The Leftovers

Following her family’s disappearance, Nora began watching episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants twice daily and writing in a journal about the memories each episode brought up about her children: “The show was a ritual she’d come to depend on, and these days rituals were pretty much all she had” (99). The process feels “vaguely religious” to her. Eventually, the ritual of watching and journaling ceases to give her a sense of comfort. She continues watching each day because she has no other ritual to replace this one with.

Each morning, Nora cycles for several hours. She does not have to worry about returning to work yet, as she received a generous sum in survivor’s benefits from the government. As she rides, Nora contemplates taking a vacation for the holidays to avoid having to confront her grief.

When she returns home, the Reverend Matt Jamison is waiting at her door. The two were close when Jamison helped Nora through the worst of her grief, but they drifted apart after Jamison split from the Zion Bible Church to write his newsletter that seeks to expose the sins of each person who was lost in the rapture. Jamison was made a pariah by the town and his family and, in Nora’s view, is clearly “falling apart.” He gives her a manila envelope with the next newsletter he plans to publish, which will expose Nora’s departed husband, Doug, for his extramarital affair.

Laurie was assigned a trainee to guide, Meg Lomax, and takes part in a nightly review with other higher-ranked members of the Guilty Remnant as they prepare assignments for the watchers. One evening, they are assigned to follow Arthur Donovan, though Laurie finds she does not care that much about him or any of the townspeople. Laurie is fully adjusted to life in the Guilty Remnant and even prefers not having to talk. She resents the residents of Mapleton who apparently returned to their normal lives as if the rapture never happened. She doesn’t follow her husband, though she knows that others saw him kissing at least three women, including Melissa Hubert.

After Laurie joined the Guilty Remnant, her best friend, Rosalie, transferred to another chapter on Long Island. Laurie continues to feel her real life remained in the grief she shared with Rosalie; she values the Guilty Remnant for the “regimen of hardship and humiliation” that reassures her that her life is not “a game of make-believe" (121) and avoidance.

Laurie and Meg begin their night’s watch of Arthur Donovan. They sit outside his house for several hours and follow him to the local grocery store. The two split up to find him, but Laurie loses track of both Meg and their charge. She finds Meg outside the store. Meg writes on a pad that she began to panic and had to step outside. They return to Ginkgo Street and their assigned house to begin their nightly routines, which include showers, prayers, and 15 minutes of permitted speaking.

During this time, Meg tells Laurie that she was supposed to get married the coming weekend. Her fiancé, Gary, agreed to postpone the wedding once due to their combined grief after the rapture but insisted that they needed to set a date. When Meg asked for a second postponement, Gary gave her an ultimatum: She could either marry him on their agreed-upon date or break up. Meg decided to join the Guilty Remnant instead of getting married.

Nora and her sister, Karen, decide to attend a dance held for the residents of Mapleton as a symbol of their ability to move on. Nora is resolved to make a public statement of her well-being, as Reverend Jamison’s newsletter was recently published. In it, he exposed Nora’s departed husband, Doug, for his affair with their children’s preschool teacher, Kylie. The affair’s exposure is a relief for Nora, who now feels like “just another woman betrayed by a selfish man” (137) instead of a tragic figure in the town. After dancing with her sister, Nora is approached by her husband’s mistress. Kylie apologizes as Karen intervenes and demands that Kylie leave.

Nora follows Kylie and confronts her in the hallway; she asks if Doug planned to leave her. Kylie assure her that Doug always said how much he loved Nora and had no plans to leave: “‘It was like a ritual. Right after we had sex, he’d get all serious and say, This isn’t about me not loving Nora’” (150). They talk briefly about how the affair started. Kylie leaves, but Nora remains in the hallway, too overwhelmed by emotions to move. Kevin finds her there and invites her back to the dance, where the two enjoy dancing together.

Meanwhile, Jill is at a small party with Aimee and their classmates playing “Get a Room,” a game that expands upon Spin the Bottle by having the other players vote on the quality of the kiss and whether the two kissing should go to a private room. Over the summer, more people played, but the group dwindled to eight, with the same couples always getting voted to get a room. Jill has a crush on Nick, one of the players, who is in love with Aimee and regularly gets a room with her. Jill always finds herself alone with Max, a nice guy for whom she has no feelings.