I Finally Watched The Leftovers, and I Think Nora Is Lying

I love Lost, so I finally watched The Leftovers, another highly acclaimed show co-created by Damon Lindelof.

The story starts in Mapleton, New York, following the aftermath of the "Sudden Departure" when 2% of the world's population disappears. Those left behind grieve and live in fear, painfully trying to find explanations and ways to move on. Among them are Kevin and Nora.

Kevin is the Mapleton's Chief of Police. He doesn't lose any family members from the Departure, but his wife Laurie leaves to join a cult called the Guilty Remnant, his stepson Tommy joins another cult in the desert, and his teenage daughter Jill is annoying. Nora loses her entire family -- husband and two kids -- from the Departure. Kevin and Nora meet at a town event one day and start dating.

Like Lost, The Leftovers also features an ensemble cast of characters with different backgrounds and secrets, which I always love. So, season 1 is great, and I almost get this "show with a cult following" claim. The score alone is haunting.

Season 2 expands to a new town in Texas with more new characters. It's kind of promising in the beginning. Also kind of illogical. No, it's not the earthquake draining the entire river thing. That makes perfect sense to me. It's the fact that Nora and Kevin have only been together for a year; one day Nora is ready to end their relationship, and the next minute they agree to raise a baby that was left on Kevin's doorstep together, move cross country and drop $3m to buy a house they've never seen.

By season 3, I already don't care that much about the story. They can do whatever they want -- and thankfully there are only three seasons of this -- except for that one question: Did Nora lie?

Great performance by Carrie Coon aside, I think I've just been cynical about Nora all along.

So in season 3, Nora is told that there is a machine built in Australia that has successfully transported people to the universe where all the departed currently are. With $20,000, she can be sent there and find her family. She takes up the offer, and we see her get inside the machine.

The next time she appears on screen again, many years have passed. She's in Australia, living a different life, and clearly has not been in touch with Kevin since the machine. Kevin has been returning to Australia every year to look for her and finally shows up at her doorstep. The shorter story is, she tells Kevin that she did get transported to the Departure's universe but returned after some time as she felt like she didn't belong to her family anymore.

So I think she did scream "Stop!" in that pod and, realizing that she can no longer see herself being with Kevin, decided to start over.

Nora's story that it's the other way around in the 2%'s world -- they lost 98% of the population in the Departure -- would be the tragically beautiful explanation we want. And don't get me wrong, I looove the ambiguous ending. I just don't think she went through with it.

Maybe I'm in this camp from asking myself: what if this were me? I've seen a lot of things that shouldn't be happening, sure, but letting people send me to a place that is already sounding outrageous with no proof that "there" is safe -- how convenient -- excuse me, no.

All sorts of parallels can be drawn from this, if you want, including of faith and being at peace with yourself. I'm just going to take the simple route here: I don't believe the machine or the "scientists", I've had enough of this, and I could use a new life. I think even Kevin is lying when he says he believes Nora.

I also heard which camp you pick probably says a thing or two about you.

Image: HBO