Here's Every Single Emotion I Had While Watching "How To Die Alone" (2025)

I think we all have underestimated a task that reads "needs partner for assembly." Sidenote: I may or may not have tried to build something on my own and ended up needing stitches on my left pointer finger that left a permanent dime-sized bump. No questions, please. Point is, single life can be hard, and watching Melissa juggle her merchandise (where were the shopping carts?) offers a visual representation of the ups and downs of singleness. That's not to say that singles can't be great and achieve things on their own, but the premise of the show relies heavily on this part of Melissa's characterization to the extent that she is her own emergency contact(wait,that was actually very depressing, but real ig).

Natasha Rothwell makes this dark moment slightly humorous. She's fighting off Remy from Ratatouille just seconds before dying, screaming, "Pivot! Pivot!" in her apartment building hallway, breaking down the delicacies ofcrab rangoon to a doctor and his staff,asking theÜmlautclerk for a family card discount... I mean, who, in modern television, has had a more chaotic opener than our girl, Mel? I was seated for the ride.

Elise says, "Physical death, we all know and write poems about. Then there's the kind when people stop caring about you. And the worst kind is when you stop caring for yourself...Now, when my life flashes before my eyes, at least I'll see something."

WOW! What a line. The fact that she dropped this gem moments before passing just blew my mind. You really have to live and live for yourself. She gives Melissa some much-needed wisdom, and this short encounter drives her ambition all the way to the last episode. Not only do we see all three deaths played out throughout the series, Melissa dying for three minutes, her best friend Rory bailing on her for Bicoastal Bae, and her letting her life pass her by, but we also feel Elise's presence in her absence!(And not just because Melissa uses this dead woman's card to fund a trip, which OMG Mel, really?)

Carl: "To fly, you need all four. Everybody knows about lift and thrust. They propel you upwards, forward. But weight and drag, they're equally as important. Do you know why?"

Terrance: "The opposing forces balance each other. Lift is equal to gravity, while thrust is equal to drag."

Carl: "You know, sometimes the things that hold you back and slow you down are actually the things you need to take off."

Melissa isn't just facing a hard time; she's alsogivingherself a hard time, often self-sabotaging, or counting herself out and making herself small in the presence of others.But one talk with the Birdman (and the president of JFK) changes her whole perspective. Her enrollment in High Flyers propels her to take off after being held back by peers and her own lack of self-motivation.

When we first see Brian, he's scattin' with his date at the dinner table. But it's not revealed at the time that he actually has a wife. When he picked up Mel from the hospital in an earlier scene, she mentioned his wife, but I totally missed that on my first watch of the series! So initially, Brian convinced me that he was the picture-perfect family man who always came to his sister's rescue. He's got his stuff together; he's responsible and seemingly good-natured, but just a little concerned that his sister doesn't own up to her responsibilities. Idk, I kinda liked his candor (but telling your sibling you'll see them at the funerals is crazy!). Aside from that, I wanted to know what drove these siblings apart, and Mel catfishing her own brother really opened up a can of worms.Points were made.

Mel definitely needed to hear Brian say, "If you would just look up, you'll be surprised at how many people love you!" He calls out her self-pity, but in a loving way, and in a way no one else in her life seems to do. Don't get me wrong, Brian also needed to hear that he's not special just for taking care of his responsibilities, which are, in fact, his! If you ask me, they both needed to be read for filth, so this unusual encounter and confrontation needed to happen for the sake of Mel's trajectory.

Then Terrance asks Alex how tall he is, shoots a napkin in the trash, and misses it while Alex throws a cup in the trash and scores!! I know y'all caught that!

But with all of this, Terrance still doesn't shoot his shot at a chance with Mel. He intended to by setting up the airplane simulator for Melissa just for Alex to take the win and run with Mel at the end of it. It made me sad watching Terrance get hurt in that way, and it made me see Brian's point when he told Mel to look up and see all those who love her: Allie, Tamika, Kaya, Shaun, DeShawn, and Terrance! Notice I didn't include Rory because I'm still mad at him, lol.

This man just spent an entire (romantic) night with Mel on New Year's Eve just to yell in her face about messing up his future? Sir, what? Oh, we're missing flights now? We're "havin' a night" now, but still going through with the wedding? Y'all too young, but it's giving Jordan and Harper vibes from TheBest Man. No one should get Maui'd with this much unfinished business.

...After they sang the night away, I thought they were about to go break the bed together (again) and watch House Hunters. LOL. The kiss, to me, made sense. But not to Alex, who challenges Melissa to say I love you, but instead she says, "I want to, but I'm scared."

When Alex said, "I wish you could let yourself be loved," and then got in that taxi to fetch the woman who could say it (after reminiscing all over the city with his ex-lover lol), I just lost it and, admittedly, I almost stopped watching because that scene was too real. Please, Lord, don't let my ex-boyfriend read this. Amen!