'The Leftovers' season-finale director reveals the biggest challenges of the episode

"The Leftovers" has never been shy to go full "Twin Peaks" on us, and the finale showed that off perfectly with Kevin's trip back to purgatory.

Shot by John after he learns that the palm print on Evie's car the night she disappeared was Kevin's, Kevin is found back in the hotel he was in after Virgil killed him in episode seven. But this time he comes across a karaoke bar in the hotel lobby and learns the only way to get back to the living is to sing a song. Reluctantly he spins the wheel of song choices, landing on the Simon & Garfunkel song "Homeward Bound."

"Justin was terrified of singing," Leder said. "I kept saying, 'We don't want you to be a good singer, we don't even want you to sing half-good.' He did a brilliant job."

And the choice of song for the scene took some time to figure out.

"We listened to several songs, and the words in 'Homeward Bound' felt right," she said.

Leder said the song's words "...every day is an endless stream of cigarettes and magazines..." inspired Lindelof to include shots of Kevin smoking and copies of National Geographic, which were both recurring themes in season one.

Family has been a major theme in "The Leftovers." And by the end of the season-two finale we see that the Murphy family has imploded while the Garvey family has finally come together. The wife of Matt Jamison (Christopher Eccleston) is awake (again), and in a moving final shot in the episode, Kevin comes home to find his whole family is there, including his son Tom (Chris Zylka) and girlfriend Nora (Carrie Coon).

"There were a lot of characters to tie up," Leder said. "I think there were 11 characters that all had to have stories that had to be wound up. It was a real challenge for me to keep it creative and cinematic and emotional. I mean, we started 20,000 years ago in the first episode with that baby finding a home. And we're in the same space and now Kevin has found his home."