Make no mistake, it is a very funny scene, but for Melissa, Gail, Erica, Other Phil and the rest of these Malibuians, it’s also a deeply sad one. This is the funeral for someone that they all (particularly Gail, considering he was her lover) seemed to have very much grown to love in the few months that they got to know him. Todd struggles to get through his moving gesture of song at the ceremony, while everyone else is brought to tears as Carol continues to tug at her metaphorical collar.

The opening scene is a great breakdown of the series as a whole as the show consistently plays seesaw with the extremes of the emotional scale. It wants us to be laughing hard, but also never to forget the dire situation and extreme loss that all of these people have faced (“Oodles and kaboodles of death. Just heaps and piles,” as Carol elegantly puts it). That’s why when Phil’s brother inevitably returns and Phil is given someone back, while everyone else is losing, it should make for a very interesting karmic development when we get to that point.

Also, isn’t it crazy how much mileage the show got out of Will Ferrell by simply having photos of him peppered throughout the episode? I had to keep reminding myself that we never saw additional footage of Gordon from what we got last week yet it really does feel like we’ve gotten to see a good deal of the character by the clever coverage they apply.

Carol playing coy and hiding the fact that she’s still with Phil isn’t my favorite direction for the show to be going in. It’s a little too sitcom-y and Three’s Company for a show of this caliber and dimension, but it doesn’t meander at least. Carol’s “mole” status feels even more contrived due to the way it clunkily antagonizes her for the sake of an obstacle. Other Phil’s sights are suddenly on her since before they parted ways the two of them were very much an item. He’s since courted Erica, who’s now, naturally, spitting venom at Carol.

While this isn’t the most sophisticated direction for the show to go in, it does start an interesting discussion on how people can move on without you, how much we’re able to change, and the idea of trying to reintegrate yourself back into someone’s life. Acceptance has always been a big theme for the show and as we watch those beats get negotiated through, it will no doubt be a similar experience—albeit through entirely different means—when Phil’s brother comes back and the lost time will need to be addressed. At least Last Man is having all of its disparate threads connect on the same level thematically.