The Book of Nora

Showrunner Damon Lindelof and the writers began planning the series finale in January 2016, a month after The Leftovers was renewed for its third and final season. It was decided early on that the final episode would be centered on the character of Nora Durst,[1] as Lindelof believed that giving Nora closure on her grief "felt like a perfect conclusion to the entire opus."[2] Additionally, Lindelof decided to intertwine Nora's resolution with an idea he had formulated during production of the pilot episode, in which the two percent of the human population who vanished in the Sudden Departure were in fact transported to an alternate reality where the other 98 percent disappeared. Series co-creator Tom Perrotta, who authored the novel upon which the series is based, was staunchly opposed to depicting this "Other Place" onscreen, maintaining that the Departure should remain fundamentally ambiguous; writer Patrick Somerville proposed a compromise in which Nora simply describes the fate of the departed population to another character over a cup of tea. The writing process for the remainder of the third season became anchored to this idea, labeled in the writers' room as "Nora makes tea."[2][3]

The decision to set the finale ten years ahead of the series' main events was inspired by the Great Disappointment of 1844, which was used as a prominent metaphor for the third season and depicted onscreen in the opening scene of the premiere episode, "The Book of Kevin." Lindelof explained: "if we resolve [the idea the world might be ending] in the penultimate episode, the audience will have a full week to deal with the idea that we still have more show. And what we are really interested in — the ‘now what?’ of it all. What generates apocalyptic thinking is that you don't have to deal with the future." In deciding how to reunite Kevin and Nora after the time jump, Somerville, seeking an "organic stall that thematically made sense," proposed that Kevin reintroduce himself to Nora under a false identity; Lindelof modified the idea so that Kevin would pretend not to remember their time together.[2] Lindelof and writer Tom Spezialy both felt that Kevin's unnatural behavior would provide an appropriate counterpoint to Nora's pragmatism, and lend a "rom-com" air to their reunion.[4] Writer Nick Cuse took inspiration from the 2009 film Up in the Air in suggesting that Kevin and Nora attend a wedding, believing other people's weddings to be "effective at surfacing buried emotions" for attending couples.[2]

In the final scene of the episode, Nora explains to Kevin that the scientists' machine transported her to an alternate reality populated only by the departed individuals, and that she returned to the real world after seeing her family living happily. Lindelof and the writers were particularly insistent on maintaining ambiguity over whether Nora's story is true, which informed the decision not to show onscreen flashbacks of her journey. Lindelof explained: "This entire series and particularly this season has been about incredible actors telling incredible stories that are very least true to them. (...) Whether or not they’re actually true to anyone else is all a matter of belief, and belief is an incredibly powerful aspect that the show has been playing with since it began."[5] However, Lindelof did confirm that the writers had privately reached a verdict on the veracity of Nora's story, which he plans not to reveal in order to preserve the series' thematic coherence. He elaborated: "We have a unanimous feeling as to which one of those realities is real and we will never, ever, say, 'This is what really happened.' (...) Kevin believes, or says he believes, the story; that’s the whole point of the series. That’s what religion is."[2]

Actress Carrie Coon felt that Nora's story would register similarly regardless of the truth of her account, noting that she considered both outcomes. She elaborated:

...the human capacity for self-delusion is very strong. And so regardless of whether the experience is true or not true, the brain believed what it believes. If you tell a lie enough times, you start to believe it. For me, I felt that no matter what I chose, it wouldn’t matter. It would play the same.[6]

During the scene, Nora mentions to Kevin that the LADR machine was originally invented by a physicist named Dr. Van Eeghen; the name is a reference to Henk Van Eeghen, who served as an editor on the third season.[2]

"The Book of Nora" was directed by Mimi Leder, a veteran director and executive producer for the series who played an influential role in its shift in creative direction that began in the second season.[2] The episode was largely filmed in the town of Clunes, Victoria, whose geographic characteristics inspired certain details in the episode's script such as Nora's use of pigeons to receive handwritten messages from around the town. The crew brought in a live goat as part of the wedding scene, in which the guests unburden themselves of their sins by adorning the goat with beaded necklaces before releasing it into the wild.[2]

Leder filmed Kevin and Nora's third and final encounter in the episode in reverse order, with their conversation over tea followed by Kevin's outburst and confession, in order to capitalize on weather conditions and minimize makeup preparation. To portray an aged Kevin and Nora, makeup artist Angela Conte avoided using prosthetics, instructed by Lindelof not to create "old-age makeup", and instead applied a light latex stipple onto the faces of actors Justin Theroux and Carrie Coon that she molded to simulate wrinkles, lost skin elasticity, and aging spots. Coon's gray-haired wig was hand-stitched by a London-based tailor and cost $10,000 to produce.[2]

