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Solace for Tired Feet

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The Leftovers — Season 1
Ep. 1 "Pilot" Ep. 4 "B.J. and the A.C." Ep. 7 "Solace for Tired Feet"
Ep. 2 "Penguin One, Us Zero" Ep. 5 "Gladys" Ep. 8 "Cairo"
Ep. 3 "Two Boats and a Helicopter" Ep. 6 "Guest" Ep. 9 "The Garveys At Their Best"
Ep. 10 "The Prodigal Son Returns" Season 2 ⇒
Solace for Tired Feet

SeasonEpisode
17
Air dateAugust 10, 2014
Running time57 minutes
Production code4X5707
Written byDamon Lindelof & Jacqueline Hoyt
Directed byMimi Leder

Images (31)

"Solace for Tired Feet" is the seventh episode of Season 1, and overall the seventh produced hour of The Leftovers. It aired on August 10, 2014.

Plot[]

After learning his father has escaped the psychiatric hospital, Kevin orders an APB to track him down. Jill attempts to break an endurance record. Holed up in Indiana, a disillusioned Tom makes an unsettling discovery.

Laurie stares at posters of Gladys with the caption 'Save Them'. With the help of other G.R. members she begins to pull them down. As she is about to light a cigarette, she hears teenagers behind her and sees Jill and her friends loading groceries into the car. Jill stops to stare at her and looks away.

Jill, Aimee, the Frost Twins and others are hanging out at their drinking spot in the woods. Scott is inside an abandon fridge trying to break the record for amount of time spent inside but he gives up. Jill steps up to the challenge and gets into the fridge.

Kevin and Nora are on their fourth date. Nora invites Kevin over to her place for the first time. He texts Jill to let her know that he won't be back home.

Back inside the fridge, Jill receives his text and answer just as shes about to break the record. The group countdown the remaining seconds but when they try to open the door the handle comes off, Jill is stuck inside and running out of oxygen. She is about to pass out from lack of oxygen when the door suddenly opens and Kevin Garvey Sr. pulls her out. He tells her not to tell her that she saw him before running off into the woods.

Cast[]

  • Tiffani Barbour as Evelyn
  • Dan Bittner as Craig MacNary
  • Jeremy Burnett as Officer
  • Nandita Chandra as Pharmacist
  • Nadia Gan as Liane
  • Daniel Flaherty as Max
  • Frank Harts as Dennis Luckey
  • Johnny Hopkins as Bryan
  • Randall Marquez as Marvin
  • Olga Sosnovska as Roxanna

Analysis[]

Recurring Themes[]

  • Dreams: Kevin dreams about Dean having a dog trapped in a mailbox, and having a truck full of dead G.R. members, including Laurie. It is later revealed that at least part of this dream actually occurred (as evidenced by Kevin waking up to the same dog tied up in his backyard).
  • Animals: Kevin captures a feral dog with plans to rehabilitate it.
  • The Bible: Wayne quotes Job 1:21 to Tom (the next part of this line is the famous quote, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,” with Wayne presumably implying that the money does not truly belong to Tom). Job was previously referenced in “Two Boats and a Helicopter,” and is a figure often linked to Matt on the show. For his part, Matt in this episode quotes from the key religious text of another religion, the Qur’an, specifically Yusuf 12:5 (the quote comes from the Qur’an’s retelling of the story of Joseph, from Genesis).
  • National Geographic: The May 1972 National Geographic magazine is introduced, with Kevin Sr.’s voices claiming that it is Kevin Jr.’s “invitation” and purpose, and that he must accept it. After Kevin Sr. fails to find a copy at the library, he buys one from “some asshole” in Gabota; he tears this copy up after Kevin Jr. refuses to take it. Jill buys a copy online; although Kevin Jr. throws this copy in the garbage, it is left ambiguous whether or not he subsequently retrieves it. The episode’s title comes from a photo caption on page 593 of the magazine, which accompanies a photo of two teenaged hikers relaxing on a rock warmed by a thermal pool near Snake River in Yellowstone National Park (the issue features several articles on Yellowstone as part of a retrospective in honor of the first national park’s hundred-year anniversary). Christine mutters a feverish reference to spiders underwater, referencing another article from the magazine, “The Spider That Lives Underwater,” about the species argyroneta aquatica (the diving bell spider). In Kevin’s dream, his police radio mentions the upstate NY town of Cairo, which figures prominently in the next episode; the National Geographic magazine has an article about the Egyptian city of Cairo.

