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“Looking” Recap 2.05: Pop Goes the Weasel

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Hello, guys and dolls! Welcome back to Looking, the weekly reason for the lull in Grindr activity on Sunday nights. When last we left our Three Musketeers, they were deep in the trenches of the Patty vs. Paddy debates, realizing they weren’t fans of their partners sleeping with other people, and opening up a chicken Kickstarter, possibly in return for sexual favors.

“Looking for Truth” opens with yet another office party, because somehow the video game company manages to complete projects in between all the cake-eating and ass-grabbing. Over in the corner, Patrick (Jonathan Groff) accomplishes the Herculean feat of being sad while playing with one of those Spin Dye machines. You’d think he’d appreciate the diversion, being six years old and all, but he’s too cut up about his breakup to enjoy it.

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Also, Owen (Andrew Law) is there for about five seconds. Hi Owen! Something tells me his paychecks aren’t printed on the good paper. Is it legal to pay an actor in the single digits?

Kevin (Russell Tovey) gets up to make a speech and hold a private staring contest with Patrick. Patty busts a move toward the door, but is cornered before he can make a run for it. Kevin asks how he seems to be coping so easily. Patrick’s response is as cold as ice. Some might say that he’s Frozen, but I would never be that tacky. I’m a professional. He says that it’s actually kind of a relief not to be sneaking around anymore. He takes off, because this office party is literally going to last for an entire day and he won’t be missed.

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Don’t his coworkers have anything better to do? Eight hours of cheap beer and bad small talk sounds like my own personal circle of Hell. And now that the Breaktime Office Tryst Discussion League has disbanded for the time being, what’s the point?

Back at home, Patty dresses down and gets ready to… rustle his tovey. If you catch my drift. He watches porn so blue-tinted, it was probably directed by Andrew Haigh. Afterward, he checks Facebook - because HBO can afford not to use "Splashface" or whatever – and discovers that Richie (Raúl Castillo) needs help driving a truck from his old neighborhood back into the city.

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Patrick is nothing if he’s not chasing after an unavailable man, so he offers his services. Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez) pops his head in to remind him that Richie is too important to be a rebound. Patrick counters by asking Augie to clean out the shower, because he is an adult human being who handles grown-up conflict in a rational, reasonable manner. He puts on his Heelies and propeller cap, then heads out the door.

Back at the office, Kevin plays with a deck of Top Trumps cards, because he knows how much I hate that motif and wants to destroy me. He makes a phone call and invites someone over to the office. With any luck, it might just be Scotty (Tanner Cohen). I mean, it’s not. But a boy can dream, can’t he? I need something gif-able so nobody revolts.

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At the shelter, Agustín walks in to find a trans teen named Sammy hanging out in his office. He manages not to make a fool of himself, and I might even like him a little bit in this episode. He asks where Eddie (Daniel Franzese) is, and is alarmed to discover that he called in sick to work today.

Then we jump back to Patrick because we’re not even pretending this is an ensemble anymore (somebody please print up “Missing” posters for Dom). He and Richie meet up for their excursion and do that thing where their storyline takes over the entire show, sprouting heads and devouring everything in its path like a gigantic hydra. It worked like gangbusters in the first season, but everything’s different now.

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I can’t say that I’ll be disappointed when Richie and Patrick (probably) inevitably end up back together again, because I do like both of them as human beings. But now their entire relationship is soured by the tang of Patrick’s infidelity. Some are keen to forget this, but Patrick was so sexually skittish during his relationship with Richie that he may as well have set up barbed wire around his backside. But the second Kevin made his advances, he flipped over for a little Anal Destroyer without a second thought.

He and Richie may have been “on a break” or whatever, but that’s a much deeper moral betrayal of someone who meant a lot more to him than his boss. No matter how sexy and British he may be. He let the Top trump his feelings and that is not so easy to forgive.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox (Irish Spring, thanks for asking). But Richie deserves better than Patrick can give right now. Ginger Roger seems like a cool dude and I don’t want to see him getting the Dave Karofsky treatment.

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Patrick and Richie head for the BART, chatting about flipping trucks, childhood bikes, and shrimp meatballs. Eventually, Patty admits that he has an ulterior motive. After a pause so pregnant it got its own MTV show, he says that he’s always wanted to see the place where Richie grew up.

Over in the city, Agustín shows up at Eddie’s apartment with matzo ball soup, only to discover that he was only playing hooky. You can tell he’s relieved that it’s not an HIV-related incident and man, I think I’m beginning to care about Agustín. I didn’t prepare for this. Somebody help me.

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Back in the very important main storyline, Patrick gets hungry. He and Richie stop by a tiny Mexican place. Richie reveals that he and Ginger Roger aren’t technically together yet, though he does like him. Patrick tells him about deciding to leave Kevin. Richie seems quietly proud. Though to be fair, pretty much everything he does is done quietly. Patrick gets sauce on his face and Richie wipes it off. And YouTube shippers mark down this scene’s timecode for their next Richie/Patrick supercut music video.

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Over at the Endless Party of Eternal Torment, Jon (Joe Williamson) walks into Kevin’s office and finally gets a line this season! Stop the presses! Arguably the most important looming figure of this season has been upgraded from a non-speaking extra! He’s excited to see Kevin’s office, because he hasn’t seen it since he got the job. Gee, I wonder why. Kevin expresses concern about his glass windows before kissing Jon. Where was this kind of forward thinking during the Take That dance?

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Patrick and Richie walk up to his family’s mechanic shop to pick up the vehicle, which is a super rad defunct ice cream truck. Richie’s outspoken cousin Ceci (Tanya Saracho, who is also a writer for the show) introduces herself. Patrick can’t pronounce her name because he is white and useless.

