The Leftovers Review: Certified (Season 3 Episode 6)

It’s difficult to aptly express how much this episode devastated me more than any episode ever had.

In The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 6, “Certified,” we are given one of the most beautiful episodes ever, as well as the most macabre.

And that’s because of what happens in the episode’s final moments, when Laurie Garvey, a longtime favorite of mine, plunges herself into the sea, and to her ultimate death.

What I struggle with the most is understanding why she did it. Suicide is not new to the show. In fact, we’ve seen at least three other peripheral characters do it, but Laurie’s nihilistic decision comes as a surprise.

Laurie appeared to be in an OK place, for a lack of better phrasing. She seemed to be OK with the void that the others were struggling with. She seemed to have found peace in this cold and indifferent world.

After all, Laurie had her children back, and Jill had not only forgiven her, but grew close to her again. Laurie also found and married John. There was a redemption to her story, given that she had evolved since her GR days. So then why, did she take Nora’s advice and take the elegant way out of life, and stage a suicide that would seem like a scuba-diving accident?

As I wrangle with this heart-wrenching and meaningless end to one of the most profound characters on the show, let’s take a look at what happened in “Certified” and parse through the conversations that led up to this brutal end.

Laurie had spent majority of season 2 in the background after having a prominent but silent presence in season 1. Season 3 looked to bring her back into focus, and provided closure to her relationship with Kevin, and a conclusion to the character as a whole.

In “Certified,” we gain a huge Laurie episode that fills in the gaps of her life, including the exact moment she decided to join the GR and the earlier suicide attempt that she changed her mind on.

Laurie spends most of the episode helping Nora and Kevin in their own ways. The use of dual timelines is extremely effective.

First, she spends time with Nora and Matt as they track down the two physicians who turned Nora away. While on a stakeout, Laurie and Nora talk about suicide, and how scuba-diving gives the perfect cover story — it’s made to look like an accident to spare one’s loved ones pain.

Later, they follow the two physicians and find that the radiation scheme looks legit. Right before Laurie leaves Nora and Matt to meet up with Kevin and the rest, she and Nora embrace, and it’s a cathartic, sad moment between two very different, and strong women.

But truly, the best scenes occurs at the ranch. Laurie drugs John, Michael, Kevin Sr., and Grace with dog food because she wants to speak to Kevin alone, and it’s a fantastic scene that mirrors the Last Supper. The talk of disciples is a great touch to the already religion heavy season, and Laurie asserting herself as Judas, who had killed himself, should have been the warning we missed.

After everyone goes down for the count, Laurie and Kevin have their final goodbye, and it is breathtaking.

She finally tells Kevin that she was pregnant before the Sudden Departure, and explains how she watched their unborn child vanish in an instant. It’s a secret I’ve been hoping would come out in the open, so that closure could be found.

Admittedly, I’ve been a sucker for this relationship since the pilot, since it was revealed that Laurie was the wife that was gone, but now gone in the Departure, but who had left her family to join a cult. I was hooked by the show ever since Kevin stood outside the GR homes and begged Laurie to come back home.

I loved seeing this relationship evolve from that act of quiet desperation to Kevin seeking Laurie’s counsel regarding Patti, to this final scene on the porch in the moonlight.

It’s a relationship that has changed and transformed into something beyond romance, and something so deep and soulful,

Once Laurie gives Kevin Jill’s lighter, the one that is perfectly engraved “Don’t Forget Me,” and states that “we’re all gone” when he asks where Nora is,  I’m overcome with dread because I have a feeling of what she is about to do.

Laurie had come to Melbourne to help Kevin as she had in the past, to be his therapist and convince him to get the psychiatric help that he needs. Instead, she realizes that he needs to do this crazy thing and kill himself so he can go to the afterlife and somehow save the world from an incoming flood. She can’t stop him, and she’s not going to leave him on a note of judgment, but on a note of love and compassion.

There’s nothing she can do to change his mind, so she leaves, like her work is done. It’s a tender, gutting scene, but an incredible way to end their relationship on.

The episode ends with Laurie on a boat, getting ready to scuba-dive. Right before she jumps into the water, Jill and Tommy call. She senses that they are OK, that they’re going to be OK, and that she can end her life knowing that they’re fine and won’t need her anymore.

It’s extremely tragic, and I was hoping that the sound of Jill and Tommy’s voices would be enough to stop Laurie from meeting this grim end, but as the sound of the ocean splashing against the boat indicates, Laurie is gone.

Amy Brenneman is so special in this episode, her performance on “Certified” encapsulates everything that she’s put into Laurie in the past couple seasons — this sense of empathy, pragmatism,  and understanding of other human beings. As frustrating and baffling as Laurie was in the first season, I always loved her, and that’s because Brenneman injected so much humanity into her.

I’m not sure I fully understand why Laurie did what she did, but maybe suicide is supposed to be hard to understand to everyone looking from the outside.

All I know is that this character moved me, and I’m so happy to have gotten to know her.

Other final thoughts:

-The background score is so immensely impactful this episode. It really feels like the show is honoring some of its roots from season 1.

-I also really liked Laurie’s scene with John outside the house. I can understand why they were drawn to each other, and it makes me sad that it wasn’t enough for her. Her being happy with John is one of the reasons I find it hard to stomach the suicide.

-Two more episodes left, folks. As much as I love this show, it does take it’s toll because of how intense and unforgiving it could be. In a sense, I’m happy it’ll be over.

What did you think of this episode of The Leftovers? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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The Leftovers airs Sundays at 9/8c on  HBO

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