Few episodes of Love have worked as well to illustrates the show’s central conceit as “Housesitting.” The romanticized idea of the wild girl getting together with the sweet, staid guy is entirely picked apart in this episode, which was started in full force in “Marty Dobbs.” But instead of ending with a sweet bonding moment of the couple flipping off airplanes, “Housesitting” ends with bitter reality. The first season dealt with how that reality pervaded the courting process, while the second season has, appropriately enough, looked at that bitter reality after the happily ever after kiss. At this point, I can confidently deduce that I enjoy the latter exploration to the former. The stakes are higher, deeper than they were before. I have seen how Gus and Mickey can be successful, how they can work, and I’m more invested in the outcome, even that outcome should be that they are ultimately not together.
Gus is housesitting at a friend’s gorgeous mansion — for real, this plus Big Little Lies is some major real estate porn — and invites Mickey along, partially so they can play house and partially so they can watch Gus’ big episode of Wichita, and mingle their friends together. Because we’ve spent so much time in the minutia of their relationship, and because it’s been split over two seasons, I’m always sort of shocked when Gus mentions how little time they’ve actually spent together, like he does in “Shrooms.” They’ve only been together a month, and yet it seems like so much longer. When Gus casually mentions the length of his relationship with Mickey, the idea of spending a weekend away together becomes that much more daunting. They might spend the day together regularly, but there’s still escape, there’s still a place to go. But, here, that’s not case.
The episode continues Gus and Mickey’s relationship success, even if that romance involves sitting by a pool and popping bacne. But soon Mickey starts doing Mickey — she starts rifling through the owners’ things and ignores the dogs until they poop on the floor — while Gus starts to nitpick. Isn’t Mickey smoking more than normal? But those are relatively small issues in the grand scheme of a relationship; they can generally be overcome. But it’s the conversation about trophy wives that really spell the great rift in their romantic ideologies. Gus believes that beautiful younger women marry older, gnarled men for some iota of love, while Mickey only see the pragmatic benefit. “I’d rather see the pictures of the wedding night. Choking down that dick? Jesus lord, she earned every cent,” Mickey says about Jerry Hall. Whether Jerry Hall enjoys choking down Rupert Murdoch’s dick or not is where they differ the most. Scratch that, this exchange is where they differ the most:
Gus: If Rupert Murdoch didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be The Simpsons.