The Leftovers · Season 2 · Episode 8 · 22 November 2015
S2E8 International Assassin
THE MOMENT The hotel corridor sequences where the rules keep shifting - an experience of television as pure, bewildering cinema that critics struggled to find comparisons for.
Kevin Garvey wakes in a surreal, hotel-based alternate reality and must complete a mission he does not understand in order to return. The episode abandons conventional television grammar almost entirely and operates as something closer to a Kafka-inflected fever dream. It is the hour most cited when critics argue the show belongs among the all-time greats.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
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The Leftovers Season 2 Episode 8 'International Assassin' aired November 22, 2015 on HBO. Rotten Tomatoes holds Season 2 at 94 percent from 164 critics; IMDb audiences scored the season 9.3 - one of the highest season ratings for any prestige drama. Kevin Garvey wakes in a surreal hotel-based alternate reality and must complete a mission he does not understand in order to return. The episode abandons conventional television grammar almost entirely and operates as something closer to a Kafka-inflected fever dream. It is the hour most cited when critics argue the show belongs among the all-time greats. The hotel corridor sequences - shifting rules, shifting identities - represent television as pure bewildering cinema that critics struggled to find comparisons for.