We’re at the point now that whenever Last Man on Earth returns from some prolonged hiatus it is safe to assume that the premiere is going to be some ambitious, challenging piece of television that harkens back to the series’ staggering original pilot. We got a taste of it this season with the premiere, “Is There Anybody Out There?” where we basically saw a redux of the pilot, but with Tandy and Carol approaching their isolating reality together. This time, we navigate through this broken husk of a world again, once more alone, but this time through the eyes of Sudeikis’ Mike Miller.

Before Last Man on Earth returned, I spent a lot of time thinking about the circumstances that would inform the premiere. I also conducted an extensive Last Man on Earth walkthrough that catches us up to this episode. It’s a tremendous resource and if you’re even marginally interested in the show or how the production of a season of television works, it’s worth giving a look. But upon thinking about how the cliffhanger of “Christmas” would be followed up, I actually thought that focusing solely on Mike—with him being convinced that he’s the “last man on Earth”—would be a very solid premise to open up on.

It makes sense on a number of levels; due to the devastation that the Malibu Crew has witnessed with Phil’s death, giving them a bit of a breather is understandable. While Mike Miller is the biggest question mark for the show, getting to spend an entire episode In his head is deeply appealing. In that sense, “Pitch Black” swiftly deals with these two birds with one stone, shifting the focus to this supporting player (who’s likely on his way to becoming a much bigger part of the series), while allowing everyone else’s catharsis to believably happen off screen.

So the situation that Mike finds himself in—in what’s such a beautiful “what the fuck” cold open—is that after miraculously surviving his descent from space, he immediately has to navigate his way out of a sinking ship situation. He ricochets from one disaster to another and right from the start of things this feels distinctly different than the other “solo” entries of the series that we’ve seen so far.

I was thinking—perhaps too much—on the wild implausibility of Mike landing in America due to the sheer size of the world, and how there could perhaps be a lot of potential in him crashing into China or Russia, or some sort of extreme. What I didn’t even consider though is that since so much of the Earth is water, it makes a lot more sense that Mike would find himself in the middle of the ocean. And so, in classic Last Man on Earth fashion, we get an episode that’s almost entirely set at sea—something so incredulous that I can’t help but smile at merely thinking of the idea. The only time I can think of this thing being done before in television is in a too-ambitious episode of Magnum P.I. (talk to Jason Mantzoukas about it), but this just continues the tradition of Last Man thinking outside of the box and trying to be as anti-sitcom as possible. I spoke a lot about how gorgeous the cinematography in space looked, but this ocean stuff is on a whole other level. I’ve been told that this episode was $800,000 over budget and a big contention point for FOX, so please appreciate the incredible cinematography and grandeur you’re getting here. It’s not for lack of effort.