History Series / TheLeftovers

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leftovers_5328.jpg]]

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: In "Solace for Tired Feet", Garvey waits in his living room by the radio listening for news of his father, who has escaped from the psych ward. He nods off, has a strange dream with Dean and a dog in a mailbox, then wakes up in bed to find he managed to catch and leash a wild dog in his back yard, apparently with the intent to domesticate it. He also got bit for his trouble, which Aimee helped him bandage. Though he tries to deny it, Aimee figures out pretty quickly that he doesn't remember any of it. What's more concerning is the fact that he was sober at the time, so he ends up blaming it on the pills he was taking.

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: In "Solace for Tired Feet", Garvey waits in his living room by the radio listening for news of his father, who has escaped from the psych ward. He nods off, has a strange dream, then wakes up in bed to find he managed to catch and leash a wild dog in his back yard, apparently with the intent to domesticate it. He also got bit for his trouble, which Aimee helped him bandage. Though he tries to deny it, Aimee figures out pretty quickly that he doesn't remember any of it. What's more concerning is the fact that he was sober at the time, so he ends up blaming it on the pills he was taking.

* EverybodyKnewAlready: Kevin Garvey assumed Matt would eventually be going after the stash of money in his yard, hence when Matt sneaks in and digs it up, there's already a note inside saying Matt probably really needed it and is welcome to it.

* SwissCheeseSecurity: At the conference Nora goes to, her name badge is taken by someone else, apparently without having to offer so much as an ID to get it. She is then able to break a bar mirror, somehow avoid getting immediately caught so the real Nora is blamed, and then join the conference posing as Nora without security ever noticing.

* YankTheDogsChain: Facing the possibility that his church will be sold, Jamison is apparently given signs from God that allow him to win enough money gambling to keep it. As he's on his way to pay the bank, he sees a member of the Guilty Remnant get hit with a very large rock. He tries to call 911, but the guys that threw the first rock come back and hit him with another. He wakes up in the hospital and seems to still have enough time to reach the bank before closing. Only when he reaches the bank does he realize that he's actually three days overdue, and, just to rub salt in the wound, it's the Guilty Remnant that bought his church.

* PermaStubble: Kevin maintain's a week's worth of stubble at all times, even though he's a cop. It's a BeardOfSorrow rather than a fashion statement, since his family life has left him a real mess.

* DreamSequence: Lots of them, adding to the surreality of the show,

* SwissCheeseSecurity: At the conference Nora goes to, her name badge is taken by someone else.

* BeardOfSorrow: Kevin, who is suffering from a broken family, always has about a week's worth of stubble in spite of being a police officer. He apparently gets away with it because he's the Chief.

** The Guilty Remnant tops themselves one episode later, stealing family photos from houses under cover of darkness.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Instances of the Guilty Remnant being creepy and obnoxious and interspersed with them being harassed and attacked. When one of members is [[spoiler:murdered, the scene immediately follows a sequence of her and her partner being assholes, such as ignoring an old man who has fallen down right in front of them]].

** Dean, the dog-killer. On one hand, he is definitely real. On the other, Garvey's clinically-insane father is somehow aware of his existence, and the voices in his head made it clear that the man was sent to Garvey for some reason.

* SwissCheeseSecurity: At the conference Nora goes to her name badge is taken by someone else.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Gladys, a member of the Guilty Remnant, is brutally stoned to death

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Instances of the Guilty Remnant being creepy and obnoxious and interspersed with them being harassed and attacked. When one of members is [[spoiler:murdered, the scene immediately follows a sequence of the GR members being assholes, such as ignoring an old man who has fallen down right in front of them]].

* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Jill, Chief Garvey's daughter, gets into fights at school and shocks her friend when she calls another girl a "cunt".

* WildTeenParty: Happens in the pilot.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Tom is able to walk back into a hospital he ran out of while pursed by cops by disguising himself as a member of the Barefoot People. People pay more attention to the target and the lack of shoes than their faces.

* NoNameGiven: The Dog Killer, who avoids giving his name since Garvey doesn't yet trust him. Still unclear if he's even real or human.

* TookALevelInJerkass: "B.J. and the A.C." has the Guilty Remnant move up from public harassment to breaking and entering into homes and stealing family photographs.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: The Guilty Remnant is routinely harassed, sometimes harmlessly and sometimes violently. But when your membership deliberately harasses people, you can't honestly say they haven't invited it. [[spoiler:Then it's revealed that the ATF is liquidating entire cult chapters on request and cremating their bodies, which goes over into DisproportionateRetribution.]]
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Dean, the dog-killer. On one hand, he is definitely real. On the other, Garvey's clinically-insane father is somehow aware of his existence, and the voices in his head made it clear that the man was sent to Garvey for some reason.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: In the first scene of the pilot, our attention is focused on the woman losing her child and the boy calling out for his father. This is the great Departure. In the background, a car screeches to a halt and a moment later a second one plows into it. It isn't until two episodes later we learn that [[spoiler:Matt Jamison and his wife, Mary, are in the first car. Further, Mary is injured so badly that three years later she is living completely unresponsive with require constant caretaking.]]

* BadassPreacher: Matt, when pressed - see BewareTheNiceOnes, below.
* BatmanGambit: In "B.J. and the A.C.", a library fundraiser is held. Garvey tries to ask Patti nicely to leave the event alone. She refuses, so he arranges to have them arrested once they show up. When they do, he realizes that most of their members aren't present. The whole thing was a cover so the other members could go around stealing family photos from houses in the middle of the night.

** The Guilty Remnant, people who all wear medical outfits, chain-smoke and never speak aloud.

** Another has people paint targets on their heads and never wear shoes. Apparently it's to help God target them.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Tom is able to walk back into a hospital he ran out of while pursed by cops by disguising himself as a member of the "target on head" cult. People pay more attention to the target and the lack of shoes than their faces.

* ADayInTheLimelight: "Two Boats and a Helicopter" is focused entirely on Matt Jamison.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: The Guilty Remnant is routinely harassed, sometimes harmlessly and sometimes violently. But when your membership deliberately harasses people, you can't honestly say they haven't invited it.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The nameless dog-killer. On one hand, he has to be real, since Garvey's daughter saw and interacted with him. On the other, Garvey's clinically-insane father is somehow aware of his existence, and the voices in his head made it clear that the man was sent to Garvey for some reason.
** On the other hand, while Jill saw and interacted with him, her friend Aimee walked right by him without acknowledging him in any way.

* HiddenInPainSight: Tom is able to walk back into a hospital he ran out of while pursed by cops by disguising himself as a member of the "target on head" cult. People pay more attention to the target and the lack of shoes than their faces.

* ApocalypseCult: At least two are known to have formed.

** The other is a cult which Garvey's son is participating in, led by a strange and creepy guy who somehow takes away the suffering of others. These guys are so fanatically loyal that they'll fire on the cops to protect him.
* AsleepForDays: Matt Jameson after getting hit with a rock. [[spoiler: RuleOfDrama applies to him rushing to the bank assuming it's still the day he got hit with the rock - three days in bed without food he probably would have been tired out by the time he got out of the hospital and a half a block down the road, if not sooner, and the hospital staff would have absolutely stopped him from leaving.]]

* RealityEnsues: Matt leaving the casino with a large bag of rather publicly won money - of course someone with few scruples notices. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for the guy, this firmly pressed Matt's BerserkButton.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: The nurse doesn't out-and-out tell Matt he's been AlseepForDays, and is instead being vague because the plot demands it for RuleOfDrama.