Last Man Standing is a show about two parents, Mike and
Vanessa Baxter, raising their three daughters and simply trying to deal with
all of life’s ups and downs while working full time as well. Mike (Tim Allen) is the marketing director
for a sporting goods store, Outdoor Man, and works in an all-male environment
and wouldn’t have it any other way. He
is an avid hunter, Republican, and an adventurer. He traveled the world for his job, but
recently agreed to stop travelling so Vanessa could return to work. Mike’s urge to travel and explore is a
constant struggle for him. Vanessa (Nancy
Travis) is a geologist and she also tries to coordinate the family’s social
events. Mike is not the most social
person and more often than not tends to offend Vanessa’s friends, leaving her to
try to pick up the pieces. Much to Mike’s
dismay, Vanessa continues to plan outings with her friends and drags Mike along
for the ride. Their oldest daughter
Kristin (Alexandra Krosney) is a single, teen mother to Boyd and works at a
diner to support her son. Middle daughter Mandy (Molly Ephraim) is a complete girly-girl
and as shallow as they come. Her
aspiration is to be a reality star and her life revolves around clothes, shoes,
and celebrities. The youngest daughter
is Eve (Kaitlyn Dever). Eve is the
tomboy of the bunch and she is very athletic and intelligent. She is often referred to as an
over-achiever. The family dynamic works
well and each episode provides hilarious moments.
This week’s episode revolved around Mike’s and Vanessa’s
urge to do something adventurous. When
they were younger, they both were always doing some kind of adrenaline fueled
activities. Now that they’re older, they
don’t participate in these activities like they used to, which is making them
both feel really old. Vanessa has plans to take a pickling class with a friend of
hers and Mike rubs it in that the class is at the Senior Center, which upsets
Vanessa. She now has the urge to do
something spontaneous and crazy.
The beginning scene shows Mike and his boss Ed (Hector
Elizondo) out in a field. A tiger spots
them and starts running toward them. While
the tiger is running, Ed counts down the distance between them and the tiger
and tells Mike to shoot. Mike takes his
time, raises the gun, pulls the trigger and the next scene shows him waking up
startled from his dream. A few minutes
later, Mike is shown at work recording a video post. Part of his job is to post videos on Outdoor
Man’s website in an attempt to lure customers in. While Mike starts out with a calm message in
each of these posts, they often end with him ranting about his frustrations
with life. This week’s post was about adrenaline
rushes and how men too often live lives full of boredom. After his post, he goes in to his boss’s
office and suggests blowing something up in an effort to attract customers to
the store. They discuss multiple ideas and Mike decides to invite his friend, NASCAR
driver, Tony Stewart to the store to display his racecar for customer
appreciation day.
Tony Stewart brings the car in to Outdoor Man and demands
that no one drive his car. One of Mike’s
employees notices how badly Mike is yearning for some excitement. He steals the racecar, takes it to the
parking lot and manages to get Mike to come out there and dares him to drive
the car back to the store. Mike starts the
car and does donuts in the parking lot, which gives him the adrenaline rush he
needed.
In a separate scene, Kristin and Mandy are in the
kitchen. Kristin tells Mandy about her
plans to go sky diving with some friends, but makes Mandy swear not to tell Eve
who they refer to as a “rat” because she can’t keep a secret from their
mom. Eve of course overhears the
conversation and is threatened by her sisters not to tell Vanessa. Vanessa is later seen on the couch dreaming
and she dreams that she is in a bank with a friend of hers and two robbers bust
in with guns. Vanessa punches one of the
robbers, takes his gun and shoots the other robber, the whole time remaining
calm, cool and collected and looking fabulous.
Eve wakes Vanessa up from her dream and eventually can’t resist spilling
the beans about Kristin’s plans to skydive.
Vanessa rushes to the airport to try to stop Kristin from participating
in such an irresponsible activity, but after some convincing from Kristin, she
goes sky diving herself.
The ending scene is back at the Baxter house. Mike and Vanessa are now satisfied and feeling more alive than ever. They are both still revving with
adrenaline and decide to go downstairs in to their bomb shelter for some more fun and alone
time.
