The Last Man on Earth Season 4: Why This Cliffhanger Still Stings Years Later

Honestly, it’s been years and I’m still not over it. If you were watching Fox back in May 2018, you probably remember that sinking feeling when the credits rolled on the finale of the last man on earth season 4. We finally saw Tandy and the gang find a literal paradise in Tapachula, Mexico. There were goats. There were fruit trees. There was a non-robot dog! And then, out of nowhere, dozens of mysterious figures in gas masks crawl out of the ground like some post-apocalyptic fever dream.

Then? Black. Total silence. Cancelled.

It’s one of the most brutal cliffhangers in sitcom history. For a show that started with a guy using a margarita pool as a toilet, it evolved into something surprisingly deep, weird, and heartbreaking. But season 4 was special. It was the year the show really leaned into its own insanity while trying to build a genuine future for these weirdos.

The Chaos of Zihuatanejo and the Rubik's Cube of Death

Season 4 didn't just stay in one place. It kicked off with the group fleeing the United States on a yacht to escape nuclear meltdowns. They ended up in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, which sounds lovely until you realize they’re living in a former cartel mansion.

One of the wildest arcs in the last man on earth season 4 involved Fred Armisen. He played Karl, a guy they found locked in a Mexican jail. Tandy and Todd, being the sweet idiots they are, assumed he was a guard. Nope. He was a cannibal.

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The tension was peak LMOE. You had this incredibly polite, talented guy who secretly wanted to eat the cast. The way he went out was pure Will Forte genius: he found a Rubik’s Cube that was actually a bomb. He solved it, and—well, no more Karl. It was a bizarre, dark, and hilarious way to handle a guest star, which became a trademark for the series.

Why the Characters Mattered More Than the Apocalypse

By the time we hit the fourth season, the "last man" gimmick was basically gone. It was an ensemble show about a makeshift family. We saw Carol give birth to twins (Bezequille and Mike). We saw Erica and Todd’s relationship get incredibly complicated as they navigated the "repopulating the earth" pressure.

Tandy, or Phil Miller as he was originally known, went through a massive transformation. He started the series as a genuinely terrible person. By season 4, he was still a "friggin' turd," but he was a turd who cared. His reunion with his brother Mike (Jason Sudeikis) provided some of the most emotional beats of the year. Watching them sing "Falling Slowly" one last time? It hits different when you know the show is about to end.

The Cliffhanger Explained: What Was Supposed to Happen Next?

The biggest question everyone asks about the last man on earth season 4 is: who were the people in the masks?

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For a long time, fans were just left guessing. Was it a military remnant? A cult? Will Forte eventually spilled the beans on the Good Ones podcast, and the planned plot for Season 5 was actually darker than anything we saw.

Basically, those people were wealthy survivors who had been hiding in an underground bunker since the virus first hit. They had scientists who told them when it would be "safe" to come out. They weren't villains; they were just terrified.

Here is the kicker: Tandy’s group were asymptomatic carriers.
They were basically walking biohazards.

The plan for Season 5 was for the two groups to eventually bond and trust each other. Then, slowly, the bunker people would have started dying off because Tandy and the gang were unknowingly infecting them. It would have wiped out the entire new colony except for maybe one or two guest stars. It’s a classic Last Man on Earth move—mixing extreme tragedy with awkward comedy.

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The Reality of the Cancellation

Why did Fox pull the plug? It usually comes down to the "boring" stuff. Ratings for the last man on earth season 4 weren't great, averaging around 2 million viewers. In the world of network TV in 2018, that was a dangerous place to be.

It was an expensive show to produce, too. They had to clear streets, find massive mansions, and deal with complex location shoots in Mexico (or California standing in for Mexico). When you combine high costs with a "niche" comedic sensibility, networks get twitchy. Even though the critics loved it—the final season has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes—the numbers just didn't add up for the execs.

Is There Any Hope for a Revival?

In 2026, we live in a world of reboots. We’ve seen everything from Frasier to Dexter come back from the dead. But for LMOE, it’s tricky. The cast is incredibly busy. Will Forte is always working on a dozen projects, and January Jones, Mary Steenburgen, and Mel Rodriguez are constantly in demand.

However, the cult following hasn't gone away. If anything, the pandemic made the show feel even more relevant (and occasionally too real). There have been whispers of a movie or a limited "wrap-up" series for years, but nothing has materialized.

What You Should Do Now

If you’re feeling that post-finale void, there are a few things you can do to get your fix:

1. Listen to the Podcasts: Search for Will Forte's interviews on Good Ones or Late Night with Seth Meyers from around 2018. He goes into great detail about the "lost" Season 5.
2. Rewatch for the Easter Eggs: Season 4 is packed with callbacks to the first season, specifically regarding Tandy’s behavior and the "Alive in Tucson" signs.
3. Check out "MacGruber": If you miss the specific brand of Will Forte's "brave but stupid" comedy, the Peacock series is the spiritual successor to Tandy's energy.
4. Support the Cast: Follow the creators, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Their projects almost always carry that same weird, heart-filled DNA that made LMOE so special.

It might not be the ending we wanted, but at least we got four seasons of "Oh, farts."