20 Flawless TV Character Arcs

8. Nora Durst - The Leftovers

spike buffy
HBO

Everyone lost someone in the Departure, when 2% of the world's population vanished without a trace, but few more so than Nora Durst, who found herself alone and isolated after losing her husband and young children. Under this loss, though, she doesn't crumble.

It's not smooth sailing. Nora was never the same, constantly shifting between explosive, emotionally trapped and traumatised, tangled in a deep, penetrative grief she never fully escapes but never allows herself to become controlled by. She's broken, but also charming and hopeful enough to break through the tragedy.

In the end, Nora meets the light at the end of the tunnel, finding peace in her family's disappearance and her place in the world after the fact, and watching her come to terms with the Departure -- in the show's revelatory finale, The Book of Nora -- was the masterful show's greatest payoff.

Contributor

Aidan Whatman hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.