The Leftovers Review: The Book of Nora (Season 3 Episode 8)

On The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 8, “The Book of Nora,” the apocalyptic show that gracefully depicts grief and personal suffering takes its final bow.

The Leftovers entered my life during a time when I was acutely aware of my own depression.

I wasn’t really looking for it when it came and disrupted my own views on loss, healing, and the overarching mysteries of life, but when it did, I was in complete awe of its confidence, its ability to speak with brutal honesty, and its raw and unflinching portrayal of depression.

When the show first premiered and the weirdness started to settle in, and it was devoid of any unconventional storytelling we were used to on television, I felt like it was the most refreshing thing I had ever watched.

The show was puzzling. Sometimes cynical. Always visceral. But, most importantly, the show seemed to be addressing the existential elephant in the room, and it did so with emotion and a desperation for meaning.

That’s what got me. That this show was talking about human sadness so openly through its characters by allowing  them to thoroughly experience their own sadness. That this show didn’t shy away from asking hard questions. That there was no easy fix or digestible answers to comfort the characters in the midst of their despair.

They had to find their own way out, and find their own way of moving on and living with the void.

I can’t eloquently express what that authenticity and wrangling — and sometimes subversion — of faith meant to me. I felt like the show was speaking directly to me, and I was sad along with it.

I grieved along with it. And I tried to claw my way out of a well of depression along with it. I felt an ache, but a good ache.

Leading up to this finale, I admit I had reservations. This is a show that I love so much, and I just couldn’t fathom on what note it was ending itself on.

None of my expectations of the show ever factored in when watching. I always allowed myself to be taken with it. I didn’t bother with predictions or theories. I could never guess where this show was going or what it was going to say to me.

In a sense, The Leftovers has always been a surprise. It sweeps me up and moves me to my core. It is visceral, and shattering, and in some ways, absolutely cathartic.

And it stayed true to those qualities until the end.

“The Book of Nora” is unquestionably Nora’s episode, which is fine because every other episode in season three seemed to serve as a curtain call for the rest of the cast.

And after what the show has achieved in the 28 episodes of its run, it can have the series finale it damn well pleases.

Nora was never my favorite character. I always had a hard time identifying with her even though I sympathized with her unimaginable pain. I often found her selfish, cold, and hard to love. But it’s hard to ignore the humanity that Carrie Coon injected into the character.

I loved the first half of the episode. Nora is fully determined to go through with the radiation process and reunite with her children. It’s a choice that makes so much sense and brings the character full circle.

And after sharing a beautiful goodbye with Matt, Nora gets inside the machine, and right before we get to see her zapped away, we then are transported to the future, and an older Nora appears.

Soon, an older Kevin shows up looking for her. And then Nora calls Laurie.

I’m unable to trust what I am seeing. After all, the episode sets us up to question the very dimension we are in. Is this an alternate universe? Did Nora make it to this other side? Did Kevin follow her? How is Laurie there? Didn’t Laurie die?

But then it all starts to make sense.

First, I am incredibly happy that Laurie is alive, and that despite what the final moments of The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 6, “Certified” had us believe, Laurie didn’t commit suicide by plunging into the sea.

I had stated in my review that I didn’t buy it, that it didn’t feel true or authentic to who Laurie had evolved into. That her journey was so much more about overcoming her personal grief, and fearlessly facing life head on.

Having the confirmation that Laurie and John are still together, and even seeing that small glimpse of her in the finale, as an older woman with who I assume is her granddaughter sitting on her lap, was perfect, and felt right. Laurie is my favorite character, and I’m relieved that the writers did right by her by having her decide to persevere through life.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Damon Lindelof explains that the choice to have Laurie kill herself didn’t sit right with the writers after all, and that Amy Brenneman had played those final scenes on the boat as an affirmation for life.

I love that, and I thank the writers for ultimately making the better choice.

The rest of the episode kind of functions like a rom-com. Kevin pursues a reluctant Nora. They share a lovely dance together at a wedding and we learn that Kevin’s been trying to find her for the last couple decades because he still carries a torch for her.

But despite that, we get the sense that he’s OK. Through him, we get a sense that everyone else, including Jill, Tommy, Laurie, The Murphys, and Kevin Sr. are all doing OK, too. Matt passed away from cancer, but not before reconciling with Mary.

We then fill in the blanks with Nora, and she tells Kevin that she did in fact go to the other realm where the 2 percent had disappeared off to, but then she returned.

She saw her children — who were teenagers, and saw her husband who was with another woman. And what she realized was that they all had moved on, and that she was a ghost figure that didn’t fit into the picture.

It’s hard to imagine Nora finally reuniting with her kids only to leave them because they seemed to have found peace and happiness without her, but ultimately, Nora just didn’t belong there.

Believing Nora’s story is probably besides the point. Regardless of whether it really happened, or if it’s all a psychological manifestation, or even just a final metaphor the show serves on a plate, the message is clear.

Nora chose life. She chose to return and move on, even if moving on meant living in this crazy, uncertain world in solitude. This decision speaks to what the show has been trying to say all along.

Hidden behind the desperation, misery, and emotional desolation was the human spirit’s relenting desire to keep going.

And now, with all the years lost between them, Nora and Kevin sit hand in hand. They’re both still here.

And there could not be a more hopeful ending to a beautiful show.

Other final thoughts:

• I felt a nostalgic pang when I heard the season two opening play in this episode. In part because season two was my absolute favorite of the three, and also because the music is oddly melancholic despite its chipper vibe. I also noticed them play the season one opening in last week’s episode, and that definitely threw me for a second as well.
• I really wish we could have had a small glimpse of Tommy and Jill. They had such a big presence in the previous seasons, and ideally, I wish there was one episode focused on them.
• It kind of kills me that we never got to see all four Garveys in a scene together post departure, though they were briefly in the same room in the premiere.
• I don’t even like Nora and Kevin together, but their dance scene broke me.
• The show presents a fascinating idea about how in our world, the characters only lost a few people, but in this other world, the 2 percent pretty much lost everybody. And now I’m wondering about the full lives of the Departed, coping in isolation in this alternate universe.
• When I think about what I’ll miss most about this show, it has to come down to that breathlessly beautiful musical score.

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

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

 

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!