In getting our full Instagram-filtered view of gay San Francisco, the debut season of Looking would not be complete without somebody having a birthday picnic in Dolores Park. Also, it wouldn't be complete without somebody judging somebody else's boyfriend. The only thing missing from this trip to Dolores Park is a pile of empty wine bottles and PBRs, and actual drunk people.
Episode Six opens with Patrick preparing Richie to meet all his friends at Dom's 40th birthday, which is being planned on a weekend afternoon in Dolo Park. Patrick slips and refers to Richie as his boyfriend in a particularly awkward sequence, because at this point we're pretty tired of Patrick and his verbal diarrhea. How many slip-ups can we forgive before we just decide that this is a convenient tool for the writers in making up more awkward conflicts for the character. Anyway, Richie obviously wants to be his boyfriend and makes a joke about scoring a WASP, and they go on with their dinner. Oh! But we also learn something we should have known but had not been told before: Patrick and Dom hooked up once, "eons ago." And you can bet that Patrick wasn't the top back then.
We go on to see Agustin still being a whiny bitch about his art and how "nothing is working," and Frank is a very patient boyfriend through it all.
Dom, meanwhile, spends his birthday eve with Lynn at a dinner party with a couple of wealthy older queens they are trying to get on board with Dom's peri-peri chicken restaurant idea. The older guys refer to someone named "Mama Jose" who sounds like it could be Jose Sarria, but then they say she owned restaurants so, it's clearly a fictionalization. These prospective investors end up not being super enthusiastic about the chicken idea at first, but Lynn suggests to Dom that they maybe consider doing a pop-up and inviting them, and all the other wealthy gays he knows. But then there's the sexual tension between these two, which I'll get to in a second. I have to hand it to Lynn for having one of the better lines this episode, countering all of Dom's drama about turning 40. "On my 40th birthday we did mushrooms in a canoe on the Russian River," he says. "Maybe you're self-issuing your own death certificate a little prematurely."
The gang all converges in Dolores Park the next day, and of course Doris once again has the best line, talking to Dom on their way there on a Muni bus, referring to his night with Lynn. "Did he impregnate you? Because you're glowing like a pregnant lady."
Patrick introduces Richie as his boyfriend, and this comes as a shock to people. Agustin is immediately kind of snotty to him and they exchange some barbs in Spanish. Most importantly, there's a cameo by Chester Copperpots himself, Trevor the pot truffle guy, and you might not know what the hell Augustin is buying seven of unless you're from San Francisco because they never say and no one gets visibly, incapacitatingly stoned, as they would if they ate a whole one. Long story short, Agustin ends up pulling Patrick aside and telling him he's obviously just slumming it and he's not being honest with himself or Richie about what he wants Richie overhears this and we get some Latin-on-Latin drama. We then get a chance encounter with Patrick's hot big-eared gay boss Kevin who introduces his impossibly hot, strapping boyfriend from Seattle who does sports medicine and is therefore that much hotter, so now we know why Patrick has no chance with him. (And did anyone catch the blurred shot of Doris making out with someone in the background in a beach chair, probably that Hugo guy from the Folsom episode?)
Patrick stands by his man and dismisses Agustin's asshole behavior, and then we see Agustin introduce tension into his relationship by way of C.J. the hooker, who'd we met earlier. He's been "working with" C.J. on some kind of "art project," but because he's hot, and they're gay, and Agustin is paying him, this was obviously all going to lead to sex from the start. Frank and C.J. bond over their love of Cheetos. The trouble now is, after bringing C.J. back to Oakland for a threeway, Agustin is faced with the possibility that Frank might have more chemistry with him. Isn't that always the way with the threeways?
Dom circles back to Lynn after the birthday day-drinking, even though he got cruised by a hot young guy with a bicycle, basically taking Doris's advice and going for someone more age-appropriate. But when he leans in for a kiss with Lynn, after Lynn offers to bankroll his pop-up, Lynn pushes back and says, "We're friends, okay?" being the mature one and saying they should probably keep things professional if they're going to be in business together.
With just two more episodes left, we're seeing where each of our three characters' albeit short story arcs are headed. It seems highly likely that Richie will break things off with Patrick because how else would they leave room for a second season? Patrick's got to be single for the show to still work. Agustin might lose his boyfriend to a hooker, or maybe this little threeway dalliance will only make them stronger. And Dom is obviously going to be a successful chicken-slinger if and when this show gets a second season. According to this new interview with actor Murray Bartlett in BUTT magazine, we should all be finding out the show's fate very soon.
