The Leftovers season 3 episode 7: Learning, losing, and desperation
With The Leftovers season 3 episode 7 airing this weekend on HBO, one of the things that you will see is rather clear: The series starting to shift Kevin Garvey to the abyss.
This upcoming episode, which is titled “The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother),” is the most experimental and existential episode of the final season to date. It’s also the closest episode to “International Assassin,” the memorable season 2 episode in which Kevin Garvey set out on an epic journey in order to further figure out how to remove the ghost of Patti Levin from his mind.
This time around, his dance around within the world of the afterlife, if he makes it to the same place, could be sparked in part because of his own father. Scott Glenn is masterful as Kevin Senior, and this is a man so convinced that his own vision of reality is the right one that he’s willing to desecrate the world of his son in order to confirm to that. Details that are out there suggests that he will continue his efforts to drown Kevin to get the last bit of information necessary in order to prevent the great flood.
Is Kevin preventing anything? Is the flood a flood of denial that the world is never going to get better? This is a show about learning who you are at your core when so much is stripped away, and for many, what we’ve learned is not the origin of anything other than desperation. In one way or another, every person within this show feels that emotion. Kevin is desperate to get some sort of escape, whether it be an escape from a prophecy or an escape from a life that just can’t end. Nora is desperate to find her old family once more and is willing to travel to extremes to find it. Meanwhile, Kevin Senior is desperate to believe that he’s not crazy and can cling to something. Everyone wants to prove something.
Unfortunately, what these final episodes may prove more than anything is that these characters are not in control. They never were, and their desperations are their own personal means to an end. As we approach an alternate reality Sunday night, be prepared to see desperation manifest itself in new ways.
What do you want to see on The Leftovers season 3 episode 7, and what do you think will befall Kevin in his current state? Sound off below!