My Top Ten Episodes of "The Leftovers"

There are only twenty-eight episodes of "The Leftovers," but this has been one of the best series of its era and it definitely deserves its own Top Ten list. As always, episodes are unranked, but listed below by airdate. Moderate spoilers below.

"Pilot" - I have a special fondness for certain introductory episodes, and this one does a fantastic job of immersing the viewer in the gloomy world post-Sudden Departure. We learn about the Garveys, the Guilty Remnant, and the ins and outs of Mapleton. What really sold it for me though, was the moment Kevin is in the pool, and that Max Richter theme hits its crescendo for the first time. That's when it really hit me that the show was committed to being an emotional wrecking ball.

"Two Boats and a Helicopter" - Matt Jamison is one of my favorite "Leftovers" characters, and it's fascinating to watch him grapple with his faith throughout the series. He, like his sister Nora, appears as a minor character in earlier episodes, but this spotlight episode reveals him to be a Job-like figure who can't seem to get out of his own way as the misfortunes pile up around him. Christopher Eccleston's performance is fantastic, and I especially love when Matt loses his temper.

"Guest" - A strong contender for my favorite episode of the series is all about the sad, lonely life of Nora Durst, who lost her whole family and has chosen a career path that forces her to reckon with it every day. Carrie Coon demonstrates why she's one of the show's MVPs here, but I also love the episode for the fascinating worldbuilding that the series does. The convention shows more ways that people in this universe are dealing with the Sudden Departure, or often failing to deal with it.

"The Garveys at Their Best" - Until this episode, we didn't have a good picture of what the Garveys were like as a whole family unit before the Sudden Departure. It sheds some light on why the split happened, particularly in the case of Laurie, who I found to be a difficult character through much of the first two seasons. Narratively, it also functions as a nice calm before the inevitable storm of the finale. Wisely, the flashback device was only used this one time, unlike in Lindelof's previous show.

"Axis Mundi" - The second season premiere was particularly daring for its incorporation of a lengthy theme-setting opening sequence in the distant past with a silent native woman. However, it's the rest of the episode that really got me invested, which takes us to the very special town of Jarden, Texas, where the picture perfect Murphy family isn't nearly as perfect as it appears. None of the show's regulars plays much of a part in the hour, but it's a compelling watch nonetheless.

"No Room at the Inn" - A sequel of sorts to the previous Matt Jamison spotlight episode sees Matt struggling to find his place in the spiritually chaotic community in and around Jarden. More misfortune befalls him, but this time Matt takes a different approach to a bad situation, and ends up somewhere quite different spiritually. The ending is the first time I've seen him truly happy and at peace with himself up to this point, and it's one of my favorite moments in the show.

"International Assassin" - I'm not as enamored of Kevin Garvey's trippy journey into the unknown as some of the show's other fans, but this is an excellent episode. We not only get some very strong material for Justin Theroux, but Ann Dowd's Patti Levin gets her last punches in too. The hour is by turns humorous and intensely emotional, mirroring the show's shift from unrelenting bleakness toward a more even-handed existentialism with room for moments of bizarre hilarity.

"Don't Be Ridiculous" - The show's "Perfect Strangers" running joke turns into a full-fledged subplot, with a fantastic appearance by Mark Linn-Baker to boot. This is really a Nora episode, on another business trip that reveals her failure at coping with lingering issues, and also filling in some of the story gaps from the break between the second and third seasons. I really wish we had more Erica this season, but I'll take her trampolining to Wu-Tang with Nora as a season highlight.

"Certified" - A Laurie episode, and one that I found unexpectedly moving. Everyone around Laurie is in crisis and she does her best to help, but nobody seems to notice that she's struggling with her own personal demons. The final scenes where she finds closure with Kevin and seems to come to a decision about her life, are touching and suspenseful. This was an episode that I didn't realize I needed to see until it was over. Oh, and the ending absolutely wasn't a fake-out or a cheat.

"The Book of Nora" - One of the most satisfying endings to any show that I've seen in years, one that seems to break its own rules, but with enough ambiguity that it still follows the theme song's advice to "Let the mystery be." I was never really invested in the Kevin and Nora relationship, believing them too fundamentally screwed up from the outset for the relationship to last long. However, this episode sold it to me in the end, and I'm glad it did.

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