The Leftovers, “Cairo”

“I don’t understand.”

Last week’s episode of The Leftovers, “Solace for Weary Tired Feet”, hinted more heavily than any episode before that this series was about something, was leading somewhere, even if that something and somewhere were just as obscured as ever.

“Cairo” continues the trajectory of finally accelerating the plot and aura of impending doom in a similar way. Maybe some answers begin to poke their heads out of the sand, but only at the expense of more questions. We’re left, like Kevin, shouting that we don’t understand, that everyone around us seems to think we should, wants nothing more than for us to say that we do understand. But everything seems so random, so meaningless, so chaotic, that we don’t really know anything. “Cairo” doesn’t change this, but it does assert itself as the best of the season’s episodes not following one person exclusively.

“Cairo” is captivating in a way that none of the other multiple-character episodes in this show have been thius far. Part of it is purely in the visuals and directorial decisions: From the beginning, veteran director Michelle MacLaren’s influence is evident. MacLaren (whose directing credits include episodes of Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, among others) is a master of light, and “Cairo” luxuriates in light and its absence more than any episode yet. Compare the lush greens of the “Cairo” woods to the dark bleakness of the cabin, as just one great example.

Yet “Cairo”’s strengths go further than just the visual. There have been many hints that something is wrong with Kevin’s mind, but so far he’s been more convinced than us viewers that he was crazy. Now we finally see some truly disturbing evidence that something is very wrong with him. After an awkward dinner with Nora, Jill, and Aimee (again, why does she live there?) he falls into bed, only to wake up in a car in the woods with Dean the Dog-Killer. Confused, he asks Dean where he is and what’s happened to him. Turns out he went drinking later in the night, joined Dean, kidnapped Patti, and drove her all the way to Cairo, New York to beat her bloody. The shirts he was so convinced were at the dry cleaners are strung up around the trees like some bizarre ritual of a True Detective-like cult.

Suddenly pieces fall into place. Kevin’s not just been blacking out, he’s been actively doing things in a maddened state he can never remember. He’s driven up here before, he’s hurt people, even made bets with Dean that he could civilize a mad dog. Maybe he’s slept with Aimee – though it seems likely after this episode that that whole subplot is a red herring, or didn’t exactly go down as we and Jill might have thought. Either way, Kevin is not in a good place by any meaning of the phrase.

The showdown between Kevin, Dean, and Patti is laden with so much ambiguity and mystery that we can’t help but empathize with Kevin’s confusion. Dean at first seems to be an obvious enemy of the Guilty Remnant, which helps to put him more on the “good guy” scale than one of our two de facto Big Bads, Patti. However, ultimately they both want the same thing – Patti’s death.

Who is Dean? We’ve established that he’s not just a vision – other people can see him, but he’s mainly only around when Kevin’s there. Kevin Sr. said that the voices had sent Kevin a protector, which likely seems to be Dean, but what he has really done but encourage him to go dog-hunting and assist him in the kidnapping of an unarmed woman? He wants to “talk to that other guy” (whoever and whatever the alternate, un-remembered part of Kevin is) about actually finishing what he’s started. He even calls himself a guardian angel, lending more credence to the theories, but it’s just as likely that he’s a misleading demon. Maybe someone else is the voices’ messenger, or maybe the voices are evil. “Cairo” still leaves us mostly in the dark.

Patti delivers a powerful, if still confusing, speech to Kevin. She’s not going to quietly forget what he’s done to her, and even if he drives her back and pretends to have not done anything, she won’t let him get away with it. His life will be ruined. She wants him to kill her. But she also wants him to say that he understands. Understands what? The role of the GR? Patti finally lays out the group’s general goal, though most of it has already been inferred. They won’t let the world forget. Yet they haven’t managed to convince anyone of why forgetting is such a bad thing. It’s not out of respect for the lost, we at least know that much.

Kevin, sobbing and broken down, approaches the tied up Patti with a knife, not long after saving her from death at the hand’s of Dean and his plastic bag. For a moment it’s unclear what he plans to do, until he begins to cut her loose. His life is going to be ruined, but even at the threat of his own destruction, he does the right choice. He doesn’t kill her. He doesn’t resort to weak violence. He takes what the world dishes out, because he can’t see a way in which anything else is right. Perhaps that’s why Patti says that Kevin does understand, because now he’s finally given up his attachment, just like her and the GR. They can’t see a way in which forgetting the Departure is right, so they’ve given up their lives for the cause. That could make sense in a twisted way. But then Patti kills herself with a glass shard. Why? She’s become like Gladys, killed by the GR to send a message. It’s impossible for these repercussions to not play a large role in the show to come.

The other main plotline of the episode centers around Jill, who’s so thoroughly convinced that the world can’t ever be “ok” again. It drives home what seems to be the main thematic centerpiece to the entire show – grief and loss. Some people move on, others try to forget, but Jill can’t. Confronted by a seemingly non-grief stricken Nora, Jill calls her bluff. She can’t possibly be ok with life. She’s lost more than any of them. So she decides to break out the gun card, finally paying off a weird plot point from earlier in the season. Yet Nora doesn’t have the gun in her purse anymore, leading Jill to embark on an illegal search of Nora’s house later in the episode, accompanied by the comedy relief twins.

She doesn’t really want to find the gun. In fact, she probably hopes that the gun isn’t there. If Nora’s telling the truth about getting rid of the gun, then it’s possible to move on, it’s possible to “be ok” again. But she’s not telling the truth. The gun is there – buried in a Trouble box in her son’s room admittedly, but not gone. Nora’s lying. She can’t possibly be ok. It’s not possible to be ok.

Framed in this light, it makes much more sense for Jill to join the Guilty Remnant, even considering how much we don’t want her to do so. Her mother left for it awhile ago, her father is acting erratic, sleeping with a new woman, and vanishes without leaving any word. She suspects her best friend has slept with her father, or at the very least has left a devastating wound in the friendship by accusing her of it. She has no one to turn to, so she goes to the one place committed to wallowing in the events that changed the world forever, the one place where she knows her family will be.

It’s a sad turn of events, but with the impending grand event the GR are about to enact, coupled with Laurie’s new control over the chapter, Meg’s anger, and the arrival of Jill, the GR could be ready to implode. Something’s bound to happen. Maybe we’ll get an answer or two buried beneath the deluge of new questions.

Tidbits:

• The show’s been renewed for a second season! Not sure how this will play out – on the one hand, despite my misgivings, I think there’s a lot of good in this show, but on the other, it means stretching out the mystery even longer. We’re not likely to get a lot of resolution in the season finale.

• I’ve glossed over Meg’s attack on Matt – what do you think about Matt’s continual turning of the other cheek to the GR? He seems like a genuine example of a good person. Yet by trying to save the GR, he’s doing exactly what they don’t want. The GR want people to be angry at them. By fighting them peacefully, he’s causing them the most harm.

• Phenomenal performance by Ann Dowd as Patti. Despite how much I despised her character, as an actress, she’ll be missed on the show.

•No more of Holy Wayne or Tommy this episode. Hopefully we’ll see how the two cults tie in with Kevin in the next episode.