‘The Leftovers’ recap: Looking for answers only leads to more questions

I talk about answers a lot in my recaps of “The Leftovers” for any number of reasons. Partially because of Damon Lindelof’s tendency to present stories in ways in which the narrative direction is not immediately clear, but mostly because Lindelof’s work itself is obsessed with people in desperate need of answers.

The curious thing is that the answers, whatever they are, rarely affect the characters (and the audience) in the way they might expect. In this week’s episode, “Lens,” the audience has so many questions answered. We found out the story behind Erika’s bird box, and that the genial old man that Michael prays with in the woods, Virgil, is actually Erika’s father. We found out that he’s the one who’s been sending the pies. We found out that when John went to jail for attempted murder, it was Virgil he didn’t try hard enough to kill.

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Yet none of this information is so startling as to distract from the fact that “Lens” may be the most perfectly balanced episode of “The Leftovers” yet, not surprising given how much time the episode gives over to a drawn-out battle of the wills between Erika and Nora.

As spectacular as Carrie Coon is at portraying Nora, it’s clear that what she really needed to take her performance to the next level was to go head-to-head with the force of nature that is Regina King. King, who won an Emmy for her performance on “American Crime” earlier this year, is a marvel at presenting Erika’s barely restrained despair at her current situation in a palpable way.

Ultimately, Nora and Erika are searching for the same things. Both want absolution for the loss of their children and the security of knowing they weren’t responsible for their disappearance. It’s a theme that’s run throughout this season of “The Leftovers,” from the very first scenes of the season featuring the isolated cavewoman and her child. Even Laurie makes an appearance in this episode, calling Nora’s cellphone looking for Tom, telling her that if she sees him, to tell him she’s worried about him, that she’s sorry.

Family is tough, that much is clear from “Lens.” Erika has it out with her father, Virgil, telling him to stay out of her family’s life. But as desperately as she wants to cut ties with him, he knows her innately. Virgil, who shares a name with the Roman poet immortalized in the “Divine Comedy” as Dante’s guide through hell, knows that Erika was suffering long before Evie disappeared. He knows that Erika has been using birds to wish her way to freedom.

He knows Erika the way that Matt knows Nora. When Matt confronts Nora about taking Mary with her to the fundraiser for the missing girls, he accuses her of being hostile toward the Murphys, a suggestion at which she scoffs, asking, “Why would I feel hostile to them?” Matt replies, “I don’t know. Why would you?”

The truth is that Nora is angry with the Murphys because their daughter disappeared and she’s petrified that it’s her fault. She is frightened that she is the reason that her family disappeared and that she will be shunned from the only place she’s felt safe since the departure. Nora is angry that the Murphys’ misfortune threatens her security, so she takes steps to convince them that Evie’s disappearance was more nefarious than mystical, by throwing a rock through their window and peppering Erika with the questions from the updated departure questionnaire.

But slowly throughout the questions Erika comes to recognize the feral desperation in Nora’s actions and, after she admits to Nora that she thinks that it was her wish that caused Evie to disappear, Nora lashes out, dismissing the idea as ridiculous and asking Erika if she wished away the millions of people from the departure as well.

It’s at this point that Nora oversteps and Erika turns the questions on her, asking if her children died or departed, pressing the point, asking what their last words to her were, while Nora weeps. Erika has exposed Nora, and though she doesn’t know if Nora is culpable, she knows that Nora went to great lengths to convince her that she wasn’t responsible, in itself deeply suspicious behavior.

Whether she is or not, the thought that Nora might be a lens is an appealing one. It explains why her family disappeared wholesale, and even offers an explanation for what happened to the three girls. The science seems sound. She seems almost convinced. But it’s in the why that things get messy. Dr. Herbert, when prodded by Nora to explain the science of lenses, devolves into babbling about the demon Azrael taking Nora against her will and, slowly, Nora realizes that she’s no closer to finding legitimate answers about the departure than she was before.

Yet, on “The Leftovers,” as in real life, answers are rarely as enlightening as we hope they might be. This much is clear in the final scene, when Kevin finally opens up to Nora and reveals that he’s being plagued by an apparition of Patti that speaks to him and is the source of his sleepwalking antics and distracted nature. Nora wanted to know what was going on with Kevin, and now that she does, things are more complicated than ever.

We wants answers, but answers only lead to more questions. And asking more questions inevitably ends with neighbors throwing stones through your front windows. Maybe it’s better to embrace the mystery and leave the answers buried like so many songbirds.

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