“Two and a Half Men” Ends Without an Appearance from Charlie Sheen

Michael Yarish/CBS(NEW YORK) — Fans of Two and a Half Men who were expecting to see Charlie Sheen on the series finale of the CBS sitcom on Thursday night were left disappointed.

The episode’s plot had built up to a potential cameo from Sheen, who was famously fired from the show in 2011. It turned out that his character, Charlie Harper, previously thought dead, was actually alive, and was issuing threats against Jon Cryer’s Alan and Ashton Kutcher’s Walden.

In the final moments, a helicopter approached Alan and Walden’s home, with a piano attached to it. Though it was teased that the piano might be dropped on the duo, it instead fell on a man who rang the front doorbell and looked suspiciously like Sheen from behind. Viewers never saw his face.

The camera then zoomed out, revealing series creator Chuck Lorre — one of the targets of Sheen’s heated rants prior to his firing — in a director’s chair. He uttered Sheen’s famous catchphrase, “Winning,” before a piano was dropped on him, too.

Lorre explained Sheen’s absence in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it vanity card at the end of the episode. He explained, “I know a lot of you might be disappointed that you didn’t get to see Charlie Sheen in tonight’s finale. For the record, he was offered a role. 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 applied 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. We thought it was funny. He didn’t.”

Lorre continued, “Instead, he wanted us to write a heart-warming scene that would set up his return to primetime TV in a new sitcom called The Harpers starring him and Jon Cryer. We thought that was funny too.”

For his part, Sheen tweeted earlier on Thursday, “Attention World: If you’re looking for my much anticipated cameo on network TV, you’ll have to check out ‘The Goldbergs’ Wed Feb. 25th on ABC! I go where the love is.”

So, what had Charlie Harper been up to the past four years? His stalker/wife, Rose, had kept him captive, Silence of the Lambs-style, in a pit in the basement of her home. He managed to escape in the finale, setting up the events that followed. We saw an animated version of Sheen as Rose recounted what happened after they tied the knot and then honeymooned in France.

The self-referential episode included many jokes about Sheen’s destructive past, including his sexual escapades and use of the phrase “tiger blood.”

Though Sheen was nowhere to be found in the episode, it did feature the brief return of another original cast member, Angus T. Jones, who sported shoulder-length hair and a beard. His character Jake is now living in Japan with a wife and kids.

There were a handful of guest stars in the episode. Arnold Schwarzenegger played a police lieutenant who attempted to track down Charlie, but instead took into custody Christian Slater.

John Stamos — who was rumored to be a potential replacement for Sheen on the show before Kutcher was brought in — also made a cameo in the episode, which marked the end of Two and a Half Men’s 12-season run.

Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.