The Ending Of Two And A Half Men Explained

For a brief period, "Two and a Half Men" was one of the most successful shows on national television. Earning predominantly high viewership numbers on a weekly basis, the CBS sitcom was one of the most-watched shows in America at its peak. By 2012, it became the third highest-earning series of the year, raking in an average of $3.24 million per episode.

Despite its monetary success, "Two and a Half Men" earned largely mixed reviews throughout its lengthy run from 2003 to 2015. However, critical opinion of the series gradually worsened with time after Charlie Sheen's tumultuous fallout with creator Chuck Lorre and his subsequent departure from the show. With Ashton Kutcher in the lead role, "Two and a Half Men" limped on for another four seasons but was lambasted by critics as the series continued.

In 2015, the show aired its final episode, "Of Course He's Dead." However, like the negative reception the show faced in its last four seasons, the finale was met with overwhelmingly poor reviews from critics — Variety even went so far as to label it one of the worst series conclusions of all time. 

As disastrous — and at times bizarre — as "Of Course He's Dead" is, there is plenty to unpack about the show's concluding episode. From some of the more subtle digs at former star Charlie Sheen to information about certain cameos, here's everything you need to know about the finale of "Two and a Half Men."

In part two of the finale, Alan and Walden go to the police to ask for their assistance. While meeting with police Lieutenant Wagner (Arnold Schwarzenegger), the two provide a summary of the entire series in a meta dialogue. After Walden underscores just how dangerous Charlie's rage is, Wagner asks the duo if Charlie ever tried anger management. This leads Alan to quip, "Yeah, but it didn't work."

This joke is a dig at Charlie Sheen's 2012 FX series, "Anger Management," which he worked on after "Two and a Half Men." The premise of the series was meant as a somewhat self-aware meditation on Sheen's own rage issues, with the actor playing a former baseball player whose career comes to an end because of his uncontrollable anger. The sitcom was Sheen's first acting role after "Two and a Half Men," and was meant as his return to TV after his fallout with Chuck Lorre.

While "Anger Management" ran for a healthy two seasons, it earned mixed to negative reviews from critics, some unfavorably comparing it to Sheen's previous role in "Two and a Half Men." The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley wrote, "The plot seems to owe more to karma than clever scriptwriting. It could just as easily be titled 'One and a Half Men.'" Shortly after its 100th episode aired, the show was canceled by FX — leading to Alan's sardonic joke in "Two and a Half Men"'s final episode.

The main action of "Of Course He's Dead" begins when Alan receives a letter addressed to Charlie concerning unclaimed royalties that add up to around $2.5 million. As a dumbfounded Alan processes this bit of news, Walden comments, "It looks like those children's records he made are still making money." This is a reference to Charlie's previous career in the show as influential children's musical artist, Charlie Waffles, first introduced to the show back in Season 5.

After Charlie's career as a jingle writer seemingly stalls out, Charlie begins to explore other career options in the music industry. Upon babysitting the four-year-old son of one of his girlfriends, Charlie is approached by a music executive to produce children's records in "Putting Swim Fins on a Cat." With financial hardships bearing down on him, Charlie agrees, leading to his extremely lucrative career as the children's musical artist Charlie Waffles.

Charlie's persona as Charlie Waffles comes up a few times later in the show — namely in Season 5's "Is There a Mrs. Waffles?" — but for the most part goes unmentioned for the remainder of Charlie's time on the show.

Halfway through the finale, a montage shows several women from Charlie's past receiving personal apology letters and large checks in the mail. Three of these four women played larger roles earlier in "Two and a Half Men," two of whom Charlie even came dramatically close to marrying in the series' initial seasons.

During this montage, viewers see Charlie's former girlfriends, Mia (Emmanuelle Vaugier), Chelsea (Jennifer Taylor), and Dolores Pasternak (Missi Pyle), each receive an apology note and a check from Charlie. Mia was a ballet teacher who Charlie fell in love with in Season 3 of "Two and a Half Men" and became a regular romantic interest for Charlie from Seasons 5 through 7. She was also his fiancée for a short time in Season 3, although Charlie decided to break off the wedding after Mia tried kicking Alan and Jake out of the house.

Chelsea was Charlie's girlfriend throughout Season 6, eventually becoming his fiancée in Season 7. Their engagement was mired by a number of personal issues and side romances on both of their parts, resulting in Chelsea breaking up with Charlie by the end of the season. Dolores Pasternak was one of Jake's teachers, introduced in Season 2, who Charlie similarly dated for a short time. The character went on to appear again in Season 6 (played by Alicia Witt) and Season 7. All three women were also featured at Charlie's funeral service in the opening moments of Season 9.

Along with the several sizable checks he sends to his ex-girlfriends, Charlie also mails a check to Jake for $250,000, which is in stark contrast to the death threats Walden and Alan receive. Likely, Charlie giving Jake such a large amount of money is meant to reflect his general warm feelings toward his nephew.

Much of the earlier seasons of "Two and a Half Men" find Charlie and Jake bonding in a variety of past-times together. Taking his young nephew under his wing, Charlie also encouraged Jake to learn from his own mistakes in life and avoid repeating them. As Jake grew older and became increasingly distant from his father and uncle, Charlie was seen to treat him less warmly than he had in previous seasons. Still, he admitted to harboring a fond place for Jake a few times as the show went on, usually when he was inebriated.

Charlie sending Jake money illustrates that — despite his vehement ill will towards his father and Walden — he still holds some love for his nephew, leaving their relationship on a high note in the finale.

One of the more unique aspects of "Of Course He's Dead" is the meta-aware comedic style of the finale. Over the course of the episode, numerous jokes are made about the show's content, the ludicrousness of its central storyline and characters, and the real-life drama surrounding former star Charlie Sheen's behavior in his personal life. There are even a handful of moments where the actors address the audience members, regularly breaking the fourth wall.

The creator of "Two and a Half Men," Chuck Lorre, has discussed the more self-referential humor that the finale employed with Entertainment Weekly. There, Lorre said that the comedic style of "Of Course He's Dead" was meant mostly as a way for the show to conclude in a humorous way. "It was our last swing at that bat. Why not throw the rules out and do everything we can imagine that might be funny and acknowledging the meta elements of the show?" the showrunner said.

Lorre also told EW that he felt the show didn't warrant a more emotional undertone, as there was no central storyline imparted from the beginning of the show that could be effectively wrapped up with its conclusion. "We're not going to find out how he met his mother. This isn't about how did they get on the island," Lorre said, referencing both "How I Met Your Mother" and "Lost."

As mentioned above, the final scene of "Two and a Half Men" sees Charlie meeting his premature end after a piano crushes him. While Charlie's character here is played by a body double — his face never revealed to the camera — it was initially planned for Charlie Sheen to return to "Two and a Half Men" as a special guest star for the finale.

In his interview with EW, Chuck Lorre said that he and CBS had tried reaching out to Sheen to negotiate his return for "Of Course He's Dead." However, as Chuck Lorre said on his trademark vanity card for the episode, Sheen wanted the show to end on a more cathartic note, leaving open the possibility of a spin-off series starring himself and Jon Cryer titled "The Harpers." With Lorre wanting to maintain a more lighthearted tone for the finale, he refused, and the negotiations between himself and Sheen soon fell apart.

Per Lorre's vanity card for the episode, the initial plan was to have Charlie turn to the camera and deliver a monologue about the dangers of drug use. Over time, Charlie's speech would devolve into a bizarre tirade about how he was "a ninja warrior from Mars" and was "invincible" until his speech was cut short when a piano crashes on top of him, as it does in the finished finale.