The final scene shot for the series was Nora's entry into the LADR machine, whose design was derived from images of antique fusion reactors as well as the Large Hadron Collider. Paino and the production design crew consulted physicists on how to authentically design the device, and equipped the acrylic event chamber with a functional hatch and water jets. The machine set cost $100,000 to construct, making the scene one of the series' most expensive. The scene, which depicts a fully nude Nora, was filmed behind a closed set on a soundstage in Melbourne that was superheated to ensure Coon's comfort. Leder, Coon and Lindelof experimented with various iterations of the scene's ending, ultimately deciding that Nora should ambiguously scream out at the last second before the episode cuts away to the farmhouse. Lindelof and Spezialy contributed significantly to the editing process for the scene, swapping out a traditional musical score for archival audio and footage from the departure of Nora's family[2]

The episode's title sequence reuses "Let the Mystery Be" by Iris DeMent, which served as the opening theme for the entirety of the second season.

Upon airing, the episode was watched by 1.049 million viewers with an 18-49 rating of 0.4, making it the most-watched episode of the third season.[7]

Carrie Coon's performance in the episode received widespread acclaim from reviewers.

"The Book of Nora" was universally acclaimed by critics, many of whom hailed it as one of the greatest series finales in television history.[8][9][10] Praise was given to the episode's script, acting, thematic and emotional depth, and semi-ambiguous ending. Coon's performance in particular was roundly applauded. On Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has an approval rating of 100% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 9.60 out of 10, with the critics' consensus stating, "One of TV's best dramas closes with a gratifying and somehow sweet final chapter to a powerful, unique, and heartbreaking story that ends on a cryptic yet comforting note."[11]

Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a 10 out of 10, calling the finale "simple yet dazzlingly moving and stupendously satisfying." Fowler appreciated the ambiguity of the final scene, suggesting that it invited a "fascinating mini-debate (...) that works to actually draw you into the story more intimately," and praised the "heartwarming" nature of the reunion between Kevin and Nora. He summarized the episode as "The Leftovers boiled down to its most basic and beautiful form - a love story."[12] Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A, writing, "this is a finale likely to satisfy even those with the most stringent standards, those who have been nervous about how a show as broad and far-reaching as this one could possibly conclude in an appropriate way. Quite simply, it’s one of the best series finales I’ve ever seen, and one that cements The Leftovers as one of the finest drama series in recent memory." Alston particularly praised the episode's small scale and intimate focus on Kevin and Nora's romance, referring to the final scene between the two characters as "one of the most moving and devastating minutes of television" he could remember.[8]

Alan Sepinwall, writing for Uproxx, echoed the sentiment that the episode's ambiguity over Nora's story was a tonally and thematically appropriate way to end the series, writing, "We can treat this like Lindelof’s previous series, or so many other great dramas of this century, and demand answers. Or we can recognize that The Leftovers never promised any — that, both within the narrative and throughout Lindelof’s publicity for the show over the years, it could not have been more clear that answers to metaphysical questions were besides the point." Sepinwall reserved praise for Coon's performance, referring to the episode as "an hour of watching the hardest working woman in show business display all the range and raw power that gradually made Nora the most important person in the series’ world."[9] Sean T. Collins of Vulture gave the finale 5 out of 5 stars, commending the episode for conveying Nora's fate strictly through Coon's monologue. He wrote: "perhaps the most extraordinary thing that has ever happened to a human being in history gets boiled down to a story told over a kitchen table between two estranged lovers, in a calm but sad voice, with a placid but sad face. The Leftovers has the confidence in its camera and in its performers to convey the enormity of it all, and Nora’s lonesome acceptance of that enormity, just by watching and listening to Carrie Coon talk."[13]

Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic wrote, "a one-of-a-kind, utterly committed work of art and philosophy, the finale was a microcosm of The Leftovers itself. It opened terrifying and closed heart-wrenchingly; it was, at no point, predictable." Sophie Gilbert, who co-authored the review, reacted positively to the episode's suggestion of an alternate reality populated by the departed, calling it "a surprisingly elegant and plausible way to conclude such a remarkable work of television."[14] Noel Murray of The New York Times praised the sequence in which Nora enters the LADR machine, calling it "almost unbearably intense." Murray was similarly positive about the episode's austere focus on Kevin and Nora, applauding Lindelof and the writers for "cleverly [using] that relationship to round out The Leftovers without delivering anything too on-the-nose or overly explanatory."[15]