Vince and the crew are watching Carl Ertz’ body get carted into an ambulance as we begin the fourth episode of the final season of Entourage. After the dramatic end to last week’s entry, Vince understands that there may be some consequences to his being at the home of a dead drug addict.
We first see Ari this week with his new flame, Dana Gordon, getting along famously and ignoring work in the process. When they finally get to their phones, they finally hear the Ertz news and scramble to cover the fallout.
Vince makes his way through the paparazzi and into the sheriff’s department where he goes for questioning. His worst fears are realized when it is made known that his parole officer will be requesting a drug test.
The reason for his apprehension, which he first confides in with E, is that he smoked a joint a week ago to prove that he can do it without reverting back to his addictive ways. Knowing that he is most likely going to get nabbed on the test, him and the boys try to figure out a way for him to get through this predicament.
Ari is continuing with couples therapy and things are similar to previous seasons angry and dysfunctional. When Ari mentions that he has found someone special, the session goes from bad to worse and Mrs. Gold storms out.
Taking home drug tests and attempting to take every precaution necessary to pass his screening, Vince finally hears that the official test will be happening that night. Due to the short time window he has, Vince takes drastic measures.
Leaving the house to go for a ride, Vince makes the logical choice to seek the wisdom of everyone’s favorite rehabbed addict, Billy Walsh. The former director makes the wonderful suggestion of using a Whizzinator in lieu of the real thing.
Fresh off his terrible therapy session, Ari asks Dana to dinner at Bobby Flay’s resataurant, without even thinking about the hundred things that could go wrong because of this. Consequently, Dana figures out his ulterior motives and becomes the second woman to storm away from Ari this episode.
After going through with his “transformation,” Vince is starting to have second thoughts about the path he chose for the test, and again confides in E, who persuasively tells him that he should refrain from using his apparatus. Vince considers his advice but as the audience, we’re left in the dark as to what Vince decides to do.
The boys along with Ari, Walsh and Scott wait for the results. Vince gets the call and to his surprise, he passed. It’s at this point that we also realize that the only reason he did pass was that he followed through with his original plan and used the Whizzinator.
Surprisingly, this has been the best episode of the season so far, with a nice mix of laughs and suspense. Vince yet again makes a good decision and does not listen to E, which saves him from failing a drug test.
Seriously, E may have the worst instinct in the world, becuause almost every big decision he has convinced Vince to make has been terrible (i.e. Medellin, Smoke Jumpers etc.) If we learned anything from this episode, it’s not to listen to E, and do everything necessary to pass a drug test. Very wise.
Ari’s never failing ability to shoot himself in the foot is continuing to be relatively entertaining, and I am happy we finally got to see the Iron Chef in this episode, despite it being a brief appearance.
On a side note, another first was achieved in this season with Vince showing “full frontal” in a strangely funny scene with E. We also end the episode with the most awkward game of hot potato ever, with Scott hilariously forgetting the rules.
All in all, this episode kept my interest throughout and brought back some of the classic writing that I love for the first time this season. It seems like the show is going to break out of the emotional and dramatic story arcs that we have been inundated with for the first few episodes of the season and I think this was a real turning point. Looks like season eight may not be so bad afterall.
