1x09 The Garveys at Their Best

Strange episode in the way that it feels unnecessary to see these things. But I have to agree with others that it can't exist and work without the previous 8 hours, even if it doesn't work the other way around. It's like you know at some point in the past there was a car crash, and now you see it happen, but don't know precisely how and when. You just see people living their life. Some things get an extra meaning like the deer, Laurie, the mayor and Kevin Sr., but you also get an extra context for things you didn't need to question in the previous 8 episodes. The main thing here is for you to see that the Departure didn't change everything, but it did change everything. It's a collective trauma, yes, but it is also a massive new side effect on people's life they were living, and we get to see they were not living it happily. It's full of cracks and leaks, resentment and neglect. The Departure didn't ruin things, the world did not end, but it did take away the people's ability to resolve their problems by themselves. There is also a recurring game with the timing where you don't know where the rapture is going to happen, but similar sounding things start happening outside of frame that could be that, and it's horrifying and masterful at the same time, especially when it does happen. But the point is that things did happen in people's lives, good and bad. Older Kevin was and is right: there is nothing else, just this. And even with us seeing the departure day and how it gives an extra context and depth, we know that things mostly would have kept happening the same way after it as before. The Departue didn't change anything. And it did change everything. What an amazing hour of television.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me that I needed to watch an episode of their lives pre snap, to be honest I felt it was too straightforward and obvious, yes I say pre snap cause in my mind this is the Infinity War sequel even tho this aired 5 years before, but it wasn’t as simple as I thought.
I’ve been judging Laurie for abandoning Jill and joining the GR especially cause she was one of the lucky ones but oh wow, her loss was something really out of the ordinary, like how do you deal with that? So now I’m more understanding, but still I don’t care about her leaving Kevin, cause he was a shitty man and a shitty husband, I care about her leaving Jill!
And wow their previous house?? But how did they afford it? In a lieutenant’s salary?? Maybe with a psychiatrist’s one but I doubt it.
And for all I care, Nora’s ex husband can rot in hell! Like one thing is being a shitty husband but being a shitty father?!! Not moving a finger and being on the phone and not caring for their kids while Nora had to do everything?
And let me take a second to say what the hell with the mayor?? She is so young and pretty, she’s like in her 30s and she is hooking up with a man in her 80s???? Is she okay in the head??