The Last Man on Earth 4×05: “La Abuela” Review

Zihuatanejo 2017, shooting breaks out at a mansion. Two gunmen motion for a woman in the garden to stay quiet, and then they shoot down two guards. Entering the house, many more men are killed. The last of which is shot by the woman who was in the garden. The camera shifts and shows a portrait of that woman on the wall.

We switch over to the future, where our group of survivors moves into the mansion. Carol sees La Abuela’s portrait on the wall and comments on how she seems nice.

After Todd’s heart attack, Melissa becomes overbearing. She doesn’t approve of him carrying things and carries his bag in for him.

Dawn, Erica’s baby, won’t stop crying. Erica tells her ‘shut your boob hole.’

Abuela confronts one of her workers. She says that the way the attack on her house happened makes it seem like she has a traitor. The man swears it wasn’t him, and she asks if he’s just incompetent. When he says he isn’t incompetent either, she throws a Rubik’s cube at him and tells him to complete it in ten seconds. Ten seconds later, she shoots him. She picks up the Rubik’s cube and remarks that he was only four moves away from completion. Two other works have the job of disposing of the body. As they roll him up into the rug, one says they have to do something before something happens to them, too. Later, we see him making something in a secluded area with ‘explosivo’ written on supplies in the background.

Carol and Tandy baby-proof the house. Tandy finds the Rubik’s cube and wants to try to solve it, but Carol asks him to stay focused.

The man with the explosivo brings out a piñata at Abuela’s birthday party. Abuela, always alert, finds it suspicious, and nicely tells Panchito that she wants him to take the first swing. Before he takes his first actual swing, shooting breaks out and everyone runs.

Todd wheels into the kitchen and Gail asks about his wheelchair. Melissa wants Todd to stay off of his feet, so she’s making him use the wheelchair. Melissa asks where Todd’s helmet is. You can sense Todd’s aggravation at being so controlled, but he puts the helmet on for his wife. He wants to grab some food, but Melissa hands him a packet of dry seaweed.

Gail asks Erica if she’s tried rubbing some whiskey on Dawn’s lips. When she says no, Gail goes on to ask about several other liquors. Erica is against the idea, and Gail suggests they drive Dawn around because sometimes the movement of the car will calm babies down. Erica says they might as well “give it a shot.” Gail says you can’t give a baby a whole shot, but then she realizes that’s not what Erica meant.

Carol and Tandy baby-proof the mansion in super weird ways. They wrap the staircase in bubble wrap and then fill it with packing peanuts. (I hate to tell you this, Carol, but those are a choking hazard.) After testing it himself by flinging himself down the stairs, Tandy wants to do the Rubik’s cube now. Carol says he can play his game if he agrees to be the one to explain to their child that they only have one eye because he thought the Rubik’s cube was more important than covering the cacti’s needles with corks.

Jasper finds the piñata in the house and hangs it up by a chandelier. Instead of hitting it, he has a batmobile toy fake shoot at it.

Gail and Erica drive Dawn around in Gail’s Porsche, but she still won’t calm down. Erica names all of these stressful situations that Dawn has been through and been fine and doesn’t understand why Dawn is freaking out now that they’re settled. Gail says that maybe the house is haunted, but Erica doesn’t believe in ghosts. They argue a little, and almost hit a truck. Gail swerves last second to drive around the truck, and baby Dawn stops crying. Erica thinks she’s traumatized, but Gail suspects that Dawn is an adrenalin junkie. They speed down the street, Dawn completely serene.

Todd is trying to pop-and-lock as a form of stress relief, but Melissa shuts off his music. She’s concerned that he’s going to ‘overload his system.’ Todd, fed up, gets out of his chair and struggles to unbuckle his helmet. He says that Melissa is the only thing causing him stress right now. Melissa snaps back that seeing him lying in the grocery store was the worst moment of her life and she’s not going to just stand by while he kills himself.

Tandy finds Jasper with the piñata and teaches him the proper piñata custom. Tandy pulls his shirt over his eyes as a blindfold, spins around, and hits a lamp. Carol comes in and yells at him for ‘foorpybabing’ (the opposite of baby-proofing, if you missed that) by leaving glass shards around the room. Tandy assures her that the house is as baby-proofed as it needs to be (minus these glass shards) and asks his wife what she’s so worried about. She admits that the thing of which she is worried is that their baby will get the virus.

Abuela, Panchito and the man who made the bomb rush into her office to hide from the gunshots. Abuela tells a long, repetitive story, focusing on the words ‘good news, bad news, who can say?’ She tells them that she knows they planned on killing her today, and she pulls out her gun. Before she can fire, she is shot through the head by Panchito. The other man is baffled that Panchito is the snake. Panchito lets in police to take the man away. Panchito comments on how the man was going to let him hit that piñata with the bomb inside of it, but the man tells him that that’s not even where the bomb is. When asked where the bomb is, he simply says ‘who can say.’

Present (future?) day, Tandy is still trying to solve the Rubik’s cube. The filmography suggests that that is where the bomb was placed.

I feel confident that the Rubik’s Cube bomb will not result in Tandy’s death… but will it result in a smaller character’s death? The show hasn’t been shy about killing people off, so we can’t rule it out. Watch The Last Man on Earth Sundays on FOX!