When we begin our episode, we learn that Todd’s been trying his hand at sculpting, producing not one, not two, but four of the ugliest clay figurines of our last quartet on earth. Of course, it’s our last jerk on earth, Phil Miller, that knocks them over with suspicious glee, breaking none other than his miniaturized self. It’s on that note that Carol muses, “It actually looks good without the Phil.” It’s this ominous foreshadowing that The Last Man on Earth promises big things to come for Phil – moving in with his own wife.
That Phil’s broken (or nonexistent) marriage isn’t plain enough by the state of his living arrangements, it echoes the touchy topic that the series has been avoiding as long as Phil has. Last Man’s been needing a narrative boost and some of us got our hopes up that this was the episode that might spice things up again, either with another character, communication with the outside world, or just give us some zombies.
But instead, we get a cow! Our heaven sent bovine might be the best thing since the end of the world as far as everyone’s stomachs are concerned. Milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, milkshakes – a natural bounty of all of life’s little luxuries. And of course, it turns out good old Todd has spent time on a dairy farm and knows how to make all of these things happen. Because, you know, he’s Todd! And of course Phil’s the least concerned about preserving a longterm food supply. Hamburgers aren’t shelf food, Phil. Speaking of which, how long have they all been eating Spaghetti O’s?
Ms. Cow’s appearance does give us some insight into the world our characters must live in too. That they didn’t even expect an animal within driving distance tells us that the virus must’ve wiped out the wildlife too. How far does this go? Are the insects all gone? What’s happening to the plant life? Humanity’s extinction would’t matter much in the grand scheme of things, but the death of all animal life would be a different matter entirely… and that’d be pretty bad news for our characters’ plans for, you know, repopulation.
Back to Phil, the group’s new source of livestock is just another excuse for Phil to cow-tow his silly schoolboy crush on Melissa and his petty jealousy of Todd, kidnapping and hiding the poor thing just so that he can be the hero once he “finds” it. It’s the kind of move we expect from him at this point, but it also had me wondering when exactly Phil shifted from a funny average joe to a deprecatingly evil jerk. Was he really this self-centered all along when I wasn’t looking? Maybe being the comedian without an audience automatically makes you funnier. That’d explain the cow utter/male prostitute joke. Yeah, that happened.
I suppose his unhappiness stems from being forced into marriage with Carol, but at this point if that’s such an unbearable situation for him, he needs to just put an end to their unholy matrimony. Instead, through Carol’s own amusing brand of trickery (DVRs matter, Phil), they wind up living together by the end of the episode. This doesn’t exactly put Carol in any better of a light either, because at some point you have to wonder why she’s so blind to Phil’s tomfoolery, if not for a very depressing amount of misplaced affection. You know, there really is no reason for Phil anymore thanks to Todd. A wife swap is a possibility if not for Carol’s fiercely monogamous devotion. Because at some point Phil has got to outlive his usefulness.
If The Last Man on Earth got me wondering just where the animals of the world went, it definitely gave me plenty to wonder about Phil’s sanity in all this. Watching Phil get burned on a weekly basis is funny enough and probably what he’s earned by this point in his not-so-last manhood, but how long the series can milk that routine is still a mystery. Maybe I’ve yet to accept that the series will simply never be like it used to be. Maybe it’s about time that viewers let the past be the past and start mooov’in on too.
The Last Man on Earth airs Sunday nights on FOX at 9/8 Central. Catch all the latest episodes at FOX.com and all the latest reviews here at BagoGames.