The Leftovers Season 1 Episode 2 “Penguin One, Us Zero” Recap: THEY TOOK BALKI

In the second episode of “The Leftovers”, we delve deeper into the psyches of the Garveys and we also are introduced to a new character. However, even though this episode was stronger than the pilot in terms of structure, the slow burn is starting to get to me. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me but none of the lead actors on the show have been strong enough to carry the show so far so I feel like I’m waiting for the story to kick in. Will something happen already? Can I get a pack of wild dogs to start attacking community members? Can I have a round two of the vanishing? Can the Guilty Remnant go Rambo or do something besides chain smoking themselves to Bolivia and trying to turn Liv Tyler into a mute elf? CAN WE GET A BAGEL MACHINE THAT WORKS?!?!

I’ll start with the least interesting character arc on the show so far who happens to be Tom Garvey, Kevin’s son. There is a raid on Wayne the Creepy Hug Healer’s compound after (what seems like) the FBI realize that Weezy has a thing for underage Asian chicks. So they go all Bad Boys II on his headquarters and one of the SWAT dudes chases Christine (the special underage Asian chick) off the compound and is ready to take her out when Tom headshots him and takes him to a secret location. This is where Weezy decides to make out with a dead dude for no apparent reason. Apparently, this passes for character development nowadays. After the make out sesh, he faces Tom and realizes he needs a healing hug but Tom is only about handshakes and daps. Weezy isn’t offended and seems like he already realizes this and assigns him to be Christine’s bodyguard. Tom freaks out when he tries to leave the place with Christine and the car doesn’t start but I really think it’s because he realizes he has the yellow fever too. So far this part of the plot is too sketchy for me to enjoy and the actor that plays Tom is more wooden than Pinocchio.

During Jill’s part of the story, we meet a new character in Nora Durst. Nora lost her whole family during the Rapture so she’s just in IDGAF mode when she’s not dealing with other people who are victims of the Rapture. Example? She’s in a coffee shop and purposely drops it on the floor just because she knows she can get away with it. Here’s the slick thing though. She also works for the government as a person who decides if people deserve financial benefits for their family members vanishing. So Jill and her homie, Aimee, decided to hijack the Carver twins’ car and follow Nora to a family’s house where she was doing an interview to see if they warranted government benefits. Aimee’s hands were feeling really dry though so she broke into Nora’s car for some hand cream when Jill decides to create a shit ton of noise so they book from the scene and head home. We don’t really learn much about Jill other than the fact that she seems curious to see how other people are coping with the rapture. She seemed like more of a vehicle to learn about Nora Durst.

Finally, we can talk about Laurie and Kevin. The episode starts off with Kevin having the weirdest wet dream ever. After that, you see him with a therapist because he shot a bunch of dogs at the end of the last episode with the bald guy in the pickup truck. Here’s the thing though….no one else believes the bald guy in the pickup truck exists so everyone thinks Tom is loco. Which might have been the case because he seemingly doesn’t know how to use a bagel toaster. Seriously, dude, it’s not that difficult. Meanwhile, it turns out that Laurie is playing older sister to the new pledge of the Guilty Remnants, Meg Abbott. After Tom visits the pledge house on a missing person’s warrant and talks to Meg, it turns out that she’s doing a shit poor job. I mean, if I had to give one of my possessions away per day, nobody talked to me, and was asked to cut down a really stubborn tree with an axe, I’d be pretty fed up too. Patti isn’t happy with Laurie’s efforts at the end of the episode because they think Meg bounced but if anything, Meg’s resolve seems stronger than ever because, for some weird reason, she’s still trying to cut down that stupid tree. Meanwhile, everyone at the police station and the Mayor thinks Kevin is crazy. I would think so too if I found out he didn’t know how to use a bagel toaster. He even finds the pickup truck on his driveway. That night, the bald dude comes over with a six pack of beer and tells Tom he’s going to go Michael Vick again at dawn the next day. Kevin’s like “Nah, let me talk to my pops first.” He goes to visit his father, who seems to be suffering from dementia. They talk about how everyone on Perfect Strangers’ cast has also been raptured when Kevin asks him when his symptoms started to kick in….probably thinking that his screws are starting to come loose too. When his pops starts talking to an invisible friend who tells him that Kevin would be visited by a dude that’ll help him, Kevin’s interest is piqued though. Could the invisible guy be talking about the bald guy with the pick up truck? Why do we care what the invisible guy thinks? Does the invisible guy even exist?

Right now, all this show is to me….is interesting….only because there are mysteries that I want solved. This show is playing with my innate need of figuring things out and I hate Damon Lindelof for it. One of my friends asked me the other day if I’d recommend them watching this show and I told them “not yet”….mainly because I don’t know if the show is even good or not. If I find out that Linelof wasted my time again with a TV show, I will find him…..and I will shake him uncontrollably like an angry father who accidentally killed his crying baby.

Tumblrs, Tweets, and Observations:

– This was by far my favorite scene in the episode. The Culver twins and Aimee have been my favorite part of the series so far. But this brings up an interesting point: Is it against man code to use hand cream/lotion?

– For a minute, I was really thinking “what a bleak world to live in where the cast of “Perfect Strangers” and bagels were raptured”. Tom finally found the bagel so it wasn’t as bleak as I originally thought.

– I’m really waiting for the episode where Christopher Eccleston is given some extended screen time because that dude can really act his ass off.