What I’m Watching: The Leftovers

The Leftovers: Season 2, Episode 9 “Ten Thirteen” (B+)

I’ve complained when other shows, namely “The Walking Dead,” follow up one episode that asks so many questions about one character’s journey with an hour that omits him or her completely and focuses on another aspect of the plotline altogether. This show, on the other hand, makes up for that disappointment with a truly intense and surprising direction, recalling a character we haven’t seen much of over the course of the season and in many cases may have forgot existed. Meg was an outcast in season one who was just easing her way into the Guilty Remnant, and while she has a certain power within their ranks which allowed her to lord over and eviscerate Tom a few episodes back, she’s apparently a radical even within her cult. Watching her get on a bus full of children and drop a grenade and then casually order a passerby’s stoning in Jarden was immensely disturbing, and it gives the Guilty Remnant a whole new definition, since the group was big on upsetting people and closing them off from society but never in such an apologetically violent way. Having Meg miss out on her mother’s final words because she was snorting coke and then travel to Miracle pre-GR to talk to a psychic gives us some insight into her character, one who has clearly gone off the deep end trying to make sense of the world. Tom’s decision to come with her is a perplexing one, but his presence helped reveal a horrible secret: the missing girls are actually members of the Guilty Remnant, a fact that will surely destroy Jarden when it comes to light in the upcoming season finale.