Louie season 4 continued tonight with episode 9, titled “Elevator Part 6,” and episode 10, titled “Pamela Part 1.” Our recap breaks down the events of the two episodes.
This recap will be filled with spoilers, so don’t read on unless you’ve seen the two episodes.
Episode 9
Tonight, the final part of “Elevator” aired. Six connected episodes is the longest stretch Louis C.K. has ever attempted, and it’s given us a look of what Louie could look like with a standard episode structure. In the past, episodes of Louie have been primarily one-off episodes with self-contained stories. Typically, something that happens in one episode will have little effect on the next, and rarely would characters aside from Louie, his family, and his friends reappear.
In this episode, Louie was still dealing with the fallout of having sex with Amia. After Evanka told him last week that it wasn’t serious if they weren’t having sex, Louie thought taking their relationship there would solve things for him. His friend Nick DiPaolo reminds him that this isn’t the 1950s, and Louie doesn’t know what to do. Amia, on the other hand, is clearly hurt. She doesn’t want to talk to Louie, but when she does, he can’t understand, just as she can’t understand him. Not being able to communicate may work fine when everything is going good, but when things are going bad it clearly doesn’t work. Louie tries to get Evanka to translate, but that just makes Amia even more embarrassed.
Then the storm hits. It’s been brewing for the past two episodes (last week it killed “LeBron James, and the rest of the Miami Heat, and 12 million other people”), and it’s finally made its way to New York. While everyone is fleeing away from the storm, Louie has to rent a car from an oblivious Hertz and drive to get his kids and Janet, who doesn’t know what to do. Lilly and Jane share a smile as their parents share a hug.
Later, Louie and Amia go on what looks to be a date at a nice restaurant, but actually it’s something more. Amia has found a waiter that speaks Hungarian and has a letter that she wishes him to read to Louie. It says that she’s been bottling up her feelings, and she tells Louie just how much he cares about him. With the lack of communication between them over the six episodes, it truly is a touching moment. For Louie to find out that Amia wasn’t embarrassed about having sex but that she truly cared for him was a big moment.
The six episode story is huge in talking about the season as a whole. The arc was only one episode short of being half the entire season. It’s really interesting to think that of all the long stories C.K. could tell, he decided to tell one about communication in ways that aren’t through language. It was an interesting choice, and it played off beautifully. Of course, we shouldn’t expect that the storm that wiped out the east coast will have any effect on the show the rest of the way.
Episode 10
Louie jumped right into another multi-part story, this one will be a three-part story centering around Louie and his old friend Pamela who returned in the sixth episode of the season, “Elevator Part 3.”
Amia and Evanka have returned home, and Louie is rightfully sad. He does the somewhat pitiful thing of walking through their empty apartment, but can you blame him? “Misery is wasted on the miserable,” his doctor tells him. He tells Louie that the missing her is the actual love and to enjoy it while he can.
When Pamela sends him a photo where she’s flipping him off, Louie decides to see if she’s still interested in having “a guy-girl thing.” The offer is no longer on the table, but they still appear to enjoy each other’s company which leads to Pamela taking care of the kids while Louie has a stand up routine.
Louie’s stand up routine is an extended one as far as Louie goes, and it’s one that fans of C.K. may recognize. It’s about God and women, and like a lot of his material, it’s really funny.
In a tough to watch scene, Louie comes home and starts trying to kiss Pamela. Pamela clearly doesn’t want it, but Louie keeps trying to force her. “You can’t even rape well,” Pamela says, echoing the awkwardness felt by the audience. Louie says that she said she wanted something so he was going to take charge, and she silently acknowledges that her feelings aren’t gone, but she doesn’t say they are, and a lack of a yes or no doesn’t mean yes. Louie kisses her and she leaves.
On the bus, Louie later acknowledges that he would prefer that the girls don’t tell Janet about Pamela, but he won’t ask them to lie for him.
Notes
– “10 people died in the Bronx last night due to a fire that killed 10 people in the Bronx last night during a fire.” “Fire officials say all 10 people died due to the fire which was too hot for their bodies.” These satirical news broadcasts are perfection.
– Louie getting caught up with the mob would be a good storyline.
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