Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 9 of The Leftovers, titled The Garveys at Their Best, where we get a glimpse into the lives of the Garveys and other familiar faces the day before and the day of the Departure. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Leftovers Season 1 Episode 9: The Garveys at Their Best
- Kevin goes for a run, stops off and smokes before going home to a big fancy house. A woman greets him, and we see that it is Laurie. Jill actually looks happy. We also see Nora at her house with her husband, kids, and dog. We soon learn that the date is October 13 – the day before the Depature.
- At work, Laurie appears to be a psychiatrist, and her first patient of the day is Patti, who feels like the world is ending. Meanwhile, Kevin, parked on the side of the road, sees people running from the elementary school. He investigates, and finds out that a deer had run in and ransacked the music room, but it’s gone now.
- Nora goes to an interview to be Lucy’s campaign manager. Kevin’s dad, the Chief of Police, holds a meeting with his officers about the deer, telling them they are authorized to put it down. He makes a deal with Kevin that he can set the deer free if he makes it to the scene with a tranquilizer before anyone else.
- Kevin gets a call from Tommy, who’s sitting in the back of a cop car. Turns out he had gotten drunk, went to his biological father’s house, and got in a fight with him. Kevin goes to the guy’s house and roughs him up. Meanwhile, Laurie goes to the breeder’s house to pick out a puppy – the breeder turns out to be Gladys.
- That night, the Garveys throw a “surprise” party at their house for Kevin’s dad being Man of the Year (that he already knew about). Matt Jamison and his wife are there, among other familiar faces. Meanwhile, Nora puts her kids to bed, and her husband gets home late.
- The next morning, Tommy confesses to Laurie that he went to see Michael, but she says she understands. On Kevin’s run, he sits down on the curb to smoke. A car full of women, at least one of which we recognize from the GR, stop and ask him if he ready, but when he appears confused, they say they thought he was someone else. After they drive off, the manhole cover in front of him explodes off.
- When Kevin returns home, he and Laurie get into an argument. She tells him to be honest with her, and he tells her that he smoked and he doesn’t want a dog. Just then, he gets a call about the deer, and heads over to the house where it’s trapped. However, it runs past him outside, and a woman hits it with her car. Kevin grabs his gun and kills it.
- Laurie goes to her doctor appointment. It turns out she is pregnant, but hasn’t told Kevin yet. Kevin gives the woman who hit the deer a ride to her motel room, and she invites him in. Tommy shows up for Jill’s science fair. Nora’s kids and husband are being annoying as they wait for her to make lunch.
- As Jill and Tommy hold hands with other kids to make a current, they realize one of the kids has disappeared. Nora turns around to find her husband and kids have disappeared. The woman Kevin was having sex with disappears. And Laurie turns to look at the sonogram screen. It doesn’t show us, but we can presume that her unborn baby has disappeared as well.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 9 of The Leftovers: The Garveys at Their Best
At first, I was a little disappointed to see that after all that build up from last episode, and all season really, that this was merely a flashback episode. There was all this momentum going, and so much intensity building, then to suddenly take a step back like this, it kind of caught me off guard. Then upon watching the episode, it was actually quite good, and gave us a lot of background information that we had been missing, or at least helped fill in some of the gaps a bit.
Initially, I thought that maybe this should have actually been the first episode, rather than starting us off 3 years later. But then I realized that there were some things that we may not have noticed or appreciated had they done it that way. For example, we see that under a mailbox is where Kevin keeps his hidden stash of cigarettes, similar to how Tommy was directed to leave cash under a mailbox for the other guy to pick up. We also see Kevin go into the house of the elderly couple that Nora had interviewed, and see their mentally disabled son. We see Nora’s husband getting home late, and since we already know that he was cheating on her, we know that his excuse is a lie. We also got an explanation about why Patti left a bag with Neil’s name on it on his doorstep. Comments that people made were that much more ironic or painful, like when Nora tells Lucy that as far as she’s concerned, she has no family for the next 4 weeks. There were just so many little, subtle things that viewers may not have picked up on if this was the first episode.
It was very interesting to see how different the Garveys lives were before the Departure. They lived in this nice big fancy house with a swimming pool, which we can assume is attributable to the sizable salary that Laurie pulls in. Even Lucy makes a comment to Kevin about that. We can then assume that with Laurie joining the GR, Kevin could no longer afford to pay the mortgage on his own, and that’s how Kevin and Jill ended up at his dad’s house after he went crazy.
Of course, the biggest takeaway from this is that we finally get an explanation as to why Laurie joined the GR. It’s been a mystery all this time, considering that no one from her family was taken. I had thought maybe a parent or sibling had disappeared. But now we know that all this was spurred by her unborn baby disappearing. This isn’t something I would have ever even considered a possibility. Now I’m wondering if she ever told Kevin about the baby, or if her family is just left wondering why she is so distraught.
Also, we get some more background about the deer. By the way, are deer attacks common in more rural areas? No one seems to be all that surprised by deer ransacking houses in either this episode or the earlier episode where the deer breaks into the Garvey house and tears up the kitchen. But then, I’ve always lived in more suburban type areas, so I guess I wouldn’t know.
In any case, it looks like we will be moving forward with the story once more in the next episode, which is the season finale. Hopefully we get at least a few answers to our burning questions before we have to wait until next year for Season 2!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Leftovers, Season 1 Episode 9: The Garveys at Their Best
I wasn’t very excited about this week’s episode of The Leftovers. I am sure I was partially dissatisfied with the episode because of the big lead up the last episode had into what looks to be a big finale, but I think there is more than that. We did learn a lot more about some characters, particularly Laurie. We know that she lost a baby that Kevin doesn’t even know about, which is very sad. We also learned about Patti being her patient, which makes it a bit odd that Patti is now telling Laurie what to do, but I guess I didn’t really need to know that.
The big deal of this episode is Patti I would say, in that she seemed to “know” something bad was coming. But as Laurie explained, Patti has had a lot of these feelings, so this could very well just be coincidence.
Other than that though, I was not really drawn in by the episode. I am however, excited for the season finale. I am sure we will get the big reveal, and see what happens. I also want to know how Kevin Garvey will be in the aftermath of Patti’s death.
Scenes from The Leftovers, Season 1 Episode 10: The Prodigal Son Returns
Here are scenes from the season finale of The Leftovers, titled The Prodigal Son Returns: [Note: It says two episodes left, but there is only one episode. This trailer was released before Episode 9.]
I need to check out this show. I love the cast!
It was nice to see them before the mayhem.