Tandy’s new look is of course courtesy of his brother, Mike, with Last Man on Earth continuing to put their new addition to good use. In this case that means an all-out prank war breaking out between him and Tandy. As a classic ode to pranking, “The Fourth Finger” does not disappoint. Prank episodes are one of my favorite staples to pull from (falling only second to grifting episodes), so this was a lot of fun for me. Better yet, the entry uses this pranking as a strong showcase for this sibling feuding, which happens to double as a good window into likely what Tandy and Mike’s dynamic was like as children.

Perhaps you saw some of the footage of Will Forte and Mel Rodriguez out in the wild with half of their faces shaved, and you understandably might have thought that this show had something to do with their change in fashion. As the conclusion of last week’s episode would confirm, this is in fact the case, with this episode not squandering a second of it (Erica’s comment that he looks like two different serial killers is the best of many solid pile-ons). This cruel and unusual punishment that Will Forte has put himself through is a true spectacle of television that we’re lucky to be getting. Can you think of a time that an actor put themselves through more (and for a sitcom, no less)?

What’s incredible here is that the episode establishes a baseline for Tandy looking gross early on, yet things continue to get worse for him as the episode progresses. Tandy goes through the metamorphosis of some sort of cursed beast as he shifts from half-shaven, to “Smurfed”, to heavily coated in make-up, to poison oak finally entering the equation. In the first half of the season I spoke about how the episode “A Real Live Wire” felt like such a live-action version of a cartoon, but “The Fourth Finger” runs even further with that energy. You’re really getting something bewildering here.

Part of the fun of a prank episode is of course getting to see the pranks, but there’s also a lot of glee to be had with the paranoia that these situations generate. Tandy is on the brink of losing it out of fear of Mike getting him and it adds a welcome extra layer to all of this chaos. A touching part of the tail end of this episode is watching this fear so gradually shift into love. Erik Durbin’s script is wise to use their fight as a means to actually dig into the emotional underpinnings of these two. Getting glimpses of what their expectations were as they were growing up together manages to be really poignant while working organically with what’s happening. It’s nice to see such a light episode morph into something with some emotional impact by the end. As the weight of their past invades into their present it pushes them to effectively grow up out of this childish situation and it’s great.

Much has been documented about how Last Man is an immensely personal show for its creator and star, Will Forte, with the line getting blurred even further this week. Patti Forte gets a listing in the episode’s credits and I’d wager that she’s the one voicing Tandy and Mike’s mother. It’s a small, simple touch, but one that again reiterates how close this show is to Forte’s heart.