“It’s gonna be a hard day, buddy.”
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
It wasn’t just the question of whether or not the late Patti Levin is real – operating in some alternate ghostly realm that only Kevin can see – that was addressed this week. No, not only did Kevin question his cognitive abilities on a sane versus insane level, but – going even deeper down the rabbit hole – he began to question Patti’s motives. Her reliability. Her alignment. All while also having to half-admit that there was a better-than-average chance that he was just flat-out having a psychotic break.
“A Most Powerful Adversary” was amazing. Honestly, as much as I love this show, sometimes the Kevin end of things don’t make for the strongest stories. Sometimes Kevin’s own weird self-desturctive drama gets overshadowed and outclassed by excellent detour-y Nora and Matt arcs. Or even by new characters like the Murphys. But this was Kevin’s best through line to date. Even topping Justin Theroux’s work back in the Season 1 finale. Here we saw Kevin wrestling with so much, that one could hardly believe he’d still be resolute enough to figure out what his next steps might be. This was a cerebral pretzel from the moment Patti (who was real enough in Kevin’s mind to physically block a note left by Nora on a chair) warned him about the hard day he was about to face.
The last five minutes of this one were jaw-dropping. Kevin sped off to Virgil’s place (after making the viewer think that perhaps he was “in for a penny” with Laurie and her very reasonable explanation regarding his condition) and then agreed to kill himself so that he might rid his life of Patti and her – apparently – malevolent force. A force that we know Virgil could see hovering around Kevin back in the second episode of the season, but one that Virgil also blamed for his own mistakes – which may include the sexual abuse of his son John!
Virgil’s the only one who can relate to Kevin on this level, and the only one who believes in Kevin, but he’s also blamed his own past “passenger” for causing him to do some truly evil things. Things Kevin hasn’t done (yet?). So while we know Virgil can see people’s esoteric ailments, there’s also a “born again” element to him that comes through when he blames his past sins (which can now no longer be committed thanks to John shooting him several times, once in his “nethers”) on his own Patti-type visitor.
But then again, while it all might not add up exactly, Virgil might still be onto something. Because this week we found out exactly why Kevin was at the bottom of that spring with the cement block tied to his ankle. He wasn’t trying to kill himself out of depressed desperation. He was trying to get rid of Patti. Sleepwalking Him made the curious choice to follow up on Virgil’s invitation and then went through with the prescribed method of treatment. Suicide. And Patti lied to him. Like some sort of trickster creature solely out for self-preservation. A screaming side of her that we finally saw, fully, right at the end when Kevin swallowed the poison.
And so why did Virgil cop out on his “guide” side of the plan? Why did he leave Kevin for dead and then off himself? And why did Michael not seem utterly shocked by any of this when he walked in and found both of them dead? He had the same look of disapproval on his face, by the way, when Kevin arrived a few minutes earlier. This was an utterly awesome ending. And unlike some other shows that toy around with fake-out deaths and whatnot, I feel like the idea here isn’t “Oh no, Kevin’s dead!” It’s “this show is freakin’ smart and has this all figured out in a way we can’t see yet.” And so now, I can’t wait to see it.
Nora wasn’t a huge part of this one, though her absence was. And the void she and Lily left behind sort of left Kevin and Jill back in their Season 1 despondency. Much like their old shattered lives after Laurie left. And so Kevin was dead set on fixing this problem (which may not be fixable) so as to quickly repair his family. Though I will say, I’d thought better of Nora. I didn’t think she’d up and move out based on Kevin’s news. Especially with him being so honest. So I do wonder if there’s a side to her tale we’ve yet to see (it’s not like the show to skip over important off-screen plot movement like this).
Laurie coming back was a nice addition here, as it allowed Kevin to hear a caring voice offering up a secondary theory about his mind (the most blunt and non-supernatural one possible). And I especially appreciated the vagueness regarding Kevin’s ultimate decision to return to Virgil’s. Did he make a snap decision after speaking with Nora? Or did he already have his mind made up before he went to go see Laurie in the hotel? And then brought her back home so that someone could be there for Jill if things went wrong.
All this, plus Kevin accidentally placed himself in a position to have his palm print taken by John. What a damn whirlwind!
“A Most Powerful Adversary,” like most great Leftovers episodes, answered questions while immediately raising more. Keeping the chain of intrigue flowing. And here, thanks to a top-of-the-line performance by Justin Theroux, Kevin’s issues started to take more of a relatable shape. A malevolent shape. An “IT” type shape, actually (thanks to HitFix critic Alan Sepinwall for putting the diabolical goings-on in Derry in my brain). A presence that, more of less, starts to put Patti in the same type of category as Satan, though she herself scoffed at the idea of directing Kevin down any particular path (unless it involved an ancient pharaoh’s chalice and some of his…um…fluids).
This was Kevin at his worst, but also his best. Cursed and afflicted, but also determined not to let his family crumble apart (again). Realizing that his asleep-self didn’t want to end it all, like Patti insisted, helped drive him toward that last-ditch solution.
