Fresh off of last week's hilarious episode, "Whiz Kid," the Entourage team delivers another grade-A installment as the series winds to a close. There's a lot to cover, including standoff-ish journalists, the return of Dice, Taylor Lautner meetings that Taylor Lautner doesn't show up to, and conniving stepmoms, so let's get started.
Has Vince met his match?
The humanization of Vince (Adrian Grenier) continues, but, this week, no fake genitalia are involved in making him interesting. He's sitting down for his first post-rehab interview with Vanity Fair, and after a year of porn stars, fights and cocaine (plus downers, "Or was it uppers?") Vinny has some serious image-rebuilding to do. With the drug test behind him, Vince is back to his easy-going self and the fact that the journalist is a hot blonde should make this a layup for him, right?
Not so fast. Despite showing up in a hooker trench coat, Sophia Lear (Alice Eve), intrepid reporter, doesn't get all weak in the knees for Vinny like the rest of Hollywood's female population. Vince tries to dodge all of her serious questions, including an inquiry about his absentee father; there's some classic Chase flirtation, but not only does Sophia resist his charms, she ends the interview abruptly after it gets tiresome. Vince calls her to apologize and beg for a second chance talk, during which he gets refreshingly introspective.
Has Vince even mentioned his father before? Adrian Grenier made an HBO documentary, Shot In The Dark, about reconnecting with his own estranged father. Is art about to imitate life? It wouldn't surprise us—this has easily been the show's most serious season ever. While we're predicting things, we wouldn't be surprised if Vince tries to see more of Sophia, too. He's stunned when she shoots down his thinly veiled offer for drinks, but we're willing to bet hearing the word "no" for the first time in years is only going to make Vinny want this chick even more. Vince closing the series with a woman who occasionally G-checks him sounds like a fun ending to us.
Melinda Clarke courts E.
The always welcome Melinda Clarke makes her return this week, under the pretense of courting Eric to become her new manager, post-break-up with Terrence—you know, Sloan's (Emmanuelle Chriqui) dad. A couple of loose family connections shouldn't interfere with business, right? Not when the episode's called "Motherfucker." It could be worse for E, it's not like Clarke's her real mother, but Sloan is definitely going to be pissed when she finds out.
Mrs. Ari delivers the deathblow.
Leave it to Taylor Lautner to ruin Ari's (Jeremy Piven) family day, put him in a room with Dana Gordon (Constance Zimmer), who's still salty from last week's disaster at Flay's, and have his kids meet her, too. The very mention of Dana's name still makes Mrs. Ari (Perrey Reeves) sprout horns, and it seems she's been conditioning the kids to join in on the hate. Classy. The script-reading meeting that Lautner doesn't even show up to only succeeds in making things between Ari and Dana even more awkward and hostile. Mrs. Ari unfairly uses the failed Disneyland trip to accuse Ari that he hasn't changed and never will.
We're going to have to learn her real name soon because she isn't going to be "Mrs. Ari" for much longer. Just when we think we've seen the hero agent at his lowest, he sinks even lower. His desparation to get his family back is palpable ("Daddy's got 5% body fat. Tell mommy daddy's been working out."), but the harder he tries the uglier things get. The man who once had it all is now drunkenly trashing his hotel room and screaming at people on the street. Dana shares this loneliness, and, unexpectedly, she's now the only beacon of hope for Ari's desired happy ending.
Drama takes a huge risk for Dice.
As it turns out, Jamie Kennedyis not playing himself, but, rather, a no-name actor the network hired for dirt cheap to replace Andrew Dice Clay. But either way, he sucks, leading Drama to seek out Dice once again. Drama is selflessly willing to pay Dice the difference in salaries if he'll come back to the show, but the ever-stubborn Dice still refuses; he wants the studio's money, not Drama's.
When Drama goes to Phil, Phil stokes his ego by saying that the network isn't even that concerned with the ensemble because they think Johnny will emerge as the true star, words that prompt Drama to walk in solidarity with Dice. Was Phil lying? We're not sure, but this could backfire, badly. In related news, it seems Billy (Rhys Coiro) has taken to rocking Champion hoodies on his 8 Mile steez.
Turtle's got a dirty iPad app.
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Turtle's relegated to sidekick this episode, but we do love it when Shauna uses him as a punching bag. Vince gives Turtle's baked clams restaurant a few plugs so that storyline is still alive and waiting, and it's always nice to see Arnold the dog still rolling with the homies after all this time (after first appearing in the 2004 pilot episode). Also, halfway through, Turtle plays with a seedy app that lets you put a real woman's face on a computerized body, complete with re-sizable fake boobs. You can bet that was the most searched app in real-life last night.
"Motherfucker" was another strong episode that leaves us more confident about the impending series finale than the season's first few episodes did. In keeping with this year's theme of exploring introspective, sometimes dark storylines, half of the cast opened up and exposed more of their vulnerability than usual. Plus, we finally know what Sloan does for a living: planning parties for charities! The end is near, folks.
Best Lines Of The Night
"He [Dice] told me his foreskin was more supportive." - Eric
"She got signed and I got sucked." - Scott, on landing the third ballerina from the left in Black Swan
