‘Looking’: Episode 7 in-depth recap

As is typical of this show, Looking‘s seventh and penultimate episode features a wedding, but isn’t really about marriage at all. Patrick’s sister’s big day has loomed on the horizon for a couple of weeks now, and after a slight tiff at Dom’s BBQ, Paddy made the heroically dumb decision to invite his new boyfriend Richie along to show how committed he is to their relationship.

We know enough about Paddy at this point to know that his family are at least partly responsible for how he turned out. It doesn’t justify all his behaviours so far, but it does give them context.

If inviting Richie seemed like a bad decision last week, fast forward seven days and Paddy is furiously trying to tie a bow-tie while Skyping his mum, who has lost her mobile phone and thinks Paddy’s ‘new friend’ is called Richard. The stress of bringing Richie into his unashamedly middle-class world, where there’s none of Richie’s stoner-like zen to be found but plenty of expensive hors d’oeuvres, causes Paddy to silently and slowly self-implode.

Episode seven is largely about regression; literally, in Paddy’s case, as all the progress he’s made growing into a sensible (if neurotic) young man slowly begins to unravel as the stress and pressure of pleasing his parents weighs down on him. Little brothers always feel small following in the footprints of their elder siblings, and as his sister Megan gets married to the dashing Gus, you can see Paddy aching for something similar, if not for his family’s benefit than certainly for his own.

Unfortunately, Richie doesn’t come to the wedding with Paddy, whose stress-outs begin unnerving his boyfriend. First he gets a parking ticket. Then Richie isn’t able to retrieve Paddy’s mum’s phone from the hotel because they assume he is no relation to the petite, white lady in question, and when Richie brings out a bag of weed to calm Paddy down, it has the opposite effect. After a brief row, Richie bails.

It’s weak for Richie to abandon Paddy, because he’s seen Paddy at much, much worse levels of Paddyism than this, but it becomes important, later on, for Paddy to realise that he’s unsatisfied with his love life not because he’s echoed his parent’s aspirations, but rather because he’s amplified them, made them stronger and pretty much pushed people away.

Luckily, Paddy isn’t alone at the wedding, as Kevin is here, with tall, jock-ish boyfriend Jon in tow. They know Gus through studying at Dartmouth together, and the two wonder aloud how they didn’t realise they were off to the same wedding in San Francisco this weekend.

Later, talking to his mother, Paddy explains why he’s glad Richie didn’t come. “You wouldn’t like him,” he tells his mum pointedly. “He’s Mexican, for a start. He cuts hair. He’s got no aspirations to go to college.”

Paddy’s telling his mum that these qualities make Richie an ill fit for their family because he thinks that’s how she’d feel if she met him. But it’s disappointing to see Paddy shrink in the presence of his parents when he was able to dismiss Agustin last week. Sadly, regression can do that.

Regression is elsewhere, too, as Agustin cancels his upcoming ‘You’ll Never Believe What Happened When I Paid A Hooker To Fuck My Boyfriend On Camera’ exhibition thing.

When he admits he cancelled last-minute, his usually supportive boyfriend calls him out on his reckless, self-sabotaging behaviour. Frank thinks it’s because he’s jealous that he and CJ had a connection during their, er, art, but Agustin shoots him down and explains he paid CJ $220 an hour for every grunt, thrust and brooding glance. All the intimacy was faked.

“You can’t even pay rent,” Frank says pointedly. “I know,” Agustin mutters.

Agustin and Frank are underdeveloped as a couple, but this episode demonstrates their vastly different personalities. Agustin is, on the surface, confident, controversial, brash and brazen, and when we met him initially there was something sexy about that.

These misunderstood, hot-headed, arty types may be fine for a few weeks or months, but they’re never the guy you want to wrestle into a tux and take down the aisle, and Frank is beginning to realise that for all the moving him out to the suburbs, and for all the sexual experimentation, Agustin keeps regressing, on a loop, making progress only to self-sabotage it again and again, getting murkier and murkier until the only place he can go is back up.

On the flip side, Agustin is hurt that Frank is always treading on his toes and getting involved in his work life. As someone who wants to be defined solely by his work as an artist, Agustin struggles with the idea of sharing that art with his partner, hence why he cancelled a show that showed Frank as the subject just as much as CJ.

Frank, decisively, has had enough. “I don’t want to live with you any more,” he says to Agustin. He has his knees up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs, like a child terrified by a nightmare.

