Now a single man, Phil discovers there are other fish in the tiny, tiny sea of Tucson survivors.
Phil Miller faced isolation once again in the last episode. That experience where the rest of the survivors pushed him away after the horrible things he had done to them was meant as a soul-searching moment for Phil. If everyone else in this society is able to get along, the problem must be him. He did return and apologized for all of his recent actions. It truly felt like a genuine moment. One that might be a turning point for Phil's arc this season.That doesn't seem to be the case though. Phil is no longer married to Carol and it's rewarding that she no longer has to be connected to this horrible person. And yet, things are allowed to go too well for Phil in "Moved to Tampa" without anyone really remembering why they hated him in the first place. He is allowed to return to his home and have fun. The show insists that since Carol is no longer living with him, he is now free to have fun which includes throwing paint cans in a wood chipper. It's random and a good source of humor. But it doesn't really appear as if Phil has learned anything from his recent actions because he's able to just go back to doing stuff like this. There was a time where Carol was happy to break stuff with Phil. That seems so long ago now even though the first season so far has only taken place in a span of three weeks.
Even more problematic is the fact that Gail and Erica now both willingly want to hang out with Phil again. They barely know Phil but they did have fun together for a brief period of time. He still lied to them about there being other survivors in Tucson. That betrayal was enough for them to turn against him immediately last week. And now, they forget all of those problems because they learn he and Carol were only married for three weeks. For some reason, the show thinks the biggest obstacle in his potential relationships with Gail and Erica was the fact that he was married. Not that he lied about there being other people. That just doesn't make any sense. The only reason it is done is to give the allusion that things are starting to look up for Phil once again. It's a structure that more than half of the episodes of the season have done. By now, it's just not effective any more because just when Phil thinks he'll get a win, some new person appears in Tucson to ruin it for him. It's just not fun or innovative anymore.
Phil really hasn't made any kind of progress or change. He just wanted to live amongst other people again. He got that wish only for him to mess it all up again. He enjoys the prospect of getting to have sex with Gail and Erica. That's his only concern right now. He's not trying to be a good friend to Todd or Carol. He just wants to make sure that nothing gets in the way of him sleeping with Gail or Erica. It's all rooted in Todd's fear that Melissa doesn't love him after he says those words and she only says "Thank you." Phil knows that the odds are in both of their favors. But Phil also recognizes that new people keep popping up in Tucson every other day. What's to say that someone new won't appear and sweep the various ladies of the community off their feet?
That fear is genuine for Todd while it's completely narcissistic for Phil. His only genuine thought is sex. He'll do anything to get it - and those actions are largely what keeps him from getting it. Phil was so smart in putting up all those signs across the country telling people to come to Tucson. But now, they've hurt him more than anything else. All he wanted was an attractive woman to live with. And now, he has a tiny community of people who don't get along with him. He's trying to mend that. But by putting up a new sign that says "Moved to Tampa," he's only dooming himself further.
It is fun seeing Phil suffer while he is trapped on the billboard with no way of getting down. The bigger question is if anyone back in the community will notice his disappearance and care enough to go look for him. Carol is the one who notices that something must be wrong if he didn't make his sex date with Gail. She knows him better than anyone else. So perhaps she really is the only person he deserves to be in a relationship with? And yet, all of that curiosity isn't necessary because a new survivor (played by Boris Kodjoe) saves Phil and somehow manages to drive directly to where the neighborhood is.
The whole purpose of this episode is to belittle Phil even further. The show does enough to make it understandable why that should be happening to Phil. He is a horrible human being after all. But now, even more of his identity is being taken away because the new survivor's name also happens to be Phil Miller. The rest of the community just no longer cares about the original Phil because they are dazzled by new Phil. Original Phil isn't even allowed to keep his name and will now have to go by his middle name - which happens to be Tandy. All of this happens as a result of Phil's attempt to get other survivors to leave town. It backfired spectacularly on him. And now, he has been isolated once more because everyone is obsessed with new Phil. It's all a little too much plot contrivance. The whole name situation doesn't entirely seem plausible except in the context of a comedy. The show goes out of its way to keep Phil a part of the community while still making things appear more hopeless for him because he doesn't have any kind of honest relationship with anyone. It's a concept that has just grown too tiresome over the season.
Some more thoughts:
- "Moved to Tampa" was written by Erik Durbin and directed by Jason Woliner.
- Considering they've only been dating for two weeks, it's easy to understand why Melissa doesn't want to say "I love you" yet even though she really likes how sweet Todd is. This relationship is trying to move fast. They've been dating for most of the season. To us, the passage of time has happened. To them though, it hasn't and shouldn't be rushed.
- New Phil happens to be a contractor. So some improvements to the community's living conditions could be coming very soon.
- Once he was trapped on the billboard, why didn't Phil paint over the new sign he made? He must have know the others would come to save him eventually and they would have been really mad to learn what he had been doing up there in the first place, right?
- By the end of its first season, The Last Man on Earth is going to have a bigger cast than most comedies out there right now.
