This week’s episode of Louie was split into two completely separate stories that still managed to share some DNA. The first half of the show opened with a solemn scene at a cemetery. Louie walks up to the grave of an unknown person and he’s all alone, in black and white with somber music. Then we see an equally somber sight – Robin Williams. To my surprise, Williams plays himself in this episode. I guess it shouldn’t be such a shock. He plays a different version of himself in just about everything he does. Here, CK is able to get the more human side of Williams in what was a solid performance that he’s proven he’s capable of in the past.

After the funeral CK and Williams stop at a diner to discuss the deceased. After beating around the bush about the man’s life, CK finally admits that the former club owner was an asshole. When this happens, Robin feels comfortable to let loose as well, saying that the many borrowed tons of money from him just to buy a boat. It was a sweet, honest scene that showed how we remember the departed, even the jerks. Even though they acknowledge they both didn’t like the guy, they still both have smiles on their faces. It’s memories like these that make it difficult to lose anyone in our lives, even the good-for-nothings.

The two talk about how the former club owner always wanted to hang out with comedians and take them to this one strip club. Everyone always turned him down. So to honor the deceased, CK and Williams head to said strip club, just to make good on the poor guy’s wish. When they arrive they awkwardly deny dances from the strippers. They explain that they’re honoring a dead friend who would frequent the club. When they told them his name, slowly every stripper and employee broke down in tears, mourning the loss of this patron saint of strip clubs. He gets a spin of “Sister Christian” in his honor before CK and Williams leave the club cracking up. It’s a light end to strong first half of the show. Williams was a pleasant surprise here and the strip club scene delivered a solid payoff. It was also an interesting take on how we remember people. We all know about the sadness of losing a family member, a dear friend or a loved one. But what about those people who fall in between? Maybe they deserve some time too, and you might even enjoy yourself remembering them the way they’d want to be remembered.

The second half of the episode begins with Louie picking up his daughter at school. The plan is to spend the day together, just the two of them. Things are looking up until a fellow parent (who I think we may have once seen earlier in the series, but that’s not particularly important) asks Louie to do her a favor and watch her kid. Apparently she’s getting her vagina removed and she really needs someone to watch little Never and Louie is the only one she could trust. I love Louie writing that she is getting her vagina removed as the reason; it’s his way of saying that parents have asked him for bullshit, or unimportant reasons to look after their kids. Or maybe he wanted to come up with a really good reason that he absolutely had to watch the bow tie-wearing Never. Louie, always a responsible parent, agrees to watch Never, much to the dismay of his daughter. We learn quickly that Never is like a demon child as he pushes a baby carriage into the street causing chaos that gives us a nice cameo from a panicking Artie Lange.

Louie is told right before the mother bolts to get her vagina removed that all he needs to know about Never is that she has never said no to him and he can’t eat anything with carbon. This is another feeling CK must get when he sees other people’s kids. A common theme in CK’s stand-up is how poorly he thinks a lot of people are raising their children. Never is the amalgamation of all that could go wrong, heightened to horrifying results. When they get home, Louie tries to find something to feed the portly Never, who is designed to be part Dennis the Menace and part Augustus Gloomp. Louie, trying to find something Never can eat (turns out carbon’s in a lot of stuff), settles on hamburger meat. Never wants it raw and in a bowl, Louie acquiesces.

Later Never does some terrible but not horrific things like throw Louie’s rug out the window and ask to be bathed by CK. Louie, of course, says he can’t give him a bath, but he can take one himself. Never agrees to take a bath alone as Louie needs to call in to one of those horrible morning Zoo programs. So Never heads to the bathroom while Louie picks up the phone to talk to another faceless pair of radio goons stand-ups dread, but feel the need to do to help sell more tickets (though many claim that they never really work anyway). The conversation with the radio hosts was the highlight of the episode for me. I believe CK employed his buddies Opie and Anthony to stand in as the radio goons. It’s a series of inane questions, interspersed with an obnoxious woman shrieking about how funny CK is after he answers every inane question with a one liner that doesn’t mean anything. When CK finally makes an actual joke about Kansas City, the city he’s promoting in, by saying that it’s the worst city in North America, which includes Mexico. He’s quickly booted from the show. I always love peaks into the frustrations of being a professional comic (see last season for more of that).

The episode reaches its most disgusting when CK goes back in the bathroom because of a horrific smell. Turns out little Never has diarrhea in the tub. Certainly the most disgusting image on the show, I don’t think we’re supposed to laugh as we are supposed to be just plain old grossed out. Louie’s daughter is rightly sickened and Louie is left trying to figure out how to clean up this mess. We cut to Never and Louie sitting on the couch and the kid asks why his daughter doesn’t like him. CK goes into a long explanation about how he can’t be the kid shitting in the bathtub and doing whatever he wants if he wants people to like him. Never responds saying that his mother says that he can doe anything he wants because he loves himself or some bullshit. Louie calls this out, clearly using Never as the strawman for all the parents who spoil their kids rotten and let them get away with murder. CK says flat-out that his mother is wrong and he’ll take the heat if Never complains to her.

Earlier I said that these segments share DNA, but are still completely different in their subject matter. I think the crux of this episode is about personal responsibility. Louie shows its important to attend a friend’s, or not such a friend’s funeral because it would be the right thing to do (this is pointed out again when Williams asks Louie to attend his funeral and vice versa) and it’s the right thing to do to help out a fellow parent, even if the kid is trouble. This season continues to be the year of the parent. Louie continues to ask (and answer in his own way) what it means to be a father and how his decisions in life affect not just himself, but his kids.