Few people like taking risks as much as Damon Lindelof (co-creator and executive producer of Lost), so perhaps it should come as no surprise that he and co-creator Tom Perrotta have rebooted the second season of The Leftovers, their bleak examination of loss, grief, faith (or the lack thereof), moving the action from small-town New York to small-town Texas and bringing in a whole new cast of characters at the same time. Don’t despair, however, for this isn’t a True Detective-style anthology reworking and many of last year’s cast will still appear. The question remains how and, in some cases, in what guise? With that in mind, here’s our guide to where we left things at the end of a bruising first season …
Kevin Garvey
After spending most of the first season utterly traumatised by the Sudden Departure and seemingly on the verge of completely losing his mind, Kevin finally achieved a measure of peace in the final episode, coming to terms with the fall-out from his confrontation with Patti (and agreeing to read the Bible over her grave), admitting to Matt that he’d intended to leave his family before the disappearances and saving daughter Jill from the burning house of The Guilty Remnant. A dying Holy Wayne also granted him a wish – we didn’t get to hear it but the smart money says it was that he would have a family again. The show’s final scene of Nora, Jill, Kevin and Christine’s baby suggested that dream could come true, although this is The Leftovers, so it could be a case of “careful what you wish for” as well…
Laurie Garvey
Having masterminded the plan to put the fantastically creepy Dummies of the Departed in people’s houses, Laurie then spent much of the final episode trying to convince inconveniently arriving daughter Jill to leave the Guilty Remnant house. After breaking her vow of silence to warn Kevin that Jill was in danger – i.e. trapped in a burning house her mother couldn’t or wouldn’t rescue her from – Laurie paused by the controversial statue of the mother and departing child before heading to the river, possibly to kill herself. She was saved by the arrival of her estranged son, Tom, himself a refugee from a cult. Both lost souls, the show hinted that they could build a new life together.
Jill Garvey
Finally forcing the confrontation with her mother she’d been dying to have all season, Jill then found herself trapped in the Guilty Remnant house as riots broke out throughout Mapleton. Saved by her father, our last glimpse was of her seeming to accept Nora as the new woman in Kevin’s life.
Tom Garvey
Having been left literally holding the baby after Christine walked out on him, Tom finally took decisive action leaving Wayne and Christine’s baby on Kevin’s doorstep (where she was found by Nora) before reaching out to his mother in reconciliation.
Nora Durst
After suffering the final episode’s most horrible moment – the scene where she arrived to see dummies of her family in place round her table – an all-but-destroyed Nora prepared to leave Mapleton, stating in a letter to Kevin that: “I want to believe it’s still possible to get close to someone, but it’s easier not to.” Luckily she changed her mind after finding Christine and Wayne’s baby on the doorstep and the episode ended with a glimmer of hope for one of the show’s most tragic characters.
Matt Jamison
Nora’s brother Matt appeared to have rekindled some form of faith, giving succour to the wounded Guilty Remnant after lending Kevin a confessional ear and helping him come to terms with Patti’s death and the events since the Sudden Departure. Lindelof and Perrotta have confirmed that the troubled preacher is one of those who returns for season two, which is great news for fans of Christopher Eccleston’s quietly devastating performance.
Meg Abbott
Liv Tyler’s often-frustrated Guilty Remnant member was last seen bleeding but defiant and presenting Kevin with a note reading: “We made them remember”. The strong suggestion is that, with Patti dead and Laurie apparently leaving the group, Meg is the new leader of the Guilty Remnant.
Patti Levin
The head of the Guilty Remnant cult was found by Kevin covered in blood, having killed herself. She’s deader than dead and off the show right? Well, hang on there, because this is a Lindelof production and he has confirmed that Ann Dowd, who played Patti, will return this season – although in what form isn’t quite clear. “We don’t want to use her as a Shakespearean ghost, which is to say she’s someone just there to comment on the action,” Lindelof said at the recent US Television Critics Association Tour. “She’s in the show, but we don’t really want to talk too specifically about how she manifests.”
Holy Wayne
The show’s charismatic cult leader is definitely out of the picture, however – his dead body having been hauled out of a diner by the Swat team. Yet, while Holy Wayne is gone, he won’t be forgotten – his final act to grant Kevin a wish with the sad benediction: “I think I may be a fraud, but if you made a wish and it work then that would mean I was real.” The hopeful ending of the season suggested that he may have been more genuine than not.
Dean
Does the dog-killer of Mapleton even actually exist? Not seen at all in the finale, our final glimpse of the possible Guardian Angel/possible figment of Kevin’s imagination was of him announcing: “Well I tried” before disappearing from the woods and leaving Kevin with a very dead Patti to deal with.
The Leftovers returns to HBO on Sunday night at 9pm and to Sky Atlantic on Monday October 5th at 10pm
