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Webbeh
Dec 13, 2003

IF THIS IS A 'LOST' THREAD I'M PROBABLY WHINING ABOUT
STABBEY THE MEANY
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLeftovers/comments/5zrght/the_leftovers_season_3_viral_marketing_7part/

Full trailer split up into 7 social media posts.

Looks loving amazing

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Boywhiz88
Sep 11, 2005

floating 26" off da ground. BURR!
drat son.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

gently caress. EVERYONE READY?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9w0sz5y83k

Bananaquiter
Aug 20, 2008

Ron's not here.


:rock: ABBA :rock:

Bulky Bartokomous
Nov 3, 2006

In Mypos, only the strong survive.


Looks really good. Not sure I'm crazy about the Kevin Garvey savior of the world angle.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

Holy poo poo, that last line... my god.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

Holy poo poo, that last line... my god.

If it's not a fakeout, I totally called it.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

Last Chance posted:

If it's not a fakeout, I totally called it.

In what way? Genuinely asking, no sarcasm.

Man, I hope it's not a fakeout. :ohdear:

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

So I binge watched this entire series over the last few days. Season 1 was fantastic, though IMO there was a drop in quality for season 2 that was pretty disappointing. Everything felt less grounded in reality and Jarden/Miracle didn't feel quite as realized a location as Mapleton to me, despite the good premise and the Murphy family being strong additions to the cast.

Still looking forward to season 3, though I'm a little more cautious now after season 2.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

In what way? Genuinely asking, no sarcasm.

Man, I hope it's not a fakeout. :ohdear:

Well, sorta. Spoilering even if it is speculation, since it's related to an actual line from the trailer of the upcoming season:


I've been thinking they'll actually reveal the cause of the departure, and that line indicates that someone knows something to that effect. Lindelof has been so adamant about us never finding out the reason for the departure, and telling us to let the mystery be, even putting it in last season's intro, that it's made me think that he's ready to pull the rug from under us this season.


Whether that will end up being a good thing, who knows. Or it might not even happen.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

Last Chance posted:

Well, sorta. Spoilering even if it is speculation, since it's related to an actual line from the trailer of the upcoming season:


I've been thinking they'll actually reveal the cause of the departure, and that line indicates that someone knows something to that effect. Lindelof has been so adamant about us never finding out the reason for the departure, and telling us to let the mystery be, even putting it in last season's intro, that it's made me think that he's ready to pull the rug from under us this season.


Whether that will end up being a good thing, who knows. Or it might not even happen.

I genuinely wouldn't mind finding out. Like if it was something terrible like they were somehow displaced off the earth, and into space where they exploded... That'd be pretty :stare:

I'd say, to me, the most satisfying revelation with regards to revealing it would be if everyone who departed is currently living in an alternate reality where 98% of the population departed; that THEY were the Leftovers.

Not going to spoiler tag it, since it's nothing more than speculation not based on anything.

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013
I think it'd be a terrible idea, and I don't have any confidence in them to pull it off remotely successfully -- particularly if that afterlife stuff from last season is anything to go by.

Lindelof (and the Bad Robot crew in general) has a deeply hokey vein of pseudo spiritual good times bullshit that runs through his work. I've always found it deeply unsatisfying and arbitrary, and I'd rather the show resist that urge.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

The afterlife stuff only bothered me when Kevin was actually going there, and only because to me it felt more like he got trapped in a video game instead of an incomprehensible dream world or an afterlife that defies human understanding.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

Raxivace posted:

The afterlife stuff only bothered me when Kevin was actually going there, and only because to me it felt more like he got trapped in a video game instead of an incomprehensible dream world or an afterlife that defies human understanding.

Maybe that's exactly what it was, a simulation/smaller version of the real thing in order to train him.. :tinfoil:

The real afterlife might be insane and Kevin might have to fight through all of the departed or something. Wait, that sounds like a video game too..

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

Kevin having to face a ghostly fetus of his unborn child in some kind of Eraserhead showdown would be pretty bonkers to be fair.

Rocco
Mar 15, 2003

Hey man. You're number one. Put it. In. The Bucket.
Wait- are we bashing the afterlife stuff from season 2 now? I thought that was some of the best material in the show.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

Rocco posted:

Wait- are we bashing the afterlife stuff from season 2 now? I thought that was some of the best material in the show.

