The Leftovers, the Lost fever

This essay analyses The Leftovers’s last episode, “The Book of Nora” (S03E08), in its opposition with the episode “The Book of Kevin” (S03E01), as rival interpretative legends focusing on the scapegoat theme and its audiovisual processing in reference to the special persona of Nora (Carrie Coon). Meanwhile we interrogate the meaning of the accusation of being Azraël uttered against her in the episode “Lens” (S02E06) and what makes The Leftovers an apocalyptic show. Far from designating Nora as responsible for the original incident, we see her as being the one who represents the true version of the narrative and reveals to us our own accusing look on it. Then, associating the Giorgio Agamben’s parodical profanation definition with René Girard’s studies on the sociocultural phenomenon of the scapegoat, we’ll attempt to reveal the rising tensions and double frenzy throughout The Leftovers, inside the fiction but also in regard of Damon Lindelof’s previous television show, Lost. Can we expect a return of Lost’s Island in The Leftovers?