After an insane first season of honestly one of the best shows I've ever seen, I was so happy to hear it was coming back for a second season. The closest I can come to comparing it to another show is it reminds me a lot of LOST. There are a ton of bizarre scenes, unanswered questions that leave you hanging after each episode, but leave you wanting more. Why are they always smoking? What happened to the Daparted? Does this have anything to do with religion, nature, something else? What's with the asian girls having the black guy's babies, the guy that can cure people's pain and suffering with just a hug?
When I started the premiere of season two, I was extremely confused...I kept thinking I had accidentally rented a movie or was watching some other show. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. The first ten minutes take place from what looks like many many years ago in an Amazonian jungle. A pregnant woman runs away and gives birth to her child by a river, only after to be bit by a snake and die (Adam and Eve, snake and apple reference could not be more obvious). Then, the episode catapults us into a new family's life. We don't even see any of the main characters from the first season really until midway/end of the episode. (Which was dissappointing at first, because I really wanted to see some Justin Theroux on TV ASAP) but I liked this new dymanic and introduction of characters because it made you wait for answers you needed from season 1 just a little longer. Plus, this structure created many more questions to add to the long list of "what the hell is going on in The Leftovers."
Before I go any further, I need to comment on the new opening credits of season 2. To be totally honest, I am not a fan. I absolutely loved the creepy intro and music of season one. However, I understand why they changed it to this happy music with hippies in the season two intro. Why? Season one was all about the actual Departure and what happened. It created a ton of questions for viewers and ended abruptly. Season two is all about what comes AFTER the Departure. Not immediately after, but where enough time has passed that people have chosen to accept it and find their new place in this world. It’s about picking up the pieces, trying to move on, and preparing for what’s next.
Call me crazy, but when it was suggested that the “rapture” might occur again, that didn’t even cross my mind. I was totally convinced that it was a one-time thing. So, this should be interesting to see if they dig into that possibility or just choose to focus on life after the first Departure.
Let’s go further into episode two. In this episode the focus is primarily on Kevin, Norah, and Jill all rebuilding this new life with baby Lily and starting over in a town called “Miracle.” This town is supposedly the one place on Earth where there were no Departures, so people from all over have flocked to this place as if it were Holy and would protect them. It has essentially turned into this tourist town and in order to be able to live there, you have to wear wristbands as if you were at some theme park. Really bizarre. Essentially, they are treating this town as if it were this safe spot quarantined off from the rest of the world.
Before they all move to Miracle, Holy gets offered almost 3 million dollars for her home from a group of MIT students that want to study the fact that the spot is an anomaly in what happened. They believe what occurred there could all be a matter of geography (Norah wasn’t at the dinner table when her family disappeared, so they suggest maybe that’s why she wasn’t taken with the rest of her family as well.)
Another interesting part about this episode is that Patty reappears throughout it in Kevin's visions/hallucinations (or...is she really there...? ...spooky but unlikely). I absolutely love her character, so I’m glad she’s back for this. Her one-liners during this episode are particularly entertaining, especially her “uh oh” at the very end of episode two. I burst out laughing when that happened.
One of the best ways Patty was able to sum up this episode was in her saying to Kevin (in reference to the Murphy family next door) “it’s hard to tell if you’re part of their story or if they’re a part of yours.” At this point we really aren’t sure who is going to take the lead with these character roles and development, since so much time has been split between the Murphy story and Kevin's family story, we can't tell who the main character is anymore.
By the end of the episode, it seems that a Departure has happened again. Evie and her friend have gone missing, the river water is gone, and Kevin wakes up surrounded by flopping fish. Was this really another Departure? Or is something else going on here?