Carrie Coon is one of the greatest actresses in the world, and “Guest” is when she really proves it. The earlier scene where she yells at the self-help author who approaches her at the bar should, on its own, be enough to earn her an Emmy, but it’s followed up by the even more impressive scene with Holy Wayne. When he hugs her and she lets out those sobs, it really feels like something magical’s happening here, that her pain is indeed being pulled out of her.
Paterson Joseph as Holy Wayne also does an amazing job, straddling the line between a con man and a genuine miracle worker. The result is a scene that answers fans questions without actually answering it all; it shows us everything Wayne does with zero omissions, but gives us room to decide for ourselves what we’re seeing. It’s a delicate, ambiguous balancing act that would prove to be the show’s biggest strength.
“The Leftovers” season 2 would take away some of this ambiguity by having Tommy pull the same con — it turns out that hugs in general are magic, not Wayne himself — but this doesn’t undermine the ending to “Guest” as much as one might expect. The point remains that Nora was offered up a convenient story to help her through her suffering. Throughout the episode she dabbled in a life where she was happy and carefree, but comes out of it still with the belief that she’s not strong enough to reach that happier life for real. Then comes Wayne offering her a cheat code, using fake magic to give her a real emotional breakthrough. This is hardly the end of Nora’s grief, but it’s a major step in the right direction.