Welcome, remaining living creatures, to our review of FX’s inappropriately titled science fiction drama Y The Last Man. Sadly, FX has canceled this treasure of a show, but if it gets picked up by another platform, this episode will have set up a very interesting second season, giving us lots of questions to chew on in the meantime, like, what will Nora do with the Amazons? What’s the deal with the Culper Ring? Can Missi Pyle come back in flashbacks? Please? Spoilers ahead, so be nice to your family, and snuggle like a sandbag, here are five thoughts on Y The Last Man‘s season one finale “Victoria.”
1: H The Problem Child
A flashback illustrates what might’ve been a typical Brown family outing to a nice restaurant in the before times. Yorick (Ben Schnetzer) attending with his supportive girlfriend Beth (Juliana Canfield) describes an upcoming magic show. His parents are supportive, though his Dad is texting the whole time, and Hero (Olivia Thirlby) goes out of her way to piss everyone off. She confesses she’s having an affair with a married man (presumably the one she’ll murder later) and when everyone responds in shock, she points out the hypocrisy, since their Dad is also having an affair. Finally, then Congresswoman Brown (Diane Lane) has enough with the embarrassment and leaves. Hero is clearly deeply affected by her father’s infidelity, and lashes out by mimicking his problematic behavior. Later, when Nora (Marin Ireland) takes over the Amazons, Hero is the first to take her side. Is this evidence that she has matured, learning to reject Roxanne’s (Missi Pyle) demagoguery despite the boost it gave to her ego? Or is she just latching on to the next maternal authority figure who will similarly absolve her? This question is tantalizingly left for possible as yet unconfirmed future episodes.
2: M The Strong Young Woman
Mack (Quincy Kirkwood) gets her period for the first time, a mark of physical growth and a symbol of emotional maturity. In a heart-to-heart, Nora tells her that she needs her to be strong. Later, as the Amazons are attacking the former women’s prison colony, Nora covers Mack as she drags an injured comrade off the battlefield. Together, Nora and Mack hold the injured woman and comfort her as she passes out or possibly dies. So far, Mack’s role in this show has largely lacked agency. In the beginning, her own injury provided more pressure and responsibility for Nora. Then she became an object of tension between Nora and Roxanne, as Roxanne worked to override her mother’s authority. Going forward, if the show goes forward, Mack will become her own person, and it will be interesting to see how her decisions influence the story.
3: A Sandbag
355 (Ashley Romans) has a sleep-walking problem, which continues to be a serious danger to herself and the mission. She tells Dr. Mann (Diana Bang) the only thing that helped in the past was tying herself to a sandbag before going to sleep, but traveling with a sandbag is too inconvenient. So in lieu of a sandbag, Dr. Mann adorably offers 355 a snuggle, which adorably works. 355 sleeps stationary through the night, avoiding the very real danger of being caught in a bad place by the attacking Amazons in the morning. In addition to the very sweet romantic implications, this is a sign that 355 is finally allowing herself to receive help. Later, following Sonia’s (Kristen Gutoskie) tragic death, Yorick insists that 355 train him. He wants to be a member of the team, not just the damso in distress. 355, Yorick, and Dr. Mann, are finally building trust and working together. They hold each other down, like a sandbag.
4: Victoria
Nora reveals that her parents named her Victoria (that’s the name of the episode!) and that she changed it to Nora when she left home. Shortly after revealing her given name, Nora earns victory over her long-fought battle with Roxanne, murdering her in front of the entire cult. The name Nora has two meanings, neither of which fit the character as well as Victoria does this episode. Nora can come from the Latin word “honora” meaning honor, or from the Greek word “eleanora” meaning light. Burning down the Waco Warehouse and shooting Roxanne while she’s unarmed were both victorious moves, but not at all honorable, and both pretty dark. Perhaps, in changing her name, Nora has been suppressing her true victory-at-any-cost-self in the same way she’s been suppressing her rage.
Continued below5: The Culper Ring
Besides Nora, the other true victor of the season one finale is The Culper Ring. They’ve somehow been able to track 355, replacing her tracker after she broke it, and were somehow able to deliver her a car full of supplies and directions to meet them. Additionally, they were able to find and kidnap Jennifer Brown and her current attendants Beth and Sam (Elliot Fletcher). In real life, the Culper Ring was an actual historical spy organization founded by George Washington and Benjamin Tallmadge during the American Revolution. In the world of Y The Last Man their omnipresence feels like it might be supernatural, or they might just be frighteningly well-organized. The first time we met Dr. Mann, she told 355 that conspiracy theorists were at least partially correct that the government was hiding something from them. At the time she was referring to Yorick, but this might turn out to have foreshadowed a reveal that The Culper Ring was somehow prepared for the event.
If Y The Last Man doesn’t get a second season, it will be a crime against art. More to the point, it would be a great disappointment to me personally. Everyone in the cast is genuinely terrific, grounding a sci-fi premise and melodramatic action in believable emotional reality, all while challenging popular ideas about sex, gender, and chromosomes with a strong, confident point of view that is neither preachy nor self-righteous. Dr. Mann’s monologue about the Y chromosome is going to stay with me for a while.