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Meanwhile, Agustín and Eddie hang out at Eddie’s apartment and bask in the joy of having a fairly sizable storyline this time around. Agustín asks about the HIV and Eddie deflects, saying that he’s not Barbara Walters and this isn’t an interview. He then tosses out a wild story about being a “courtesy bottom” at a dungeon sex party, because he is the human equivalent of a Punk’d episode. He eventually softens and lets Augie know that he got it from a lying boyfriend. They decide to have some fun and then the scene cuts. That sound you hear is your heart leaping into your throat.

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Ceci continues to dominate, making fun of Richie’s milky white taste in men, saying that she’d never want to date a gringo. Patrick clutches his pearls, but Ceci knocks that conversation in the jaw by showing Richie a cool classic car. While he’s playing with the wheel and making “vroom-vroom” noises, Ceci grabs Patty’s ear and tells him she’s really disappointed things didn’t work out between them. She could see how much Richie was into him when he borrowed $200 from her to rent a tux for his sister’s wedding.

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Over at Eddie’s it turns out that “having fun” means “dancing to Finally” and while I must say I’m disappointed, it’s not too bad of a replacement. They rock out in the kitchen until Augie can’t take it anymore and slips Eddie some tongue. Eddie puts the kibosh on that right quick, saying that not every guy has to drop his panties whenever Agustín wants. Just kidding! Ashton would be proud. They make out, but only after Eddie makes it clear that he just wants to fool around, nothing more. I’m sure Agustín will respect his wishes and not press the issue (I can make jokes too).

Over in the Hinterlands, Richie and Patrick make their way across town in the ice cream truck, scored by the endless drone of “Pop Goes the Weasel.” They stop at a car wash to spruce the old thing up and Patrick attempts to spray Richie down like a cheerleader at a fund raiser. Patty insists that he’s a frat guy instead, because apparently he skipped the “Girl Pronouns Are OK” chapter in his Gay Handbook. He also skimmed the “Douching for Dummies” and “Get an HIV Test, Dummy” sections. It’s a wonder he even passed the test at all.

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One of Richie’s relatives sees them at the car wash and walks over to talk about his father. Patrick obliviously reveals that he’s Richie’s ex and things get a little awkward. While they stop to drink a Coke (the thirst is real), Patrick suggests that Richie pay his father a visit. Richie tells him he shouldn’t pry into things he doesn’t understand, but agrees to consider it after an impassioned, WASP-y speech about acceptance and love and not giving a flip about what other people think. This might all be a ploy for Patrick to act out his “Richie’s Childhood Bedroom” kink, but it’s sweet enough.

On the drive home, Patrick stops the truck to confess that he slept with Kevin before their relationship had officially ended. Richie isn’t pleased. I mean, would you be? But he says that it’s in the past and he likes Brady a lot, but he doesn’t want Patrick to be out of his life. So I guess, against all odds, Peppermint Patty wins this round.

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They agree to try to be friends and drive off into the horizon with the haunting strains of “Pop Goes the Weasel” whisking away on the wind, and a herd of screaming, ice cream-deprived children following them with torches and pitchforks.

Fin.

Grade: “Looking for Truth” is about as unassuming an episode as they get. The show isn’t exactly known for its hectic drama, but with all the happenings packed into the previous episode, they should have expanded into this slot to space things out and let it breathe. Last night’s episode was just one long, drawn out set-up for the stories to come rather than any real narrative in its own right.

I’m digging Ceci and I hope she returns to spill more tea and shake things up, but Looking really needs to get a handle on balancing its storylines. It’s fantastic that Agustín got more screentime in this round, but to not include Dom at all after such a pivotal moment in his life is gross negligence. Richie and Patrick don’t deserve all the time they’re getting, at least not until they’ve begun to rebuild their burned bridge a little more. “Looking for the Future” this ain’t. It’s more like “Looking at Paint Dry.”

C+

MVG (Most Valuable Gay): She’s unfortunately terminally straight, but I’m gonna give this one to Ceci. She’s confident, brash, and supportive of Richie, making her the wisest character on this show. He deserves all the love he can get for not only handling his breakup like a pro, but being a generally humble and rational adult human being.

Champion Dialogue: “I got soup for you. It’s got balls in it.” – Agustín

Assorted Nuts

*Seriously, though. Patrick’s office has so many parties, it’s like working in a rap video.

*Where the hell was Dom in this episode?! He’d better show up next week with a killer slideshow of his and Soapy Joe’s vacation in the Bahamas.

*Agustín can always tell when Patrick is “spanking the monkey” because his room falls eerily silent. It makes you wonder what he normally does in there. My vote is naked caber tossing, but I’m open to alternate suggestions.

*Ginger Roger can’t drive Richie because he’s working on a deadline. It’s nice to see that a character on this show actually performs the duties of his job.

*If Eddie keeps it up with the pranks, Agustín is gonna have a heart attack by the time this season ends.

*Doesn’t Patrick seem like the most inexperienced Baby Gay to ever escape the nest? Maybe he just never listens when Dom and Augie are talking.

*My boyfriend says that Richie’s two cousins are almost supernaturally true to life, so kudos to the writers for capturing the perfect family dynamic.

*I never did find a good gif this time around, so please accept my humble apologies and this small token from Romy and Michele.

(source)

So what do you all think? Did you like the more toned down episode? Which couple stole your heart more? Do you think Dom was too busy handing out Kickstarter bonuses to show up this time, or is it something more sinister? Please let us know in the comments!

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