BWW Recap: Everybody's Taking 'Baby Steps' on THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is, above all, a show about recovering from loss. Society as a whole is destroyed after a plague, and a few people have to come together and rebuild. This week, everybody takes baby steps in their own personal problems, as THE LAST MAN ON EARTH walks on the dramatic side.

Last week we ended on two shocking twists: Phil 2 intended to leave Malibu with Carol, and Erica is pregnant. We pick back up this week right where that episode left off. Erica is pissed at Phil 2 for professing his love for Carol. Before Tandy and Carol returned to the group, she and Phil 2 had been a couple; he had been someone should we want to raise kids with. Now that she actually is pregnant, the relationship dynamics are all askew. Phil 2 doesn't love her, and she doesn't want him because of it.

Phil 2, in typical control-freak Phil fashion, wants to take an active role in the life of his child. He spends his free time in the episode building hand-made cribs and other pieces of furniture for the child. He intends to show Erica this-but she rebukes him. Phil 2 goes on a downward this week. After punching Tandy last week and refusing to enter the stocks, he is Public Enemy #1 around Malibu. Phil 2 cannot handle rejection, from the group and from Erica. The loss of his power drives him to nearly drinking himself to death.

Tandy has been slowly working his way into the group's good graces again. Where last season he was constantly destroying his high status after starting from this top, this year he started at the bottom and he is making his way up the ranks. After being punched by Phil 2 last week, Carol tells him to capitalize on the injury to gain sympathy. Tandy goes all in, from constant moaning to punching his black eye to make it look worse.

He also tries to make himself a stronger member of the group. Gail entrusts him with a task, asking him to go get tortilla chips for her. Tandy is cognizant of his role in the group, and he wants nothing more than to get back to where he was at the beginning of the first season. He wants to make himself more useful to everybody, so he'll willingly drive into town and pick up every kind of chip. He makes the ultimate redemption at the end of the episode, when he saves Phil 2's life by dragging him from the beach where he would've drowned, back up to the house. Tandy takes it a step further, though, and locks him up in the stocks, forcing Phil 2 to accept the punishment he refused.

Tandy, still, has trouble relaying his personal, internal feelings to other people. His relationship with Todd is still strong, but he doesn't talk to him about what's going on deep in his head, or his problems outside the obvious ones. Tandy relies on Carol more, where he can be honest with her about pretending his injury is worse, but he can't pick up on her emotional beats. He resigns himself to telling the deep-in-his-mind stuff to his various sports balls. They make a reappearance this episode, when Tandy tries to justify to himself his sympathy for, and ultimate saving of, Phil 2. While dragging him back up to the mansion, though, Tandy repeats parts of the conversation with the balls. Hopefully this means he'll start to open himself up mother to other people.

Todd, on the other hand, is still trying to recover from his bacon debacle. With Erica pregnant and Carol questioning her and Tandy's methods, the question of pregnancy is left with Melissa. Todd, in a scene that's reminiscent of January Jones's Betty on Mad Men, confronts Melissa about her not wanting to have children. Melissa reveals that, way back in season one when it was just Carol, Tandy, and Melissa, she was going to try to have a baby with Tandy. Todd blows up at her, wondering why she would have a kid with a guy she just met and not the man she loves. She replies that she changed her mind. Their relationship is veering on the irrevocable side, though something in the way Melissa was reading her book and looking longingly at Todd's spot on the bed makes me think they'll reconcile in the coming weeks.

Carol deals with her jealousy of Erica being the first to get pregnant. Carol gives her a beanie she knit for her future child, and then continues to try to give Erica help. While talking to her, Carol reveals that she and Tandy have been trying for months to have children, and she goes to the story to take a pregnancy test. She's not pregnant, and is visibly upset about it going to be that night. Tandy doesn't pick up on his girlfriend's distress.

Finally, Gail is still recovering from the death of Gordon. She continues to go to sleep with a mannequin made to look like him. The culmination of this plot is coming next week, as seen in the preview for next week. So much hangs over the show. With everybody at their lowest point (except Tandy), the show is at the height of its dramatic potential. And next week, we get another animal and the return of Tandy's brother to the show.

The Last Quotes on Earth

Carol: "That's the dong that's gonna get you back in this community. You should be kissing that dong."

Carol: "I always thought Yorbelinda would be the first baby in the new world."

Tandy: "Scoops, Todd? Really? Is she friggin 4 years old?"

Tandy: "The bottom line is Phil is Meg Ryan... and I need to be his Andy Garcia."

Carol: "Tandy and I have been trying for 6 months and the only I have to show for it is rug burns and a deeply satisfied lover."

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Leave your comments or thoughts on tonight's episode below or tweet me @gunnar_larson! Tune in next week for the eighth episode of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH season 2!

Photo Credits: Anthony Hardwick | FOX ; Last Man on Earth official Twitter

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