The Guilty Remnant have scored another victory. Not only did the cult emerge as a horrifying and irrepressible force at the end of The Leftovers’ second season, they were also brought to life by fans, who dressed as the show’s obnoxiously silent killjoys to picket outside the HBO headquarters when it seemed possible that the cable network wouldn’t renew the series. Though surely that group of a few fans had very little bearing on the just-announced decision the renew the series for a third and final season, the show proved so powerful in its second season set in Miracle, TX that even the most pessimistic among us may suddenly start seeing miracles in pure coincidences.
The president of programming at HBO, Michael Lombardo, said in a statement:
It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome back Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta [who wrote the original novel and co-created the series with Lindelof] and the extraordinary talent behind The Leftovers for its third and final season. This show has proven to be one of the most distinctive HBO series and we are extremely proud of its unrivaled originality, which has resulted in such a passionate following by our HBO viewers. We admire and fully support Damon’s artistic vision and respect his decision to bring the show to its conclusion next season.
The gushing tone seems a little off, given the caveat of another season (yay!) that is determinedly the last (boo!). But creator Damon Lindelof clarified that the finality of the announcement has to do with a three-part-structured vision that’ll be complete with this last installment.
Tom, myself and our incredible team of writers and producers put tremendous care into designing those seasons as novels unto themselves…with beginnings, middles and ends. As we finished our most recent season, it became clear to us that the series as a whole was following the same model…and with our beginning and middle complete, the most exciting thing for us as storytellers would be to bring The Leftovers to a definitive end.
But before you get too excited about (or afraid of) “definitive” possibly meaning “answers,” Lindelof is here to remind you that that’s never been the intent:
And by ‘definitive,’ we mean ‘wildly ambiguous but hopefully mega-emotional,’ as all things related to this show are destined to be.