List of ''The Leftovers'' episodes

Prologue: a pregnant cave woman becomes the sole survivor of her clan after an earthquake and rockfall, she then goes into labour and gives birth. A short time later while distracted hunting for food, a snake threatens the baby and the mother protects it, but at the cost of a fatal bite. The mother continues on for a short while but succumbs to the snake's venom and collapses and dies by the side of a small watering hole. Another woman then claims the orphan.

When "The Man on the Tower" dies of a heart attack, his widow insists that he departed, but Nora visits Matt to prove otherwise. Later, she is contacted by actor Mark Linn-Baker, who claims he represents people who can reunite her with her children if she meets him in St. Louis. Nora is convinced Linn-Baker is suicidal after he explains the group he represents have built a device to "send" people wherever their departed loved ones have gone. The next day, Nora drives to Kentucky to see Lily, now living with her mother Christine. Returning to Texas, Nora confides to Erika that she broke her own arm after having her children's tattooed names covered. She and Tom have a charged exchange concerning Lily before she returns home to find Kevin suffocating himself. He tells her he is not suicidal, but does it to feel. She gets a call from Linn-Baker's benefactors, and they ask that she meet them in Melbourne with $20,000. She agrees and Kevin asks to go along. In Australia, a group of older women kidnap a police chief named Kevin and drown him, expecting him to return to life. As it becomes clear he will not, Kevin Garvey's father approaches and asks what they are doing.

Kevin Garvey Sr. is collecting chants from the native aboriginal tribes of Australia, which he gets arrested for. After he's released, he goes on a search for a tribal leader named Christopher Sunday, who is the only man that knows the last chant he needs to prevent the coming apocalypse. Through illegal methods, he finds him and explains his storied and sordid past. Sunday agrees to assist if he fixes his leaky AC unit. While tending to it, Kevin falls off the roof and on top of Sunday. Having tried unsuccessfully to escort him to the hospital in the back of an ambulance, Kevin now found himself wandering the rural outback. After witnessing a passerby kill himself, and being bitten by a snake, Kevin is rescued by a woman, and taken to rehabilitate at her home. He awakens to find people outside the house building a boat for a flood. The woman reveals herself to be Grace, who has lost all of her family; and has just killed a police officer, based on Kevin's sudden appearance and the note he was found with from Matt's book. In doubt, she questions everything, but Kevin reassures her belief.

Kevin and Nora have sex in the restroom of the airport, on the way to Australia. Nora is given further instruction, while Kevin sees Evie outside the studio window. He races to the street and confronts her. After managing to snap a photo he calls Laurie, who warns him against pursuing things further. He ignores and tracks the girl down to a local library. Kevin, while on the phone with Laurie again, realizes the girl is, in fact, not Evie; Kevin has had a psychotic break from reality. Meanwhile, Nora almost misses her bus after a strange woman begs her to watch over her baby. Upon arrival, Nora undergoes a physical examination before being asked a question: would she allow the murder of a baby if it meant that the child's twin would grow up to cure cancer. Nora's enthusiastic reply towards being OK with killing the baby gets her rejected by the interviewers. Reeling from the day's events, Kevin and Nora clash: he burns Matt's book and, after insulting Nora, leaves the hotel. Outside he is met by his father and Grace. The three drive away, leaving Nora alone in the hotel.

Convinced that Kevin must return to Jarden before October 14, Matt charters an airplane to Melbourne. Laurie, John, and Michael accompany him. After a Marine Nationale submariner launches a nuclear weapon at an island in the South Pacific Ocean, air traffic is grounded, forcing the party to board a passenger ship in Tasmania. The vessel is hosting a "pride" of people that celebrate the linage of "Frasier, the Sensuous Lion", through mass copulation. Matt discovers there's a man aboard who proclaims to be God. Matt witnesses the man, David Burton, toss another passenger overboard, to his death. Having tried to convince others, Matt becomes enraged at the injustice, and kidnaps Burton. Matt questions him under duress, and asks why he has caused Matt's cancer to return. Burton promises to cure him if Matt releases him. Matt does so, and Burton states it's done with the snap of his fingers. The next morning, the ship arrives in Melbourne. Matt reveals to the others that his cancer is back. The captain informs Matt that a man's body had been found in the ocean, and that Burton would be taken into custody. Burton attempts escape, but is mauled by one of Frasier's descendants.

A flashback reveals that Laurie attempted suicide by overdose just before she joined the Guilty Remnant. In present day, Matt (still cancer ridden) and Laurie assist Nora in spying on the two scientists that interviewed her. The next day, after Nora hesitates, Laurie is able to convince her to do her job and report the group's activities. Laurie heads to Grace's ranch house, with the heavily singed copy of Matt's book, having been summoned by Michael. Kevin Sr. explains that they've asked Kevin to drown, and return to the "afterlife realm" to claim the song lyrics from Christopher Sunday to stop the impending destruction of Earth. Laurie promises not to interfere in their plan for Kevin, but she sedates everyone at dinner, awaiting Kevin's return from a journey of contemplation. The two have a meaningful chat, in which Laurie reveals that she had been pregnant on the day of the Departure, but the fetus disappeared. They both admit that they hadn't wanted another child before bidding each other a fond goodbye. The morning of the anniversary, Laurie goes scuba diving, taking a call from Jill and Tommy just before going in.

The rain begins in Australia. Kevin returns to the world of the undead where he is tasked with locating Evie Murphy, Christopher Sunday, and the children of Grace Playford. Despite successfully finding all of them, none of the parties are able to comprehend the messages that he delivers. In the alternate reality Kevin resumes his role as an international assassin (aided by the departed Dean), but soon realizes he has a second doppelganger as the President of the United States. He subsequently alternates consciousnesses between the two. As President, Kevin is manipulated by his Secretary of Defense Patti Levin to launch a nuclear attack that would devastate the world, despite resistance from his Vice President Meg Abbott. When both Kevins meet, they learn that the key to the nuclear launch is in the assassin's heart, which the President must cut out. Before they carry their task, the Kevins realize their regret in their handling of Nora and decide never to return to the undead world again. Patti and President Kevin watch the nuclear apocalypse as Kevin returns to the world of the living, where the rain has stopped.

After saying goodbye to her brother Matt, Nora enters the device that would reunite her with those who were lost in The Departure. Many years later, an aged Kevin appears at Nora's doorstep in Australia. Nora is confused by his presence, as he seemingly has no memory of any of the events that had transpired after Mapleton. Despite his attempts at reconnecting with her, Nora continuously rebuffs him until he reveals the truth: he knew that Nora had disappeared after "crossing over" but refused to believe she was gone. He then traveled to Australia every year just to look for her, finally finding her a couple of days before. Nora then gives Kevin an account of what transpired during the procedure: she was transported to an alternate reality where 98% of the population of the planet disappeared instead of just 2%. After a lengthy journey back to Mapleton, she learned that her husband had remarried and her children were happy in their lives. Nora then had the creator of the device send her back home, where she lived in Australia for the next twenty years with only Laurie (her therapist) knowing she was back; she further states that she did not tell Kevin as she was unsure if he would believe her. Kevin then tells her that he does, tearfully expresses relief that they are reunited, and holds her hand.