‘Y: The Last Man’ Ep. 7: Yorick & the City of Prison Inmates
The newest episode of Y: The Last Man gives us another new perspective on a comic book story arc.
Fans of the comic book Y: The Last Man spotted another classic setting jump from the panels to the screen this week. The episode featured a town full of former prison inmates, the return of Yorick’s girlfriend Beth, and a heartbreaking ending.
This article is all spoilers for episode 7 of ‘Y: The Last Man’. There are also some minor spoilers for the comic book.
Courtesy of FX
Prison, Electricity, and a Hot Meal
We join team Clone-a-Yorick as they experience the tension left in the wake of last week’s attempted escape plan. Dr. Mann and Yorick are feeling pretty awkward around 355 as she prepares a camper for their trip to San Francisco.
Once they’re on the road, Yorick attempts to show Allison an escape trick, but after she binds his hands, 355 loses consciousness at the wheel. Their camper crashes into a tree, knocking each member of the gang unconscious.
Later, Allison wakes up to find the other two unconscious and the sky dark. Down the road, a line of headlights reveals that someone is coming, and Dr. Mann is led away at gunpoint, and her two traveling companions are taken, too.
The next morning, Yorick wakes up naked in a strange bed, with a strange woman sleeping next to him, clothed and on top of the covers. He finds his clothes and begins to search for Ampersand, but he finds a kitchen full of women and a trans man preparing breakfast.
Yorick is led outside for questioning, and must quickly explain that he has no clue as to why he and Ampersand survived, remarking that maybe’s he’s cursed. He asks about the town’s electricity and explains why the women found him tied up, explaining that he wasn’t being held against his will. The townspeople, however, will not tell him where 355 and Dr. Mann are being held.
The townspeople explain that they all act as the governing body of the town, and they give a good laugh when Yorick asks if they’re cops. When Yorick asks why he woke up naked, the crowd gives the woman he woke up next to a hard time. Her name is Sonja, and she explains that his clothes were filthy, but she shares a smirking expression with one of the other townswomen.
Sonja also reveals that Yorick was saying Beth’s name in her sleep. He offers to give them their weapons rather than explaining why they have so much military gear. At this moment, the rest of the women from the town gather around to greet him.
Meanwhile, we find 355 waking up on the ground in the woods with a head injury. When she finds the street, there’s a minivan that’s crashed in the same spot where she had previously crashed the camper, and there’s a different set of crash victims in the wreckage. One of them, a young girl, is wearing the necklace that usually sits around 355’s neck.
The agent wakes up to the sound of Allison Mann banging on a prison cell door, demanding they be helped. Allison explains that 355 crashed the truck, and that an unconscious Yorick was taken away by armed women.
Later, 355 removes the shoelaces from her boots. When Mann asks if she’s planning to hang herself, 355 explains that they’re in a women’s prison, and marks on the walls indicate that the women escaped. The two women are clearly still upset with one another, and 355 tells Allison Mann that she went to bat for her when Jennifer Brown went through the list of potential geneticists to recruit.
As the two continue bickering, 355’s head injury seems to be getting worse, though she insists that she’s fine. 355 allows Allison to look at the injury for a moment before telling her to back off. Allison asks 355 about her upbringing, and the agent confirms that her family died in a car accident when she was a child.
Just then, the doors open and Yorick is shoved into the cell. He tells them that there are a large number of women in the town, and 355 assumes that, because they are former prisoners, they will kill the group if they perceive them as a threat. Yorick tells her that his gut says otherwise, but 355 and Allison are both unconvinced by his naïvity.
As 355 sits with her shoelaces in hand, Yorick criticizes her for trying to fight when she clearly has a cuncussion. He challengers her to a fight to prove that she’s not physically capable of winning, and she certainly seems to have the upperhand– until she gets dizzy and struggles to stand up. Just then, Sonja opens the door the the cell, letting them out and directing 355 to medical care.
Courtesy of FX
Once 355 has been treated, she lays down to rest. She tells Yorick that he will never have to take care of her again, a statement that will no doubt prove untrue, but illustrates the severe lack of intimacy present in the agent’s life. To this end, she tells him not to trust any of the women in the town, particularly Sonja. After she drifts off, Yorick goes outside and joins an outdoor gathering in town. He eats food and enjoys the company of Sonja, who tells him that their leader, Janet, used to be a murderer, but has since reformed.
Janet is confronted but another member of the town who’s concerned about the unwanted attention Yorick will bring to them. Will someone come looking for him? If they’re being followed by special agents, what will those agents do to the town full of released prisoners? Janet supposes that they’ll tell the authorities the truth, but many of the townspeople are afraid they’ll lose their freedom.
