Last Man Standing: Trick or Treat!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This was the first new Halloween episode I saw this year, which made me happy... I have a thing for holiday-themed episodes, LoL. There are a few errors though... or things that just don't make sense... read on to see what I mean.

Last Man Standing "Last Halloween Standing" (S01E04): Eve normally likes to trick-or-treat with Mike. But she's over it at this point and he's a little upset. Now that she's 13, she thinks dressing up is ridiculous... well, Victor, the boy she likes, thinks it'd ridiculous and she doesn't want him not to like her. [pffft. I couldn't imagine not dressing up! I just ignored my current teenage-fling and did Halloween with my friends! but the girls in this family seem to put quite a bit of value on male attention, so maybe it's different...] Vanessa, meanwhile, is dressed as a pirate wench because she's tired of dressing as wholesome characters. And one neighbor is obsessed with coming over to see her. [creepy!]

Kristin doesn't want Boyd trick-or-treating, but Mike got him a skeleton costume, wanting someone to go around with on Halloween. [you know, I'm really getting sick of Kristin's attitudes toward parenting. Is the audience supposed to hate her??] Mike dresses as John Wayne in Green Berets, and tries to get away with trick-or-treating by saying that there's a 90-year-old lady on the corner without many Halloweens left... and she would love to see Boyd, so he takes him there. [I liked the part where Mike sees a kid dressed as Buzz Lightyear and tells him that he's wearing "the wrong wings" - you know, because Tim Allen voiced Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story films.]

Mike with the Wong boy

All's well and good until Mike gets back to the house and realizes that he somehow managed to swap out the kid at some point. [...but he was pushing Boyd in the stroller. So did he get the wrong stroller too? You'd think he'd notice that, or someone else in the family would...] Eve knows the child belongs to the Wongs, but before they can really do anything, the Wongs call and say they're bringing over Boyd. [I don't know that yelling in another language with captioning did anything for the show...] Kristin gets home first, however, so Mike tries to distract her... he even tells her that he took Boyd trick-or-treating... but he still gets caught. Mike apologizes to Kristin and she invites him to join her and Boyd on his first Halloween. [but "first" isn't correct, since we know Boyd is two... maybe she meant his first trick-or-treating experience?] But, on the bright side, Victor comes over dressed as a cop and says that, since Eve likes Halloween, he dressed up. He invites her to his house to hand out candy and stuff. [awwww. how cute! I wonder how long this is gonna last though.... he's a 9th grader and she's in 8th grade... that's a big difference, what with them going to different schools and all...]

Mandy with the second Garfield costume;
Vanessa as the pirate wench

While all of this is going on, Mandy tries to sneak in. [love how Eve blew that for her, too. But, that begs the issue of time... Mike had said "it's not too late yet," in regards to trick-or-treating, but if Mandy is already home, it must be kinda late...] See, Mike had told Mandy that she's not dressing as a tramp for Halloween, and got her a Garfield costume... the head for which is enormous. [and, therefore, hilarious.] But, when she comes in she's wearing a different Garfield costume... this one is a fur miniskirt and an orange and black bikini top with a tail. [see photo to the right!]

Other things from this episode... Mike did do another video for his work. We found out that they live in Denver. And the best line was, "last time I checked my watch, it still said America."