‘The Leftovers’ season 2, episode 8 reaction: Damon Lindelof on shocking Kevin – Patti story

If you just caught our review for “The Leftovers” Sunday night, then you know already our general sentiment of it as the single best episode of TV in 2015. It was thought-provoking, devastating, and then some to see Kevin Garvey realize that to return to the life that he had, he would have to figure out a way to free himself of Patti Levin … and in some ways, free herself of her own fear. The beauty is that there are so many different interpretations, and it can be read in so many different ways.

When you can consider that, it is understandable that show executive producer (and episode co-writer) Damon Lindelof is shying away from doing interviews until the end of the season. He doesn’t want to impart his own meaning into viewers, proving that he is one of the few content creators who truly understands the intentional fallacy.

What he did at least do following this episode was release a lengthy statement over to TVLine; we’ve got a sample of it below:

“The Leftovers is a show based on a supernatural premise and although we want the storytelling to feel as grounded as possible, the presence of Patti after her death flirts directly with that premise. We knew when we designed the season that Kevin’s main thrust this year would be ridding himself of Patti and this episode was the culmination of that story. There are those who don’t like it when the show gets ‘too weird’ and they are likely to assume this episode was all in Kevin’s head… an ongoing fever dream catalyzed by whatever Virgil made him drink… A further manifestation of the psychosis Laurie diagnosed.

“… It is not our place to explain ourselves nor clarify this debate. The show has to speak for itself on this front. I make no apologies for this as [executive producer Tom Perrotta], the writers and I have always been upfront about the storytelling on this show being purposefully ambiguous… The Leftovers isn’t about answers, it’s about the frustration of not getting them and the emotional state that drives our characters to. Like throwing rocks through the windows of people we feel sympathy for or drinking poison.”

There are still two more episodes to go, and in that time more information could become clear about Kevin’s future. Like the Departure, though, we do not see any other information coming into the frame in regards to his past.

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