I'm certainly not. I completely agree with that. I loved International Assassin and the finale. I think it took a lot of balls for them to do sequences like the well, and Kevin's karaoke song. Those scenes could have been awful, but they're great and Justin Theroux is perfectly bewildered and frustrated throughout.

poo poo, makes me wanna fire up one of those episodes right now.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

I think the Mulholland Dr. afterlife stuff in the season 2 finale was better but still harmed by bit where the guy at the bar straight up tells Kevin he needs to sing to get back. It once again gives Kevin an easy to understand video game type objective he has to clear to come back to life, though luckily Theroux loving nails it once he gets on stage.

In International Assassin, the well scene is the only one I thought worked really well. If I had to pick a single episode as my least favorite this would probably be it.

Raxivace fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Mar 25, 2017

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013

Raxivace posted:

I think the afterlife stuff in the season 2 finale was better but still harmed by bit where the guy at the bar straight up tells Kevin he needs to sing to get back. It once again gives Kevin an easy to understand video game type objective he has to clear to come back to life, though luckily Theroux loving nails it once he gets on stage.

In International Assassin, the well scene is the only one I thought worked really well. If I had to pick a single episode as my least favorite this would probably be it.

I largely agree -- though I'd probably describe the dream navigation stuff as prosaic rather than video-gamey.

But look, for me so much of the show was about a reaction to a single, momentous and inexplicable event that was significant for its singularity. There Depature was an actual, undeniable supernatural event that threw everything human beings had previously understood out of whack and utterly destabilised humanity on a deep, psychological level. All religions were proven wrong, all science was thrown into question and man was made to feel very very small. Social structures buckled, but did not break. New tribal cultures emerged to quantify this new paradigm. Life went on, coping but not metabolising the disaster. The Departure was a wound that couldn't be healed, and humankind was thrown into a constant state of doubt, bewilderment and denial as a result.

So, like, that's my reading of the show. And it's why I'm frustrated by the show's decision to create a topography of the afterlife or to build a concrete mythology to contextualise the Depature. The characters can try to do that, that's a very natural and normalised reaction to trauma. But when the show does it, it feels like an attempt to resolve and neutralise the show's concepts, and it undermines much of its thematic concerns.

Last Chance
Dec 31, 2004

Open Source Idiom posted:

I largely agree -- though I'd probably describe the dream navigation stuff as prosaic rather than video-gamey.

But look, for me so much of the show was about a reaction to a single, momentous and inexplicable event that was significant for its singularity. There Depature was an actual, undeniable supernatural event that threw everything human beings had previously understood out of whack and utterly destabilised humanity on a deep, psychological level. All religions were proven wrong, all science was thrown into question and man was made to feel very very small. Social structures buckled, but did not break. New tribal cultures emerged to quantify this new paradigm. Life went on, coping but not metabolising the disaster. The Departure was a wound that couldn't be healed, and humankind was thrown into a constant state of doubt, bewilderment and denial as a result.

So, like, that's my reading of the show. And it's why I'm frustrated by the show's decision to create a topography of the afterlife or to build a concrete mythology to contextualise the Depature. The characters can try to do that, that's a very natural and normalised reaction to trauma. But when the show does it, it feels like an attempt to resolve and neutralise the show's concepts, and it undermines much of its thematic concerns.

I think that's really well put, and I wonder if they'll try to remain vague about what the departure actually was, but give us another sense of closure by admitting that the departed are fuckin dead, wherever they are. And maybe Kevin has to bring that message of closure to humanity by seeing them in the afterlife and reporting that back to the living.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

Open Source Idiom posted:

I largely agree -- though I'd probably describe the dream navigation stuff as prosaic rather than video-gamey.

But look, for me so much of the show was about a reaction to a single, momentous and inexplicable event that was significant for its singularity. There Depature was an actual, undeniable supernatural event that threw everything human beings had previously understood out of whack and utterly destabilised humanity on a deep, psychological level. All religions were proven wrong, all science was thrown into question and man was made to feel very very small. Social structures buckled, but did not break. New tribal cultures emerged to quantify this new paradigm. Life went on, coping but not metabolising the disaster. The Departure was a wound that couldn't be healed, and humankind was thrown into a constant state of doubt, bewilderment and denial as a result.

So, like, that's my reading of the show. And it's why I'm frustrated by the show's decision to create a topography of the afterlife or to build a concrete mythology to contextualise the Depature. The characters can try to do that, that's a very natural and normalised reaction to trauma. But when the show does it, it feels like an attempt to resolve and neutralise the show's concepts, and it undermines much of its thematic concerns.
Not sure I have much to add but I like this post and I think I see where you're coming from.

Why exactly do you think Lindelof and co. decided to take things in this kind of a direction? If I were to make a guess they were trying to broaden the "universe" of the show, even if in some ways it made things feel actually smaller and more inherently knowable.

