The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 7 Review: The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother)
Carissa Pavlica
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What does it mean? What does any of it mean?
The seventh anniversary of the Sudden Departure came and went on The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 7, and much to the surprise of Kevin Garvey, Sr., they're still standing, and his son is around to breathe another day.
It was completely unexpected.
Senior didn't get his final song, and it was raining very hard and his son was dead, so who knows if he even took the time to start belting out the tunes he learned in preparation for saving the world?
We were very busy with Kevin in, well, the afterlife of his creation.
None of us and none of those Kevin knows are going to belabor the point that Kevin died. He did it on multiple occasions. Unless he is one of those crazy people who takes it down to one heartbeat every several minutes, no. Even being buried wipes that option off the table.
Kevin has been dying. Yet he doesn't appear to see people he doesn't know are dead in his afterlife. If he did, wouldn't he have chosen Laurie as his Vice President?
Because Kevin's most recent trip to his crazy world was full of new people. He immediately met up with the fellow Tom killed, who told him to stay away from reflective surfaces.
Kevin was able to connect with Grace's children and Christopher Sundae (although I was unsure he knew what that man looked like).
We learned, finally, what was said to him on the bridge by God.
God: Do you remember, Mr. Harvey, what I said to you that night on the bridge?
Kevin: You said I was the most powerful man in the world.
God: Goddamned right you are.
A phrase that would have been quite motivating in returning to the other side.
Given that the two most important people were Kevin and Kevin, the connection to Kevin overall and what he was supposed to learn from being there makes the ultimate sense.
All of that said, it's amazing to think our minds could create something so elaborate after we're gone. My mind creates scenarios that elaborate every night in my dreams, and the thought that it could continue in the afterlife is rather comforting.
Having realized his mind wasn't quite right recently, Patti took on the role of Secretary of Defense, not only of the US, but of Kevin's well-being.
President Kevin: I wanna go home.
Patti: Do you?
President Kevin: What?
Patti: It's just that you keep saying you want to go home, and yet you keep leaving and coming here. I'm sensing a lot of internal contradictions from you, Kevin. That sounds like something you need to work out with yourself.
She pointed out to him how he's been using death as an escape, and if home was as welcoming as he always made it sound, he had a funny way of showing it.
President Kevin wasn't fully on board with what anyone was saying about the volunteer for the Fisher protocol, and that line about contradictory behavior and working it out with himself was beautiful.
There hasn't been anyone who has understood him well enough to drive him in any one direction in his life. He uses excuses about that misunderstanding to continue making the wrong decisions. Especially about Nora.
Writing a romance novel with such introspection into Kevin's soul was a lot different than the Gospel of Kevin.
She has suspected it all along, and now she knew. He was a coward. A coward dressed in the uniform of a brave man. Brave enough to cross two oceans and continent to find her, but in the end, he was terrified. He was terrified of her, to lie beside her, to be comforted by her as he wept, to show her he was small, for her to know that and touch his cheek and whisper words softly in his ear. All of that was a nightmare. All he knew to do was run. He took a deep breath of the air, tasting salt on his tongue and closed his eyes leaning into the spray as the Merciful picked up speed and sailed into the horizon. He was alone, and all was well.
President Kevin
It took two Kevins working together to realize the importance of Nora in their lives. They screwed up, and it might be too late to put it right. But at least they can destroy the contradiction and ensure they stop running away.
Well, stop the madness of putting plastic over his head and attempting to end things, anyway.
Secret Agent Kevin: Take this thing out of me.
President Kevin: Why?
Secret Agent Kevin: So we can't ever come back here again.
I loved seeing Kevin and Patti holding hands, watching the nukes destroy what had become such a useful world for Kevin.
There is so much I'm going to miss about those scenes. The wacky way they were filmed and the intensity Justin Theroux used to portray a struggling Kevin. Reading the excerpt from the book was almost as moving as singing during The Leftovers Season 2 Episode 8.
The music alone in Kevin's death episodes can drive me to tears. They're some of the most special scenes I've ever witnessed on television.
What they're all faced with now is a new beginning, if they're still around to share one.
The finale is the bookend on the season and will likely take us back to the moment on The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 1 when we saw a glimpse of a very different looking Nora. It's titled "The Book of Nora."
We'll surely learn her fate at that time, and hopefully, we'll discover what Kevin and Nora mean to each other moving past the seventh anniversary.
There was never going to be meaning or understanding to the Sudden Departure delivered to us on a silver platter. That's not what The Leftovers set out to do. It's for us to decide what it's about, just like it's for those who survived it to determine its meaning.
Senior: I thought you were gone. It was raining so hard, and I got scared, so I came up here.
Kevin: OK.
Senior: I don't think I'm ready to come down. Now what?
I'm perfectly OK with that and cannot wait to see what the last hour holds.
I guess I'm at a loss for words at this point because the ride is almost over. It's time for the show to take over and drive the story home.
Just like Senior said, what now?
What do you expect will come of the finale? Can you even believe this is the end? It's easily one of the most significant series turnarounds in TV history. From a depressing first season to a hopeful and spectacular second and third.
Well done.
Before I go, my review will be late for the finale. Can you believe it? There will be no screener, and for the first time, well, ever, I have plans on a work night. When my favorite show is airing its series finale. Go figure! But it will come.
Let me know what you thought of the Kevins, identical Kevins in every way! (Wasn't that the BEST???)...go, comment! Converse!!
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.
