This is a crazy show.
that’s the guy I was telling you about
Very Open Water.
So is the next episode the last episode?
Two episodes left, I think.
As for last night’s, it felt like we skipped an episode. The narrative jumped past directly showing the events of Kevin and Nora’s last episode (two week’s ago) connecting with Matt, Laurie, John, and Michael’s episode last week, and then filled in the necessary details of exactly who met who and went where through dialog and some short flashbacks, but it just felt a little clumsy. Just a little overwrought in making a mini-mystery of how we got from there to here, and a little clunky in eventually dumping the info in conversation.
A minor complaint for an otherwise strong episode.
I always have the feeling with this show that things are happening that we aren’t privy too, so I’ve gotten used to having to readjust to what they’re showing me fairly frequently. This episode didn’t stand out to me as unusually abrupt.
You guys. You guys. The penis scanner.
And the door code was 6969.
Nice. Nice.
Foley Artist reading script: Okay, I need a noise for Justin Theroux’s penis being placed on the scanner.
thump
O.k., that ended much better than I expected, especially given some of the developments this season. In the end, this season was as fantastic as the 2nd. Awesome that Kevin saved the world.
Was thinking of the red herrings/dangling threads:
- Holy Wayne’s abilities and the messiah flock?
- evil dog(men) conspiracy.
But I was particularly surprised that: [spoiler]they solved the mystery of the disappearance. Not the cause, but what happened, at least.
So what does it all mean? Aside from our world essentially splitting into mirror dimensions, with 98% remaining in the dimension the show is set – there were also at least some other dimensions, including a limbo-ish dimension where the dead went, which at least once person was able to cross back from (as well as “ghosts” that only certain targeted individuals could see). So the cosmic event either fractured dimensions and/or made boundaries between then cross-able under certain conditions
…all in a character driven drama that was concisely, beautifully written and otherwise grounded drama that explored loss, purpose, love, and family as well as any drama ever has. [/spoiler]
The theme song for this show is just the best. Haunting.
Nothing in the finale disappointed me, though I don’t really know what I think of it beyond that. I suspect my opinion will improve with time, but my immediate reaction was “huh, interesting”. Overall, certainly happy that such a weird show existed at all, and glad I had a few friends and online strangers urging me to catch back up after I initially gave up early in season one.
Holy crap what an ending. I don’t want to get into spoilers too heavily, but the bit with where Nora went and what went on there absolutely blew my mind. And really a lovely ending too. I’m going to end up rewatching the whole thing for sure.
Wow. That ending.
But, keep in mind, they purposelfully left a lot of ambiguity about what happened.
The reddit thread is full of all sorts of analysis about whether Nora was telling the truth.
That’s a factor, sure. But I tend to believe her, her delivery seemed direct. Plus, I really liked the exchange:
“You believe me?”
“Why wouldn’t I believe you? You’re here.”
It seems like Lindelof is pulling from a similar playbook as Chris Nolan for Inception. That there is a Schrodinger’s Cat perspective on “is she telling the truth / does the top fall” and enough evidence either way. But if you ask either creator about it, they note that it’s not important what the audience knows/believes, but what the characters (Dom in Inception, Kevin in The Leftovers) believes.
Like Inception, I went back and forth and depending on my mood or mindset when you ask, I either think it really happened, or it’s just a polite fiction for them to use as the backdrop to move forward.
There is obviously deliberately various supporting facts for either interpretation, but the creators have effectively given away their leanings that her journey was real by virtue of their debate over whether or not Nora’s visit to her kids should be shown or just described by her.
That said, they could also have changed their mind, and clearly intentionally made it debatable, as they also apparently changed their mind on Laurie’s potential reversal (which was a good one, imo).
I hadn’t heard about that debate, got a link for that?
I am team Nora.
Just finished watching this after starting a couple months ago. Great stuff - glad they didn’t completely avoid an explanation, even if the explanation depends on belief in Nora.