But I have to counter that I find Meg’s evolution totally implausible. She’s a completely different person, with a different name, even (I don’t remember anyone calling her Megan last season, but it was pretty much the only name used in this episode). Sure, grief can make you cruel, but it doesn’t totally erode your humanity. It doesn’t make you petrify children by throwing grenades onto their school bus, or order random trespassers to be stoned to death, or want to put out your cigarette in someone’s eye just to make them feel as crappy as you do.
Meg last season seemed like someone suffering from a classic case of post-Departure existential crisis (and pre-wedding jitters) but she was essentially kind and empathetic, encouraging Laurie to keep the lighter Jill gave her, presumably because she was thinking a little of her own mother. I remember her sitting on the sidewalk shaking in the finale after the GR conflagration, but I don’t buy that even the most vicious backlash from the people of Mapleton could turn her into such a palpably cruel, manipulative, and brutal person.
It seems more like the show wanted a new Big Bad after Kevin wrestled (metaphorically) with Patti on a spiritual plane, and so Meg was drafted to fill the void. But it feels cheap. Throwing in a classically snippy mom (“ladies don’t say ‘pee’”) and a possible cocaine habit as backstory doesn’t do much to illuminate her character, and if anything Liv Tyler is too good in the role—she really fills out Meg with a kind of radiant menace, and the result is that she seems fairly unrecognizable from season one.
'The Leftovers': A Surprise Return
+
+
+
What does that mean? Did she make him shoot up the club? 