Cultural References[]

Literary techniques[]

  • When Kevin Sr. suddenly appears and saves Jill, he is surrounded by a bright yellow light.
  • This episode seems to feature several parallels between the various Garveys' storylines. The dog trapped in a mailbox in Kevin’s dream is reminiscent of Jill being trapped in the refrigerator, and also calls to mind Tom taping money under a mailbox. Both Kevin and Tom suffer injuries to their left hands, and both also throw cell phones, breaking them.
  • This episode also underlines many times the color blue. Both Kevin Jr. and Tom's mailboxes are completely blue; when Kevin is chasing his dad, almost all of the doorbells, flags and clothes are blue; when Tom is stalking the mailbox, there is a blue ribbon on his antenna and a blue ribbon on the blue billboard above the mailbox; a lot of blue is present in Nora's room; sex scenes are shot with a clear blue filtrer.

Trivia []

  • Nora’s house number is 377; however, the G.R. file lists her address as 2048 Harris Ave.
  • Lucy’s house number is 39.
  • Unlike Kevin Jr. and Tom’s tattoos, which belong to the real life actors, Kevin Sr.’s tattoo seen in this episode was added for the show, as part of actor Scott Glenn’s imagined backstory for the character. The tattoo says, “Ni dieu ni maite” (French for, “Neither god nor master”), alluding to Kevin Sr. having served in the French Foreign Legion. According to Glenn, Kevin Sr. had trouble fitting in upon returning from the Vietnam War, and left his family for three years to fight in the Legion. Glenn says this is what Kevin Jr. is referring to when he accuses Kevin Sr. of leaving.[1]
  • Kevin Sr. references the fictional town of Gabota, NY, last referenced in Angel’s ad in “Guest.”
  • Book author and show co-creator and show runner Tom Perrotta has admitted to feeling like an audience member when it comes to the National Geographic, as he is unsure what Damon Lindelof intends as the function of the magazine.[2]

Book to Show []

