Louie tries to get away from his daddy issues (Courtesy FX Networks)

Louie’s relatives have popped up for some pretty memorable episodes over the last three years, and to his credit he’s put up a pretty brave face when it’s come to dealing with them.

When you look at his overbearing mother, a brother who mocks him only to try and live off his fame, a sister with a sailor’s mouth and a racist great-aunt, it’s actually astonishing that Louie is a functioning member of society.

The glaring omission from that group is, of course, Louie’s father, who has only been referred to once—when Louie’s mom decided to come out as a lesbian (you read that right).

So when Louie meets his uncle Ex (who we’ve never met before) over lunch, he receives a good bit of admonishing from his uncle for not talking to his dear old dad in over two years. A recent trip by uncle Ex to Boston to see his brother ended with Louie’s dad in tears, over his son's unability to speak to him.

F. Murray Abraham plays uncle Ex with a delightfully serious demeanor and doesn’t allow Louie to get in word throughout the bit—even going as far as ordering a Cornish game hen for him. There’s nothing Louie can say, but you can tell visiting his father will not be as easy as uncle Ex suggests.

When Louie goes over to play poker with his comedian friends, there’s a great bit when he comes across Jim Norton’s hand-made drawings of a naked woman. Norton defends himself by saying that it’s something he started doing as a kid, but Louie and Sarah Silverman are having none of that, and deride him for continuing to use it to get off as an adult.

Things get pretty weird quickly after that. Louie ends the evening unceremoniously by vomiting over the poker table. Either because of the Cornish game hen or because of the mental anguish of not visiting his dad, he’s developed a rash and sporadic vomiting.

Deciding the issue lies in the latter, he flies to Boston, and starts driving to his dad’s place. During the drive, and clearly still under the weather, his GPS begins wondering aloud, “Why are you being such a little pussy about it?...He’s your father. It’s not like he touched your dick or something.”

After finishing his argument with the GPS, he finally comes across his dad’s house. But the moment he rings the doorbell, he chickens out and rather than face the GPS again, he jumps aboard a Can Am Spyder Motorcycle and drives as far as he possibly can.

When that’s not enough, he gets on a boat and speeds off into the Boston Harbor. Only when he is seemingly in the middle of the ocean, does he sit down and give off a long sigh as the credits start rolling.

We’ve seen “Louie” turn into the “Twilight Zone” before—perhaps not to the extent of tonight’s episode in some time—but it’s always fun when the show blurs the line between reality and fiction, even if it comes at the expense of our hero.

It should be interesting to see if Louie's dad ever pops onto the show because afterall, we still don't know why Louie is afraid to talk to him. But maybe it doens't matter. What matters is that although family comes first, there are limits to that and Louie found that out the hard way tonight.

Sidenotes:

Love the opening with Louie’s daughter, Jane, playing a wonderful piece of music on her violin. Hilariously, Louie yells at her to stop and has to forcibly take her violin away from her because it’s late and she has homework to do. Thanks to IMDB, I learned Ursula Parker, who plays Jane, is a violin prodigy who played at Carnegie Hall at age 8. I’m impressed.

It’s officially impossible to not like Sarah Silverman. Hopefully, we get more of her this season.

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