The first episode of The Leftovers was like your first day back at school. You acquaint yourself with the lecturer, you’re introduced to the new courses you’ll be doing and even reconnect with old friends or probably make new ones. In The Leftovers case, the first episode is basically an extended version of what you saw in the trailer. You’re introduced to the plot and people who may be the main characters, you get a glance at what each of their lives are like and how they’re dealing with the October 14th incident, and you also get a healthy dose of chaos and madness. But I guess that’s okay since it’s just your first day and all.
The Leftovers follows the lives of the residents of Mapleton and how they’re coping 3 years after the rapture-like “departure” that took 2% of the world’s population. There’s the police chief, Kevin Garvey, who recently became chief after his father went off the rails. I mean, out of all the people in the show so far Kevin seems to be the character with the most screwed up life. After their youngest child disappears in the October 14th Departure, his wife, Laurie, went off to join a cultish organization called the Guilty Remnant and refuses to speak to him; his 17-year-old daughter, Jill, is living an amplified teenage life (assortment of drugs, over-the-top parties, etc.) and his college son, Tom, has found himself in another cultish institution run by Wayne, a man who believes that he has the power to take people’s pain and burdens away.
There’s also Lucy, the mayor, who is trying to keep peace and order despite the chaos.
There’s Meg who is being smothered by her fiancé and who recently lost her loved ones too (after constant badgering she eventually joins the Guilty Remnant).
There’s the man who won’t leave Kevin alone and believes that dogs are minor but significant pieces in the disappearance puzzle.
And then there’s Christine – one of the girls in Wayne’s harem who he seems to have a deeper infatuation towards and who just so happens to also be Tom’s love interest.
The biggest upheaval in the first episode is “Heroes’ Day,” where the town plans a day for celebrating and remembering those they lost in the “departure.” Kevin warned the mayor that shit is obviously going to hit the fan because the mayor decided to invite the Guilty Remnants, who don’t have a good reputation with the rest of the community (I mean, if you constantly stalk people and remind them of what happened by dressing in white and staring at them, you can’t expect to be welcomed to public events). Still, I think he’s got more animosity towards the Guilty Remnants because his wife left the family to go join them but anyways, so said so done. There’s a big clash between the residents and the Guilty Remnants after Nora’s (a lady who lost all her loved ones in the “departure”) speech and the police try to tame the riot. Other than just showing two groups of people having a big showdown, this catastrophic incident reveals the height of frustration towards a situation that both parties know they won’t be able to explain.
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Apart from the plot and characters, I find it so interesting how people behave when there’s a shift in their daily lives. For some reason, the show believes that some people would form and join cult-like organizations such as the Guilty Remnants or Wayne’s group, others would turn to the church to repent and probably beg for their loved ones back or to join them wherever they are, and some would simply just go crazy while others would toughen up and try to make do with what they’ve got left.
In any case, I think as the show moves forward it’ll follow in the footsteps of AMC’s The Walking Dead where they’ll cease to focus on figuring out what caused the incident and instead focus on how it has affected the characters. It is called The Leftovers after all.
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