"Don't Be Ridiculous" is the second episode of the third season of the HBO drama television series The Leftovers, and the 22nd overall. The episode was written by showrunners Tom Perrotta and Damon Lindelof and directed by Keith Gordon. It aired in the United States on April 23, 2017.
The episode focuses on Nora Durst as she travels to St. Louis to investigate an unusual proposal as part of her job at the Departure of Sudden Departures' fraud investigation team. It also provides details on Nora's life in the three years since the end of the second season.
The episode became notable for the guest appearance of actor Mark Linn-Baker, former star of the sitcom Perfect Strangers, as a fictional version of himself who lost his co-stars to the Departure. Critics lauded "Don't Be Ridiculous" for its unexpected yet poignant inclusion of Perfect Strangers in its narrative, as well as the episode's script, emotional resonance, and Carrie Coon's central performance.
Plot
Edward, the man living atop the pillar in Jarden's town square, dies of a heart attack in the middle of the night. Nora interviews his wife, Sandy - the same woman from the town's outskirts that paid Matt to beat her son with an oar - given Sandy's spurious claims that Edward departed rather than died. Nora also interviews various witnesses to Edward's apparent disappearance, one of whom mentions seeing Sandy with Matt the morning after Edward's "departure." Nora confronts Matt, who admits that he and Sandy quietly buried Edward to honor her unending devotion to her husband. Nora wants to expose Sandy's deception to the public, but Kevin advises her not to anger the townsfolk in light of the upcoming seventh anniversary of the Departure.
Nora visits the hospital to get her arm cast removed. The doctor notes that Nora was spotted inflicting the injury upon herself with her car door during her initial arrival at the hospital, but Nora evades the question. She receives a phone call from actor Mark Linn-Baker, who claims to be calling on behalf of a "third party" and offers Nora a chance to see her children again. Nora assumes the call to be fraudulent, but Linn-Baker mentions her children by name, and invites her to discuss his proposal at a hotel in St. Louis within the next 24 hours. A curious Nora receives approval from DSD colleague George Brevity to investigate the matter as a fraud case, and hastily packs for her trip.
Linn-Baker meets Nora at the hotel and explains that he represents a group of physicists investigating low-amplitude Denziger radiation (LADR), trace amounts of which were observed at various Departure sites. The scientists have since built a machine that blasts subjects with LADR, supposedly "reuniting" them with those who vanished on October 14. A skeptical Nora believes that Linn-Baker is suicidal, and that without proof of the subjects' departure, the scientists are merely incinerating them. Linn-Baker, who was the only Perfect Strangers series regular not to have departed (and was later found to have faked his own Departure), confides to Nora his torment over the improbability of his survival among his co-stars, and argues that he and the other research subjects are regaining control of their lives.
The next day, Nora takes a detour to Kentucky to check in on Lily, who has since been returned to Christine's custody and does not recognize Nora. Dismayed, Nora visits Erika, who is living contently in a new house by herself in Jarden. Nora reveals to Erika that her self-inflicted arm injury was an attempt to cover up her recently acquired tattoo of the Wu-Tang Clan's logo, which itself is covering up a previous tattoo bearing her children's names. The two bond by jumping on Erika's newly purchased trampoline while listening to the Wu-Tang Clan's music.
While driving into Jarden, Nora is pulled over by Tommy, who simply wants to chat, and he passively informs her he knows of her visit to Christine and Lily. Nora, destabilized by the reminder of having to give Lily away, goes to a print shop and produces a poster-size photo of Edward's exhumed corpse. She places the photo at the center of Edward's shrine in the Jarden town square, infuriating Sandy. Nora returns home and finds Kevin suffocating himself with a plastic bag; he explains he is not suicidal but merely trying to feel pain, and Nora reacts with understanding. Kevin tells Nora he wants to have a child with her, but Nora bursts out laughing in response. Linn-Baker's benefactors call Nora asking her to meet them in Melbourne with $20,000. She agrees, ostensibly to uncover the fraud without intending to enter the machine, and Kevin asks to join her.