The Leftovers S01E04 BJ and the AC Review

Summary: The town's Baby Jesus doll goes missing and Kevin hunts for it. Jill and her friends stole it but they return it to Kevin. Laurie gives Kevin papers for a divorce. Christine is pregnant with Wayne's baby and Tommy is stuck protecting her for weeks without any contact with Wayne. The Guilty Remnant steals photos of departed family members from the homes of citizens of Mapleton.

The Good: Justin Theroux puts in a solid performance as Kevin. Though I had some issues with the storyline (see: the Bad), I thought that Kevin was enjoyable throughout.

I enjoyed parts of the Tommy story this time around, but the storyline as a whole still remains the weakest part of the show (see: The Bad). I enjoyed the scene with Tommy waiting for the bus and questioning his faith. It was logical for him to almost lose his faith after Wayne refused to call him and I'm glad that was examined since it added some emotion to his story, if only a little. I did like the phone call Tommy received, and Chris Zylka finally did something above average when he reacted to the call.

The best storyline in this episode was Laurie's. It started with the great divorce scene (see: Best Moment). One thing that I have grown to care about is the Kevin/Laurie relationship, mostly due to the brilliant acting of both characters. It was heart-wrenching to hear Meg read the divorce letter and Kevin's refusal to listen and to stand up to Laurie was as sad as anything on this show. While Jill's interruption felt a bit clichéd, her gift of the lighter was wonderful and created more emotional scenes for Laurie as she threw it down the gutter but ultimately went back to grab it; she's not ready to leave her family yet.

Kevin and Nora's scene was pretty nice as well. It's the first time we have seen them interact and they had a nice scene between two hurting people. It's good to check in with how Nora is doing after the bombshell Matt dropped on her in the previous episode.

The GR taking the pictures provided a good haunting visual.

The Bad: There were several things wrong with this episode that make it the weakest yet.

I'll start with my usual complaint: the Tommy story is still lacking. It still only seems to be providing mystery and action which doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the show. This episode also gave me another complaint in Christine. She was downright annoying throughout the episode and her telling Tommy it wasn't her fault and not letting go of that was very annoying and it made me really loathe her character. If I was Tommy I would have just left her. It's hard to understand why Tommy thinks she is important enough to protect and that ruins any chance of me sympathizing with him.

My next complaint is the Baby Jesus story. It's pretty dull to centre a story around a missing doll and that in turn made this episode far weaker and less engaging than the previous three. I never cared about the Baby Jesus like Kevin and I was honestly confused as to why it was focused on so much throughout the episode. I'm sure there is some symbolism with the Baby Jesus, but that isn't enough to justify using it as a major storyline for an entire episode.

I remain annoyed by this show's take on teenagers. Sure the brothers provided a couple of laughs but other than that the teenagers just seem stupid and unrealistic. The idea that they stole the Baby Jesus and tried to destroy it was even worse than the scenes from "Pilot" and made me groan out of the stupidity.

The GR stealing pictures was pretty haunting but it didn't feel like as big of a scene as I feel like it was intended to be. I just never emotionally connected to what was happening. There is also a plausibility issue. I can't buy that they didn't get caught by anybody when they went through the homes and it's ridiculous that Kevin wouldn't suspect that the other GR members were doing other things when he only found a handful of them near the school.

Aimee appears to have a crush on Kevin judging by her stares. I really don't care about that since her character has been totally bland so far.

The Unknown: Far fewer questions from this episode.

How did Christine appear in the naked guy's dream? Is something supernatural happening or is he just insane?

What's with the Loved Ones dolls? Apparently they can be ordered by those who lost someone to bury them, but what was the point of showing them in the Tommy story?

We also learn that Tommy is not Kevin's biological son and that he was abused as a kid which explains the scars on his back. What happened to his biological father? Where is he now?

Best Moment: I really liked the divorce scene. There was real emotion delivered from Kevin, and the scene overall helps examine the theme of loss which this show loves to explore. It was nice to use Meg to read Laurie's letter since it made the divorce seem all the more unfair for Kevin.

Character of the Episode: Nobody really stood out this week. I will give it to Tommy for finally doing something interesting in his storyline.

Conclusion: This was a lot weaker. It was always going to be tough to follow up "Two Boats and a Helicopter" but this was flat out disappointing. I expect a better quality than this.

Score: 56