Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Other Doctor Lives: The Leftovers: Season 3, Episode 8 – “The Book of Nora” (2017)

Series finale time. It’s an interesting way to go out – a lot of the bigger culmination stuff happens in episode 7 (which Christopher Eccleston isn’t in,) so the finale is more of a coda than a climax. I’m not sure how fans of the show took it after three years of investment in the story, but I came away mostly content with it.

Nora faces down the scientists who say they can take her to her departed children and husband. The central characters look back on the choices that led them where they are.

Super, super vague plot description, because I don’t want to get into spoilers. The opening sequence of the finale is pretty straightforward (I mean, as straightforward as it can be for a show where 2% of the world’s population vanished in an instant and the protagonist is maybe a prophet who goes on vision quests to the underworld that’s also a fancy hotel/resort,) and after that, the episode leaves straightforward behind. It’s all about trying to guess where we are and who we’re really dealing with, whether any of it is real and what it might mean. It’s not quite season-6-of-Lost trippy, but it definitely keeps you guessing.

It’s also incredibly intimate. For a show that began with a large ensemble cast, quite a few characters have been stripped away over the course of each season, and all the pivotal scenes in the finale revolve around just a few of the major characters – Nora is one, and obviously Matt is another. I won’t mention any other names here.

The mystery and trippiness of what we’re given here isn’t especially up my alley, at least not in this situation, but I still enjoy it for the feelings it evokes and the gentle insights it gives us into the central characters. It’s a soft, contemplative finale that doesn’t really provide any grand answers, but you find that not doing so is sort of the point.

Matt is in the straightforward-ish opening sequence. I’ve always found his and Nora’s relationship interesting. They read together in a way that adult siblings rarely come across on TV – it can be really easy to forget they’re related, both in the way that they’re off in mostly-separate plots so often and just in how they interact with each other. But every now and then, one will give the other a particular talking-to or they’ll recall a specific memory, and the relationship suddenly makes perfect sense. Their scenes in this episode are like that, and it’s pretty lovely to watch.

On this show, Christopher Eccleston has always been good at doing a lot with a little, and he pitches Matt’s scenes with Nora so subtly here. The material he has in this episode is good but sparing, and he makes the most of every moment.

So that’s a wrap for The Leftovers! Final thoughts.

Accent Watch

Generic middle American. I mean – it’s fine.

Recommend?

In General – Maybe. To be honest, this series never fully pulled me in, but I can tell that it’s well-made and the cast does a great job throughout. So even if it’s not really for me, I recognize that there’s plenty here that other people would like.

Christopher Eccleston – I think so. If you’re watching the whole series for Christopher Eccleston, you might be disappointed, since there are a number of episodes where his role is really minimal, but wherever he has have a chance, he takes it and runs with it. While this can be a frustrating character at times, in Eccleston’s hands, he’s always an interesting one.

Warnings

Violence, sexual content, language, drinking/smoking/drug use, disturbing images, strong thematic elements, and characters with disabilities played by ablebodied actors.

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