Spoilers for season two of The Last Man on Earth ahead!
When we last left The Last Man on Earth in the show’s December mid-season finale cliffhanger, astronaut Mike Miller was hurtling towards Earth in an escape capsule while not-his-brother Phil Miller was flat-lining from an emergency appendectomy at the hands of perpetually white wine drunk Gail. But we’ll get back to the latter storyline, though, because last night’s episode focused entirely on the former.
Yes, miraculously, Mike Miller survived his ascent back to Earth, thanks in part to an abandoned cruise ship that just happened to be floating around in the middle of the ocean to break his fall. In a second stroke of luck, Mike managed to escape the now sinking ship on an inflatable water bike and pedaled off, eventually happening upon a supply-filled sailboat that also just happened to be floating around in the middle of the ocean.
There was only one problem with this:
As it turned out, the boat was very much inhabited by none other than “Pat Brown, last man on Earth” (Mark Boone Junior, Sons of Anarchy) who, while initially was suspicious of his passenger, quickly warmed to the idea of companionship after determining that Mike wasn’t carrying the virus that killed off most of the Earth’s population. You see, Pat was ostensibly not impervious to the virus like the gang back in Malibu, but instead bought a boat (charmingly named “deez knots”) when the virus hit and high-tailed it to the high seas, only stopping back on dry land occasionally to pick up supplies.
Which sounds all well and good, except that shortly into his living arrangement with Pat, Mike began to suspect that there were certain, uh, “implications” involved.
Fortunately, Pat did agree to bring Mike to shore to see the world now for himself, where things got really dark really fast after Mike noticed the “ALIVE IN TUSCON” message left by his brother, and Pat realized that the fly he caught might be trying to take flight. Lucky for Mike, a rip in his hazmat suit in the scuffle that ensued prevented him from being dragged unconscious back aboard Deez Knots where he would have likely endured months and months of horrific abuse.
Now Mike is hot on his brother’s trail, and the funeral scenes in the preview for next week’s episode suggest that the other Phil’s operation did not, in fact, go so great. So, what will this mean for the dynamic of the crew? Will Mike replace both Phil Millers as the group’s alpha male? Will he become Melissa’s new love interest now that Todd is sneaking around with Gail, or will he step in to help Erica raise the baby? Jason Sudeikis is still only being billed as a guest star, so it’s anybody’s game now.