Last Chance posted:

I think that's really well put, and I wonder if they'll try to remain vague about what the departure actually was, but give us another sense of closure by admitting that the departed are fuckin dead, wherever they are. And maybe Kevin has to bring that message of closure to humanity by seeing them in the afterlife and reporting that back to the living.
If they're just dead, even if its for unknown reasons, I kind of feel like that just gives things a little too much closure.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

Raxivace posted:

If they're just dead, even if its for unknown reasons, I kind of feel like that just gives things a little too much closure.

Ok, I have to agree with this; there's something extremely unsettling in not knowing whether or not the departed are ok, or just gone. Maybe they're in some sort of hell, or maybe they're in a way better place than the leftovers.

If they're officially dead, yeah, that's fairly normal, despite the circumstances.

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
You monsters are ruining this thread with your wrong opinions :(

Ausmund
Jan 24, 2007

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Open Source Idiom posted:

I largely agree -- though I'd probably describe the dream navigation stuff as prosaic rather than video-gamey.

But look, for me so much of the show was about a reaction to a single, momentous and inexplicable event that was significant for its singularity. There Depature was an actual, undeniable supernatural event that threw everything human beings had previously understood out of whack and utterly destabilised humanity on a deep, psychological level. All religions were proven wrong, all science was thrown into question and man was made to feel very very small. Social structures buckled, but did not break. New tribal cultures emerged to quantify this new paradigm. Life went on, coping but not metabolising the disaster. The Departure was a wound that couldn't be healed, and humankind was thrown into a constant state of doubt, bewilderment and denial as a result.

So, like, that's my reading of the show. And it's why I'm frustrated by the show's decision to create a topography of the afterlife or to build a concrete mythology to contextualise the Depature. The characters can try to do that, that's a very natural and normalised reaction to trauma. But when the show does it, it feels like an attempt to resolve and neutralise the show's concepts, and it undermines much of its thematic concerns.
The show isn't really about the departed. The flashback pre-departer episode in season 1 was a big clue on that. There is something much bigger going on.

Also Virgil is a liar. He didn't give Kevin poison. He gave him a drug. The same drug his dad is on when he sees him through the tv. "Devil's Tounge". The hotel is not the afterlife. Only 98% dream, 2% spiritual realm.

UmOk
Aug 3, 2003


From the trailer. Why does this look familiar?

Klungar
Feb 12, 2008

Klungo make bessst ever video game, 'Hero Klungo Sssavesss Teh World.'

UmOk posted:



From the trailer. Why does this look familiar?

The Dharma Initiative is behind the Departure?

Rocco
Mar 15, 2003

Hey man. You're number one. Put it. In. The Bucket.

Escobarbarian posted:

You monsters are ruining this thread with your wrong opinions :(

No poo poo, what the gently caress happened to this thread

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

Ausmund posted:

He didn't give Kevin poison. He gave him a drug.
I'm not sure I understand this interpretation. If this were true what would be the point of like, anything Virgil did in that episode?

Like why only knock Kevin out to have Michael bury him anyways?

Raxivace fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Mar 27, 2017

tadashi
Feb 20, 2006

Ausmund posted:

The show isn't really about the departed. The flashback pre-departer episode in season 1 was a big clue on that. There is something much bigger going on.

Also Virgil is a liar. He didn't give Kevin poison. He gave him a drug. The same drug his dad is on when he sees him through the tv. "Devil's Tounge". The hotel is not the afterlife. Only 98% dream, 2% spiritual realm.

Definitely. The show is about survivors of tragedy and picking up the pieces of your life after a tragedy. I think people who want to watch the show just to find out what happened are watching it for all the wrong reasons. We might get a few more clues about the Departure event in this season but I don't feel the creators have any responsibility to explain it. Perrotta certainly didn't feel a responsibility to explain it in the book and I don't think they have one, either.

The other thing is that, even if they explain the Departure in some way, they would do the show a disservice to give anyone any sort of closure even if they discover more about the event. The whole thing with tragedy is that people often attempt to understand why as though it will help them cope better with the aftermath, but it rarely does.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

tadashi posted:

Definitely. The show is about survivors of tragedy and picking up the pieces of your life after a tragedy. I think people who want to watch the show just to find out what happened are watching it for all the wrong reasons. We might get a few more clues about the Departure event in this season but I don't feel the creators have any responsibility to explain it. Perrotta certainly didn't feel a responsibility to explain it in the book and I don't think they have one, either.

