Axis Mundi (The Leftovers)

In prehistoric times, a tribe of cavepeople are sleeping inside a cave. A pregnant cavewoman (Sara Tomko) leaves to urinate outside when an earthquake occurs. The earthquake kills everyone in the cave by crushing them with rocks. While trying to remove some of the rocks, the cavewoman then gives birth to her baby. As they travel alone the next day, the cavewoman forages for food and the baby is almost attacked by a rattlesnake. The woman kills the rattlesnake with a rock, but is bitten in the process. The infection worsens, killing the cavewoman. Another cavewoman finds them and takes the baby, leaving the mother's body behind.

In Jarden, Texas, a teenager named Evangeline "Evie" Murphy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) goes to a lake with her friends. There, she flirts with a doctor named Brian Goodheart (Dominic Burgess). She takes a portion of the lake's water, despite the fact that it is prohibited. She returns home to her mother Erika (Regina King), father John (Kevin Carroll) and brother Michael (Jovan Adepo). The family is annoyed with the sound of a cricket, whom John cannot find inside the house. With the water that Evie retrieved from the lake, Michael goes downtown to sell them in tubes to tourists. It is revealed that Jarden is a town where more than 9,000 people live and no one vanished during the Departure, which gives it the surname "Miracle" as a national park.

John visits the local fortune teller Isaac (Darius McCrary) to ask about his future. Isaac claims that something dangerous will happen to John. Despite Isaac claiming that his predictions are real, John is not convinced. That night, while working at the fire station, John raises his concerns to his colleagues that Isaac is a fraud. John and his friends break into Isaac's house, and despite his protests, they set it on fire. Isaac is tended by the local nurse, Erika, who is aware of John's acts. Isaac states that his prediction is true and John cannot avoid it.

The next day, the family goes to church, where the pastor explains that he will step down from his services due to a surgery. His new replacement is revealed to be Matt (Christopher Eccleston), who moved to Jarden with Mary (Janel Moloney). The Murphys also find that a new family has moved next door: Kevin (Justin Theroux), Nora (Carrie Coon), Jill (Margaret Qualley) and Lily, the baby that Nora found at their previous doorstep. John decides to invite them to his birthday party that night, which they accept. At dinner, John reveals that he was in prison for attempted murder during the Departure, which disturbs Kevin, Nora and Jill. Evie suffers epilepsy, which Erika treats. She then leaves with her friends, leaving a gift for John.

An earthquake hits the town at night, awakening the Murphys. As John evacuates his family, he notices that Evie has not returned. Evie does not answer her phone and they also discover that her friends did not make it home that night. John and Michael drive to the lake, where they discover their car abandoned with the doors locked and Evie's phone inside. They are also shocked to discover that the lake has been drained, with the fishes dying.

In September 2015, the episode's title was revealed as "Axis Mundi" and it was announced that series creator Damon Lindelof and co-executive producer Jacqueline Hoyt had written the episode while executive producer Mimi Leder had directed it. This was Lindelof's tenth writing credit, Hoyt's third writing credit, and Leder's fourth directing credit.^[1]

The idea for the opening scene emerged from a talk between Lindelof and supervising producer Reza Aslan, who wrote Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. The concept was based on the idea of where religion started, with Aslan identifying that people lived in caves and saw birds flying.^[2] While some writers were concerned about the scene, they viewed it as essential to the season's theme.^[3] He explained, "it felt right. It's that simple. We weren't trying to make any bold statement, and perhaps that's naïve. I mean, we're not idiots. We knew it was a risk. But at the end of the day, it was something we got really excited about."^[4] Lindelof hoped that by the end of the season, "the debate won't be over whether it was necessary or not, but the debate will be what it meant."^[5]

Starting with this episode, the opening credits sequence is replaced. The new sequence features the song "Let the Mystery Be" by Iris DeMent. The sequence now depicts images of people having fun and spending time with other people, with some people replaced with human-shaped outlines of sky, indicating they were part of the Sudden Departure.^[6]