I suppose I can’t have my cake and eat it to.
Some four weeks ago, I pronounced the E/Sloan story arc dead and buried. At this same time, I chastised the writers for beating us over the head with E’s new squeeze Ashley. I guess if I absolutely had to choose one to deal with, I’d rather it be old lovers rekindling a flame and E getting an actually substantial job out from under the Vincent Chase umbrella.
It all came to a head last night as E committed some lies of omission when talking to Ashley about his relationship with Sloan. Alexis Dziena, who plays Ashley, actually impressed me in the scenes where she was playing pissed off, particularly in the final scene of the night in her doorway. I’m overwhelmed by the irony of this.
But, basically, we’re moving E in a good direction I think. This agency he’s with now seems to be pretty legitimate. I mean, if it’s good enough for Steve Nash, how can it go wrong? Anyone care to posit a guess as to when E and Sloan are back to being exclusive? I’d say two weeks.
Also finding some closure was Ari, still relegated to the couch after covering for Andrew to Mrs. Ari. After laying it all on the line for her, Ari was forgiven and everything seemed to be on the up-and-up. That is, until Andrew’s wife (played by the lovely Jamie Gertz, who absolutely killed it last night) stormed into the Miller Gold Agency and proceeded to raise holy hell, demanding to see “the whore who is fucking my piece of shit husband.” She also garnered line of the night awards when she told Ari: “I’ve seen about 12 candidates already! What kind of whorehouse are you running here?!” Ari swore he’d take care of it.
His idea of taking care of it was to call both Lizzy and Andrew into his office and kick them both to the curb. You have to love seeing Ari completely fed up and flexing his muscle. The termination was short-lived though, as Lizzy insisted that she had ended the tryst and was working hard signing clients, like certain former Full House cast members. I really liked what The O.C. alum Autumn Reeser was giving in these scenes. Mixed in among Ari’s traditional sexist and bull-headed remarks was here subtly standing up to him, insisting that she did not appreciate being talked to in that manner. She eventually returned to her desk, but I’m wondering if the seeds have been planted for a power struggle story arc down the road.
But, my friends, I have saved the best for last. The episode opened with the much-ballyhooed Drama-Jamie Lynn kiss scene on Five Towns. The usual insults were hurled around, but eventually all the parties were pros about it and Turtle left for his first day in business school.
In his absence, the show’s sleezeball producer proceeded to make not so subtle advances on Turtle’s girl, much to the ire of Drama. This was, far and away, the best development on the show last night. Drama and Turtle began the episode hurling at insults at one another about the Jamie-Lynn kiss, but as soon as Drama sensed his boy was getting set up for heartbreak he manned up.
Boy, did he ever man up. Drama could not concentrate on his work and in a moment that was both hilarious and triumphant, he ran straight off the set, threw a P.A. off a golf cart and went straight to Coakley’s office to get the low down. It was revealed that he had not slept with Jamie, but had every intention of doing so. Drama was displeased. He GRABBED HIS BOSS BY THE THROAT AND SHOVED HIM AGAINST A WALL. I don’t usually care to type in caps, but I think in this case it’s warranted. If you are a fan of this show and you were not completely blown away by that, you probably should just bail now, because that is vintage Entourage.
The glory was short-lived, however, as Drama realized that what he was doing was completely and totally stupid as far as his career was concerned. If Drama does end up getting fired from the show, it will be nice to know that he did so for a noble and badass cause, as opposed to a self-sabotaging meltdown as in seasons past.
Another issue that occured to me last night was that the writers really are completely content to just let Vince hang around doing nothing of consequence while his boys do all the heavy lifting. It’s long been proposed that the show works best this way, and it seems to be panning out that way. His bone-session with that college chick was fun enough I guess, and maybe that tape will end up on the internet, but is that really all we’re going to be getting this season from a Vince standpoint? I suppose you can’t blame the powers that be, since last season was easily the most critically panned in the show’s history and was almost completely centered around Vince’s attempt at a career revival. Still, I would hope that they would try to find something else for him to do instead of just effectively punting on him, creatively.
So, that’s it. Were you on your feet cheering wen Drama basically committed career suicide defending Turtle’s honor? Where do you stand on the Sloan/Ashley debate? Are you fine watching Vince wander aimlessly through Entourage‘s sixth season? Sound off in the comments below or shoot me an email.
Stay classy, y’all.
