To be honest, I think this was one of the first episodes of Entourage that was actually sad. I felt bad for both Ari and Drama. Drama just has no luck. He finally gets excited about the possibility of working with Billy Walsh but is ultimately letdown and humiliated when Billy shares his idea with him. I know Billy meant well but Drama was seriously offended and hurt. Ari also had a bit of a tough time this episode. While it may be true that he said all those things that were leaked onto Deadline Hollywood, but he just seemed so torn apart when he read about it and I couldn’t help but to feel bad.
This week’s episode, the aptly titled ‘Tequila and Coke’, was a bit of a downer. In Vince land, the fame and fortune seem to be catching up to him and his ‘laid-back’ ‘not a care in the world’ attitude is causing some serious problems. As the episode begins we see Vince partying it up with Sasha. Tequila, cocaine and drinking are all part of Vinnie’s night and considering he has a meeting with Randall Wallace (the director of his new film Airwalkers) the next morning, I don’t think partying is the best idea for Vince. He’s already on thin ice because of the last meeting and this time he has to be on his best behaviour to impress Wallace.
Of course Vince shows up to the meeting and screws it up. Wallace accuses Vince of being on coke and although we didn’t see Vince take cocaine before the meeting, it wouldn’t be hard to believe. Throughout the entire meeting Vinnie was shaking and twitching and on edge. He was obviously on something. Of course this doesn’t sit well Wallace and he rats Vinnie out to the studio. Ari and E hear about this and do their usual thing. Ari flips out at E and in return E flips out at Vince. Vince tells a bold face lie to E, stating that he’s never done coke and tells E to handle it.
Vince has fallen off the rails. The once ambitious, career driven, motivated and hard working Vince has gone through a complete transformation. I’m betting his Airwalker deal will fall through and that may be the thing that triggers him to wake up and get his life back on track.
As stated before, things with Drama aren’t going too well. Billy Walsh presents his idea to Drama and it turns out he wants Drama to do a cartoon, where Drama will be playing a monkey. Billy loves the idea and E is intrigued. Even Scotty thinks it’s a good idea. Drama is furious though. He thinks they’re making fun of him and mocking him and he storms out in a rage. The guy just can’t catch a break. I’d love to see him just get one break. Maybe land a supporting role in a big movie. It’s not fun seeing him fail over and over again.
E once again doesn’t do a whole lot this episode. Yet again he’s pretty much separated from the boys and spending all his time with Sloan or at the office. He hardly ever hangs out with Vince anymore. E sits in on Billy and Drama’s meeting and actually likes the idea for Billy’s show. He doesn’t do much to sell Drama on the idea though. He is also failing in his job as Vince’s manager. Vince obviously hasn’t grown up and he still needs someone to check in on him.
Turtle is still going strong with the Tequila business. The tequila is doing very well. Turtle gives 25 cases to a local alcohol store and uses Vince’s Twitter to promote it. People end up lining up for the Tequila and it is selling like crazy. When the store requests more bottles Turtle has to end up taking some back from Mark Wahlberg, who isn’t too pleased about it. Turtle finds himself in a little trouble though when the big boss from Mexico calls and tells Turtle that he doesn’t want him being his salesperson and he’s somewhat overstepping his bounds.
Ari is probably the worst off this episode despite things start off well. Lizzie leaves Amanda and tells Ari everything that has gone on so far is because of Amanda. Lizzie and Ari have a talk and she agrees to give him back the tapes. Ari thinks he has won. He’s elated, he thinks he’s surely in the clear. With the tapes in hand he feels unstoppable, that is until he pulls up Deadline Hollywood. Someone has leaked the content of the tapes (most likely Amanda) and Ari’s world comes crashing down on him.
When Ari reads the article he’s crushed. I’ve never seen Ari look that sad. He had tears in his eyes and you could see he was absolutely torn apart. Jerry Jones calls right away to tell him the NFL deal is off which puts Ari into an even further slump. Also on the phone for Ari is his wife along with several other people wanting to talk to him about the article.
Sure Ari’s a jerk sometimes but he doesn’t deserve this. His family is going to have a hard time dealing with it and his reputation is now ruined. It’s hard and actually almost impossible to recover from a bad reputation. I think this may be the downfall of Ari.
I think the whole thing with Lizzy changing her mind was a bit forced. For the past few episodes she’s been so hell-bent on ruining Ari’s career and now she’s all of the sudden handing over the tapes? It feels a bit far fetched.
Although it was a bit of a downer, it wasn’t a bad episode. There were a ton of cameos except a few felt forced and unnecessary (like the Chris Bosh one). and although a few things that occurred were somewhat predictable, it was still a strong episode. So far I’m enjoying this season more than the last one. With only five episodes left, things are going to start wrapping up and I’m excited to see how it’s going to end.