Meanwhile, Back at the Pentagon…
In the war room, the special forces agents have returned from their hunt for Agent Bergen with new information for Jennifer and Regina. Their leader tells the women that she followed 355 to Boston and found out that she was on the hunt for the geneticist, Dr. Mann. When she continues her story, including seeing a white, brunette man with a monkey on his shoulder, Jennifer points out that she was tranquilized, and also that the man she saw could very well be a trans man. The captain insists that the man wasn’t trans because, I don’t know, she thinks she has some kind of Y-chromosome sniffing powers, and Jennifer shuts down the briefing. She quietly orders Christine to have the agents reassigned, and Jennifer steps outside to address the protestors outside the gates.
Back in Marla’s room, Kimberly complains about Jennifer’s speech as Marla lays in bed watching M*A*S*H. Kimberly criticizes Marla for the way she’s grieving, providing a stark contrast to her mother by fidgeting with her moth-eaten sweaters and anxiously obsessing over Jennifer Brown. Marla tries to convince Kimberly to watch an episode with her, saying that it was one of Kim’s dad’s favorite episodes. Kimberly gets angry with her mother, and Marla bites back, saying “If you shed half a tear, your boys would have to split it.” This clearly cuts Kim deep, and when she says that she will see her sons again, Marla points out that it will be after she dies.
Outside, Jennifer speaks with protestors, encouraging them to go to the safe settlement zone outside the city. As she’s speaking, she loses her train of thought when she sees someone in a hooded jacket approaching the fence. As she heads down toward the gate, we see the one and only Beth. After they’ve gone inside, Beth says that she couldn’t bring herself to go inside the apartment she shared with Yorick. At the same time, Regina and Kimberly express frustration in the lack of proof connecting Jennifer to 355 and the deaths of the two pilots. With a note of skepticism, Regina points out that the captain mentioned a monkey, and Marla, who has been absentmindedly listening in, drops a water glass.
Viewers will recall when Yorick first visited Jennifer after the event and Marla thought that she saw him chasing a monkey. During the conversation between Kimberly and Regina, she suddenly realizes that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her and that Jennifer Brown, someone she trusted, lied to her.
Yorick chases Ampersand through the halls courtesy of giphy
Kimberly and Regina are reeling at Marla’s discovery, debating how to best handle the situation. Regina is in favor of directly confronting Jennifer, but because they have no proof, Kimberly is convinced a confrontation will not be enough. Her focus shifts from obtaining a conservative presidential spot to obsessing over Yorick. She tells Regina that God has chosen Yorick, and that finding him is now their top priority, believing that Jennifer’s son is the key to making the United States a “nation of mothers again”. Marla, meanwhile, sits ignored in the other room, listening on as the two women talk about her realization.
Soon after, Beth and Jennifer continue to catch up. Beth tells Jennifer about Yorick’s proposal, saying that she regrets telling him no because if she hadn’t, he wouldn’t have died alone. Jennifer doesn’t correct her but instead says that Yorick’s I.D. was found, just like the I.D.s we saw people collecting them to identify the dead earlier in the series. Christine comes to let her know that she’s needed in the briefing room, and at Beth’s suggestion, she brings her along.
While Jennifer starts making contingency plans for a new strain of flu in Greece, Beth and Christine talk about the living situation. Beth finds out that everyone is living in the Pentagon, and their defenses are relatively low. Just then, Marla comes into the room, still in her nightgown. She yells at Jennifer, saying that the President made her believe she was crazy. She tells Jennifer that it should have been her husband, son, or grandbabies, saying that Jennifer wasn’t even a “good mother”. She doesn’t mention Yorick by name though, and instead quiets down and excuses herself.
Courtesy of FX
After the outburst, Kimberly scolds Marla for her outburst. A devastated Marla begs Kim to take her to their home in Lynchburg, and Kim tells her that the home and town have been destroyed by a dam bursting. When Kim sees how devastated her mother is, Kim insists that the two are there for a purpose. She bends her knee and tries to pray with her mother, but Marla isn’t feeling the spirit of the Lord in her grief.
Meanwhile, after a long, hot shower, Beth tells Jennifer that she should be on her way. When Jennifer offers her a better jacket, Beth refuses– the jacket features the Presidential insignia, which isn’t safe for Beth to wear on the outside. Later, she steps out onto the street in her old coat and hops into a van full of people. She gives them the rundown on the Pentagon’s defenses– and it’s clear that Beth was visiting Jennifer to gather information.
Later that night, Kimberly goes to the wall of photos and removes her sons’ pictures. She goes to her mom’s room but discovers no Marla, only a note on the nightstand. Kimberly screams, her cries echoing down the hall– Marla has just jumped off the roof of the Pentagon, committing suicide, ending the episode on a devastating note.
A new episode of ‘Y: The Last Man’ premieres every Monday exclusively on Hulu.
