This week’s episode featured Louie arriving in Miami for a gig. Unlike most people who would be rather excited to take a trip to the beach, Louie seems bored by the whole ordeal and particularly annoyed by the beautiful, shirtless people that crop up everywhere. He decides to go out onto the beach in front of his hotel, standing out like a sore, ginger-bearded thumb. There’s simply too many hotties the first time around, so he comes back later when the beach is abandoned and takes a swim in the ocean.

When Louie sees a beach attendant packing up his stuff, he starts to wave his arms and yell, drawing that attention of the beach lifeguard, who believes that Louie is drowning. Louie fights the rescue all the way back to the shore, insisting that he wasn’t in need of any aid. The two get to talking, and seem to hit it off. Later, at Louie’s show, the lifeguard attends. His name is actually Ramone, and the two men sit around chatting for a while. Turns out, Ramone was born in Cuba, giving Louie a chance to mention his own Spanish speaking abilities (since he lived in Mexico and his dad was Mexican).

The next day, Ramone invites Louie to a party, explaining that he wants to show Louie the real Miami. Their day then consists of riding the same bike, eating food, drinking, talking with locals, and catching chickens. That night, they arrive at the party. It’s hoppin’. Louie can’t pick up chicks in Spanish, either, but he’s enjoying the experience. Ramone makes a deep remark about the people who live in the high rises over the city, standing on their balconies, always alone, never knowing that part of Miami even exists. The poignant moment ends when Louie realizes he needs to get to his show. Ramone’s friends rush him to the show. Louie and Ramone say goodbye, but it’s obvious that Louie is saddened that he’s having to leave his new friend.

Afterwards, Louie calls Janet to see if she can watch the girls a few more nights. She knows what’s up immediately — Louie “met” someone. She congratulates him, even though his someone isn’t a Lady Love Interest. Suddenly, Louie seems to realize just what it is he’s done. He’s making extra time for another dude. 

The next morning, Louie meets Ramone at the beach again and the two seemingly pick up right where they left off. They have a bit of fun in the ocean, tossing a football around in the waves. However, something is a little off when they meet up later. Ramone seems weirded out. Finally, he asks Louie why he decided to stay longer. In typical, awkwardly honest Louie fashion, he simply tells Ramone that he just wanted to keep hanging out.

The dialogue that follows barely counts as an exchanging of words. The men repeat over and over that they’re “not”… And everyone knows what the implication is, even without completely finishing sentences. Louie’s struggle in this scene is fascinating, because if you really examine it, he’s not having trouble telling Ramone “I’m not gay” or “I’m not hitting on you”. That may be all Ramone is hearing through the stumbling and stuttering, but the audience, familiar with Louie, knows better. Louie just wants a friend, companionship, some spark in his life. However, those words are simply too hard to explain.

The two men decide to part ways amicably, never quite on the same page as to what they were really talking about. With a relationship forged on the discovery of their shared ability to speak the same languages, Louie and Ramone’s friendship dissolves over miscommunication.

There’s a quick scene of Louie on stage at the end doing his routine, this time the topic about straight men and sexuality. Louie shares his belief that heterosexual men are so worried about possibly being perceived as gay that they deny themselves a lot of things, summing up his entire interaction with Ramone. They had fun together, and Louie made the choice to stay, and that action came off as simply too intimate. So, he lost a friend.

The credits rolled over footage of the actual filming of the drowning scene. Really great to see.

As usual, a bittersweet episode. There’s a lot going on in it, and I think I’ll need a few more viewings to unpack it all. I think I know what it was saying, but as stated in the episode, “Say you don’t know, and then you learn everything.”

What was your favorite moment of last night’s Louie?