Has anyone else noticed that Nick Kroll has been rather absent in The League over the last few weeks? His role seems to be, at this point, to show up, drop a couple of zingers and vanish. Looking at his iMDb page, it makes some sense considering the films he’s involved with, but…what can I say? I miss the little guy.
Thankfully everyone else in the cast gets a moment to shine in this episode, one of the funniest of the season. Kevin gets to go on his strange quest to find out where his Hispanic gardeners go to the bathroom during the day. And Andre has his struggles to control his fantasy football lineup with his lady friend Meegan, while also trying to pull off wearing a kilt. Neither are easy tasks.
In line with the title of the episode, this week really belonged to Pete and Taco, with the latter trying to help train the former for a beer mile—a mile-long run where you stop every ¼ mile and chug a beer. One thing that this show has done so well from the start is to find ways to pair off the various members of the ensemble and let the sparks fly (and find ways to put Katie Aselton in some state of undress).
I don’t know that I’ve seen Mark Duplass and Jon LaJoie get that much time with just the two of them on camera, but it works. Taco is the perfect mellow kind of crazy that bounces well off of Pete’s somewhat stodgy and often easily pushed over personality. They also managed to work in a great training montage that includes a stop to have a heart-to-heart with a bunch of winos and a little bit of vomit. No matter what happens, this show will always love its bodily fluids.
Speaking of which, the whole beer mile insanity gives a small chance for Duplass to act even more foolish than he often does on this show, with Pete desperately trying to get into Kevin’s house and unload his bowels. Naturally, he opts for the bushes outside the home and gets attacked by one of the gardeners who was accused of doing the same. A beautiful little callback to where the episode started and a way to catch Duplass on camera blissfully intoning “Yobogoya” as a way to remind us of Kevin’s own lower GI terrors of the past.
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned throughout this run of write-ups, it’s just fun to see the creators and actors on this show having a blast on the way out the door. They’re throwing every last silly idea in their heads at these final bunch of episodes. It’s like Jackie and Jeff Schaffer and everyone involved are letting out one last big yobogoya before moving on to new projects. Long may it run.
Robert Ham is a Portland-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.