Things just got very real for Kevin Garvey.
It may as well be our faces now.
BecauseThe Leftoversjust got real.
Credit: Van Redin/HBO
Yes, 140 million people inexplicably disappeared in an instant on Oct. 14.
“Know who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
But this isn’t the “most powerful adversary” Kevin was sent to confront.
Cue Verdi’s “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” fromNabucco, the episode’s recurring musical motif.
There’s fireman (the Jarden FD?)
and a tweety bird loose (Erika’s miracle birds?
), so if this isn’t Kevin’s subconscious' stew, it’sThe Leftovers'.
And there’s Virgil, no hole in his head, working as the concierge.
Virgil wasn’t bluffing, though.
The girl’s father isn’t very grateful.
In the garage, Virgil is more forthright: Patti is the target, quite literally.
“LikeThe Godfather?”
But Patti is not some simple soldier, like Sollozzo or the crooked McCluskey.
She’s more Barzini, bound to play tricks on Kevin.
“You’ve got to stop thinking in such straight lines,” Virgil counsels.
“She thinks in spirals and helixes and zigzags and circles.”
Also, don’t drink the water.
Outside, Kevin sees another bellhop with gift balloons, which he assumes are for him.
But they’re actually for Mary Jamison, who’s recovered from her vegetative state.
He’s handcuffed, pummeled, strapped to a lie-detector machine run by Senator Levin’s No.
2, Gladys, and tortured with eyeball blasts of Windex when he answers incorrectly.
Don’t worry, it’s all part of the vetting process, she says.
“We just have to ensure you belong here.”
“You’ve got to take her to the well!”
“Make like Jesus,” says one of the bodyguards.
In other words, arms out so he can search Kevin.
But also, you know, rise on the third day, I guess?
“I know you, don’t I?”
says Wayne, who’s now working for the Levin campaign.
“I feel like I was sitting on the toilet the last time I met you.”
Indeed, Wayne bled to death in a diner’s restroom stall during the season 1 finale.
But he’s a different version of himself now.
He’s drunk the Kool-Aid, so to speak, which, in this case, is water.
(Aside:The Godfatherreference, combined with the water paranoia, makes me think of actor Sterling Hayden.
“The mind…” says googly-eyed Secret Service Wayne, while sipping some H2O.
“You cannot trust the mind, for it will play tricks on you.”
“Write that down!”
Sen. Levin says perhaps in jest, after a long pregnant pause.
“That is fing brilliant.”
But perhaps it’s not a jest at all.
Sen. Levin tells her story about the orphan and transforming humanity through detachment.
But then Kevin touches a third-rail: Neil.
The Senator orders Wayne to shoot Kevin in the face, but she’s just kidding, folks.
Even though Wayne pulls his gun and is seconds away from blasting Kevin.
It’s go time.
Kevin finds the gun in the toilet.
And comes out firing.
The Senator… claiming she’s not who he thinks.
She’s just a decoy, a double with a slight New England accent.
Does he believe her?
Kevin seems to be thinking the same thing.
“Goodbye, Patti,” he says, before shooting her in the head.
A heavy Verdi moment.
But there’s no deliverance for Kevin.
“Why am I still here?”
he snaps at Virgil in the hotel lobby.
You drank the water, Kevin says.
“I was so thirsty,” Virgil mumbles.
With no place left to go, Kevin goes back to his room.
At least his slashed hand is miraculously healedor is his mind playing tricks on him?
Yes, it’s Patti’s Neil.
And that little girl who almost drownedthat’s Patti.
Remember what Virgil said: spirals and helixes.
“You shoulda let that fat ct drown,” says Neil.
“Hi, Kevin,” she says sweetly.
“Do you now where we’re going?”
“I think so,” he says.
According to tribal legend, it’s a conduit between the living world and the spirit world.
When they arrive in Miracle, the bridge is barricaded with flaming garbage cans.
A man with a machete pulls Kevin from the car and tightens a noose around his neck.
You have a choice, the man says: cross or jump.
In other words: Kill Patti, or kill yourself.
“How far is the well?”
he says, making his decision.
Little Patti jumps right up and sits on the ledge, practically daring Kevin.
“Do you want to drop me in or do you want to push me in?”
she asks, as Kevin hesitates.
“Pushing me’s probably easier.
… Would it help if I say I deserve it?”
“International Assassin” is Theroux’s Emmy episode, and this is his Emmy scene.
There are 100 emotional decisions he makes in this quick scene, and every one is correct.
Just as the sweet little girl is about to say something else, he shoves her over.
And the music stops.
And then… “Help… kindly…
He can’t resist, and he climbs in the well.
At the bottom is adult Patti, bloodied from the fall and clearly injured.
Kevin falls and is injured as well.
Scared of the unknown, just like she is now.
Kevin consoles her, and then pushes her under the water until she stops struggling.
The earth shakes, and the well crumbles on top of Kevin.
What was it that Sen. Levin told him during their meet-and-greet?
“Our cave collapsed, Kevin.
Now we can spend all our time digging through the rubble, looking for signs of life.
Or… we can transform.”
Kevin has made it out alive.
But did Patti survive as well?
Either way, “International Assassin” has ripped open a hole inThe Leftovers.
A pathway, might be a better word.
Kevin will be forever changed.
As will the way we look at his world.
