FX Emmy darling Louie will again come to a close tonight with Season 5 finale “The Road Part 2,” a notably shorter eight-episode run than some of its predecessors. Many assumed the truncated order owed to comedian Louis C.K.’s grueling schedule and past hiatus requirements, but nope! He was just high. Allow us to explain.

During a wide-ranging Emmy consideration panel with C.K. and co-producer/star Pamela Adlon, the revered comedian expounded on a number of topics from the eight-episode season, among them its shortened length. Apparently, C.K. had hoped to delay Season 5 in order to shoot in the fall (rather than New York’s harsher winters of late), but changed his mind at the last minute.

Speaking to HitFix moderator Alan Sepinwall, C.K. revealed that the night before FX boss John Landgraf was to make the announcement of Louie’s fifth season, the comedian had smoked enough marijuana to bring about a flurry of new episode ideas he was eager to start. C.K. took his case to Landgraf, though the FX boss had already allocated Louie funds to other shows of the network’s lineup, and could only proceed with Season 5 on schedule for eight episodes total.

The kicker? After Landgraf agreed to the shortened Season 5, C.K. apparently revisited all his marijuana-generated ideas, found not a single one usable, and abandoned them all before production.

There’s a lot to take in at the above link, including discussions of some of Season 5’s standout episodes, origins for the nightmare-fueled “Untitled” and Michael Rapaport’s “Cop Story,” and even a few anecdotes from the Lucky Louie days at HBO. In the meantime, has Season 5 proved memorable enough to justify the shortened run? We’ll find out by tonight’s finale.

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