This week's episode of "Louie" was another dose of what makes this show so painfully addictive. While every man imagines what would happen if they were violently confronted by a stranger, thankfully not everyone experiences the burning embarrassment of being made to beg to not have his ass kicked - much less in front of someone he's trying to impress.
That's the situation we find our protagonist in throughout "Bully," an episode that seems to center on asking whether taking the high road is worth it in the long run. After a mediocre date, Louie convinces his lady friend to accompany him to his favorite donut shop. As he's regaling her under the bright fluorescents with stories on why he became a comedian, a crew of rowdy high school boys enter the shop, being loud and annoying. Louie chivalrously asks the jock boys to quiet down. Simple enough, right?
The group quiets for a moment, but soon the hot-headed one of the bunch, Sean, descends on Louie and his date.
“When was the last time you got your ass kicked?” the loudmouth jock asks Louie, before explaining that his scabbed knuckles were the result of another guy who pissed him off, who he hit "maybe about forty times" in the face.
The exchange ends with Louie playing into the kid's ego game and asking him not to beat him up. It was a no-win situation for the poor guy, who stood to have his ass handed to him six ways to Sunday by Sean and his friends if he'd stood up to the kid. Equally bad was the fact that the scenario ultimately turned off his date, further emasculating Louie.
After our aging ginger hero calls it a night out of indignant disgust for the woman who'd rather see a grown father of two beaten to jelly than swallow his pride, he spots Sean and his friends just a few stores down. It's hard not to wonder if the show's about to take a murderous turn as Louie follows them in the shadows, until Sean is the single one left and ends up all the way in Staten Island. After the kid arrives home, Louie knocks on the door and explains to his parents what his son was doing earlier in the night. Both parents are embarrassed and angered, and call their son down from his room.
A barrage of slapping and face-grabbing ensues between furious father and the apple that clearly hasn't fallen far from the tree, resulting in a rapid turn of events that adds even more gas to the fire. Louie objects to the abuse his abuser is suffering, blaming the Dad for his son’s violent behavior. This results in Sean’s mom hitting Louie, kicking him out and calling him an "Obama-loving fag".
Defeated, Louie makes his exit, but he's joined moments later by Sean’s dad. Clearly at his wits' end with the kid, the elder abuser explains how his father hit him, and his father's father before him, and as the two smoke cigarettes and discuss the hardships of raising children. Louie pushes it by suggesting that the kid would’ve turned out a lot better had he been raised in a more loving environment, to which the father simply shrugs. What can you do?
The episode ended, as usual, with Louie reflecting on life from the stage. The week's highlight arrives via flashback to Louie's father giving his seven-year-old son a very unorthodox version of the birds and the bees talk, resulting in some immensely bizarre ideas about sex ("and when you touch them, they EXPLODE..."). Just before the credits roll, we're treated to an imagined meeting between the current-day Louie and his pre-pubescent self, which dissolves into side-splitting laughter as the young Louie reacts with horror to what he'll become.
An episode that dove deep into core issues of uncertainty and insecurity among men was short on laughs, but don't take that as a bad thing. The captivating essence of "Louie" is the fact that Louis C.K. puts so much relatable reality into the script that there's simply no room for schtick. When the funny moments happen, whether circumstantial or conversational, they're hilarious. But the show itself has become more a weekly dose of unpredictable reality than any "reality show" out there, with disquietingly relatable scenarios and midlife predicaments of a man we find ourselves relating more and more to with each passing week.
