'Last Man Standing': Hector Elizondo's Ed Returns, Despite Retirement

On this week's episode of Last Man Standing, Hector Elizondo returned, despite the retirement of his character, Ed Alzate.

In "One Flew Into The Empty Nest," Vanessa Baxter (Nancy Travis) decided to welcome a foreign exchange student into the Baxter home. Vanessa invited Jen (Krista Marie Yu), a Hong Kong student planning to become a geologist, and Jen's father Henry (Francois Chau) over to dinner.

At first, Mike (Tim Allen) was completely opposed to the idea. So, he asked the Outdoor Man guys — Joe (Jay Leno) and Chuck (Jonathan Adams) — how they handled their wives when they wanted to do something they did not agree with. Ed also showed up, even though he retired during "Giving Mike The Business."

"You know, Ed, when you said you were going to retire, I thought you were going to do this at home," Mike said while Ed was sharing drinks in the Outdoor Man office.

"What can I tell you? I miss my friends," Ed said. "Come on!"

"You've been gone two days," Mike reminded him.

Mike then explained what was going on at the Baxter house that night. They made fun of him for allowing Vanessa to go through with this.

"You know, when my wives wanted to do something I was against, I said, 'No, no, no, no," Ed said.

"Did you really? That's why you're in the divorce attorney's hall of fame," Mike said.

Ed then suggested that Mike does not have anything to worry about, because once Jen's father meets him, he will not let Jen live with Mike. They tell him it will be impossible for him to be a nice person.

At the dinner, Mike kept his cool, even keeping himself restrained when Henry talked politics. But the next day at Outdoor Man, Henry told Mike that he would not let Jen live with him because he felt Mike was a weak person without opinions. This meant Mike had to call in the Outdoor Man guys to assure Henry that Mike is one guy with too many opinions.

At first, the guys did not understand that Mike wanted them to be truthful. Ed even came in and said he had not heard Mike raise his voice in 30 years.

"I need the real truth here. Vanessa is going to lose the exchange student because this guy thinks I'm a real pushover," Mike told Ed.

"OK... he's a real bastard," Ed said.

In the end, Henry allowed Mike and Vanessa to welcome Jen into their home.

After Ed announced his retirement in "Giving Mike The Business," there was some concern that Ed would be leaving the show for good. Clearly, based on "One Flew Into The Empty Nest," that is not the case.

New episodes of Last Man Standing air on Fox at 8 p.m. ET on Fridays.

Photo credit: Michael Becker / FOX