HBO's The Leftovers

I think this episode will focus on the character, Nora Durst.

I remember the preview showed someone slipping a grenade into her hand and then pulling the pin.

 

It was a fascinating episode.

 

Did anybody else not initially realize that that weird ad in the opening was part of the show?

I started FFWing through it, then realized I had to back it up because it was part of the show haha.

 

Episode 6 was called "Guest," named for the storyline about Nora Durst.

The episode begins with a weird advertisement, which, in a way, foreshadowed the episode. In this episode, we learn a lot about society outside of Mapleton. In the previous episode, we learned about how the government deals with cults ever since the 14th; in this episode, we learned how particular businesses have arisen and/or how existent ones now operate, since the 14th.

Let's start with the Loved Ones company that manufactures synthetic bodies to serve as corpses for the departed. Using an amalgamation of images from the departed person, this company builds an almost exact replica of the body. I'm not sure if any companies like this exist now, but whether or not they do, I can see this kind of company having success after such an event. I also realized that when the Asian girl, Christine, was walking over the bodies that were strewn on the highway (a couple of episodes ago), those bodies were the synthetic ones in transit. If you recall, the body-bags had a tag on each of them, and it said Loved Ones. So, those bodies weren't real. I thought that that connection was cool.

Another moment I liked was the hotel room, when the one girl starts distributing that drug to the party. The effects looked like Ecstasy, but the girl who was distributing said, "They'll be approved by the FDA within the year." I'm not sure if she was being sarcastic or not, but it got me thinking. With such a traumatic, inexplicable event, I can definitely see a slew of psychiatric disorders popping up, and thus, a slew of new pharmaceuticals hitting the market -- which goes back to the idea of making money from the event, one of the themes to this episode. In the first (or second) episode, when the twins and Jill are burying the dead dog. the twins tell Jill that the dogs who witnessed people/owners departing, just snapped -- and that it would happen to humans also, eventually, but the humans are taking longer. Instead of just losing our shit altogether and at once, we descend into madness and despair in much more complex ways.

We also found out a little bit about the rise of the cult leaders and how these guys are probably wackos. Right before Nora storms the panel, we hear a guy presenting, and he's displaying images while talking about megalomaniacs, presumably all of these cult leaders of these cults that have sprung up. I'm thinking Wayne falls into this category. When Nora is in the room with him he says, "Oh, I don't think she's ever heard of me." It's that type of ego that I think the guy was presenting on during the conference. But what about that exchange with Nora at the end?

So here's my big question: Is Holy Wayne legit or not? I really think it's all placebo self-fulfilling prophecy shit that exploits people who are suffering. Think the Barnum Effect. But I'm conflicted because what he's doing appears to work. I think Nora actually started feeling better by the end. That was the point of showing her at the grocery store -- she didn't buy and re-buy the same items for her departed family. She's beginning to accept that they're probably not ever coming back and she might not ever find out how or why.

That's just my .02. I don't necessarily think I'm correct or incorrect about any of this stuff; it's just my interpretations.

 

[YOUTUBE]

 

I don't know what to think about Wayne.

Like I said, what he does appears to work, but I have this feeling that it's just some sort of placebo going on because these people are so desperate to cease their suffering.

During the conference, there was a guy presenting on the emergence of cult leaders. That kind of makes me think that Wayne is just one of those type of people.

 

It does appear he's doing something IF we make that leap. Literally, he talks to them and then hugs them, and then -viola- their pain is gone.

What's interesting is that Nora never heard of Wayne, so she couldn't have been as susceptible to the power of Wayne's suggestion, as, say someone like the Congressman who knew of Wayne and sought out his help. Nora kind of stumbled upon Wayne blindly, and all she was told was that Wayne also took the author's pain away. Maybe just that little piece of info was enough to get her believing in Wayne.

Man, this guy has been the most difficult thing in the show for me to make a definitive call on. Even the bald guy -- I had a strong feeling he was real. But I can't make a call on Wayne.

 

Ooh now that's an idea. Like how people can be hypnotized to lose weight or quit smoking cigs. Maybe he does something like that to remove their pain.

 

Haha. And yea, that was a great scene. Wayne says exactly what you said, adding on "I've already got your money."

Hypnosis sounds plausible because some people's brains are very open to that.