TV Recap: Louie - "Looking for Liz/Lilly Changes"

Left to right: Louis C.K. and Chloe Sevigny

Welcome to my recaps of season 3 of the FX television series Louie. Join me as I try to dissect what I hope will be another excellent season from one of my favorite shows currently on TV. I think what makes this show work is the ability for Louis C.K. to be self loathing and artful at the same time in unique and clever ways. Also, keep an eye out for my Breaking Bad Breaking Half column set for upcoming Mondays.

And just like that, everything that I have been saying about the show transitioning into another form of no stand-up comedy or opening credits is proven wrong. That is what I love about the show. The unpredictable nature every week, even if it is over tedious stuff like the opening credits.  However, I did notice that with the stand-up mixed back in, the formula felt more authentic to what we have come to know from Louie and therefore made for one of the strongest episodes since "Daddy's Girlfriend Part 2." 
The episode opens with a stand-up bit from the Improv where Louis C.K. is discussing the joys of aging. He is fascinated by the mental state by people 20 years apart. He states that 20-year-olds are more worried about dying too young while 40-year-olds are more relaxed and feel accomplished as a result. He also claims that people should feel better about not having the ability to sleep.
It leads us into the first segment, which sees the return of a familiar face. Sort of. While C.K. is sleeping, he imagines Liz (Parker Posey) from the "Daddy's Girlfriend" episodes, smiling and speaking inaudibly. It keeps him up at night and causes him to head back to the book store to try and confront her.
Instead he meets Jeanie (Chloe Sevigny), who was hired to replace her after Liz quit. She hates the job and after attempting to retrieve personal information about Liz, decides to join him on a quest to track her down. C.K. is very reluctant about it, even though he states that she changed his outlook on life for the better. Jeanie is a hopeless romantic type who encourages him to ignore the idea that he knows very little about her location in the world and just go out and find her.
So they travel around, ending up at the apartment where C.K. dropped Liz off at. Jeanie heads inside to try and see her. She is stopped near the door by an employee (Louis Vanaria), who asks her for information. Jeanie is able to recall room and name, but the employee is not convinced. He wants a last name. When Jeanie cannot provide it, he tells her to call Liz and get the information herself, as he doesn't recognize her or feels that she belongs there. 

Left to right: Hadley Delaney \
and C.K.

Jeanie storms out and joins C.K. in a drink at a local coffee shop. C.K. seems fine with this decision, though Jeanie is an emotional wreck. She encourages C.K. to not give her up and to continue looking for her. It ends with C.K. just accepting her ramblings and that maybe he will continue looking.
The second segment opens with C.K. going to pick up Jane (Ursula Parker) and Lilly (Hadley Delaney) from school. While there, he experiences culture shock as he sees parents acting rude and he suddenly sees Lilly getting insulted by a gang of girls. He breaks up the fight, but Lilly is upset. C.K. tries to be a good father by taking them to a merry go round and buying them treats. Jane is fine with it, though Lilly is throwing a fit.
Once at home, C.K. yells at the two to do homework before storming into the bathroom, where he is smoking out a window with his pants down and looking at a laptop. When he exits, he sees Jane in the front room doing her homework. He asks her where Lilly is, to which she responds by saying that she left. After searching the apartment, they search the exterior.
This is followed by calling the cops, who are filling out information. The head cop (Herman Chavez) is taking notes when it is discovered that C.K. never called the mother. This begins to unwind and C.K. calls the mother. During the call, Lilly appears and everyone is baffled. Jane only said that she thought that Lilly left the apartment. It turns out she was in the closet reading. The cops are not pleased by this and file out. C.K. apologizes for his actions, though he feels really stupid for not checking the closet.
The episode ends with another stand-up routine in which C.K. discusses how he views safety in cars. He is very demanding that his children buckle their seat belts in his car, but doesn't care if they ever take a taxi. He claims that they are mysterious lands of diseases and drivers that do the best they can because they come from poor backgrounds.

Left to right: Herman Chavez, Robin Hopkins, C.K., and Hadley Delaney

I kind of am taking a sigh of relief this week. I was beginning to worry that we would never see the title sequence again. To me, that is essential to starting off any episode, as it places everything into a context. Even the stand-up was key in the overall story narrative. Seeing them both returned provided the glue that tied up the loose ends nicely. Those few things alone make any Louie episode a little better, and if you compare this to the past few weeks, you'll see why.
Also, I am excited to see the return of Parker Posey. I know that it is more of a tease in that she appears for no more than 15 seconds in split moments, but I always felt that she should have gotten a bigger role than two of the season's best episodes. It even works, because it made for an entertaining "girl who got away" episode that fits nicely with the dream girl aesthetic that her previous appearances had helped set up.
I wasn't wild about Chloe Sevigny, but it was a nice touch to have a third party come in and try and throw tropes down C.K.'s gullet about how Liz was the girl. I don't know if either Sevigny or Posey will actually continue to appear, but I am proud that they are keeping continuity this season. If anything, I hope the finale sees C.K. and Liz get together, even though that would be too much of a happy ending for a season. We all remember what happened between him and Pamela in season 2.
Hadley Delaney and Ursula Parker also continue to be a charming touch to Louie. I rarely like children actors, but these two have managed to bring an endearment to their brief time on screen. Any story that involves the two of them as central characters always provides some great moments of father-daughters bonding. The past few weeks have seen a trade off of either Jane or Lilly tackling a third party that neither like, and it is fine, but rarely has the full effect that the intimate moments between the three usually provides.
This is a very solid episode. I guess that while I cannot fault the show for being different, I do like some consistency. This episode has just that, and by focusing on stand-up-segment-stand-up, it makes for a book end that very few other programs are doing. I do hope that this isn't the end of Liz, but at the same time, I just wonder if we're going to see Jeanie now be introduced as a crazy, love ridden stalker type. This could go either way.


Favorite scene: The final scene of the second segment in which everything just unravels on C.K.. He reveals that he didn't call the mother, who was also in custody of the children. He didn't look in the closet. He took his daughter's advice instead of doing deep research. He was a father who was having a bad day and forgot to follow all measures. As a result, when Lilly came walking out, the cops got upset and filed out of the apartment. It was simultaneously an applause and disappointment as a parent, creating a really solid, yet simple and realistic premise.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5


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