‘The Leftovers’ recap: ‘Who wants a hug?’

With the popularity of shows like “Fargo” and “True Detective” and “American Horror Story,” anthology series are in the midst of quite the television resurgence. Yet lost in this throwback to a bygone TV format is the anthology storytelling of shows like “The Twilight Zone” and “Playhouse 90,” shows that offered up a self-contained story in each episode, as opposed to a singular season.

It’s perhaps this scarcity that has made the first three episodes of “The Leftovers” Season 2 so potent. Though the episodes exist within the same universe and are lightly interconnected, they tell three independent stories, focused on three different sets of characters and how they cope with life post-departure and, in the last two episodes, post the events of Season 1.

SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter >>

In Episode 3, “Off Ramp,” “The Leftovers” takes the audience into the lives of Laurie (Amy Brenneman) and Tommy (Chris Zylka) and their adventures after a tumultuous Season 1 finale. In the wake of the fire at the Guilty Remnant compound that nearly killed daughter Jill (Margeret Qualley), Laurie has given herself over to the cause of freeing people from the constraints of GR life, enlisting son Tommy to infiltrate sects and lure individuals to their deprogramming.

She’s also writing a book about her time with the Guilty Remnant, detailing all of their wrongdoings, hoping to shine a light on the sins she believes they are perpetrating against the innocent. The problem for Laurie at this point is that she doesn’t seem to understand that the Guilty Remnant doesn’t force anyone to do anything. They merely enable people who are already lost.

Granted, that’s not the most noble cause for a group, but it’s not necessarily that different from what Laurie is trying to do with her deprogramming. At heart, Laurie is trying to dictate how individuals deal with the aftermath of the departure when, ultimately, that’s not her decision to make.

Perception is a tricky thing, particularly when it comes to matters of belief. Often times, the only thing standing between upstart cult and storied religion is time. A man capable of turning water into wine isn’t much more unbelievable than angels dealing in golden plates or a UFO traveling in the wake of an asteroid. Which isn’t to say that any major religions are untrue or foolish, merely that the world is full of unbelievable things that, true or otherwise, some find comfort in believing in.

As unpleasant a reality as it may be, those involved find a level of comfort within the confines of the Guilty Remnant. Which is why Tommy and Laurie have such trouble in the process of deprogramming and why, ultimately, they resolve to start misleading the people they’ve gathered by telling them that Tommy has inherited the pain absorption powers of the now dead Holy Wayne. He weaves for them a tale about his past and a last encounter with Holy Wayne, ending by spreading his arms wide and asking them, “Who wants a hug?”

Sin eaters don’t exist, but belief in them offers a comfort to those desperate to believe that the pain that they’re feeling will someday end. By the end of the episode, Tommy and Laurie realize that organizations did Alcoholics Anonymous long ago: You can’t strip individuals of a belief or an addiction without offering them a palpable substitute. Like giant bowls of nicotine gum that Laurie has available to the former chain-smoking Guilty Remnant members, the pair offer up Tommy as healer to take the place of the bleak reality that GR offered, much like AA offers up God to recovering addicts.

In the end, Laurie and Tommy make headway when it comes to putting something good into the world, even as they use deception to do so. But the wrongs from the past aren’t so easily righted and the path forward is sure to be harrowing. Specifically, the way that the pair’s attempt to free a woman from the Guilty Remnant, only to have her drive herself and her family into oncoming traffic, mirrors Tommy’s near-death run-in with Meg (Liv Tyler), the woman Laurie recruited into the GR in the first season. It suggests that it doesn’t matter if our intentions are good; sometimes interference is the most damning thing we can do.

Everyone on “The Leftovers” wants to believe there’s a right way to live in the post-departure world, but is blind to the fact that any belief, any action that gets a person through the day is the right way to live. The sooner the characters can make that realization, the better off their fractured lives will be.

Follow me on Twitter at @midwestspitfire.

[email protected]