'Louie' episode 5x05 review: 'Untitled'

It’s often in those delirious moments between consensuses and slumber when the mind produces terrifying, irrational oddities. Even when unaided by certain substances, the trickery the mind creates may go berserk and have you question your own sanity as you simply try to rustle back into your cozy snooze. Such moments are so vividly realized in Louie’s latest, “Untitled,” and it is by far the most trippy, bizarre and also consistently hilarious episode Louis C.K. has created not only this season so far, but perhaps in the entirety of the FX show's history.

"Untitled" begins with Louie's usual inconsequential segments. Our main character performs some stand-up — during a night where one comedian (Jon Glaser) seems particularly taken by C.K.’s bee joke at the tail end of his set. It is not long after when he takes his daughter Jane (Ursula Parker) to a doctor's visit, where she describes a month-long rash and a sensation where she feels as though she sweats inside her head and can see electricity circuits all around her and where she doesn't really want to live in such conditions. The doctor’s prescription for this condition? Why, just a glass of water. As we learn later how a group of childhood peers announce, via list form, how they don't like C.K.'s daughter, it would seem this episode would focus on a father/daughter relationship where they both come to terms with their own bumbling depression. After all, it's considered hereditary. But C.K., ever one to keep expectations at bay, changes focus very quickly.

As he picks up his other daughter Jane (Hadley Delany) from a play date, C.K. is kindly asked by his daughter’s friend’s mother to help move a large fish bowl out of a room. Noticing the large size and all the water still inside, he tries as politely as he can to say no, only to bring the mother to tears, much to his surprise. This marks the second time Louie, the character, unintentionally finds himself in a mother’s apartment as he breaks down and sobs this season. This time, however, C.K. doesn’t seem to have the kind words and wisdom to get her through what disturbs her. Where he once comforted with smooth talking and eventually sex, before her water broke, here our lead says some passively gentle words before he throws a blanket over her head and leaves.

While he thinks such problems are behind him, it is between these moments when things take a turn. The line between reality and surrealism breaks, and very strange things come to pass for C.K. and those around him. He is attacked by a gym shorts-sporting man with a mortified face attacks him, finds himself performing on stage without pants and with a seashell-esque figure for a penis, and at odds with the comedian who loved his bee joke is now stealing not only this exact joke but also his jacket later on. Oh yes, and he also finds himself and his brother (Robert Kelly) have sex with one another with an Easter Bunny mask on. These are just among the few conundrums to befuddle the comedian in these 22 minutes, as he attempts to separate reality from horrific nightmares.

Given the liberty to play with his artistic freedom to the fullest extend here, C.K. creates with “Untitled” one of his most intentionally and delightfully surreal episodes to date. The way the actor/director plays with tone and mood is continuously assured and ever bold, and in many ways the confusion ailing the character is personified to disorienting and terrifically funny results. Louie often distinguishes itself among its comedic peers through its genuine unpredictability, and and plays with that completely and fully here just by being about the mind's unstable nature in a near insomniac.

“Untitled” also is striking in that it has some of C.K.’s showiest but most striking editing in Louie's history thus far. It’s clear how inspired he is with such a high-strung concept for an episode, and it seems like the writing and editing in particular flourish from the creator playing with what he can not only get his actors around him to do but what the network heads can allow on the air. It’s also nice to finally see some returning faces like Todd Barry, Jim Norton, Nick Di Paolo and Rick Crom come back and keep C.K. on his toes, especially as he is in such a fragile position. And, of course, it’s always wonderful to have Charles Grodin on the scene, especially when he must causally interact with the morphed-faced spawn from Louie’s dark unconscious.

Many likely will study what each individual dream sequence may mean. Some are more clear than others, like for example the lack of pants on stage and the inability to talk on stage plays into C.K.'s continued fear, even as a successful comedian, to live up to his duties as a comic. It would also seem the comedy stealing bit could steam from controversies he has had in the past with comedians like Denis Leary, who have reportedly stolen material from C.K. in the past. Although this could just be reading too deeply into the creator's own history and may just be a fear of someone stealing another person's material and making a name for themselves from falsely-earned material. These fears are common and relatable among the comedy field, not to mention most people in any position in their lives. But some are less clear, like the aforementioned Easter Bunny moments, and while it may just be the comedian's unusual sense of humor, it's also possible even such upfront oddities have a deeper, darker meaning in C.K.'s warped concept of the world.

Ever one to be put to his insecurities on this show, C.K. has even his mental stability at odds with him in this episode, walking amongst a midst of unconventional characters and activities in search of answers he likely can never find. Typically in a dream, it’s only in awaking up that we realize how strange those now fleeted moments were in our mind. With “Untitled,” it’s never a question just how bizarre things become, but this distance from such a mindset creates even more amusing results. That C.K. can still make us relate and distance ourselves from this state of mind is a testament to the creator’s capabilities, which are mature and layered as ever. It also proves he always can shake things up in his wonderfully, and ever continuously, absurd show.

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