No famous sitcom, which appeared to spell a definitive end to the character’s involvement in its plot until the finale.

Sheen was actively courting a comeback. Following apparent with Warner Bros. executives, the actor told TV Guide in September 2014, “We're trying to figure out what makes the most sense.” Yet, it was hard to see any return of Charlie Harper making much sense at all, given that he’d died three years earlier. In Two and a Half Men season 12, episodes 15-16, "Of Course He's Dead," Alan and the others begin to suspect that Charlie is indeed alive, but his return doesn't play out very straightforwardly.

Charlie Harper's Two And A Half Men Return Explained

The Character Was Revived For The Show's Finale, With A Body Double

Two and a Half Men found a clever way around Charlie Harper’s apparent death to have the character appear in the show’s final scene. The writers used the fact that Charlie’s girlfriend Rose, with whom he’d eloped at the end of season 8, was the only character who was actually there the moment he supposedly died to cast doubt on the whole story. As it turned out, Charlie was still alive after all and had been held captive in Rose’s basement for the period during which he was assumed to be dead.

Charlie finally managed to escape Rose’s clutches just in time to appear in the final scene of Two and a Half Men’s last episode. As a helicopter airlifted his old Steinway grand piano towards his old Malibu beach house, where Ashton Kutcher’s character Walden Schmidt now lived with Charlie’s brother, Alan, Charlie showed up at the front door in the sitcom’s final shot. It appeared that he was preparing to move back into the beach house by returning the piano that Walden had thrown out to its rightful home, thus bringing the show’s story full circle.

How Charlie Came Back From The Dead In Two And A Half Men

Charlie’s Offscreen Death Had Been A Lie All Along

As the French death certificate obtained by Alan at the beginning of Two and a Half Men’s finale suggested, Charlie had previously been confirmed dead when his girlfriend Rose reported that he’d been hit by a metro train in Paris. In her words, during the season 9 premiere “Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt”, “His body just exploded like a balloon full of meat.”

In fact, Rose was lying, and Charlie Harper didn’t really die when she said he did. She had intended to kill her boyfriend that day by pushing him in front of a metro train, after catching him with another woman. Instead, she’d accidentally killed the goat he’d also been found in bed with. It was the goat’s mangled body and ashes that were returned to Alan and the rest of Charlie’s family, while Rose held the real Charlie captive in her basement.

Alan was first alerted to the fact that Charlie might still be alive when he attempted to claim some royalties for musical jingles his brother had written, in the first part of Two and a Half Men’s final episode. Despite confirming Charlie’s death with the authorities, Alan was told that the money had already been claimed by someone else. That someone was Charlie, who’d finally managed to free himself from Rose’s basement and intended to move back in with Alan.

Why Jake Harper Also Returned In Two And A Half Men’s Finale

The Show Decided To Honor The “Half” In Its Title

As the original “half” in Two and a Half Men, it made perfect sense that Jake Harper should also return to the show as part of its farewell episode, as well as his uncle, Charlie. Angus T. Jones wasn’t in Two and a Half Men’s final two seasons otherwise, as Jake was written out of the series after the actor publicly criticized its humor, which ran contrary to his religious beliefs at the time. But Jones was persuaded to return for the show’s finale, so that Two and a Half Men could honor each of the main characters who took center stage during its 12-season run.

In the finale episode, Jake makes a brief stop by Walden and Alan’s beach house to see them, having just finished a trip to Las Vegas. He’d unexpectedly received $250,000 from Charlie, along with a note saying “I’m alive”, which served as more irrefutable evidence that his uncle was, in fact, not really dead after all. His first thought upon receiving the money was apparently to travel from his home in Japan to Vegas, in order to gamble his cash windfall in the city’s casinos.

Jake somehow increased his wealth tenfold through casino bets, despite the games he chose to bet on being entirely based on the silly innuendos he inferred from their names. This ission led to the episode’s best meta-joke, as Jake, Alan, and Walden turned to the camera, implying that Two and a Half Men had made an exorbitant amount of money out of seemingly childish humor.

During his brief appearance, Jake revealed that he’d dropped out of the US Army, which was the reason he’d gone to Japan at the end of Two and a Half Men season 10. His decision to leave the army behind explained why he now had long hair and a beard. What’s more, he’d gotten married to a Japanese woman and had kids. He told Alan, Walden, and Berta that his Japanese family was the reason he couldn’t spend more time catching up with them, thus ending Angus T. Jones’ final appearance in Two and a Half Men.

How Two And A Half Men Ended For Alan, Walden & Berta

Alan & Walden Were The Targets Of Charlie’s Revenge, While Berta Wanted To Retire

As they were throughout Two and a Half Men seasons 11 and 12, Jon Cryer’s Alan Harper and Ashton Kutcher’s Walden Schmidt were the central characters in the finale double-episode’s storylines. Both of them became the targets of threats from an unknown antagonist after they discovered that someone else had claimed Charlie’s royalty money, despite Alan being his brother and next of kin.

Charlie supposedly felt betrayed that his brother had been living in his house with a new owner who’d given away his grand piano, while he himself was imprisoned in a basement of his abusive ex-girlfriend.