  • With this episode, the show begins to move further away from the source material, with Kevin’s storyline focusing increasingly on issues of mental illness and prophecy, elements that appear nowhere in the book.
  • Matt’s campaign to “save” the G.R. is an invention of the show. In the book, his character never evolves beyond the compulsion to discredit the Departed in his newsletter.
  • The invocation on the refrigerator is the first time the show has explicitly acknowledged 2011 as the year of the Departure on the series. The book, which was published in 2011 (and which Tom Perrotta began writing on 10/14/2008), never specifies the year the Departure took place.
  • In the book, Tom and Christine spend the last several months before Christine gives birth living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Wayne’s friends the Falks. Christine is attended by a flock of devoted Holy Wayners, including a pedicurist, masseuse and midwife, whereas on the show they are on their own in Gary, Indiana (a city they are never seen visiting in the book) under much less luxurious circumstances. In the book, the Falks are in contact with the imprisoned Wayne through his attorney, whereas on the show Tom has no choice but to wait for the cell phone Wayne gave him to ring.
  • The references to the baby as “the Bridge” are an invention of the show, but they are similar to Wayne’s prophetical references to the baby as the Miracle Child who will save humanity in the book.
  • Tom and Christine have abandoned the Barefoot People disguises they adopted in “B.J. and the A.C.” In the book, they retain these disguises the entire time they are on the road until they reach the Falks’ (often taking advantage of local Barefoot People’s hospitality). Tom keeps his even after that, having become completely disillusioned with Wayne and feeling that his life as a fake Barefoot Person is the only identity he has left. 
  • Wayne evidently gave Tom much more money to take care of Christine on the show than in the book, where Christine shows up on Tom’s doorstep with only $200. On the show, they have $6,000 left after several months on the run.
  • Wayne is still concerned that Tom and Christine will have sex. In the book, they have a much more flirtatious dynamic while on the road, but they never have sex despite the temptation. After setting up the sexual tension between them in the Pilot, the show largely ignored this element.
  • Wayne says, “It won’t be long now,” a G.R. catch phrase in both the book and the show.
  • The evolution of Kevin and Nora’s relationship differs from the book, wherein they go to Florida together for five days as a first date, having sex on the first night, whereas in the show they have a more traditional courtship. In the book, they have difficulty communicating after they return from Florida (similar to the sentiment echoed by both in this episode about not knowing how to talk to each other), but in the book their dates are always stay-at-home events at Nora’s home where they “make labored small talk and watch SpongeBob,” since Nora refuses to go out. The show is the opposite, with Nora at first reluctant to invite Kevin home for several dates. In the book, despite the easy dynamic in Florida, Nora continually puts off having sex in her own house in Mapleton, in contrast to the show.
  • In the book, Laurie and Meg remain partnered once Meg is fully indoctrinated (an unusual arrangement in contravention of typical G.R. rules), and Meg never has any other partner during her time with the G.R., whereas on the show Meg has a different partner in this episode, Evelyn.
  • The Watchers outside Nora’s house when she and Kevin plan to have sex is similar to the end of the fourth book chapter, “The Carpe Diem,” when two Watchers follow Kevin and an old high school fling, Melissa Hulbert, as they walk from the bar to her home. Melissa spits at one of the Watchers, and ultimately Kevin takes a rain check rather than coming inside, due to the experience. Kevin is much more impressed with Nora’s hosing of Meg and Evelyn on the show, and does come inside, but as in the book, they realize that the moment is ruined. 
  • The intimation that Kevin and Aimee are becoming increasingly close roughly parallels the book, where Kevin comes to think of Aimee “more as a friend and a peer than as one of his daughter’s classmates.” In the book, Aimee encourages Kevin to make dinner reservations and force Nora out of her comfort zone.
  • Aimee standing in front of the fridge in yoga pants calls to mind the brief physical encounter she and Kevin have in the book's final chapter.
  • Aimee appears to be wearing a uniform from a fast food restaurant. In the book, she and Jill met working a summer job at a yogurt store. Later, Aimee decides to drop out of school and work full-time as a server at Applebee’s.
  • Aimee saying that Kevin goes out whenever Jill goes out is reminiscent of the increasingly complicated scheduling dynamic between the three in the book as their relationships become more complex and frayed. Jill and Aimee begin timing their schedules so that their time in the house never overlaps except when they are asleep, and in the book’s final chapter, Kevin desperately avoids being alone in the house with Aimee after an awkward encounter.
  • The revelation that another one of Wayne’s teenage “brides” is also pregnant is an invention of the show.  
  • Wayne’s six “spiritual brides” in the book are Iris, Cindy, Mei, Christine, Lam and Anna Ford. Liane is a name invented for the show.
  • In the book, Laurie happens to review two G.R. files of women that Kevin went home with (before he dates Nora). The book states that it hurts her, but she does not cry. The show gives Meg the role of bringing Laurie the news, and she is outwardly indifferent.
  • In the book, Christine feels betrayed by Wayne after he pleads guilty and publicly begs forgiveness from his "real wife," claiming she is the only woman he'd ever loved. Christine goes into labor the next day, insisting on going to the hospital and being given the strongest drugs, despite Wayne's previously-stated wish that she have a natural birth at home with a midwife. The fact that the baby is a girl (as in the show) is the final nail in the coffin of Wayne's belief system, as he had repeatedly prophesied that the "Miracle Child" would be a boy. The show does not emphasize the significance of the baby's gender as in the book, but instead exposes Wayne as a fraud by revealing that he has been intentionally lying to Christine and Liane (and possibly others) about their specialness. In contrast to the book, the show's Christine gives birth alone in a tub, with not even Tom present.

Music[]

  • "In a Sentimental Mood" by Sarah Vaughan (Nora and Kevin drink beers at her house)
  • "Moaning Lisa Smile" by Wolf Alice (Jill's headphones as she does homework)
  • "Miserere" composed by Gregorio Allegri, performed by Choir of St. John's College, Cambridge & George Guest (Kevin walking through the G.R. protest; Kevin subduing his father in the diner)
  • "Going Out" by Hospitality (Jill's room as the Frosts wrestle)
  • "The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)" by Joe Tex (Johnny snorts coke and describes Wayne hugging him)
  • "Love That's Gone" by La Sera (ambient music in diner when Kevin meets with his dad)
  • "Departure (Lullaby)" by Max Richter (Kevin and Nora have sex)
  • "De Profundis" by Max Richter (end credits)

Goofs []

  • The National Geographic magazine appears to arrive miraculously fast, already being at the Garvey house the morning after Jill ordered it.

References[]

  1. ↑ http://www.watchingtheleftovers.com/blog/2014/8/10/scott-glenn-kevin-garvey-sr-interview
  2. ↑ Audio commentary, "The Prodigal Son Returns"
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