Crazy Whitefella Thinking

"Crazy Whitefella Thinking" is the third episode of the third season of the American supernatural drama television series The Leftovers, based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta. It is the 23rd overall episode of the series and was written by series creator Damon Lindelof and executive producer Tom Spezialy, and directed by executive producer Mimi Leder. It was first broadcast on HBO in the United States on April 30, 2017.

"Crazy Whitefella Thinking"
The Leftovers episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 3
Directed byMimi Leder
Written by
Produced by
Featured music
Cinematography byJohn Grillo
Editing byMichael Ruscio
Production codeT13.19803
Original air dateApril 30, 2017 (2017-04-30)
Running time58 minutes
Guest appearances

The series is set four years after the "Sudden Departure" – an event which saw 2% of the world's population (approximately 140 million people) disappear and profoundly affected the townspeople. The previous season featured the characters moving to the town of Jarden, Texas, where no one vanished during the Departure. In the episode, Kevin Sr.'s actions in Australia are revealed, believing that a flood is coming to end the world.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.846 million household viewers and gained a 0.4 ratings share among adults aged 18–49. The episode received extremely positive reviews from critics, who praised Scott Glenn's performance, character development, cinematography and themes.

Plot

At the Outback, Kevin Sr. (Scott Glenn) dances to a rite by a fire until local authorities arrest him, with Kevin Sr. claiming that he was preventing the Apocalypse. After being released, he drives to a stop, where he tries to find the location of a tribal leader named Christopher Sunday (David Gulpilil), as he knows a specific chant that he claims needs to perform.

Kevin Sr. calls Matt (Christopher Eccleston), who sent him an early copy of the gospel of Kevin. He is furious that Matt omitted him from the gospel, also warning him not to let Kevin anywhere near Australia. After retrieving information through illegal means, Kevin Sr. finally finds Sunday at his house, who lets him enter. He explains that the voices inside his head instructed him to go to Australia, where a drug trip caused to meet a chicken, who warned him that the apocalypse was coming through a flood on the seventh anniversary of the Departure. Kevin Sr. claims that he needs to learn chants from native tribes to prevent the flood, and Sunday is the only person who knows the last chant. Sunday claims his chant can "cause" rain, not "stop" it. Nevertheless, he offers to teach him if he can fix his leak. However, as authorities surround the area, Kevin Sr. accidentally falls off the roof and lands over Sunday.

Taken by an ambulance, Kevin Sr.'s behavior annoys the doctors, who leave him alone in the outback. As he wanders through the outback, he tries and fails to persuaded a man from killing himself, with the man claiming "they didn't take me". During the night, a storm causes his tapes to be destroyed, frustrating him. With no food, he is forced to fight a snake to eat it, but is bitten instead. A weakened Kevin Sr. collapses in front of a cross. Kevin Sr. wakes up in the house of a woman named Grace Playford (Lindsay Duncan), who healed his wound, realizing that three weeks have passed since being bitten. He calls Matt to ask for Sunday's status, but is ignored when he reveals he threw the copy of the gospel that Matt sent. He sleeps until being awakened in the night, when Grace and a group of women drown an officer. He is shot with a tranquilizer, going to sleep again.

The next morning, Grace explains that the officer was named Kevin, and she killed him. She also reveals that her husband vanished during the Departure and assumed her children did as well, until she found their bones two years later. The cross on which Kevin Sr. collapsed was the place where she put their bones. When she found him, she also found the gospel, where Kevin was deemed a person who could visit the dead and calm them. So she tracked down the officer named Kevin and killed him so he could contact her children, and now laments that her belief is incorrect. Kevin Sr. consoles her, telling her she just got the wrong Kevin, revealing his connection to the real Kevin.

Production

Development

In March 2017, the episode's title was revealed as "Crazy Whitefella Thinking" and it was announced that series creator Damon Lindelof and executive producer Tom Spezialy had written the episode while executive producer Mimi Leder had directed it. This was Lindelof's 22nd writing credit, Spezialy's second writing credit, and Leder's ninth directing credit.[1]

Reception

Viewers

The episode was watched by 0.846 million viewers, earning a 0.4 in the 18-49 rating demographics on the Nielson ratings scale. This means that 0.4 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.[2] This was a 9% increase from the previous episode, which was watched by 0.776 million viewers with a 0.3 in the 18-49 demographics.[3]

Critical reviews

"Crazy Whitefella Thinking" received extremely positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.6/10 for the episode, based on 17 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Riddled with beautiful shots of the Australian Outback, 'Crazy Whitefella Thinking' spotlights the integral arc of an important side character."[4]

Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.6 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "The Leftovers continued its sublime streak of taking things seriously-but-not-too-seriously as we followed Kevin Garvey, Sr.'s desperate vision quest down in Australia. The fact that he's a hero/fool mix, like Don Quixote, works even better because of the dramatic irony at play. We know, for the most part, that he's probably right. Not about every aspect of his erratic journey, but in so far as the voices go. Because we've gone on enough Kevin, Jr. ride-alongs to know the truth. A stirring and fun (connected) detour."[5]

Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+" grade and wrote, "'Whitefella' is definitely paced slower than the first two episodes of the season and it's entirely set around 9,000 miles from the main action of the story. The Leftovers often asks the audience to sacrifice superficial check-ins with every character in favor of spending quality time with one or two. It's a terrific approach when the focus is on Kevin, Nora, Laurie, Matt, or even Meg. Kevin Sr. is a tougher sell because of how tangential he was to the middle section of this three-season series. He was a huge presence, but was totally absent. To spend this much time with him in Australia doesn't always make for the most riveting television."[6]

Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx wrote, "For an episode littered with gorgeous shots of the Australian Outback, 'Crazy Whitefella Thinking' is at its most stunning during a pair of monologues delivered indoors and shot by Mimi Leder mostly in tight closeup."[7] Jeff Labrecque of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "In Chief's head, as he makes clear early in the episode, this entire adventure is his story. Perhaps other characters will get their own gospels in the final five episodes, adding pages to Matt’s new New Testament."[8]

Sean T. Collins of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "The Leftovers does not shy away from spelling out just how crazy these people can get."[9] Nick Harley of Den of Geek gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "The Leftovers has been beyond brilliant so far in its final season and I am already mourning the loss of this wonderfully rewarding show. With each episode more stunning than the last, I can only imagine what else Damon Lindelof and HBO have in store for us. Kevin and Nora will arrive in Australia next week, though Kevin Sr. said that he doesn't want Kevin 'anywhere near Australia'. Things are already interesting; next week, it looks like things will finally start getting climactic."[10]

Matt Brennan of Paste gave the episode a 8.7 out of 10 wrote, "The Leftovers is uninterested in answers; its humane treatment of people bearing the unbearable resides, after all, in the drama of questions, the terror of ignorance, the needle of doubt."[11] Noel Murray of The New York Times wrote, "As episode’s the title implies, 'Crazy Whitefella Thinking' is in part about the arrogance of an outsider who embraces his messianic delusions at the expense of other people’s feelings and property."[12]

Accolades

TVLine named Scott Glenn as the "Performer of the Week" for the week of May 6, 2017, for his performance in the episode. The site wrote, "All the way back in December of 2015, Leftovers executive producer Damon Lindelof was looking forward to using Glenn in the HBO drama’s third and final season less like 'a relieving pitcher' than 'a starting pitcher.' And with last Sunday's episode, it was made abundantly clear why: When the veteran actor was at last given a turn on the mound, he confidently threw a no-hitter."[13]

References
  1. "(#23/303) "Crazy Whitefella Thinking"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  2. Porter, Rick (May 2, 2017). "Sunday cable ratings: 'American Gods' has decent premiere on Starz". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on April 10, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  3. Porter, Rick (April 25, 2017). "Sunday cable ratings: 'Silicon Valley' suffers without 'Game of Thrones' as lead-in". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  4. "The Leftovers: Season 3, Episode 3". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  5. Fowler, Matt (April 30, 2017). "The Leftovers: "Crazy Whitefella Thinking" Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  6. Alston, Joshua (April 30, 2017). "The elder Kevin Garvey endures another test of faith on The Leftovers". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  7. Sepinwall, Alan (April 30, 2017). "'The Leftovers' Heads Down Under For 'Crazy Whitefella Thinking'". Uproxx. Archived from the original on October 22, 2021. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  8. Labrecque, Jeff (May 1, 2017). "The Leftovers recap: 'Crazy Whitefella Thinking'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 24, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  9. Collins, Sean (April 30, 2017). "The Leftovers Recap: Divine Madness". Vulture. Archived from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  10. Harley, Nick (May 1, 2017). "The Leftovers Season 3 Episode 3 Review: Crazy Whitefella Thinking". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on November 27, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  11. Brennan, Matt (April 30, 2017). "The Leftovers: The Opposite of a Miracle". Paste. Archived from the original on March 23, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  12. Murray, Noel (April 30, 2017). "'The Leftovers' Season 3, Episode 3 Recap: Down Under". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  13. "Performer of the Week: Scott Glenn". TVLine. May 6, 2017. Archived from the original on August 12, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
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