Alan and his mother, Evelyn, received threatening phone messages, while Walden and Alan later found effigies of themselves placed inside nooses in the beach house, and graffiti on the window blinds expressing the intention to “kill” them. With Rose confirming that Charlie was actually alive, having been held captive in her basement for four years before escaping, it became clear that he was behind the threats being made against Alan, Walden, and Evelyn.

Charlie supposedly felt betrayed that his brother had been living in his house with a new owner who’d given away his grand piano, while he himself was imprisoned in a basement of his abusive ex-girlfriend. Alan and Walden had every reason to fear Charlie until the police confirmed with them he’d been arrested. Unfortunately, the person arrested turned out to be Christian Slater, another star of the 1980s Brat-Pack Western franchise Young Guns, who is occasionally mistaken for Charlie Sheen.

Alan, Walden, and their housekeeper, Conchata Ferrell’s Bertha, ended Two and a Half Men enjoying whisky and cigars on their balcony, to celebrate Charlie’s apparent apprehension by the police. Bertha announced she was retiring because Charlie had given her a large sum of money from his royalty earnings, until Walden convinced her that what she wanted from retirement was right there with them. The scene ended with the three of them watching the helicopter delivering Charlie’s grand piano come into view, wondering whether it was his.

Two And A Half Men’s Final Scene Explained

The Show's Meta Ending Saw Charlie Harper & Chuck Lorre Killed By Falling Pianos

Although they only revived Charlie Harper for Two and a Half Men’s final scene, the show’s writers decided the funniest way to end it would be to kill him off again the moment he was seen on camera. In the closing seconds of Two and a Half Men, we saw a Charlie Sheen lookalike walk up the porch of Charlie’s old beach house and knock on the front door. We only saw the character from behind, so as to maintain the illusion that it really was Charlie Harper coming home.

Before there was a chance for Charlie to reunite with Alan and his housekeeper Berta, and meet the house’s new owner Walden, his Steinway grand piano fell from the helicopter delivering it to the address, and crushed him to death. This ending both honored the idea of Charlie returning home with his favorite item of furniture, which Walden had unceremoniously removed from the house, and continued the longstanding tradition of falling piano gags in American comedy that began in cinema’s silent era.

To add an extra meta touch to the ending, Two and a Half Men’s co-creator and producer, Chuck Lorre, appeared onscreen after the piano gag to quote Charlie Sheen’s real-life catchphrase, “Winning!” This part of the gag was perceived as Lorre lording it over Sheen that he’d gotten the ending he wanted for his show. However, the producer’s celebrations were promptly cut short when another piano was seen to fall on his head, as if to prove that pride really does come before a fall(ing piano).

Why Charlie Sheen Didn’t Return For The Two And A Half Men Finale

Sheen Had A Dispute With Chuck Lorre About The Ending He Wanted

Lorre’s apparent mockery of Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men’s ending scene resulted from a standoff between the two of them about Sheen’s potential comeback for the finale episode. According to Lorre, Sheen himself was actually supposed to appear as Charlie Harper in the show’s last scene, but the actor refused unless the scene featured the ending he wanted for Two and a Half Men. Lorre explained what the show’s writers proposed to Sheen in his notes on the final episode’s post-credits vanity card:

Our idea was to have him walk up to the front door in the last scene, ring the doorbell, then turn, look directly into the camera and go off on a maniacal rant about the dangers of drug abuse. He would then explain that these dangers only apply to average people. That he was far from average. He was a ninja warrior from Mars. He was invincible. And then we would drop a piano on him.

Sheen, on the other hand, wanted the scene to involve a reunion with Jon Cryer’s character, Alan, which laid the basis for them both to star in a new spinoff sitcom together. Inevitably, Lorre said no to his idea, the actor rejected the offer to do things the writers’ way, and the ending of Two and a Half Men featured Charlie Harper being killed by a falling piano, without Charlie Sheen. The decade-long feud between Sheen and Chuck Lorre eventually ended when Sheen agreed to cameo as himself in Lorre’s most recent sitcom, Bookie.

What Other Two And A Half Men Cast Said About Its Ending

Ashton Kutcher Was Scared Of Sheen’s Potential Return, & Jon Cryer Wanted To Continue Acting In Sitcoms

Before Charlie Sheen decided against appearing in the Two and a Half Men finale, his replacement on the show, Ashton Kutcher, expressed his trepidation about filming the episode. Kutcher had just heard the planned story for the finale, including Sheen’s involvement in Charlie Harper’s return, at a pitch meeting when he was asked about it on Ellen. He implied that he might be in physical danger if Sheen was indeed making a comeback, joking, "If there's sirens, come save me."

Alan Harper actor Jon Cryer, on the other hand, said he would have liked to have seen Sheen back on the show for its finale, according to Digital Spy. Cryer also suggested that he’d like to continue acting in sitcoms after Two and a Half Men ended. He said he wanted to continue “performing for an audience,” referring to the live studio audience who watched the show’s episodes being filmed.

Although Cryer briefly starred in the now-canceled sitcom Extended Family and made several cameo appearances in other comedy shows during the past decade, he’s yet to become a regular on another sitcom with legs in it. Instead, his biggest TV role since Two and a Half Men was wrapped up has been as Lex Luthor in five different CW series based on DC Comics and co-produced by Warner Bros.

Source: TV Guide; Ellen; Digital Spy