‘Louie’ Review: “Daddy’s Girlfriend, Part 1″

‘Louie,’ you beautiful, Emmy-nominated bastard, you're gonna die.  ‘Louie’ season 3 asks out its fourth episode of the year, as Louie finds an innocent question from his daughters placing him on a quest for a girlfriend, eventually settling on a shy bookstore worker (Parker Posey) he encounters .

Last week’s ‘Louie’ episode “Miami” saw Louie traveling to Miami for work, and in the process making a new friend, leading him to question society’s controversial stance on male bonding in the modern age. So how does “Daddy's Girlfriend, Part 1” get things moving?  What more will part 2 bring?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Louie’ season 3 episode 4, “Daddy's Girlfriend, Part 1!”

We open on our hero Louie once more doing stand-up, as he relays a story in which he had to explain to his daughter the nature of prejudice, tip-toeing around any real examples other than musing to himself that he’d completely pre-judged wanting to sleep with Scarlet Johansson before meeting her.

On another night at dinner with his daughters, they eventually question why ne never seems to have a girlfriend, his eldest musing that he just needs to find the right person.  The next night at the comedy cellar, Louie watches Maria Bamford perform, before inviting her to hang out afterward.  Maria quickly gets the message, but before you can say “bad at sex,” the two find themselves in bed equally confused and disappointed. Watching awful reality TV, and prior to initiating a second round, Louie asks if she’d be interested in having dinner with him and his kids, which she immediately shoots down, the resulting guilt leading her to declare that he’s bad at sex before storming off.

The next day, Louie drops his kids off at school, imagining every teacher there in a sexy context before finding occasion to move on to the next one, whether a slammed door or a wedding ring, and the final fantasy seems like too much of a stretch to maintain with the portly woman.  That day, Louie ventures into a bookstore looking for a book on flowers for his daughter, before finding himself enraptured by a saleswoman (Parker Posey).  The woman happily helps him find something for his eldest, but Louie fails to act on his instinct to ask her out.

In his next set at the Comedy Cellar, Louie jokes about how excitement over dating never goes away, comparing a successful asking out to a fist-pump gesture that only tennis-players and golfers use because theyre alone, without any team members to celebrate.  After the show, Louie sees Maria again, but the pair ignore one another.

Back in the bookstore, Louie confesses to his crush that the book she recommended was a little too old for his daughter, that she’d prefer something darker or heavier, to which the woman responds that she understands that phase in a girl’s life.  Flirtatiously reluctant to elaborate, she recommends a book for his daughter (provided she doesn’t read it at night, which she secretly will).  Still unable to act on it, Louie heads home.

Third time’s the charm, right?  Louie shaves the stubble off his face (leaving that righteous goatee) and heads to the bookstore, where he pulls her aside, and delivers a long , rambling diatribe of why she should go out with him, mostly because she’d have nothing to lose by giving it a shot.  When he finally lets her speak, she retorts that she only dates women, but quickly breaks the joking façade and agrees to go on a date for him, congratulating him on his ask-out.

Relieved, Louie performs the solitary fist-pump he performed earlier.  In the credits, the awful, contrived reality TV continues.  As it often does.

It's hard to judge any episode supposed to be the first half of a two-parter, but its much more endearing to watch Louie try to find a woman for the sake of impressing his children rather than to see his pitiful indecision, as in the third season's premiere.  Parker Posey certainly makes for an excellent foil, but we'll have to wait until next week to learn anything more about her, presumably.

Did you get your fill of awkward ‘Louie’ laughs?  What did you think about the episode? Let us know in the comments and check back next week for another all-new ‘Louie’ episode recap of ‘Daddy’s Girlfriend, Part 2” on FX!