I really love the TLMOE costume department for so many reasons, but one of them is this: Tandy’s t-shirts occasionally hint at the plot/resolution of the episode! (this is something I’ve completely failed so far to successfully gif, so you get this long post instead.)
Tandy’s shirt in The Open-Ended Nature of Unwitnessed Death is a messenger pigeon, and the episode’s all about trying to leave a message to someone.
Tandy’s shirt in The Spirit of St Lewis (the episode where Lewis dies) is birds flying out of a cage. Doves are sometimes released at funerals to symbolize the soul of the deceased being released. (I hate TSOSL, but I love that detail)
Then at the end of that episode Tandy’s wearing a sunset, because (what with Lewis being dead, Gail presumed dead and Melissa locked up) it’s arguably the group’s darkest hour. Except that you could also see it as a sunrise, meaning the opposite, and of course right before the credits Gail turns out to be Not Quite Dead.
Back to the sun again! In the series 3 finale, where everyone pours over maps to find a place to go and eventually decide to try Mexico, Tandy’s wearing a map marker with the sun inside it.
And finally, in the ending scene of Double Cheeseburger, where Tandy’s holding baby Mike, he’s wearing a t-shirt with planets on it. You can’t see it properly in the show, but it’s this one, the aptly named “You Are My Universe” tee –
i promise this asshole gets more tolerable plus it’s worth it to see erica and gail kiss and be cute
I think after S1 the writers and Will basically went “this… is really not gonna work in the long term” and over the course of S2 Tandy slowly went from Villain to Annoying Uncle in the eyes of all the other, non-Carol characters. He was such a massive dick before it was a total relief. Now he’s like a totally different person.
(Incidentally, all throughout the second series and beyond Tandy really reads as bisexual, to me at least. Towards the end of that series [a spoiler] shows up and he makes a minor deal of how Tandy might’ve once had a crush on a dude, which embarrasses him. But I don’t think they’ll ever really go there, alas.)
Hey Mike. I’m your dad. You know, normally Mike is a guy’s name. Other kids might give you a little flak for it. But… Mike was my brother’s name. And if you knew him, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind.
