Warning: Fullfor the episode follow...

Christopher Eccleston as Rev. Matt Jamison.

"This is the story of a little boy...""Two Boats and a Helicopter" (named after the old Christian "Two Boats and a Lifeguard" joke - which itself was even the name of a Boardwalk Empire Season 2 episode) focused almost entirely on Christopher Eccleston's Reverend Matt Jamison - a character we'd barely spent any time with during the first two episodes.And it was phenomenal.This was a heartbreaking "Monkey's Paw"-type tale of a man drowning in ambiguity. Constantly crushed by an avalanche of misfortune in a twisted "one step forward, two steps back" manner. The episode itself, a stunning display of short-form storytelling. When we think of Lost - and by that I mean when we think of Lost fondly - we often immediately go to the big series mysteries. The gotcha-style "We gotta go back!" moments. And the puzzles and clues that made us take to the internet to discuss our theories. But what was on display this week in The Leftovers was the other awesome element of Lost. The quickie character study.Lost's flashbacks, which admittedly lost some of the luster multiple seasons in, were amazing portraits of broken people. Yes, most often with a slight twist at the end. Perhaps even something that led to a payoff on the island itself. Think of John Locke's story in "Walkabout," or Sawyer's in "The Long Con." Those types of tales were my absolute favorite part about Lost. The fact that almost every character's backstory would have been interesting regardless of whether or not they wound up on the island. The island was the device used to spotlight the characters and tell their stories. Sort of like how the "departure event" is here.In my review of last week's episode, I threw in a quick line about how this show reminded me of an updated version of Flannery O'Connor's southern gothic morbidity. But when you read a selection of O'Connor stories, you understand the tone and intention right off the bat because it's all O'Connor. TV's a bit different. Especially for a new show starting out. And so if you want to tell a bunch of stories about people floundering in a new world of uncertainty, spiritually adrift, then you need a spark. And the "departure" has created the opportunity to follow a handful of fundamentally damaged people. Whether they were damaged by the departure event itself, or long before it.Reverend Jamison, all in one, is a kind, generous, giving...stubborn, cowardly, deeply flawed individual who every day wrestles with what he perceives to be his own personal purpose. Representing here post-departure religion in upheaval, Matt is standing his ground as best he can. Holding Sunday service for the few congregation members who still attend, and taking regular beatings from angry relatives of the "departed" individuals he publicly maligns in his pamphlets. "See you next time," Matt tells Kevin in the hospital, indicating that ass-kickings are now a part of his new life of minor martyrdom.Matt's drive to inform the citizenry about the sinners among the vanished seems to be at cross-purposes with his own belief system as it basically exposes the event as not being The Rapture. However, with Matt, comes an odd desire to seek out the true meaning behind everything. As a boy, he prayed for attention and got leukemia. He then had to decide, as he told his church-goers, whether or not he was punished or rewarded. Of course, the most important element is that Matt, one way or the other, chose to believe he was answered. Good or bad. Because the divide between people of faith and nonbelievers would be the perception of a celestial audience."Two Boats and a Helicopter" featured a wonderful performance by Eccleston, still echoing the whimsy of that "little boy" who longed for attention. The way Matt's face lit up when he found out the coma girl he tended to had woken up. "This morning we prayed for her," he beamed, only to find out that she'd risen the previous night. And that's how it went for Matt. A sign of hope almost immediately followed by a kick in the ass. He donated clothes to the Guilty Remnants and then found out his church was being sold. He helped them out later when they were attacked, and he got attacked.After a while, a viewer could easily pick up on the pattern of Matt's bad luck. So much so that everyone watching probably knew it was a terrible idea for him to roll down his car window for that guy in the casino parking lot. But the episode still managed to go one step further than our predictions, by having Matt attack the man and reclaim his money. Possibly even killing the guy in the process. And so with Matt's desperation also came an escalation in consequence. The large sum of money he won at the roulette (thanks to a trail of pigeons) raised the stakes so much that the fallout, given his teeter-totter fortune, was going to be huge.Matt could be unassuming and kind, as with the father who came in to secretly baptize his baby, and he could be desperate and petty, like he was with (his sister!) Nora when he was trying to get his hands on her departure benefits. Where he basically, after pleading with her (and lying about it being a "loan"), opted to tell her about her husband's infidelity. Which was a one-two punch of a**hole-ery. Not only was she hearing about this for the first time, but he was almost insinuating (by saying that he wouldn't reveal it) that he could use it as a weapon against her. Which makes you wonder how much of the "dirt" Matt dug up on the sinners in his hand-outs came from actual church confessions. I mean, we know he does do follow-up research, but it probably had to have all started because he knew the actual sins of some of the people who disappeared.The one person, however, who knows that Matt's life is crumbling the most is - well - Matt. Even though he spends his days hiding from phone calls and making up lies about why he can't pay his wife's caregiver, he's eventually left alone with his own thoughts. Where he turns into a sobbing, regretful mess. His line to Kevin - "Nights are tough for me" - wasn't only about the fact that his wife, Mary, is a non-responsive quadriplegic (who must be in her own personal hell). Nights are also when Matt could no longer duck and dodge his agony.I sort of suspected that it was the GRs who had put in an offer on Matt's church during the scene where he was talking to the bank manager, but it still came off as a delectable wounding at the end. Especially following the (more effective) swerve of Matt having been unconscious for three days. And the way the music distorted as Matt watched them paint his church, warping the show's theme into something perverse, was incredible. Again, it's hard to not see the GRs as "villains" here with the way they so pointedly do things they know will anger people. Because, Matt aside, even those who never went to the church or had given up on the church would find the GRs using it as their new residence to be in poor taste.• Though lumped in with Matt's hospital dream, we got a flashback to the very first scene of the series - as it was Matt's car that was struck in the background of the parking lot scene. And Matt's wife who was paralyzed. The focus on the "lack of help" was clear (dream firefighters standing around while his and Nora's house burned), and her condition may have even been worsened by the fact that Matt picked her up and carried her out of the car (big spinal "no-no").• Matt being knocked out for days also makes me wonder how much damage is being done to his mind with the punches he's been taking. He showed no signs of confusion or concussion at the top of the episode, but I think it's still safe to assume that his brain being rattled so much could add to his clouded judgement.• There's a connection between Matt and Kevin, Sr. Something to do with a corrupt judge and a stash of $20 grand. Money that Matt actually put back into hiding when he was done using it to win big at the local casino.• Laurie, despite having left her own family in the lurch to join the GRs, still secretly watches their house at night.• This is the second time in as many episodes that a character's woken up out a dream because they were on fire.