Spoilers follow for Y: The Last Man's ninth episode, "Peppers," which premieres on Monday, Oct. 25 on FX on Hulu.
Obviously, it's impossible now to watch Y: The Last Man without the context of cancellation creeping in, and knowing that this show will end (if it doesn't find a new home) after the next episode, so it's hard to now judge this series based on seeds it might be planting or the idea of payoffs coming far down the road. It can only be seen through a prism of "what's happening now" and graded based on how Season 1 is ultimately shaping up (to wrap up).
It's a shame we most likely won't see what happens with Nora and her cunning survivalist nature or fully dig into Agent 355's past more, or even watch Yorick, Allison, and 355 finally make it to San Francisco (if that's, in fact, where the saga was headed). But as it stands, "Peppers" was a solid penultimate season/series episode that actually placed two of the three major storylines on a very interesting collision course. Also, back in D.C., the balloon finally popped — not just with Regina Oliver's coup but with Beth's rebel forces storming the Capitol and basically throwing everything into some much needed chaos.
Like, did Beth and her seditious soldiers arrive just in time? Perhaps too conveniently? Sure. But their mayhem and amateur siege tactics were vastly more interesting than the bulk of the goings-on in this particular storyline. Also, the bullet to Regina's brain was a very welcome "Yes!" beat here, as this entire coup, along with Kimberly's machinations, have been a frustrating drag. It's not super engaging to have your heroes constantly hiding good decisions, and defending decent ideas, against idiots.
"Peppers" brought everything out in D.C. Now everyone knows Yorick is alive, and even Jennifer's inner circle, who were mad, knows they would have done the same thing and made the same shady choices. Regina's bid for the presidency is done, Jennifer knows about Christine's pregnancy, and it's very possible that the military is just out for itself (as its soldiers seemed to knowingly gun down one of Jennifer's loyalists as she was waving surrender hands).
Every bit of this oft-stodgy storyline is now ripped apart. Regina went nuts, because ignorant narcissists will always out themselves in a crisis, and everyone was able to more clearly see Jennifer as a stable, selfless leader. For all intents and purposes though, by the end of this episode, the government was gone. What does that mean for the world outside the gates? We're not sure. Well, a guess could be made that not much will change out there as it's already fairly lawless.
"Peppers" saw a couple factions go crazy with raids, as Roxanne's Daughters of the Amazon stormed a camp that was set up in remembrance of men. Despite the uneasy alliance formed in "Ready. Aim. Fire.," Roxanne and Nora are still butting heads. Nora is all about survival and actually existing in this new world while Roxanne just likes stupidly riling up her gals and being an action-oriented leader. Last week, this cult was harmless. Now they're starting to bug. Nora sees it, and she's trying to get Hero to open her eyes to it too.
But Nora, as much as she's against full-blown attacks on others, also isn't above manipulating Roxanne into taking out a nearby town for the sake of food and electricity. And this is where the finale will smash Hero into Yorick. It'll be interesting to watch Roxanne's riders clash with, you know, actual hardened criminals. Hopefully the right people will get the right wake up call before the show closes up shop.
Over in Yorick's storyline, where he blissfully danced and ate cake while remaining ignorant of the growing number of people who know he's alive, he, Allison, and 355 got a nice break from the turmoil. 355, on the mend, started to remember glimpses of her training, under the brutal tutelage of her mentor, while also maybe coming to terms with the fact that she likes-likes Yorick. Of course, that realization is being helped along by Sonia's basic and blatant interest in Yorick, but it's still something. Y: The Last Man isn't quite as strong when it focuses on all three ongoing arcs, as evident with last week's rather single-minded episode, but "Peppers" had enough upheaval in the right places to set us up for a fun finale.