am not. My intentions are good, but my heart and my mind and my balls, son, the holy fuckin' Trinity... they all knew. That night three years ago, we looked at ourselves in the mirror, and none of us wondered why we were still fuckin' here."

Matt: "If she wanted to deliver a message by cutting her own throat, I'm pretty sure she'd be confident you received it before she did."

Wayne: "I think I may be a fraud. But.. if...if I'm not, I can give you anything you want...and...that will mean I was real. Let me do this f...for you before I go. Make a wish. You don't have to say it out loud. Just think it." (waits) "Oh. Granted."

Nora: "I think I loved you, Kevin. Maybe you loved me, too. I wish I could say this to you instead of writing it. I wish I could see you one last time to thank you and wish you well and tell you how much you mean to me."
Perhaps Wayne was listening, because she appears to have gotten her wish. Did everyone?

Overall Rating:

If you haven't already guessed, I loved this episode. This is mythic, primal storytelling, and it works beautifully, thanks in very large part to Justin Theroux's raw and believable portrayal of a man confronting his biggest fears and the worst parts of himself, and finding grace when he least expected it.

Four out of four biblical parables,

Mothra

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