History Series / TheLeftovers

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Mapleton, New York]] is fictional, but we learn it's within a few hours drive of Cairo, New York which does exist.

* ShaggyDogStory:
** A subplot in "B.J. and the A.C." has Garvey trying to find a stolen baby Jesus from a nativity scene. He is initially told to just buy a replacement and scruff it up a bit, but since his daughter called that cheating (and is responsible for stealing it), he instead intimidates her friends into returning it. When he tries to put it back, Matt Jamison has beat him to the punch, replacing the cheap toy store doll with a superior version he had lying around. Garvey just chucks the doll out his window on the way home.
** In "The Garveys at Their Best", Garvey tries to save a deer which is wandering into buildings and making a mess. When he finally tracks it down, it gets away and gets run over by a car, forcing him to put it down.

** The Guilty Remnant tops themselves one episode later, stealing family photos from houses under cover of darkness. This is part of a larger plot to [[spoiler:put corpse dolls of the Departed individuals in the photos as part of some big operation]].

** "The Garveys at Their Best" shows several strange events happening in the days prior to the Great Departure; Patti is shown to have had premonitions of "something terrible" happening, and sensed that "something wrong inside" Laurie. Kevin spots a deer with a shining light on it's head; this is later revealed to be the reflective side of a party balloon that says "It's a Girl!"[[spoiler: It's revealed that Laurie is pregnant, but the child disappears in the departure in utero.]]

* ShaggyDogStory: A subplot in "B.J. and the A.C." has Garvey trying to find a stolen baby Jesus from a nativity scene. He is initially told to just buy a replacement and scruff it up a bit, but since his daughter called that cheating (and is responsible for stealing it), he instead intimidates her friends into returning it. When he tries to put it back, Matt Jamison has beat him to the punch, replacing the cheap toy store doll with a superior version he had lying around. Garvey just chucks the doll out his window on the way home.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Seriously, you'd think that profession would be experiencing a major boom in the wake of the Departure. Interestingly enough, ''The Garveys at Their Best'' shows that before joining the Guilty Remnant, Laurie was a therapist and was in fact treating Patti.

* TheVoiceless: The Guilty Remnant forswear speaking and communicate only through writing.

* VaguenessIsComing: The elder Garvey is not exactly descriptive when explaining what is going on to Kevin. Neither is Patti in the next episode.

* 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.]]

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Garvey's father is crazy, his wife in a cult, his step-son off the grid with another cult, and he's raising his BrattyTeenageDaughter alone. On top of that, he has to deal with the pressures of the Guilty Remnant and his own possible insanity.

* {{Expy}}: The Guilty Remnant appear to be one for the Westboro Baptist Church: showing up uninvited to sensitive group events to 'peacefully' protest and provoke people.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: The antagonists. Wayne was an {{Ephebophile}} street peacher who somehow moved up to cult leader having meetings with U.S. senators. Patti was one of Laurie's patients who wound up as the leader of thelocal Guilty Remnant chapter.

** 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.

** Near the start of the series, a man shoots a dog out of nowhere. [[spoiler:Subverted at the end of the episode where he appears again when a pack of wild dogs mauls a deer, telling Garvey "they're not our dogs" before starting to shoot them.]]

** The Guilty Remnant tops themselves one episode later, stealing family photos from houses under cover of darkness. This is part of a larger plot to [[spoiler:buy corpse dolls of the Departed individuals in the photos as part of some big operation]].
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Instances of the Guilty Remnant being creepy and obnoxious are 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]].

* 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.]]

* 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. He gets to keep his huge surplus of cash, though, so his money troubles are, for the time being, over.

** Kevin seems to have a perfect life, but he's dissatisfied and his marriage has no communication. He takes jogs to smoke cigarettes and brood. Laurie hides her pregnancy from her husband.

* AdultFear: Best exemplified by the opening scene in which a woman loses her baby to the Great Departure.

* WholeFlashbackEpisode: "The Garveys at Their Best" is set in the days before the Great Departure, ending at the moment it happened.

** Matt Jamison has severe money troubles, is being followed by the Guilty Remnant, and is his church has already been foreclosed on. Then the Guilty Remnant buys his church, paints all the windows white, and tosses all the Bibles.
*** Those weren't Bibles. They were copies of the imaginatively named "Hymnal 1982." Any guesses what year it was published?

** The Barefoot People, people paint targets on their heads and never wear shoes. Apparently it's to help God target them for the next Great Departure.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: After the Guilty Remnant buys his church, Matt shifts his operation from exposing the departed to exposing the members of the Guilty Remnant, using the same tactics they do to remind them of the families they've abandoned. It succeeds in getting Meg to freak out and attack him, hypocritically decrying him for doing what they do.

** The Guilty Remnant tops themselves one episode later, stealing family photos from houses under cover of darkness.

* NoNameGiven: The Dog Killer, who avoids giving his name since Garvey doesn't yet trust him.

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Mapleton, New York]] is fictional, but we learn it's within a few hours drive of Cairo, New York which does exist..

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: And ongoing problem for Kevin. 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. It happens again in "Cairo", with the implication that it's happened several times before, only this time he [[spoiler:kidnapped Patti and took her to another city]].

** Holy Wayne's ability to hug a person's pain away. Is it a real supernatural gift or just a con?

** Holy Wayne's ability to hug a person's pain away.

* StacysMom: Aimee seems to have a bit of a crush on Mr. Garvey.

** The Guilty Remnant, people who wear all white, chain-smoke and never speak aloud.
** Wayne's cult. These guys are so fanatically loyal that they'll fire on the cops to protect him.

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: And ongoing problem for Kevin. 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. It happens again in "Cairo", with the implication that it's happened several times before, only this time he [[spoiler:kidnapped Patti and took her to New York]].
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: ppNoCommunitiesWereHarmed Mapleton, New York]] is fictional, but we learn it's within a few hours drive of Cairo, New York which does exist..

* 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. It happens again in "Cairo", with the implication that it's happened several times before, only this time he [[spoiler:kidnapped Patti and took her to New York]].

** Wayne's cult, which Garvey's son is participating in. Wayne is 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.

* VaguenessIsComing: The elder Garvey is not exactly descriptive when explaining what is going on to Kevin.