Welcome, remaining living creatures, to our review of FX’s inappropriately named science fiction drama Y The Last Man. This episode delivers Roxanne’s long-awaited origin story, Sam’s long-earned fresh start, and Nora’s calculated/chaotic approach to career advancement with a uniquely catlike quality. Spoilers ahead, so let go of that lover who doesn’t deserve you, and if all else fails, just do the job you’re good at, here are five thoughts on Y The Last Man season one episode eight, “Ready, Aim, Fire.”
1: H The Easy Target
As much as we’d all like to think otherwise, anyone could get drawn into a cult, but Hero (Olivia Thirlby) doesn’t even need to get drawn in, she pretty much dives in head first. On top of needing food and shelter, (which is often enough), Hero desperately seeks absolution. She needs to see herself as the victim rather than the villain of her own story. A super emotionally intelligent cult leader could easily pick up on that need and exploit it, but Roxanne (Missi Pyle) doesn’t have to be super emotionally intelligent, because Hero spells it out for her. In flashbacks we learn Roxanne had to work to get the other women from the domestic violence shelter to trust her; comparatively, Hero submits quickly and easily, siding with Roxanne over her own beloved Sam (Elliot Fletcher) in no time at all. She knows Sam, a man, cannot stay in this man-hating cult, and thank goodness Sam lets go of this doomed relationship and gets the fuck out of Dodge. In a lesser show, Hero’s uniquely pronounced pliability would be a shallow plot device, but in Y The Last Man it’s earned, and thematically relevant. Hero consistently makes self-destructive choices, prioritizing her ego over the physical and emotional well being of herself and her loved ones. This is a show about a lot of desperate people and how desperation changes them, or brings out the worst in them, or just makes them easy targets for exploitation.
2: S The Rational Actor
In a lesser show, Sam would stay with Hero in the Waco Warehouse. He’d endure daily torment from Roxanne and her followers, both for love, and for the benefit of a messy audience who lives for drama. Blissfully, this is not that show. Sam has stayed for a while, reaping the warehouse benefits, but this episode he has reached his breaking point and leaves. The first place he lands is an (almost) abandoned school, and the first thing he does is play the piano, reconnecting with his true self as an artist. He spent the first seven episodes following Hero hoping she could take him to the President and live a comfortable protected life, but after a series of line-crossings, Sam has finally realized Godot isn’t coming. I am so much more interested in his journey to survive while staying true to himself than I would be in his suffering in a cult that mistreats him for a woman who doesn’t deserve him.
3: Roxanne’s Origin Story
To summarize succinctly, Roxanne was an employee at the warehouse, suffering under a sexist boss. When the event happened, she went on a murder rampage, and in a fit of loneliness, convinced the residents of the nearby domestic abuse shelter that they were under attack, and that she was a police officer who knew how to keep them all safe. Roxanne is no evil mastermind. She’s just a girl, driven mad by patriarchy, standing in front of a group, asking them to worship her in exchange for life necessities and some fun naked rituals. Another key part of Roxanne’s origin story is that she actually shot Kate (Sarah Booth), the woman Hero was unable to save all those episodes ago. Kate wanted to leave, and Roxanne violently disagreed. If anyone besides Nora (Marin Ireland) finds out, it will totally upend her project.
4: Storytelling Backwards, and Explaining vs. Justifying Villainy
Roxanne’s origin story is told in flashbacks, in backwards chronological order. In walking back, step by step, Roxanne’s gradual change is revealed, and each reveal is satisfyingly surprising and sickeningly delightful. I, for one, believed she was a cop, and finding out that her entire understanding of criminal justice came from that time she stole a Law & Order DVD box set from the bargain bin was very fun. A lot of villain origin stories attempt to justify villainy, particularly in the recent era of the anti-hero, but this one only explains the villainy, which is refreshing. Roxanne was absolutely mistreated by the capitalist patriarchy; her mistrust of men is completely earned, but the subsequent murder spree and serial abuse of a group of domestic violence survivors… well, anyone would be hard-pressed to earn those things. Roxanne’s response to being put down by The Man TM is to become The Man TM. After her boss condescendingly reminded her that she wasn’t in charge, Roxanne decided her only path forward was to take charge. In her earliest flashback, Roxanne’s goal was to protect her teen girl co-worker, and instead of taking charge as a tactic to protect women, taking charge became her goal and her desire to protect girls and women was forgotten.
Continued below5: N The President’s Press Advisor
Upon hearing Roxanne plans to kick her and her daughter Mack (Quincy Kirkwood) out of the Waco Warehouse, Nora scrambles. She knows this cult is scary, but she also knows she and Mack will not do well on their own in the post-apocalyptic wilderness. First she tries and fails to convince Roxanne to let them stay, then she tries and fails to convince Hero to leave with them, and then she tries and fails to convince Sam to convince Hero to leave with them. The desperate rage that is always bubbling behind her eyes is about to boil over once again. So many episodes ago, it was expressed on a small scale, when she batted a vase off the table in her old home’s entryway like a cat. Now, after getting booted from her second survival crew, she ups the scale. When everyone else has gone to sleep after a bonfire party, she sets the warehouse ablaze, spilling a line of kerosene with the same catlike disdain she showed the vase. Without the warehouse, Roxanne could very easily lose control of the cult. The life necessities were, to put it lightly, a big draw. That let’s Nora make herself indispensable, confidently able to do sharpen and package Roxanne’s demagoguery like the seasoned presidential press advisor she is. Nora is not a politician; she can’t charm Hero and Sam into working with her, but she can be a valuable asset to a tyrant. Like Roxanne, instead of bucking a system that is not serving her, she puts herself towards the top of it. Like Sam, she is returning to her true self.
It’s not unheard of for characters in dramas to make baffling illogical choices in order to generate more drama. Every time Y The Last Man has a chance to make this trite kind of choice, the show instead turns in a direction that is more nuanced, more emotionally honest, and more dramatically interesting. With its phenomenal all-star ensemble cast portraying a group of people driven by desperation, making the best choices they are capable of making for themselves, Y The Last Man sets a new standard for prestige television.
