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Can Tandy convince Lewis to try flying a real airplane?
As you’ll recall, Melissa has been in a very weird state of mind since killing Jon Hamm. Todd (taking everyone’s advice after Melissa kept pretending to jump off of a building) locked her in an interrogation room with a two-way mirror so they can monitor her and make sure she’s safe. And let me tell you, she is not happy about it.
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Carol goes in to talk to her, and Carol reports back that Melissa said that Gail threw herself off of a cliff because Carol is too annoying. Everyone takes turns trying to talk to Melissa, and she says terrible things to everyone:
- The last thing Mike said before he died was “Where’s my brother”
- Mark is still alive and living with his new lover in Tokyo.
- Australia sank.
- Tandy is getting fat.
- No one likes a short man.
- Carol is pregnant with Mike’s baby.
- The words “racial slur.”
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Todd says that he definitely won’t go in to talk to her if she’s saying all of these mean things about everyone because she’s the most angry at him. Melissa walks up to the mirror and says in a singsongy tone “Judas. Oh, Judas. I will never forgive you Todd.”
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In the flight simulator, Tandy offers Lewis a tiny bottle of vodka and asks when Lewis will be taking his actual flight. Lewis tells him that he’s logged enough hours to technically be able to give it a test run, but he doesn’t feel quite ready yet.
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Carol and Erica look through medical books to try to figure out what is wrong with Melissa. Erica says that it could be general psychosis – detachment from reality, putting oneself and others in danger, childlike regression – but then Tandy shows up in his dinosaur costume, and Erica decides that it’s not likely that two people in their group would suffer from the same thing. Tandy pulls out a giant bag of random pills he found at the pharmacy, and thinks they should try different things on Melissa until something works. Carol suggests shock therapy. Todd gets upset by all of this. They have no idea what to do to help Melissa get better. Tandy says that they’ll figure it out, but Todd brings up when they “figured it out” with Phil’s appendectomy, which resulted in his death. It won’t be too long until Erica and Carol have their babies, and they possibly could need C-sections, for which they are unprepared. (Hmm, dangerous c-section at the end of the world. Sounds like someone has finally decided to start watching The Walking Dead.)
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Tandy takes Lewis to a hangar, telling him that he is ready to try a test run in an actual airplane. Lewis thinks Tandy is crazy and is worried that he’d crash the plane and die if he tried it at this point. Tandy brings up the argument that traveling by plane is actually safer than traveling by car, but, of course, that statistic doesn’t take into count brand-new pilots who were left completely in charge. Lewis doesn’t understand why he’s pushing this, and Tandy says that if they can get him up in a plane, they’ll have hope, and maybe Lewis will find someone, and maybe that someone will be a doctor. Seems like a long shot, but “we’re fresh out of short shots.” Lewis is going to fly some day, so why not today? Lewis agrees that it might be a good idea – the sooner he leaves, the sooner he’ll possibly be able to find Mark.
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They throw a going away party for Lewis, even though he’s only doing a short test run.
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Carol asks him if he can fly over Napa and see if Gail is there. Erica asks if he can one day fly her to Australia. Everyone has been drinking, and Todd is very drunk and knocks some things over. He tells Lewis that what he’s doing means a lot to him and Melissa. Melissa, on a tablet screen that Todd has handy, is giving a thumbs down, but Todd flips it upside down so that it’s a thumbs up. Tandy gives a speech in which he names a lot of random important people from history including Thomas Alva Edison, Shel Silverstein, George Washington Carver, Lena Dunham, and Lewis.
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Lewis makes the front page of the Post-Virus Post, written and illustrated by Carol. “Lewis gets it wright, brother!” She gives a copy to everyone and asks Lewis if he wants to read it before his flight, but he says he’ll read it after he lands.
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Tandy gives him a bomber jacket from Aeropostale and a pilot hat from a costume store. Tandy does another list of random people from history before saying Lewis’s name. Lewis heads over to the plane and prepares for takeoff.
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Everyone is cheering him on as he gets up in the air. He’s off of the ground for maybe twenty seconds before the plane crashes straight down into the ground, catching on fire.
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News of Lewis’s death makes the front page of the new newspaper, and Tandy gives yet another list of random historical figures.
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As a brightside, Tandy says that Lewis is now safely in the arms of his partner, Mark, who “Let’s face it. We aaaaaall knew that Mark was dead.” Tandy asks Todd if he’s prepared a song, and he sings the chorus of Fly by Sugar Ray. Erica gives a depressing speech about how every time she finds hope, someone she loves dies. Phil, Mike, Lewis, and most likely Gail. Tandy puts ash that may or may not be some of Lewis’s remains into a ziplock bag and attaches it to a drone to scatter them. He crashes the drone into a tree and it falls into a pond.
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Tandy mopes around the streets in his dinosaur suit until he comes across a church. Once he’s in the church, he talks as if to his mother. He took the dinosaur suit off because he couldn’t remember if she believed in them or not. He asks his mom to apologize to Lewis if she sees him. He laments about the mistakes he’s made, and how he keeps trying to make things better, but they get worse. After saying how lost he feels, the sun shines brightly through the stained glass windows. Tandy takes this as some sort of sign and rushes off, thanking God.
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Tandy gets to work with something electrical, and eventually it’s ready. He brings Carol, Todd and Erica outside at night for a surprise. He tells them that God gifted him with an epiphany to honor Lewis and raise their spirits. He flips a switch, and colored lights (“The rainbow! A symbol rear and dear to Lewis’s heart.”) appear on Gail’s building(!!!!!). Carol, Todd, and Erica start walking back inside because it’s cold, and Melissa, on her screen, tells Tandy that nobody liked it. Well you’re wrong, Melissa, because I liked it.
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The camera zooms in on the other building. We get a shot of above the elevator. The lights flicker and then come on, and the elevator starts moving. (BUT. IS. GAIL. STILL. ALIVE. OR. IS. THIS. HAPPENING. TOO. LATE????) The elevator opens and we see a very big mess and Gail lying on the floor. As it zooms in toward her hand with the gun only inches away from it, we see Gail’s index finger twitch. She lives! (For now?)
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The Lord taketh away and the Lord giveth. It’s nice to finally have some answers, re: Gail possibly killing herself, but at what cost? While I love that the show is super casual about killing off characters, they also need to stop. R.I.P. Lewis. It was nice having a fully sane person around for a while.
The Last Man on Earth airs Sundays at 9:30/8:30c on FOX
