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Season 2, Episode 3, ‘Off Ramp’
If anyone was concerned that Season 2 of “The Leftovers” hasn’t been sad enough, this week’s episode, “Off Ramp,” puts those worries to rest. It is an elegantly directed, heartbreaking hour that showcases an emotionally nuanced performance from Amy Brenneman and, once again, illustrates the uphill climb involved in making fresh starts. It’s also a study in why people become believers, whether they place their faith in the Guilty Remnant or a 20-something who inherited the power to heal with free hugs.
In last week’s episode, Kevin Garvey aimed to make a fresh start by going to Miracle. In “Off Ramp,” Laurie Garvey tries to makes a fresh start by becoming a miracle worker. She has basically founded her own religion — let’s call it the Anti-Remnant. It involves persuading former devotees of the Cult of Chain Smoking to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, and also exposing the Guilty Remnant’s horrible practices via a memoir. Laurie’s on a mission, as the insistent “Whiplash”-esque drumbeat that underscores her constant typing and weirdly satisfying recovery of her laptop makes clear. The problem is that mission is based on revenge.
On one hand Laurie wants to mow down the G.R., and does just that by running over two of its members with her car. But she also can’t erase the fact that she still feels connected to its cause, so much that she comes to its defense during that meeting at the publishing house. The G.R., and the things it made her do, are the smudge on her windshield that won’t go away, no matter how hard she rubs.
In the episode’s climax, when that publishing executive recounts how Laurie led her own daughter directly into a burning house — “She’s in there because of you” — Laurie finally snaps. She’s uncomfortable taking responsibility for her own sins and being associated with the G.R.’s behavior, but equally uncomfortable acting like everything its members do is crazy. (By the way, Laurie definitely should not have attacked that guy, but I think we can all agree that anyone who suggests “Let Me Just Put This on Silent” as a book title deserves at least a light slap.)
Laurie’s story, along with Susan’s — the ex-Remnant member leaves one life of muteness for another and, in a move that mirrors Laurie’s vehicular recklessness, steers her car into an oncoming truck — proves that merely insisting that everything can go back to normal does not make it so. People need more than normal, and they need more than revenge to motivate them. Tommy may be infiltrating the G.R. solely as a recruiter, but even he understands why its clear, if misguided, doctrine appeals to people.
“They’re giving them something,” he tells his mom. “We can strip it away, but once it’s gone, we have nothing to put back in its place.”
“Well,” Laurie responds, “let’s give them something.”
So they do. Laurie tells her patients a story that’s true, about Patti, the Departure and her fractured relationship with Jill. Then Tommy tells the group a story that’s mostly a lie. Yes, Tommy believed in Holy Wayne, and, yes, Tommy was left alone with Christine and Wayne’s baby. But when Tommy cried out for help with a wailing infant in his arms, Holy Wayne didn’t suddenly appear the way he describes. No one did.
Tommy changes the real story to a version in which he becomes the recipient of Wayne’s therapeutic gifts. As a result, Laurie and Tommy do give their followers something: spiritual comfort, even though it’s based on falsehood.
One can watch that closing scene cynically or through a more sympathetic lens. Tommy’s story suggests that faith — any faith — is really nothing more than choosing to believe some cockamamie story someone made up. But he tells it with so much sincerity, and everyone in the room is so clearly inspired, that there’s something genuinely uplifting there. Maybe there’s something of value in the fib.
“The Leftovers” may be the only show on TV right now that consistently does what it does in that moment: invites us to question belief systems while acknowledging their genuine power and beauty at the same time.
I’m not sure if “The Leftovers,” the TV show, has its own belief system. But there’s certainly a tendency toward the humanistic, in this episode and in the series as a whole. People have value and are linked to one another in ways they can’t even grasp. The Garvey family, for example, is bisected at the moment, but so much in “Off Ramp” — the repeat of the Tommy-Jill meeting from Laurie’s perspective, and the way Kevin’s and Laurie’s habits mirror each other’s (they do love their loud music) — points to how these people are still connected. Even the part of the story that Tommy omits — it was really his father and sister who helped him with that baby— speaks to that. We can see all that. The sad thing is, the Garveys can’t.
Leftover Notes
• Meet the new Patti of the Guilty Remnant. It’s Meg, and her first order of business is to sex-punish Tommy, then threaten to set him on fire for infiltrating the group. That whole surreal steamy incident raises the question: Is Meg trying to get pregnant with Tommy Garvey’s baby so she can tether Laurie forever to the Guilty Remnant?
• During this episode, we briefly hear a news report about a resurrection in (where else?) Australia that involved a man, previously believed dead, emerging from a cave outside of Perth. The publishing executive refers to it again when he mentions the “wing nut in Australia who says he went to the other side and can’t die.” Caves and mystical events — that certainly seems connected to Miracle. Also: I wouldn’t be surprised if the resurrected “wing nut” turns out to be Holy Wayne.
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