Episode 6 Notes – Certified
Summary
This is presumably Laurie’s goodbye episode and also the beginning of the end,
marked by the 7-year anniversary of the departure. We see her journey from the
day of the Departure until now and she has never been able to get over her guilt
and loss. Laurie, a.k.a. Judas, with the assistance of Matt helps Nora find the two
physicists and their radiation machine because she wants to connect with her
departed children. Laurie then goes to the ranch to find John and help Kevin. She
realizes that everyone is on a path to suicide or death based on their beliefs and can
no longer help them as a therapist and because it’s not her place.
Title
The title relates to the fact that Laurie is both a certified as a psychologist, scuba-
diver teacher and suicidal.
Opening Credits and Theme Song
After the Laurie’s prologue, we hear the powerful Gravediggaz song “1-800
Suicide.” This song works better with the opening credits than every song except
the Iris Dement’s original song.
RECAP
Laurie’s Pain (Prologue)
Approximately two years after the departure, the woman who lost her baby during
the first scene of the entire show is being seen by her therapist, Laurie. After
relaying the heartbreaking tale of how her baby boy departed, the woman asks her
for help. Laurie freezes and says “I don’t know” because this hits too close to
home. We relive Laurie’s tragic experience and flashback to her in the doctor’s
office losing the baby on the day of the sudden departure. Laurie is then in her
office and she tries to commit suicide by taking pills. She writes a note that she at
first tapes to the door and then lies down and holds. After closing her eyes for a
beat, Laurie gets up frantically and finds charcoal in her medical kit to vomit up
the pills. Laurie then gets some white clothes together and puts them on and goes
out to meet the two members of the Guilty Remnant that have been monitoring her.
Laurie was looking for an escape from her pain at least in part because she
felt guilty and responsible for the baby departing. As we find out later when
she is talking to Kevin, Laurie didn’t want another baby at that point in her
life.
When faced with having to help other people who have gone through losing
a loved one to the departure (either with this woman or when she and John
give readings), she can’t give them any answers to help ease their suffering.
She can’t deal with her own pain, how can she help others with the same
thing? This is why she tried to kill herself. At the last minute, Laurie decided
that another avenue of escape would be joining the Guilty Remnant.
Laurie and Nora
Laurie, Nora and Matt are conducting surveillance in a van parked outside of the
house of physicists, Drs. Aden and Becker, who are linked to a radiation machine
that can purportedly send people to the same place as their departed loved ones.
They follow the physicists to what appears to be a mobile science lab using 18-
wheelers near the ocean. Seemingly ready to believe this is real, Nora is
determined to follow through. Matt decides to stay with her and Laurie goes on to
the ranch.
Laurie sees that Drs. Aden and Becker appear to be romantically involved
when staring though their house window.
We find out the French naval crewman lost his mind and blew up the island
because he believed events in the book of revelations, including a 7-headed
monster was about to hatch like Godzilla. Matt seemingly for the first time
takes something in the Bible as being figurative, not literal. This shows that
Matt has indeed changed as events in the last episode illustrate.
Nora is obsessed with death and shares with Laurie that the cleanest way to
commit suicide without anyone knowing would be to do it while scuba
diving because no one would be able to ascertain whether it was an accident.
Nora, really off-kilter, asks Laurie to give her a palm reading. She wants to
find out what Laurie would say to her if she was one of her (and John’s)
clients. Nora pushes Laurie to talk about her kids, but Laurie reiterates that
they don’t do departures because it’s too hard and people get angry.
Laurie uses Nora and Matt’s parents to share what the process would entail
if they were her clients. Nora and Matt recall the days after their parents died
when they were kids.
o She fondly recalls a childhood trip to a baseball game, where the fans
took more joy out of the beach ball that was batted around the stands
than the game on the field. Even young Matt got into the act, smiling
and smacking the inflated sphere. But then the stadium usher grabbed
the ball and squeezed the air out of it, drawing boos from the crowd
and upsetting Nora. “He just ruined it for all of them,” she says, tears
running down her face. “Why would he want to do that job? Why
would anyone?” Laurie answers that the usher acted because if he
didn’t, the ball would go on the field and potentially cause chaos.
Laurie is the usher!
Laurie and Nora fight over her zippo lighter that Jill gave to Laurie as a
Christmas present (or is it Kevin?). Because Laurie quit smoking, Nora
wants to keep it. They get into a tussle and Nora accidentally gives Laurie a
shiner on her eye.
As seen in the previous episode, Matt appears to have found some peace and
changed his priorities in terms of what matters to him. Matt decides to stay
with Nora when they find the facility to be with family. He gives Laurie the
burnt copy of the Book of Kevin and wants her to tell Kevin, Sr. that he’s
sorry he didn’t put him in the fucking book.
The Ranch
Laurie arrives at Grace’s ranch in the bus that presumably Nora and Matt stole.
John and Michael have already arrived. Michael called Laurie while she was with
Nora to let her know that John was picked up by Kevin, Sr. at the airport. Michael
then followed John to the ranch to keep an eye on him. Laurie speaks with Kevin,
Sr. who she affectionately refers to as Pop. Laurie inquires as to what they are
planning on doing with Kevin. She finds out that Kevin is off reflecting on the
issue of whether to kill himself or not to help save humanity. A policeman visits
the ranch looking for the murdered police chief Kevin. Before the policeman gets
too close to the church (where the police chief is buried), Kevin, Sr. knocks him
out. Kevin, Sr. then drives him far away in the outback to drop him off. To allay
Laurie’s concerns, he says he won’t take him too far and will presumably give him
some supplies.
This is the first time we see Laurie and Kevin, Sr. together but they clearly
had a strong relationship in the past.
