Louie Ends His Tour Of The Eligible Women Of Manhattan And Also Hungary

"Wait and see," they said. "He's going somewhere with this," they said. "Sure, there were a couple of really rapey episodes, but they're probably just setup for him to get to some kind of profound conclusion about male-female relations and there will be repercussions for his acting that way." Now the season's over, and it turns out none of that was true.

It's an understatement to say that Louie's luck with the ladies has not been superb in Season 4. After the supermodel he permanently maimed after she wouldn't stop tickling him (which pretty much ended the relationship), there was Vanessa, who dared to express romantic interest in him directly and then talk to him frankly when he did finally deign to take her out. Then it was six episodes of Amia and her good-natured muteness, which finally ended as it always had to -- with everyone disappointed and sad. Now the season wraps up with Louie managing to get something together with Pamela, apparently against the better judgment of both people involved, judging by how much both of them have fought it THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH.

As we rejoin Louie and Pamela after that "In The Woods" bullshit last week, he's asking her out on a date. She says she doesn't want to go, but he overrules her and she...lets him? After they get takeout, he wants to have a nighttime picnic in Central Park. She says she doesn't want to go, but he overrules and she...lets him again? Turns out he had a plan: there's a meteor shower, and he wants her to see some shooting stars. And she's thrilled! She doesn't just kiss him, she climbs on top of him! She goes home with him and trades genital pics with him!

Women may say no, but if they will just let themselves be bossed around, they'll realize the men trying to talk them into stuff were right all along is the conclusion one has to reach, I guess? But I don't...like it. "Pamela, Part II" is not as uncomfortable to watch as "Pamela, Part I"; there's definitely more gray area here in Pamela's knee-jerk mean rejection and subsequent acceptance than there was in her strenuous attempts to keep Louie from imposing his romantic will on her physically. And Pamela's way of controlling intimacy (taking photos of her underwear and then, I guess, her vulva, rather than leading by touching Louie) in the first half of the finale sets up her awkwardness in the second -- refusing to reciprocate when he tells her loves her, but more physical stuff too. We also get a parallel scene to an earlier one with Amia, as Louie takes Pamela out to dinner after his set with a bunch of his comic friends; the difference is that (a) Pamela can also break balls just as well as Louie's other friends, whereas Amia sat there in complaisant silence, and (b) when Marc Maron stops by to talk about his TV show and accuses Louie of being a bad friend for not being more supportive, Pamela can actually talk to Louie about what she thinks about the situation and what he should consider doing next. Advantage Pamela, in this area at least. But I don't know what point the show (by which I mean Louis CK) is making about how they got here.

By the time the hour is over, we've seen each of them pout while the other importunes: though I feel like I'm supposed to be happy that it ends with these two damaged weirdos negotiating some kind of arrangement that will work for both of them, for me it's just exhausting to watch. Things with Amia were easy for Louie in at least one respect: she did whatever he wanted, maybe because that was easier for her than grabbing her aunt to translate. Amia probably had her own ideas about Louie's life and how he should lead it, not that we ever knew what they were; Pamela has the luxury of being able to express herself to Louie, which means that sometimes when she's not on board, he has to hear it and respond to it. Except, it feels like the way the season ends is an endorsement of all the times and ways Louie has just bulldozed Pamela when she's very clearly told him what she does or doesn't want. Mostly, Louie's been proceeding as if Pamela's every "no" is soft, or a lie, or a very aggressive, mean approach to flirting. And they end up together, so I guess he's been right all along.

Even if "Pamela, Part I" hadn't ended the way it did, I would have had problems with this season (and, to be honest, I am probably not going to return if there's a Season 5). But when you introduce a scene in your HALF-HOUR SITUATION COMEDY where a man tries to overpower an extremely resistant woman who tells him "You can't even rape well," and then two episodes later they're taking a bath together, an engaged viewer has a right to observe that some issues haven't been thought all the way through. It's not that I'm worried about the example Louis CK is setting for impressionable young men about how they should act with women, though I do think that's been the central question of the whole season -- impressionable young men aren't watching this show; no one is, with the possible exception of every TV critic. It's that Louis CK has been given unprecedented freedom to tell any story he wants, and the fact that he decided the story of Season 4 should be how his character learned to figure out when a woman's "no" doesn't actually mean "no" is such a disappointment.