So, The Leftovers on HBO

It seems most on the internet including you two liked it, and I'm glad for you all. I found it extremely disappointing. Kevin is the main character of the series, and why they chose to relegate him to the back seat to focus on Nora is beyond me. While all characters are important, this is supposed to be Kevin's story above all else (like Lost was Jack's story above all else). Are you all telling me you're happy the final hour and 15 minutes doesn't expand at all on Kevin/Kevin Sr and company back at the ranch and what they did? There was no fallout from the failed apocalypse? They seriously didn't get to Nora and Matt in time

I wrote this on reddit and I'll share here. Beyond that irking me, of the three options we've got on how to read the end:

1. Nora tells the truth, she really went to the alternate universe and came back: Disappointing that they focused the last minutes of the finale answering the mystery. This was a show about how "the leftovers" of the departure managed their grief in the wake of not knowing what happened. Literally how they managed the mystery. So then you give the answer, to the character that suffered the most of the departure, and she returns to her world to live in seclusion? It's a rather satisfying answer that the 2% still exist, and her children are happy. She takes no comfort in that, returns, and then shuns her new life with Kevin?
   
   
2. Nora lies and she really chickened out/machine malfunction/etc.: Why, if she didn't indeed go through, would she be so chicken to reconnect with every one? Did anyone outside of Matt and Laurie know she was going through? Why would she be embarrassed to let them know she chickened out/it didn't work? It sure wouldn't say to me she really cared about Kevin that much if she ran and hid in this instance. Her making up a story to give Kevin closure in this scenario is also bothersome... because how is that a better explanation to him? "It had been so long I didn't think you cared about me so I hid from you... but I still had phone therapy sessions with your ex-wife?" That's "a better story" than her telling the truth in this instance, that she chickened out/it didn't work and she was too scared/ashamed? Seems more shitty to me to lie, and certainly not a better story than what the truth is in this scenario.
   
   
3. It was Nora's pre-death hallucination/afterlife: I think this is the least likely, but if this is the case, this makes the finale even more shitty to me, because this is a cheap plot device that's been used a million times in other series, and waits to the final episode to put Nora in this situation when we've been built up to believe Kevin is the one who visits the after life.
   

I'd have done this episode completely different. Right after the conversation with Nora and Matt, have Kevin and company show up, let the two of them have a private conversation in which Kevin apologizes for running away and tells her he loves her. Let Nora forgive him, tell him she loves him, but admit that she can't go on living without her children (and you could have similar dialogue to the final 10 mins: "I've tried living without them but I always needed a vest/holy man/new kid to distract me"), and then say that whether she can actually find them or dies in the machine, she has to do it. Then send her through the machine, leave her absent for the rest of the episode and "let the mystery be" as to whether she's vaporized or goes to the alternate universe.

Then tie up a few other things: Kevin Sr. admits he was crazy and didn't stop the apocalypse, and Kevin Jr. realizes whether what happened to him in hotel land was real or imaginary, he has life and the capacity to love. Have him realize: "Even though Nora's gone, I've still got Dad, two kids, my friends in you two Murphys and Matt, and I admit that though things are fucked up, life's worth living." Then let the rest of the characters answer Kevin Sr..'s "What now" question: None of us want to die, so we'll carry on.

I'd have rather they ended the series at episode seven... or the finale of S2, or the finale of S1, all of which I quite liked.

 

Good food for thought, SF.

Just to elaborate on my thoughts ... and I think this is a good discussion because if The Leftovers was anything, it was NOT a cut and dried television show.

Was it really Kevin's story? I think it was in the beginning but morphed into something else. Nora had the most compelling storyline, at least when it came to the actual departure that the show was built around. She lost the most family. She joined the government agency dedicated to serving those remaining. She struggled with her grief the entire run of the series and was the only one really committed to seeing what might be on the other side. So in that respect, I can see why they chose to end the way they did, telling her story.

I definitely respect your points, but I can see why the writers tilted things toward her at the end. Honestly, this finale felt a lot like the Girls finale to me in structure, in how they sort of wrapped everything up for everyone save for a few main characters. It was just Hannah, Marnie and Loreen at the end. Here, it was just Nora, Kevin and Matt (barely).

 

My wife and I finally finished up the series earlier tonight and it's a lot to unpack. SFIND makes some good points, which I'll address at some other time. But a quick gut reaction to the finale is this:

I loved the series, I loved the finale and it was a far better resolution than I really expected. Knowing that they never planned to address the "why" of the departure, I had no idea how they could write a satisfying end to the series, but I think they accomplished that goal.

That said, the big problem I did have is that, with a 70-minute finale, the ultimate resolution came via a 10-minute scene full of exposition.
"Murph and Laurie are good, Jill has a kid, Tommy is divorced, Matt is dead, Erica comes around every now and again."
"I traveled for a long time, saw my kids and husband, they looked happy without me, so I came back."

I would have preferred they spent the 70 minute showing us all of that story, rather than giving us an hour of Nora riding a bike and saving goats followed by 10 minutes of Nora and Kevin recapping the previous 10 (20?) years in a conversation. My wife is mortified that, after everything she wen through, Nora didn't even try to talk to her kids and husband when she saw them. To her, it was like having Tom Hanks get saved in Castaway and never bothering to talk to Helen Hunt.