WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Breeders, Episode 5, "No Dad."
Breeders is one of those comedy series that really dives deep into the chaos of parenting. As Paul (Martin Freeman) and his partner, Ally (Daisy Haggard), navigate corporate careers, they often find their lives exasperating due to their young kids, Luke and Ava.
Now, in the fifth episode, "No Dad," all thanks to their grandad, Michael (Michael McKean), the show offers the kids a hilarious lesson on mortality, which turns out to be pretty cool but ironically cruel at the same time.
The family wakes up to find Sprout, their pet gerbil, has died. The kids struggle to grasp the concept of death, so Paul and Ally stay true to their style by bumbling through explanations. Honestly, the couple's not emotionally stable and don't handle these situations well, evidenced by numerous profane towards the kids. Grandpa Michael, though, steps in as he's been freeloading until he gets his life back in order, and thinks it's time he imparts wisdom. He wants to show he can be a responsible, positive influence and not just a drunk.
The kids love him but the parents aren't sure about his approach because they know he secretly wants to just buy another gerbil from the pet store as the kids won't know the difference. Both kids are young so he thinks they can pull the wool over their eyes especially as Luke's not the sharpest tool in the shed. Hearing the granddad banter with the parents is one of the show's high points as it's clear he's not the perfect teacher. But he actually turns out to be just that, when he relays to the kids that using their eyes and getting to know people, they actually take mental pictures and store people's souls inside -- so that way, no one ever really dies.
However, Michael figures he needs insurance and purchases a gerbil without anyone knowing, leaving the audience wondering if he's going to try to fool the kids into thinking Sprout didn't die. But as he whistles to it and steps out onto the street distracted by its cuteness, Breeders takes a dark turn as a car slams into him in a violent and graphic sequence, killing him.
When the cops arrive, Ally goes from shocked to delirious, even offering pasta to the authorities, because while she and her dad weren't on the best of terms, she loved him a lot. She was annoyed by him staying there, admittedly, as he was hated by Ally's mom following their separation, so it's always interesting watching Paul torn between liking Michael or standing by his wife's condemnation. But just when you think the burden's now on Paul to explain the grandfather's death mere hours later, Luke and Ava surprise him.
Paul tells them about the death but Luke's pretty much unaffected. He, instead, lectures Paul on what Michael told them, as Paul didn't really know how their initial session went. Ava's young so she's not understanding anything, but Luke reveals Michael will live on inside him so he's not upset. Paul's amazed by the maturity and relieved that grief didn't set in. Yes, he's selfish as he knows it'll be a lot of questions and crying, so the more he can avoid it, the better. Of course, that quickly goes away when Luke gets freaked out with Sprout's burial coming up, understanding someday he'll die and be sucked into someone else's body.
Breeders stars Martin Freeman, Daisy Haggard, George Wakeman and Jayda Eyles, and airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.