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"Forget the Book of Revelation \u2014 we need to talk about Kevin.\nMapleton's Police Chief is spiraling out of control, and a murder-y darkness bubbles beneath his controlled model-citizen exterior. By day, Kevin Garvey keeps the peace, takes care of his troubled daughter (and her couch-surfing friend), and tries to rehabilitate a rabid dog; by night, he gets blackout drunk, possibly hooks up with said couch-surfing friend, and kidnaps people he doesn't like with the intent to kill.\nSEE ALSO: 'The Leftovers' Episode 7 Recap: Father, Son and Holy Spirit\nWhen he wakes up in the morning, he goes about his business \u2014 not remembering a damn thing. This time, it's a different story. \nTo his horror, Kevin finds himself deep in the woods with the canine-killing Sling Blade soundalike and their captive, Guilty Remnant boss Patti. Sling Blade tells Kevin that they snatched Patti and drove off to a deserted cabin in Cairo, New York, where the cop planned to off the \"fat, heartless c\u2014-\" for good. \nOn a positive note, he finally discovered what happened to his white work shirts! They hang from trees, evidence that he's been to this place before.\nAt first Kevin refuses to believe that his Jekyll-and-Hyde nocturnal antics are real, that he's capable of kidnapping someone (and worse).\n\"Look Chief, I get it. You tried every way you could to stop these f\u2014-s. You could only get so far because you are a good man,\" mumbles Mr. Blade. \"So how 'bout you go back to the truck and get comfortable, close your eyes, because I need to talk to the other guy.\"\n\"There's only f\u2014-ing me!\" Kevin responds. Then he sees the shirts, and the terrible truth dawns on him. You can see it in his eyes: What else have I done in my midnight madness? (If you're a fan of \"How I Met Your Mother,\" then you know that \"nothing good ever happens after 2 a.m.\")\nThe central theme of The Leftovers is the battle between good and evil, raging inside each of us. Kevin is repeatedly shown in a broken mirror, an overt (if lazy) symbol of his fractured, dual personality. \nAnother thematic showdown: denial versus acceptance. While Kevin wears dark clothing, Patti's decked out in all white \u2014 symbolic of purity, enlightenment and grace. It is perhaps not coincidental that in this episode both Nora Durst and Jill Garvey are dressed in all black, which could symbolize ignorance and lack of introspection \u2014 like Kevin, they're stuck on Auto-pilot in a state of denial, pretending everything's OK because to confront pain and loss would be too much to bear. \nAfter all, living in the present is a hell of a lot easier on the psyche than looking backward to the past. But sweeping things under the proverbial rug (see: Nora's gun) won't make the problem go away.\nJill rightly suspects that Nora lied about getting rid of the revolver she kept in her purse (before Holy Wayne's \"healing\" hug). She breaks into Nora's home for confirmation, and when she finds the weapon stashed underneath a missing child's bed, she begins to sob as blindingly white light enters through a window, casting a halo around her opaque profile. \nAcceptance. Asked about the gun, Jill tells her partners-in-crime (the amazing Frost twins) it \"doesn't matter.\" She then shows up at GR headquarters, where her mother lives, asking to stay overnight.\nBefore stabbing herself with a shard of mirror (a piece of Kevin's shattered soul!), Patti lectures her unlikely captor on his inability, or refusal, to do any soul-searching on the significance of 10/14. \n\nA scene from HBO's \"The Leftovers.\"Image:  HBO\"It doesn't matter what happened,\" she says. \"But the difference between you and me is that I accept that it did. And while you push it aside, while you ignore it, we strip ourselves of everything that distracts us from it. We strip away the colorful diversions that keep us from remembering. We strip away attachment, fear and love. And hatred. And anger. Until we are erased. Until we are a blank slate. We are living reminders of what you try so desperately to forget. And we are ready. And we are waiting. Because it's not going to be long now.\"\nKevin's response: \"Now I know why you don't f\u2014-ing talk. Gotta hand it to you, Patti \u2014 that is an impressive line of f\u2014-ing bullshit.\"\nShe smirks at Kevin's declaration that Laurie defected to the GR because of his cheating. \"She came to me because I could offer her something you cannot: Purpose. That's all anyone wants now. Not answers, not love. Just a reason to exist \u2014 something to live for, something to die for.\"\nShe reveals that Gladys had voluntarily sacrificed her life for the cause \u2014 forcing people to remember \u2014 and that Laurie would soon follow suit.\nThough Patti is goading him, Kevin won't kill her. He cuts her loose and moves to take her back home. But it's too late. \nHer last words: \"You understand.\"\nLeftovers:\nMapleton is a fictional town, but Cairo is real! Jennifer Connelly is a native. It's also the name of the capital of Egypt, the site of social and political upheaval stretching back to B.C.\nSling Blade has apparently fallen off society's grid and given himself up to the full-time pursuit of vigilante-ism. Patti thinks he's a ghost. He says he's a guardian angel. I like the ghost theory better.\n\nHARSH: \"I had dinner with your daughter last night. You might want to drop by and write her a note, too,\" Nora to Laurie, who made Meg pen an apology to Reverend Matt for kicking the crap out of him. \nAs it happens, Jill knocked on Laurie's door instead. Will she stay for one night \u2014 or join the cult as the newest (and youngest) member? How will Kevin deal with her departure \u2014 and explain Patti's death to the GR? Think Kevin Hyde crossed moral and legal lines and seduced Aimee? \nSound off in the comments ...\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/08/18/the-leftovers-episode-8-recap-a-tale-of-two-kevins/>