Women. Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em. Wait a minute – I guess you can when you have a whole city full of empty mansions to move into. But as so many episodes have proven, it’s just no fun when you’re all alone. Fear not, Phil Miller, for God is merciful. Your days listening to your wife’s sleep apnea machines and puppy-fied Claude Monets are no more. Ask and ye shall receive, The Do-Over seems to tell us.
It’s a desperate prayer for all the above to the big man upstairs that sends Phil not one, but two women pull up out of nowhere. He may not realize it, but he should be more suspicious of new survivors Gail and Erica (Mary Steenburgen and Cleopatra Coleman), because it’s all going to lead to trouble for him after the initial round of fun, food, and giggles that they all surrender to when the girls meet what they think is the (second) last man on Earth.
It’s funny to think of just how many people have made their way into Tuscon since Phil put up his survivor signs and Last Man seems to know that more than anyone. Gail and Erica’s comedically random, if not convenient introductions don’t belay their likability and lend a diversity the cast has needed. That they should be the unknowing apples of Phil’s lust-fueled eye is a joke the series makes at Phil’s expense than theirs, though I don’t know what to make of their kinky allusions to their “chapter” together any more than Phil does.
It’s felt like the series has needed something of a “do-over” for a while now and it’s the perfect timing that Last Man should whip something out of its hat for the occasion. Of course, Phil’s immediate response to meeting these two lovely ladies is to lie through his teeth to them and omit any mention of, I don’t know: his wife, his two swell neighbors, and the fact that he lives in the same freak’in cul-de-sac as all of them. In fact, Phil even tries and sell a Hallmark channel script for his two ladies about his “dead” wife Carol, but only after he blows things amidst a storm of outrageously offensive psycho-babble. Old lady? Colored girl? Phil, not cool.
Whoever Phil’s God seems like the angry, Old Testament one though, because a do-over was never going to work and give Phil’s conscience the rest it hasn’t yet earned. Yes, Phil can’t help but be aware of what he’s doing and probably cares enough about Carol to know that by cavorting with Gail and Erica he’ll be hurting her. He’s also immature and dumb enough to try and go through with his infidelity anyway, convincing himself (and his balls) that “living this double life is going to make me a better husband.” Yeah, right.
I guess that’s what the show’s about now – Phil’s learning curve as he sort of becomes a better man in the eyes of the show makers. I can see it, but it has been a tough road when Phil’s been this unlikable. This episode, however, managed to strike the balance of painting Phil as both a jerk but also a sympathetic one. And Carol believes he’s a good person, or at least she did until she found him in the car with Gail and Erica. But if even Carol gives up on Phil, what hope does he have left?
As it was probably always meant to be, all of Phil’s scheming blows up in his face in spectacular fashion and his night of hard-planned debauchery ends with what might be some very hard questions to answer for the folks back home – especially when and *ahem* where they find him. After so many last straws he’s broken, I’m not sure just what will redeem Phil in the end, but if anything, The Do-Over places him in water so hot I’m not sure he can swim out of. If Phil prayed before, he better start praying now.
The Last Man on Earth airs Sunday nights on FOX at 9/8 Central. Catch all the latest episodes on FOX.com and all the latest episodes here at BagoGames.