'Partners' Season 1, Episode 3: 'The Jeter Exception' Recap

At Joe’s apartment, Louis is getting rid of Joe’s clothes so that Ali can move in. He becomes captivated by one of Ali’s boxes, labeled 'personal.' He desperately wants to open it, but Joe insists he doesn’t. The moment Louis leaves the apartment, Joe opens the box.

He regrets it, because he confronts Louis later with his findings. It’s a picture of Derek Jeter, and with him, overly-tan Ali at the Hard Rock Hotel pool. He needs to talk to her about it but can’t bring it up because he opened up her personal box. Insert obligatory naughty joke.

Louis comes up with the idea of turning their scheduled dinner party into game night, and playing Celebrity. When Derek Jeter comes up, Ali will mention that she dated him.

During dinner, Louis interrupts Wyatt’s touching story with an overly enthusiastic demand to play Celebrity.

Wyatt hates the game. To Louis it’s a test, and being a Mennonite, he didn’t grow up with television so he doesn’t know anyone. Ali says they’ll play something else, but Joe talks her out of it, so Ali says they’ll make sure that Louis doesn’t get too intense.

During Wyatt’s turn, he can’t find the clues he needs to tell Louis the name, and as Louis gets increasingly frantic, Wyatt blurts “He had hot desert sex with Ali!”

Ali is furious, and kicks them out. Joe blames her for not telling him about her past, but she says if he wants to know, he should just ask her. It was one weekend at Caesar’s Palace… Oops, Hard Rock? Okay make that two weekends…

Joe uncomfortably tells her that he slept with a celebrity also, a local weather girl. So they’re even… only they’re not, because she slept with Derek Jeter.

What annoys Ali more than finding out she slept with “DJ” thrice… oops, yup… is that when Joe found out something about her he immediately went to Louis with it. He says he won’t anymore, and so she wants to get it all out there—she mentions she also had a thing with Justin Timberlake. Twitchily, Joe promises that the personal things can stay between them.

At the home of Louis and Wyatt, Wyatt is mad (although you never can tell), and says Louis puts too much pressure on him, and he doesn’t want to play games anymore. Louis insists that they’re gay, they have to play Celebrity—they’re too young for antiquing. He says that they can have another game night, no pressure.

And he does his best at the next game night, letting Wyatt be on Ali’s team, though he ends up partnered with Joe, and they do pretty well without pressure on Wyatt. Ali and Louis are killing it, but they need one more for the win. Ali says it’s the other celebrity she slept with. Louis pretends he has no idea, but cracks, rather than lose the game, admitting he knows about Timberlake. Ali says she never slept with “JT,” she was testing Joe, and he failed.

Joe apologizes, admits he was wrong. Ali gets it; she can accept that that’s who she is marrying. Joe promises to start keeping things from Louis. Ali doesn’t believe him—she yanks open the shades and Louis and Wyatt are on the balcony, eavesdropping, but the two make up anyway.