The other thing is that, even if they explain the Departure in some way, they would do the show a disservice to give anyone any sort of closure even if they discover more about the event. The whole thing with tragedy is that people often attempt to understand why as though it will help them cope better with the aftermath, but it rarely does.

Maybe the show works on a meta level, with us as viewers also having that need for an explanation after such a loss, albeit a fictional one. We just need to all make sense of it. We watch the characters go through this, but a lot of us are, too (in a much smaller and less tragic sense, of course).

Attitude Indicator
Apr 3, 2009

explaining the departure would take the show in a direction i'm not interested in. It also seem completely unnecessary, as it works perfectly as just the backdrop and catalyst for the characters.

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Open Source Idiom posted:

Lindelof (and the Bad Robot crew in general) has a deeply hokey vein of pseudo spiritual good times bullshit that runs through his work. I've always found it deeply unsatisfying and arbitrary, and I'd rather the show resist that urge.

Lindelof's whole oeuvre (specifically the early parts of LOST, Prometheus, and this) deals pretty heavily with how some of the biggest mysteries in life are basically unknowable and either you are a fool for asking or you won't like/understand the answer you get.

I think LOST tried to answer stuff mainly because the network mandated it and the audience expected it but I don't think that was ever really the "point" of the show. Like the answer to "why is there a magical island" or "how/why did 500 million people vanish into thin air" is always going to be either "magic" or "psuedo-science that is effectively magic". The more compelling thing is seeing how people take in this information and react to it/fit it into their whole worldview.

Basically there's no way they try to "explain" the departure in a way that doesn't just open up a million more questions.

Ausmund
Jan 24, 2007

THUNDERDOME LOSER

tadashi posted:

Definitely. The show is about survivors of tragedy and picking up the pieces of your life after a tragedy. I think people who want to watch the show just to find out what happened are watching it for all the wrong reasons. We might get a few more clues about the Departure event in this season but I don't feel the creators have any responsibility to explain it. Perrotta certainly didn't feel a responsibility to explain it in the book and I don't think they have one, either.

The other thing is that, even if they explain the Departure in some way, they would do the show a disservice to give anyone any sort of closure even if they discover more about the event. The whole thing with tragedy is that people often attempt to understand why as though it will help them cope better with the aftermath, but it rarely does.
Not even that. I don't know if you noticed, but the main character, Kevin didn't lose anybody in the departure. The new family introduced in season 2 lived in a town that didn't lose anyone in the departure. The departure is something that happened in their world but it is not what the show is about. In the flashback episode of season 1, Kevin's life was shown to be on the verge of falling apart regardless.

Raxivace posted:

I'm not sure I understand this interpretation. If this were true what would be the point of like, anything Virgil did in that episode?

Like why only knock Kevin out to have Michael bury him anyways?
Why did Virgil promise to revive Kevin with "serum" but eject it all over the floor and blow his brains out? If Virgil could lie about that, what else could he lie about? We still have another season and it seems like Garvey Senior and Australia are going to be the heart of what was going on there, so we'll probably get more info then.

Also the first time Kevin saw Virgil, Kevin was sleep walking and wanted to know how to get rid of Patty. He was instructed he had to kill himself. Why didn't Virgil give Kevin the "poison" then? Why did Kevin jump in the river instead? Because the poison isn't poison.

Guy A. Person posted:

Lindelof's whole oeuvre (specifically the early parts of LOST, Prometheus, and this) deals pretty heavily with how some of the biggest mysteries in life are basically unknowable and either you are a fool for asking or you won't like/understand the answer you get.

I think LOST tried to answer stuff mainly because the network mandated it and the audience expected it but I don't think that was ever really the "point" of the show. Like the answer to "why is there a magical island" or "how/why did 500 million people vanish into thin air" is always going to be either "magic" or "psuedo-science that is effectively magic". The more compelling thing is seeing how people take in this information and react to it/fit it into their whole worldview.

Basically there's no way they try to "explain" the departure in a way that doesn't just open up a million more questions.
I bet it's going to be someone claimed they figured out a way to make people vanish. So they offer their services, with the catch being you don't come back, but you'll go to the same "place" as the departed and be with them again. Probably a scam.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

Ausmund posted:

Why did Virgil promise to revive Kevin with "serum" but eject it all over the floor and blow his brains out?
To follow him into the "afterlife" and "guide" him, hence the thinly veiled reference with his name to the Divine Comedy (Or it could be The Aeneid, though that's less likely IMO). The serum part probably was a lie, and is the only part I think there's any evidence for being a lie, though Virgil also had Kevin buried in the ground in the forest which was already previously shown to bring the dead back to life- hence Erika's (And let's all remember she's Virgil's daughter) story about burying birds and making wishes and so forth.

