Dear Doves,
This episode’s title was “The Garveys at their Best”…and it was all a flashback to the day before, and the day of, the rapture. So the events in this episode take place over 3 years ago.
Kevin and Laurie live in a big, beautiful, modern house with a huge inground pool. They look quite affluent. We learn that Laurie is a psychiatrist. Guess who one of her mental patients is? Patti! In my last week’s recap of this show I said that Patti is as batty as they come. Sure enough….she’s Laurie’s mental patient. I thought she hated men, which in her case (just now revealed) was due to a very abusive husband who kicked her out of the house. Patti has previously predicted something real bad coming down the pike …but this time it’s different, as she tells Laurie. The other feelings were just tremors, but this is the BIG one coming. She was right…the next day was the Sudden Departure, or Rapture.
Anyway, Kevin and Laurie throw a big “Mapleton Man of the Year” party on the night before the Sudden Departure, for his dad, the then Chief of Police. (Kevin Jr. is a regular cop at this time.) Everything is grand and sumptuous…it’s obvious Laurie pulls down the big bucks in this marriage. Kevin is unhappy in his marriage and feels very trapped. Frankly, I think he is jealous that his wife earns a much bigger income than he does…which is quite sad on his part (who cares who earns what, it’s you and your wife against the world, it all goes into the same pocket. I should be Kevin’s psychiatrist!). He thought maybe he had a purpose in life and this wasn’t it, as he tells his dad. His dad (at that moment not yet hearing voices in his head) tells Kevin that his family *is* his purpose in life.
Tommy and Jill are 3 years younger, nice teens, and have a close relationship. Tommy goes to see his biological father (Kevin adopted and raised him), who does not want to be bothered with Tommy. Kevin tells Tommy that he is his ‘real’ dad who is raising him and acting like a father, not his biological dad (who wants nothing to do with him). Jill has braces on her teeth and giggles a lot. They both know that something is wrong with their parents’ marriage.
Laurie wants a puppy, and guess who is selling the cute puppies? Gladys! The G.R. cult member who was stoned to death a couple episodes back! She is talking and very happy. Kevin is supposed to meet Laurie over at Gladys’s to get one of the puppies, but never shows up.
We see Kevin doing an early morning jog. He sneaks cigarettes while outside, having them taped underneath specific mailboxes around the neighborhood. Laurie thinks he quit, but he hasn’t told her about this. During this jog, he takes a rest, sitting on the curb. A car of older women pulls up near him and one asks “are you ready?”. He says: ready for what? One woman laughs and says they must have the wrong person, and the car leaves. Kevin gets up to jog again, and the manhole cover on the street sewer rumbles, then explodes, almost hitting him in the face.
He jogs back to his house, and sees Laurie in the kitchen, and tells her about it. She smells tobacco on him and now knows he really didn’t quit. She doesn’t understand why he never told her. They discuss getting the dog, and Kevin reveals she is the one who wanted it, not him. He sounds bitter and annoyed. There have been reports of a deer rampaging the neighborhood, and Kevin wants to find it, tranquilize it and set it free in the woods. Laurie tells him to “go and save your deer”. Kevin curses her with the ‘F’ word, and sadly, this is the last time they speak to one another.
Nora Durst’s marriage isn’t much better. She is married to a man who pays scant attention to her, because he’s busy cheating with their kids’ preschool teacher. Nora has applied for a job, because she needs something in life “for her”. She interviews with Lucy Warburton, to work on Lucy’s campaign staff for Mayor. Nora is asked how hard she plans to work and if her mom duties would interfere with the job. She responds that “for the next 4 weeks, I don’t have a family”, and smiles. Little does she know she won’t have that family much longer…
Nora has her cell phone on the breakfast table, as her husband is sitting there reading the newspaper, and the two little kids are fighting and screaming for food. Their little girl knocks over the orange juice onto the cell phone, and Nora goes ballistic…she was expecting to hear about her job….she yells and curses, chastising her daughter. The little girl begins to cry, as Nora grabs a paper towel to wipe off the cell phone…but when she turns around….her husband and two young kids have been raptured.
Kevin comes upon a scene where a female driver has just hit a deer. She is from out of town, attending a conference in Mapleton. Her rental car is totaled, as is the deer (sorry, couldn’t resist). Anyway…Kevin offers to drive her back to her motel room. Before getting out of the car, she asks Kevin if he is a “good guy”. Kevin replies “no”. She invites him to go into her room, and he follows her. They undress and fall into bed, but guess what….during their intimacy, the woman is ‘departed’, and that is what Kevin was doing at the exact moment of the rapture. Cheating on his wife! Part of the agenda of this show is to make viewers think that very undeserving people were raptured; e.g., a lot of cheaters. Kevin is being left behind because somehow his services, according to his dad in the last episode, are being requested by supernatural entities.
The last scene has Laurie at the doctor’s office. Rev. Jamison and his wife are there, too. He is seeing his doctor about a cancer scare, and learns he doesn’t have cancer. He comes out to the waiting room, tells his wife the good news, and says he wants to get drunk. Next, Laurie goes in to get an ultrasound, as she is pregnant. She never told Kevin about this pregnancy. The female doctor makes a very strange remark to her: she asks Laurie if the baby is her husband’s. I found that mighty odd. Laurie replied “of course”…but why would she be asked that question in the first place…? Also, the doctor says that Laurie should talk to a counselor quickly, so I’m guessing Laurie has been considering an abortion. Maybe that’s why she was asked if the baby was even her husband’s?
Laurie turns her head as she hears a scream out in the waiting room. She looks back at the ultrasound again, to view the baby’s heart beating….and we are left with Laurie looking very perplexed, staring intently at the image. She can’t see her baby anymore. It looks as though the fetus has disappeared.
There’s one more show to go for this season, but I have read that Sunday (tonight), the show won’t be on due to this being Labor Day weekend. The season finale will air on Sunday, September 7th, instead.
See you after that (regarding this show), friends….God willing!
YsiChrist,
Patty RP