‘The Leftovers’ recap: Damage control

At one point during “Orange Sticker,” the latest episode of HBO’s “The Leftovers,” Isaac Rayney (Darius McCrary) tells Kevin there’s “nothing more dangerous than a man who don’t believe in nothing.” Though Rayney is referring to John Murphy specifically, given that Murphy just attacked him on suspicion he had something to do with Evie’s disappearance, Rayney’s statement could just as easily go for everyone on “The Leftovers.”

“Orange Sticker” is obsessed with the concept of being tied down. When Kevin finally talks to Patti, it’s after she goads him about attempting suicide with a cinder block tied to his leg. The episode ends with Nora handcuffing Kevin to her to try to stem his harmful sleepwalking incidents, keeping them both safe and, maybe more importantly, together.

For Kevin and Nora, the things that tie them down also keep them from floating off into the ether. Patti, functioning as both the non-denominational devil and angel on Kevin’s shoulder, may deride their relationship as damage control, rather than loss, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Just like Patti is wrong in telling Kevin that wanting to kill himself is proof that he doesn’t love his family, things (particularly in a Damon Lindelof universe) are rarely black or white.

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The episode opens with Nora’s side of the earthquake. She wakes, alone, with a jolt and once she ensures the girls are OK, she panics about Kevin. When she thinks, for a moment, that there may have been another departure, she faints dead away. When out of Nora’s sight, Kevin tries to kill himself and when out of Kevin’s sight, Nora wilts. But together, they become something more than their component parts. They become a partnership, a family. Believing in each other forces them to live outside the miserable lives that exist inside their heads. You can be tied down, but that tether may be just the thing to save your life.

But it’s not just Kevin and Nora who reflect this way of thinking, either. Matt is clearly tethered by his faith but, more significantly, by Mary and her seemingly unresponsive state. Michael Murphy, too, is strengthened by his faith and bears the burden of his twin sister’s disappearance with a quiet resolve, but tethers require balance and Matt and Michael seem to be reaching the end of theirs.

The same is true for the town of Miracle, itself. John assures Kevin that “there are no miracles in Miracle,” but that’s not entirely true. Miracle was made on the idea of no one departing, which is in and of itself miraculous. But even as the town indulges in that identity, it relies on a strict system of rules to keep outsiders outside. It doesn’t want Matt talking about Mary’s “awakening” because it fears claims that cannot be verified, almost as though they think that false promises will sully their brand and keep God from smiling on them the next time around. Miracle believes itself miraculous while understanding that being miraculous requires constant maintenance. It is both tethered by the concept and repelled and, currently, in danger of the balance slipping.

Lots of things happen during “Orange Sticker,” perhaps a banal thing to say about an episode of television, but it results in giving the episode a more chaotic feel than was present in the first three episodes of the season. This works, in part, given how much of the episode centers on the aftermath of the deeply destabilizing earthquake and Evie search party, but leaves the “Orange Sticker” lacking the emotional throughline of the small, centralized episodes that preceded it.

However, like those episodes that came before, “Orange Sticker” ends with more questions than answers, making it increasingly impossible to watch the show as pure mystery, with hopes for some grand explanation to come. This, of course, is the best possible choice the show could make, but still leaves so many delicious concepts out there to linger. The man in the tower seems to be able to see Patti -- does that make her real? Patti led Kevin to his phone and warned him against getting in a car that had yet to appear, does that mean she should be trusted when she tells him that the girls departed? Matt told Nora that Mary woke up from her catatonic state, but for one night only. Is that even possible?

I don’t know the answers. It’s possible that no one does. What makes “The Leftovers” so good is its ability to make the questions satisfying enough on their own.

Follow me on Twitter at @midwestspitfire.

libby.hill@latimes.com