Last Words
- Episode aired Jan 17, 2011
- TV-PG
- 22m
The gang tries to support Marshall and Lily tries to help his mom during Marshall's father's funeral, but Marshall becomes preoccupied when he discovers that he has one final voicemail messa... Read allThe gang tries to support Marshall and Lily tries to help his mom during Marshall's father's funeral, but Marshall becomes preoccupied when he discovers that he has one final voicemail message from him.The gang tries to support Marshall and Lily tries to help his mom during Marshall's father's funeral, but Marshall becomes preoccupied when he discovers that he has one final voicemail message from him.
- Mickey
- (voice)
- Uncle Pete
- (as Bobby Ray Shafer)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA funeral-goer says to Robin, "I hear you're a woman who can get things." And she replies, "I've been known to locate certain items from time to time." This is a reference to the exchange between Red and Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
- GoofsAlthough the characters refer to Crocodile Dundee 3, when Robin pulls the DVD out of her bag, the case should have the film's real title, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001).
- Quotes
Marshall Eriksen: You guys don't get it, okay? None of you do. My dad was my hero. And he was my teacher. And he was my best friend. He always came through for me, and now he's just gone. And what am I left with?
[Plays static message and yells at the sky]
Marshall Eriksen: Thanks a lot God, thank you. You took my father. The greatest man that I have ever known, and you whipped him off this Earth, way too young. And he'll never get to meet our kids, Lily. But we've got this voice mail. Thank you so much for the voice mail, it's a great comfort. Because whenever I'm starting to feel lonely, or sad, or maybe a little bit cheated, at least I've got the sound of his pocket to console me. How is this fair? You've got an entire human life, and it just ends for no reason. And what are we left with?
Marvin Eriksen Sr.: [Over the voice mail message] Marshall? Looks like I've been calling you for over five minutes. How's my pocket sound? Sorry about that buddy. Anyway, your mom and I had such a great time seeing you. I love you.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Final Moments of TV Characters That Still Hurt (2024)
First is the overarching plot line or mystery or similar, that spans many seasons or the entirety of a show. Every show that tries to do that inevitably loses its way after some time and you are left with a confusing mess that the writers (sometimes) try to fix by slapping retcons like band aids on a severed limb.
Second is the sudden change of tone or style of a show. Be it for an episode, or longer.
Sadly, this show does both of these things, and, as expected, fails both times.
The whole ongoing theme of "this is your mother, no wait it isn't; this is how i met her, no wait it isn't; this is what lead to us meeting, but actually it will happen sometime in the future" got old during season 2. And in this and the previous episode, the writers, for some reason, decided to jam the death of Marshall's father down viewers' throats.
The problem is that this show is not a serious drama, never was, and obviously the writers are not skillful enough to pull that off. Therefore, the whole deep and serious tone feels fake and hollow and is just an attempt to score some cheap "feelz" from the viewers by trying to appeal to an automatic reaction - someone's father died, so you should feel sad; also, we write about sad stuff, so it means that it is deep and meaningful writing. Another problem is that, despite attempts to make it look that way, Marshall's supposedly strong connection to his father was never truly established nor present. And finally, the whole change of tone is so sudden that it just feels awkward and out of place. Yes, such sudden bad things do happen in real life, but here it was just done poorly. Also, anybody trying to argue that this show is an accurate representation of real life is fighting a battle that just can't be won.
The whole "we're going serious" thing was a failed experiment. Hopefully they won't try that again.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime22 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
- 16:9 HD