‘Looking’: Episode 4 in-depth recap

This week Looking comes with a generous dusting of talc, as San Francisco hosts the Folsom Street Fair, a real life thing where everyone wears leather and gets pissed in the street.

Episode four is probably Looking‘s most coherent so far: sharp, clever, with heaps of character development. And it does an excellent job of tying together storylines from the previous episodes while moving forward at a refreshingly quick pace. The chemistry between Paddy and Kevin is bubbling, slowly, while having Paddy, Agustin and Doris bouncing one-liners off each other provides the clever, catty humour that’s winning the show fans.

After getting off on the wrong foot with Kevin last week, Paddy has managed to build a steady rapport with his new boss, mainly involving their head-tilted bewilderment at the more colourful elements in San Francisco’s community. They both watch the Folsom Street Fair from a vantage point in the office, peering over the window ledge at the guys in assless chaps and laughing at the bizarre absurdity of it all. “It sounds like somewhere you’d get vegetables and cake,” Kevin muses.

Seeing him fire off one-liners to Kevin’s amusement, Paddy’s character finally starts to make sense. Like the party last week where he was captivating crowds with his witty observations, it’s obvious that when he’s in control, Paddy can be a clever, confident, sexy guy. And acting opposite Russell Tovey, Jonathan Groff is sublime; both men communicating more in what they don’t say than in what they do. There’s a slow-burning tension between them, and when Kevin says, “You have to find someone who understands what you do,” Paddy understands, and it lingers in the atmosphere for a moment.

Kevin’s long-distance boyfriend is in San Fran for a job interview, and after a slight mix-up, Kevin has to leave the office to pick him up, leaving Paddy alone in the office, on a Sunday, working to meet a difficult deadline. When Kevin rushes out his office after a heated argument, it’s hard to tell what Paddy’s happiest about – being on-hand to assist his boss in his hour of need, or being able to hear his relationship is suffering.

Paddy meets Agustin, Doris and their friend Hugo at the fair on his lunch-break, and Agustin is on hand to dole out some of his typically harsh-but-true advice, although it’s hard to take him seriously adorned in his squeakiest leather wearing a giant padlock around his neck .

“All you do is compromise,” he tells Paddy. “You’re having a fantasy relationship with your boss. And the real fucked up thing is you flirt with him and he goes home to his boyfriend.”

He’s kind of right, but Paddy can see how hypocritical this is, as Agustin is busy trying to find CJ the man-whore, whom he met last week. Agustin is determined to rope CJ into his new ‘art project’, which will document what CJ does for a living. It sounds like a very flimsy premise for what Agustin actually wants, something Paddy is acutely aware of, but seems happy to keep to himself.

If Paddy is having a fantasy relationship, what do you call Agustin and CJ’s situation? Speaking to Agustin at the fair, CJ’s eyes are completely open to what this ‘art project’ entails, and he calls Agustin out on it right there. “Do you just want to fuck me?” he asks, reminding Agustin of his $220 an hour rate, which he charges for his services, whether they include a hand job or a wanky art project.

Agustin is so smitten with CJ that he eats some of his bratwurst (no jokes at the back, please) – even though he’s vegetarian. Paddy’s shock and subsequent “you can’t do that, that isn’t how it works” is perfectly-timed and brilliantly neurotic, but he has the last laugh, as Agustin’s stomach doesn’t agree with the sudden intake of meat (I said no jokes!) and he has to run off to the loo.

They go to Paddy’s office, since the queue at the loos are massive, and they talk more about who is kidding who here. I’m siding with Paddy – his infatuation with Kevin is kind of understandable and also pretty innocent, since all they do is chat at work and there’s no heavy innuendo. Agustin, on the other hand, is trying to justify spending $220 on a rent boy when he didn’t even have money for lunch earlier.

When Kevin comes back to the office, Paddy’s friends leave, and the two of them continue to work on their project, designing nipples for one of the male characters in the game. They talk about how good it is having each other around, since gay guys appreciate the nipple size on a male character more than straight colleagues.