International Assassin also heavily implies that Virgil himself could have somehow come back to life had he not "drank the water".

quote:

He was instructed he had to kill himself. Why didn't Virgil give Kevin the "poison" then? Why did Kevin jump in the river instead?
This is what Virgil says about the incident: "You understood just fine the last time. In fact, you grabbed a piece of my rope, picked up a cinder block from outside, then off you walked into the woods. I told you you needed help.You needed a guide. But you were itching to do battle, so off you went to do it. Now, drowning's not the best way to cross. No exit strategy. And like I said, you need a guide. But I'd reckon that quake happened right before you passed, opened up the ground, emptied out all that water. Spared your life. Which means either you got somebody looking out for you or you've got yourself a most powerful adversary".

IOW Kevin just suddenly started acting on his own without Virgil's help.

UmOk
Aug 3, 2003
Also the bullet that went through Kevin wasn't a Bullet. It was a drug.

Not only did the two main families not lose anyone in the departure but none of the significant GR characters did either. Patti, Meg, Kevin-wife.

Meg is the worst. She's not even a believer. Just really vindictive.

Agronox
Feb 4, 2005
Um, aren't we forgetting something when we say Kevin's wife didn't lose anyone?

Invalid Validation
Jan 13, 2008




I don't think so, Patti cult recruited her. Or was she fetus departed? It's been a while.

Invalid Validation fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Mar 27, 2017

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

UmOk posted:

Also the bullet that went through Kevin wasn't a Bullet. It was a drug.

Not only did the two main families not lose anyone in the departure but none of the significant GR characters did either. Patti, Meg, Kevin-wife.

Meg is the worst. She's not even a believer. Just really vindictive.

Kevin-wife did lose her unborn child.

Meg is so blatantly the worst. Her whole character boils down to the season 1 episode where she spends the afternoon loving with people GR-style, then attacks Matt when he shows up with the pamphlet about her (effectively the same exact thing), then delights in how they're going to gently caress with people even harder. The only flaw in her character is that they could make it more explicit why anyone even follows her; it's probably that she offers them the freedom to gently caress with people then act like victims/martyrs when there is reprisal. I love her last scene in season 2 where she starts singing her triumphant little "I just hosed with the entire town :smug:" song and Kevin just wanders away.

Ausmund
Jan 24, 2007

THUNDERDOME LOSER

Raxivace posted:

To follow him into the "afterlife" and "guide" him, hence the thinly veiled reference with his name to the Divine Comedy (Or it could be The Aeneid, though that's less likely IMO). The serum part probably was a lie, and is the only part I think there's any evidence for being a lie, though Virgil also had Kevin buried in the ground in the forest which was already previously shown to bring the dead back to life- hence Erika's (And let's all remember she's Virgil's daughter) story about burying birds and making wishes and so forth.

International Assassin also heavily implies that Virgil himself could have somehow come back to life had he not "drank the water".
This is what Virgil says about the incident: "You understood just fine the last time. In fact, you grabbed a piece of my rope, picked up a cinder block from outside, then off you walked into the woods. I told you you needed help.You needed a guide. But you were itching to do battle, so off you went to do it. Now, drowning's not the best way to cross. No exit strategy. And like I said, you need a guide. But I'd reckon that quake happened right before you passed, opened up the ground, emptied out all that water. Spared your life. Which means either you got somebody looking out for you or you've got yourself a most powerful adversary".

IOW Kevin just suddenly started acting on his own without Virgil's help.
Aw, okay. I haven't seen it in a while, so I don't remember the details too well.

UmOk posted:

Also the bullet that went through Kevin wasn't a Bullet. It was a drug.

Not only did the two main families not lose anyone in the departure but none of the significant GR characters did either. Patti, Meg, Kevin-wife.

Meg is the worst. She's not even a believer. Just really vindictive.
People can survive gun shots. But there is a small vague spiritual/divine happening as well. And the drug was still in Kevin's system. I don't think it has to be either supernatural or rational explanation. I think it can be all of the above.

Agronox posted:

Um, aren't we forgetting something when we say Kevin's wife didn't lose anyone?
We don't know for sure because they never showed it. It's just implied. We don't know the full story yet.

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Attitude Indicator
Apr 3, 2009

UmOk posted:

Also the bullet that went through Kevin wasn't a Bullet. It was a drug.

Not only did the two main families not lose anyone in the departure but none of the significant GR characters did either. Patti, Meg, Kevin-wife.

Meg is the worst. She's not even a believer. Just really vindictive.

didn't meg's mother depart?

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