The Leftovers “Certified” Review: Therapy is the place to be

Laurie walks away from the peaceful Nora and Matt on The Leftovers

Photo Credit: HBO 

Thoughts on “Certified” are brought to you in part by the new hotline 1-800 Suicide…

Due to some Twin Peaks madness this week’s Leftovers review will go straight to the bullets…

• First of all wow. It’s hard to find a season of television that has blown me away this consistently but the Leftovers has managed to do so at almost a weekly basis at this point. “Certified” might even be the best episode this show has to offer so far this season. It’s not the strangest, wildest, or the one with the biggest moments but it is the most emotionally raw and the first to draw real tears from me. Laurie has evolved greatly as a character throughout these three seasons and this was the perfect send-off for her. Whether or not she ends up taking Nora’s perfect suicide advice at the end of the episode is still up in the air (more on that in a minute) but I feel like no matter the result that this is the end for Laurie and the show. We got two back to back dynamite sequences to pay her off, whether it was the expert job she does with counseling and comforting Nora, or the amazing conversation with Kevin that played out near the close of the episode “Certified” gave actress Amy Brenneman her proper due at what seems like the end of her tenure on the show. Both literally (it seems like she has done all she can for the rest of the characters at this point), and philosophically (“all of us are gone”) it seems as though Laurie has quietly come to the almost satisfying realisation that she has done all she can and is done with this world and maybe it’s time to move on.

• “Certified” struck me the hardest though not just as a Laurie character piece but as a beautiful contemplation of suicide. Beyond the emotional bombast of the pre-credit sequence which shows the Laurie of the past’s attempted suicide and entry into the Guilty Remnant the episode very quietly and yet very effectively puts the concept of death firmly on the table. It seemed to me midway through “Certified” that most of the main characters are on the last rung at this point and are now challenged with having to tackle it. As suspected in episode 4 it seems as though Nora is actually fully considering the “incineration machine,” Matt is dying of his illness, Kevin Sr. thinks the apocalypse is coming, Kevin Jr. is being asked to die by three groups of people, and as mentioned earlier Laurie just seems at peace with being at the end of her rope. The air of death populates the entire episode, but I doesn’t suffocate it either. At this point contemplations of death, mostly through suicide (maybe with the only exception of Matt but even then he is not taking any sort of treatment for his illness) is just a part of these character’s DNA and the show’s demonstration of how it affects all of them is both crushingly sad and quietly beautiful. It seems as though The Leftovers, like it does with most things at this point, has taken a beautifully complex and difficult look at death and suicide. Nothing is simple or black and white, and I think the best example comes from Laurie herself. Even if death is sad in general there seems to be a peaceful finality to the thought of her potential death via scuba diving. While Laurie is clearly loved (there is a great tender scene between her and John that is incredibly touching) she also seems like an outsider looking in, almost like a guardian angel who has finished her duties. Laurie can not fully be at peace in this world just due to her lingering nihilism and ultimately death may be the only way to solve. As strange as it sounds there is a sort of beauty and peace to that.

• Then there is the scene with Nora and Matt. I have watched the scene on the cliff that brought me to tears numerous times now (it seems like it’s Carrie Coon’s amazing croak of “ok” and the “I’ll see you next week” that get me each time I watch it) and I am unsure yet of whether it is a scene that seems peaceful because of a revelation that both Nora and Matt become at peace with dying or just where they are in that exact moment emotionally. Either way it hits me like a ton of bricks every time I watch it. I can’t quite explain why, maybe it’s seeing Nora and Matt two characters who have struggled with their goals and beliefs for a long time (as evidence by Nora’s great beach ball story no matter how cold she can be the human in her is still at odds with her growing cruel rationalism) finally finding some sense of peace together even amongst the sadness of it all, or maybe it’s the kind of sad and kind of cruel realization that both Nora and Matt have that nothing really matters at this point in their lives (even amongst the peace of it all that is still pretty crushing in itself), maybe it’s just the respective weight that the performances of booth Carrie Coon (who continues to be the best) and Amy Brenneman bring to the table. It’s one of those great Leftovers scenes of late that just sneaks up on you, and by the time the scene is over and the great swelling sad music is at full forte you find yourself (as I did) a complete wreck. It’s far from the biggest emotional scene of this season, far from the longest monologue, but it’s the one that found a way to break me completely.

That’s it for this week. I am confident now after “Certified” that if this show sticks the landing that I can call it the greatest final season of any show of all time. This is an all time legendary run, every week this show has found new ways to surprise, wow, and break me. I can’t wait to see where this show takes us in its final two episodes.

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?