But as the night draws in, and it starts to get late, topic soon turns to dinner. Kevin asks if they can get some take-away food. “Can we get fried chicken? I’m not allowed it usually, Jon refuses, flat out,” he says, kind of pathetically.

It’s the kind of neediness that Paddy completely understands, and yet, with an admirable amount of pragmatism, Paddy points out that they’re not going to be ready for this presentation by tomorrow. Kevin reluctantly agrees, and says they can reschedule it. Paddy then points out that, if they’re not going to present tomorrow, they don’t need to spend their Sunday in the office. Kevin reluctantly agrees. Paddy gets his stuff and goes to join his friends.

When you have feelings for someone who is in a relationship, it becomes second nature to take what chipped-off fragments you can get your hands on. And here you can see Paddy put all the little pieces together in his head.

You can see him realise that he’s settled into some kind of satisfyingly platonic relationship with Kevin and that he deserves better. On the one hand, it’s weird, because Jonathan Groff has played Paddy as someone desperate to conform to everyone else’s standards, yet he shows an admirable and exciting level of maturity in knocking Kevin’s KFC-heavy night of work on the head to go and hang out with his friends. More so, Kevin looks pretty hurt by it.

But, amid all the leather, sausage-eating, video-game nipple designing and sideway glances, what has Dom been up to this week? Well after meeting Lynn in a steam room, Dom heads to his flower shop to take him out to lunch, just like he promised before he fucked that guy with the weird eyes.

Over lunch, they chat about their businesses and backgrounds. Dom makes a fleeting reference to his dad’s restaurant, (which he took over, and subsequently ran into the ground, at the age of 17 when his old man became ill, which is just heartbreaking). As he grills Lynn over securing a business loan, however, Lynn looks a little put-off, hurt that Dom’s bringing this up when he thought it was a date.

Just like their chat in the steam room last week, which Dom cut short to go and have sex, here it’s difficult to figure out quite what each of them want. Dom likes Lynn, but is he just enjoying the company of an older, successful gay man? And is he attracted to that success? In the first episode of Looking Dom seemed equally as stifled by his career as his love life, and it’s hard figuring out, four episodes in, which of those things he’s pursuing here.

Lynn, on the other hand, seemed to be attracted to Dom more than the man’s revolutionary peri peri business (honestly, hearing Nandos-ignorant Americans speak so sceptically about peri peri chicken won’t get old), but after the brush off, Lynn starts keeping his cards closer to his chest, and it’s really hard to figure out exactly what he’s thinking, even after Dom’s heavier flirting on the walk back. Lynn is such a rich, complex character, and Scott Bakula plays his emotionally intelligent, savvy side brilliantly. I think he likes Dom, but he’s too experienced at the dating game to just play into the hands of someone who is acting so selfishly.

Paddy, meanwhile, heads to the club to meet Agustin and the gang. Agustin is busy telling Frank about CJ being on board with their slightly pervy project. “How did you get him to agree to it?” Frank asks excitedly. “He’s just… really into it,” Agustin lies. Ha. I can’t wait to see this all fall apart.

Then, Paddy sees Richie at the bar and, bolstered by walking out on Kevin, strides over to him. He apologises for being weird, for freaking Richie out (apparently he’s been ignoring Paddy’s texts) – and, with previously unseen determination, it’s not long before Paddy’s leaning in for a kiss. Atta boy.

Thoughts on the episode:

Halfway into the series, I really like where Looking is going. It has, admittedly, taken a long time to get here, but in slowing the pace of things down, every little thing – whether it’s a fleeting glance or a change in expression – carries a bit more significance.

Paddy’s reluctance to wear leather to Folsom was a bit weird. As the main character it’s easy to make Paddy the eyebrow-raising sceptic to everything around him, but this fair is an annual event, so surely it hasn’t been the first time he’s gone?

It was a shame Dom was separate from the group this week, but there was plenty of drunk Doris, so that helps.

Next week:

Paddy and Richie bunk off work and spend the day getting to know each other a bit better, which results in some pretty frank insights into both of them. Oh, and you’ll see Jonathan Groff’s bum for a second or two, so that’s worth tuning into. See you next week!

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