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"The Christmas episode of The Leftovers was anything but merry: \nA truck crashes on a highway, ejecting hundreds of corpses bound for funeral homes; a deranged man punches a pregnant woman in the stomach, but miraculously the baby\u2019s OK; Laurie asks Kevin for a divorce, and their troubled teen daughter steals the plastic baby Jesus from the town nativity display and ... hold on a moment.\nSEE ALSO: 'The Leftovers' Episode 3 Recap: Starved for Attention\n[Walks to fridge. Looks for something to take the edge off another post-Leftovers bout of acute existential dread \u2014 this show is bleaker than the nightly news but each episode is better than the last. A month in, it\u2019s beginning to find its groove. Finally! I doubted you, Lindelof, but you\u2019ve proven me wrong. YOU WIN OK. Bad news: Nothing in fridge. Returns to laptop. Resumes recap.]\nAnd .... I\u2019m back! So: The name of the doomsday drama\u2019s fourth installment \u2014 \u201CB.J. and the A.C.\u201D \u2014 seems to offer some sort of clue as to what really happened on October 14 during the mass disappearance that defies scientific explanation yet won\u2019t be classified as a supernatural phenomenon without irrefutable evidence, proving those crazy religious types had been right all along. Was it The Rapture? I\u2019m starting to think so. And I fancy myself a person of science.\nFirst off, the title: \u201CB.J.\u201D is obviously shorthand for \u201CBaby Jesus\u201D and A.C. could possibly stand for \u201Cantichristian\u201D or \u201CAntichrist,\u201D defined via Wikipedia as \u201COne under the direct control of The Devil, who will lead the abomination in the end times.\u201D More on that: \u201CIn traditional Christian belief, Jesus the Messiah will appear in his Second Coming to Earth to face the emergence of the Antichrist figure, who will be the greatest false messiah in Christianity. Just as Christ is the savior and the ideal model for humanity, his opponent in the end time will be a single figure of concentrated evil.\u201D \nSecond, freak moments of apparent magic: Kevin\u2019s car appears to run itself off the road when the agita-prone police chief \u2014 irate over having to buy another baby Jesus to replace the stolen one \u2014 loses control of the wheel after taking the Lord\u2019s name in vain, a no-no in Christian theology. There\u2019s also the bizarre attack on teenage Christine (Annie Q.) by an unhinged naked guy who screams: \u201CI know what\u2019s inside you!\u201D \nWe learn she\u2019s expecting a child with madman-guru Holy Wayne, who\u2019s wanted on underage sex charges and has ordered Tom to protect her at all costs. The naked guy\u2019s oddly prophetic accusations \u2014 \u201CYou walk over the dead!\u201D and \u201CThey\u2019re all in white!\u201D \u2014 pan out to be true when Tom and Christine encounter a flipped-over truck that\u2019s spilled out piles of dead bodies.\nAccording to Christian eschatology, the study of \u201Cend things,\u201D it\u2019s believed that the Rapture precedes (or occurs mid-way through) the Great Tribulation, a period spanning up to seven years during which those left behind experience apocalyptic events that kill off a majority of the world\u2019s population. Then comes the Second Coming.\n\nA scene from Episode 4 of \"The Leftovers\" on HBO.Image:  HBO.comTheory time: Wayne is the Antichrist. Christine, unfortunately, is pregnant with the spawn of Antichrist. The ascetic Guilty Remnant \u2014 whose members recently took over Rev. Matt Jamison\u2019s church, and apparently exist outside of the fictional New York suburb of Mapleton (we see two GRs attempting to recruit Tom somewhere in the American Southwest) \u2014 purportedly buy into the Rapture theory and are attempting to expand the religion in a long-term effort to save humanity. \nWayne, who preaches that he can heal people with \u201Chugs,\u201D has a powerful network of clients in DC including some congressmen. These power brokers could elevate his status as a \u201Cfalse messiah\u201D and protect him from being punished for his crimes.\nOn second thought: This hypothesis is wildly off base. But it\u2019s fun to think about. \nThe Tom Perrotta novel on which the series is adapted takes a realistic approach to the concept of the Rapture, choosing to focus on human drama rather than magical elements. While staying mostly faithful to Perrotta\u2019s story, showrunner Damon Lindelof no doubt has some spooky tricks up his sleeve to please his leftover Lost fans. Lindelof wrote \u201CB.J. and the A.C.,\u201D which might explain its otherworldly tone and plot twists. I\u2019d like to see more of those.\nCan we get a \u201CSmoke Monster\u201D? A polar bear? A cameo from Jacob?\nSomething.\n\nA scene from Episode 4 of \"The Leftovers\" on HBO.Image:  HBO.comThe Leftovers' leftovers:\n\u2022 Twin bros Adam and Scott Frost are pure comedy. They\u2019re played by Max and Charlie Carver, formerly of \u201CDesperate Housewives\u201D and MTV\u2019s \u201CTeen Wolf,\u201D as vapid frat-boys-in-training and bring a welcome double-dose of levity to this Debbie Downer of a show.\n\u2022 There are shades of Scientology in the GR philosophy, specifically members\u2019 forced detachment from relatives who aren\u2019t involved with the group. It\u2019s heartbreaking to watch Laurie toss Jill\u2019s Christmas (a lighter inscribed with the phrase \u201CDon\u2019t Forget Me\u201D) into a street grate.\n\u2022 Breaking into homes and stealing family pictures? That\u2019s cold, GR.\n\u2022 Matt replacing the missing Jesus with a new, better, version is a sly comment on The Way We Live Now. Upgrade your phone! Your car! Your girlfriend! Speaking of significant others, and the replacement of one with another: How long before Kevin rebounds from Laurie and makes a move on Nora Durst? \nAlso: Got a better theory on the \u201CA.C.,\u201D Holy Wayne and Christine\u2019s baby? Sound off in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/07/21/the-leftovers-recap-baby-jesus-goes-missing/>