The Last Man on Earth brings in a new rival

By: Rafael Abreu

On The Tube

“The Last Man on Earth” has quickly become my new favorite comedy show. It manages to take an old premise and make it fresh with great writing, great characters, and unexpected twists. I’ve noted that the show is full of surprises and that each new episode changes things up one way or another. Well, it looks like this sitcom shows no signs of slowing down as things only get more and more complicated.

Episode 5: “Dunk the Skunk” begins with a red convertible driving down a gray and drab road as someone gets out of the car to read a sign that says “ALIVE IN TUCSON”. This vehicle shows up periodically throughout the episode as a sort of reminder that things are about to change yet again. Phil continues to try and find a way to have sex with Melissa, but his marriage to Carol is seen as sacred by everyone but him.

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Seeing him trying to devise a way to make sex with Melissa viable, we see more of Phil as a scumbag and he actually becomes less likable. He’s still enjoyable and fun to watch, but it’s becomes clearer that he’s not really a great guy. Him pretending to act distraught to Carol about possibly having sex with Melissa, as well as his failed attempts at even talking with Melissa, demonstrate this best.

While he believes his logic to be sound (having sex with someone else so that his and Carol’s children don’t have sex with each other), it’s clear to Carol and Melissa that, no matter how sound his plan may be, Phil’s really only thinking about himself.

“Dunk the Skunk” works really well as its own episode, especially with the ever recurring presence of the red sports car. However, I felt it worked even better as a direct precursor to the following episode, “Some Friggin’ Fat Guy.”

This episode starts with fully introducing Todd, played by Mel Rodriguez, a man who would have left Tucson if it weren’t for Phil’s fireworks display. Needless to say, Phil is less than thrilled, doing his best to make Todd look bad, only for everything to backfire on him. Todd is charming, sweet, a nice guy, and of all things, getting really friendly with Melissa. They instantly hit it off, and while Carol is absolutely happy for them, Phil is—you guessed it—jealous as can be.

“Some Friggin’ Fat Guy” is one of the funniest episodes yet, mainly due to Phil’s failures at trying to woo Melissa, embarrass Todd, and convince himself that there’s no way Melissa could ever be into Todd.

This episode also shows just how much of a scumbag Phil really is: spying on Melissa and Todd, always referring to Todd’s weight, and saying stupid things. Example: Phil says that his favorite movie is “The Shawshank Redemption” only because it’s Melissa’s.

However, this episode also ends with Phil demonstrating a bit of humanity, confessing that his behavior has been awful and that he still may be having trouble communicating with other humans. It took me by surprise, thinking that Phil would just continue to be a jerk, but it seems he may have had a mini-breakthrough. Only time will tell if Phil becomes a better man after all this.