Last Man Standing: Episode 6

Writer: Marieke Hardy
Director: Daniel Nettheim

Plot Synopsis: The sexual and romantic politics of the past is the theme for this weeks episode.

For Adam, his ghost is the memories associated with taking his ex-girlfriend away for the weekend to Dalesford – the location of his getaway with current girlfriend Taia.

For Bruno, the excitement of helping father his ex-girlfriends child is exciting. The ex-girlfriend in question is Adams sister, of whom Bruno dated for three months when he was eighteen. These days she identifies as a lesbian.

For Cameron, the ghost of his past is an old (married) friend seeking a sexual relationship with him. Cameron is disturbed not by the fact a married woman wants him, but rather that his ex-wife Zoe had given her permission to pursue Cameron.

The episode is exceedingly clever in the way that it juxtaposes the character of Anto against the three main male leads. Anto, a young guy barely in his twenties, is not old enough to have any ghosts of his own, so is instead dealing with his own immaturity of his sisters lesbian relationship and her desire to start a family. While it’s largely an issue of Anto’s immaturity coming to play, ultimately the character is having difficulty watching his sister move forth.

Thoughts: The best episodes of Last Man Standing tend to feature our three protagonists in situations together that reflect general day to day experiences. Once the characters are separated for significant amounts of screen-time, embarking upon their own solo explorations of self-awareness, the show loses the zest that it requires.

This episode is, awkwardly enough, all solo self-exploration. Maybe five minutes in total have any of the characters sharing any screen-time together. The episode suffers for it.

That said, there was quite a bit to like about the episode. Each of the characters had a nice moment of realization that managed to define their characters further than we’d seen previously. Adam fighting against the idea of Taia being ‘the one’, practically refusing to verbalise his emotional state despite Taia calling him directly on it. Bruno reaching a mature decision regarding his emotional ability to father a child he’d have no responsibility for was a nice, if of little consequence, decision. It was when the script dovetailed to draw Cameron into the storyline by exercising his alpha male bravado by donating a sample in Bruno’s stead (thereby fulfilling a sexual thrill by providing his sperm to the lesbian couple) that the script delivered beyond the expected. Cameron finds the experience to be emotionally void.

Inspired Moment:The inclusion of Cameron into the sperm donation story verged on brilliant, unfortunately it didn’t quite sit well with the C story that he’d been saddled with until that moment in the episode. The scene that really resonated was the reaction of the lesbian couple to the actions of Bruno and Cameron. Despite approaching the situation with a clinical approach, Camerons bravado regarding the donation simply highlighted the value of a man like Bruno to serve as a donor.

Recurring: This episode provided a very brief scene with the lovely Kat Stewart revealing her new love for sci-fi. Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side make yet another appearance on the soundtrack with Lo Sciento is heard playing in the background of the final scene.