John doesn’t completely trust her motives for being there. He doesn’t know
that Michael is the one that told her of their whereabouts. John still believes
that Evie is alive in some way. She tells John that he should see it through to
the end.
Laurie appears to not believe in what they are doing (at least at first). Kevin,
Sr., John and Grace tell Laurie what they want to accomplish by killing
Kevin.
o Kevin, Sr. wants Kevin to learn the last part of songline he thinks will
stop the coming floods.
o John wants Kevin to pass on a message to Evie that she was loved.
Laurie can’t understand his pain and realized that she has no place
getting in his way, just like Nora.
o Grace wants Kevin to ask her children where they left their shoes
when they were wandering and died in the desert. She has been
searching for their shoes ever since.
The Last Supper
Laurie, Michael, John, Grace and Kevin, Sr. have dinner and is referred to as the
Last Supper by Kevin, Sr. He also said that the only thing missing was Jesus or
Kevin.
They have a funny discussion about who each disciple was based on the
Bible and each of the character’s individual stories. Kevin calls himself
Peter. Michael passes on his role (and doesn’t really seem to be a part of all
of this).
Laurie first calls herself Mary Magdalene, but Kevin, Sr. corrects them and
said she was Thomas. Nora is Mary Magdalene because of being in a
relationship with Kevin. Laurie then says her role is more like Judas by
saying that doubting is easy because doubting costs you nothing. But Judas,
he was surrounded by people going on and on about how special Jesus was.
But he betrayed him anyway. Laurie says that Thomas took the easy way out
by becoming a skeptic while Judas did the harder work of setting the
crucifixion in motion.
When it was brought to Laurie’s attention that part of Judas’ story involved
him committing suicide, she claimed to not know that part. She “betrayed”
them by drugging everyone’s food so that she could talk to Kevin alone. The
irony here is that Judas and Laurie take the easy way out by committing
suicide.
Laurie still doesn’t believe that Kevin is now Jesus or some sort of spiritual
guru, but she doesn’t try to talk anyone out of their beliefs which is
somewhat consistent with how she dealt with Nora. Laurie wanted everyone
to find peace, no matter how much she didn’t agree with the why or how.
Although it appeared initially that Laurie might be a real Judas by drugging
everyone, she just wanted to speak to Kevin alone. Laurie is not Judas
because she didn’t betray anyone, other than not sharing her pain.
Kevin and Laurie
While everyone is sleeping inside, Laurie waits for Kevin. Kevin returns on a
horse. They sit on the porch and have probably the most real conversation they
ever had. Laurie shares with Kevin (or anyone else) for the first time that she was
two months pregnant during the Departure and that she lost the baby while visiting
her obstetrician. She is also honest and tells Kevin that she didn’t want another
baby. Laurie asks him if he would have wanted another kid and he says no.
They both confess to some other things that they kept hidden from each
other while married probably because they know that this will be the last
time they see each other. Laurie went to an expensive spa when she was
supposed to go to a conference and Kevin accidentally killed Jill’s hamster,
Mr. Funny from neglect.
Laurie just wanted to make sure that Kevin was on the right path and not
forced into doing something based on others’ beliefs that they project onto
him.
Kevin tells Laurie he is not scared and that life on the other side is more real
than his current life.
Laurie gives Kevin the Zippo Jill gave her for Christmas. This foreshadows
her death because she would never part with it because of the sentimental
value it holds. She broke her Guilty Remnant vows by going back to
retrieve the lighter after she tossed it into a sewer.
When they look at each other and say goodbye, this is one of the saddest,
tear jerking scenes in the entire show. They clearly love each other and if not
for the Departure, they probably would have stayed together.
It feels like they were robbed of this moment because of the Departure, but
they finally say goodbye to each other.
Laurie’s Departure
Laurie charters a small boat to take her as far out on the ocean as possible. Before
she jumps in, Jill calls her (and Tom is with Jill) and they briefly talk about
mundane things. Jill asks Laurie for her whereabouts and we find out it is the 7-
year anniversary of the departure. Laurie answers that she is spending the day by
herself and neglects to mention that she left with Matt, Michael and John to
Australia. In an eerily bittersweet moment, at the end of the phone call, Laurie tells
Jill and Tom that she loves them. After hanging up, she takes a moment to collect
herself, as if taking the deep breath before the plunge. She then smiles, puts on her
goggle and falls in. The camera focuses on the empty boat for a couple of beats and
the screen cuts to black.
Is this the end of Laurie or did she just go for a dive?
Jill mentions that she and Tommy are debating what the name of a show
they used to watch is called, a 1980s Canadian TV series “Today’s
Special.” This was about a department store mannequin who comes to
life at night and learns about life. According to the theme song, which
Laurie was not fond of says that the show was set in a place “With magic
everywhere, a world for us to share, and friendly faces hoping that you’ll
want to meet us there.” This again foreshadows what she is about to
experience and she will go to a world that Kevin said was more real than
here.
Hearing that Jill and Tom sound happy and are doing well seemingly
makes her choice much easier.
Laurie is good at hiding her pain from others and no one is remotely
aware of what she is experiencing.
Everyone was focused on Nora and Kevin and their impending
“suicides,” and didn’t see this coming. Throughout this season and last, it
appeared that Laurie was well on her way to recovery or at least to
finding some measure of peace. Nothing could help her let go of the
guilt she felt. Just like everyone else, she wasn’t okay.
Questions
Will the flood actually occur on the 7-year anniversary? If so, how does
Kevin, Sr. know? Why does he know and seemingly no one else.
Will Kevin do something on the other side that will help save humanity
other than learning Christopher Sunday’s song to complete the songline to
prevent the great apocalyptic flood Kevin, Sr. foretells?
Does Nora use the machine? Will she go to the other side (or wherever the
departures are) and communicate with them. and then we see her at the end
of episode one