Meanwhile, Dom has exactly 28 hours to sort out his pop-up restaurant, which, you’ll recall, is pretty much entirely being funded by Wise Old Lynn. Unfortunately though, he comes to blows with Lynn when it comes to how to run the place. Dom wants to be in the kitchen, generously applying the Nando’s Peri Peri sauce to the chicken like a pro (or something, I still can’t believe nobody in San Francisco has had peri peri chicken) but Lynn thinks he should be doing front-of-house, as the face of the pop-up.

Dom, however, has apparently regressed from the stable 40 year old to some kind of obnoxious teenager, stropping around, stressing out and taking things out on everyone. This is his project: his ticket to self-satisfaction, but as he snaps and moves and re-arranges, he’s forgetting that this is being entirely funded by Lynn, who is under the impression this is a joint business venture.

“I don’t need you watching over me like I’m some teenager,” Dom says to Lynn outside, echoing Agustin and Frank’s situation earlier. Dom wants to be defined by the success of this venture, but it’s only going to work on his terms – or so he thinks. The idea of compromising and listening to Lynn against his own beliefs sounds like a recipe for disaster in his eyes, but what he’s missing is that, to Lynn, the pair of them making this a success together is what’s important.

Lynn, however, has kept his emotions to himself (#WiseLynn) and, after seeing Dom’s behavior is put off by it. He gives him the keys to the place and lets him do what he wants, and he leaves.

Up until now, Lynn has shown himself to be level-headed, relaxed, and a guy who keeps his cards close to his chest. It’s surprising to see him bail when Dom probably needs him more than ever, but he’s seeing first-hand how self-centred Dom can be, and maybe he wants to give him a wide berth to avoid regressing himself. Maybe this is progress.

Weirdly, I couldn’t help but think back to Dom giving his ex Ethan a load of money to get his career off the ground in the vague hope of keeping their relationship intact. Is Lynn doing the same? Will Dom realise he’s The Ethan in this situation and pull himself together?

Back at the wedding, Paddy is in the bathroom, doing that thing people do on telly where they wash their face in a basin, even though they’re wearing a white shirt and a bow tie so the water will go all over him. A tipsy Kevin comes in, having ditched Jon somewhere because he’s really drunk and annoying. They make small talk – Paddy stifled, exhausted, feeling that complete lack of ease you feel when you’re in a tuxedo, Kevin with his tie loosened, his jacket off, sitting on the counter, giggling. And they kiss.

Paddy doesn’t get much of a say in it – Kevin just kind of lunges at him, but Paddy gives him the briefest push away, and it’s enough for Kevin to scarper. As anyone who has ever been in the bathroom at a wedding will know, it’s not the kind of place for a quick snog, even if it is Russell Tovey pushing you up against the Dyson Airblade.

Paddy’s restraint at brushing Kevin off echoes the inner strength he showed in episode four. Is it because Kevin’s his boss, because Kevin’s with Jon, or because he’s still out to prove to Richie that what they have means something? Whatever the reason, it’s an admirable amount of progress in an episode that had most characters largely walking backwards.

Thoughts On The Episode.

Paddy’s mum was brilliantly stoic in scenes with Paddy, not apologising for her influence on her son, but not oblivious to it, either. “If Richie’s not here today, it’s all on you, sweetie,” she said to him, eating a hash cookie.

“Do you want one of these?” Paddy’s dad asked him, after admitting the wedding cost him $40,000. That people were getting married wasn’t a central construct of the episode, but the title, ‘Looking For +1’, touched on the core issue, which was to do with relationships and mutual support. Dom doesn’t think he needs one, Frank doesn’t realise he had one, Paddy thought he had one, but didn’t. An episode that tried to tackle gay marriage itself would have felt a bit ham-fisted, so this was a nice, clean way to address that.

Why is Dom lashing out exactly? Is it because he’s usually the older, wiser, smarter guy in his relationships? Having been through his fair share of young guys it’s good to see Dom struggle to be the inexperienced guy with Lynn.

Next Week:

It’s the season one finale. Dom’s restaurant opening is in need of help, Paddy tries to smooth things over with Richie and Kevin, and Agustin takes some drugs, because apparently we need to watch him be a bit terrible for a little longer. See you next week!

> ‘Looking’: Episode 6 in-depth recap
> ‘Looking’: Episode 5 in-depth recap
> ‘Looking’: Episode 4 in-depth recap
> ‘Looking’: Episode 3 in-depth recap
> ‘Looking’: Episode 2 in-depth recap
> ‘Looking’: Episode 1 in-depth recap