Entourage Recap: E Makes A Complete Ass Out of Himself

In "Second to Last," a big twist involving Sloan and E sets up what's sure to be a jam-packed finale.

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As the title plainly says, this the penultimate episode of Entourage, and they've pretty much saved all of the plot development for these last episodes, in additon to turning up the bromance that the show is so known for. Kevin "E" Connolly continues this season's trend of the cast pitching in and gets behind the camera for this episode. Let's get into what went down.

Vince out-simps Eric

Over the series, the ups and downs of hopeless romantic E's love life have consistently been the center of the show, and it's always been defined by the fact that he's something of a simp. It's far from a knock, as, qualitatively speaking, dude has more than kept up with Vince (Adrian Grenier) over the eight seasons.

Last night, however, Vince threatened to take the crown in one fell swoop when he MADE A DOCUMENTARY for Sophia (Alice Eve). Seriously, if you needed any confirmation that this crush is "Not Like All The Others" that was it and then some. What's he going to do next week, in not only the season but the series finale? Special Spotify playlist? Run up on the tarmac of her plane to London hoisting a boombox over his head?

Last week, she classified his restaurant confrontation as stalking, so therotetically this week should have had her running for the hills, but two genuine, heartfelt appeals from Drama (Kevin Dilon) and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) give Vince the boost he needed to get Ms. Lear to agree to drinks before her trip. (How cold is this woman? Guy hunts down his exes and gets his Final Cut on, the least you could do is squeeze in dinner.)

In the time-honored tradition of final seasons making references to episodes past, this feels very reminiscent of the end of season one, when a then C-list Vince had E doing everything he could to hunt down Scarlett Johansson's info and he finally came through in the final moments. This year we still have one episode to go; with Vince so caught up you can bet it's going to be the most extravagant drinks date ever.

New life is breathed into the E-Sloan soap opera

See what we did there? Wow. We have to say, we didn't see that coming (until a couple minutes before she actually said it, that is). Not only are they playing the 11th hour game with Eric and Sloan's (Emmanuelle Chriqui) will-they-or-won't they dance again, but this time there's an Eric Jr. in the middle?

Well, now we couldn't be more certain that Entourage's center couple will end up together, but we definitely didn't see them saving it all for the last episode, and with so much at stake. Sloan drops the fetus bomb after a particularly nasty showdown involving E and Melinda crashing her and Johnny Galecki's "date." Like we said, only Sloan can make Eric act out of his rational, unimpulsive character, and boy did the news of Galecki taking his lady out to their old spots set him off.

Bringing Melinda? Calling old girl a slut? Wait, still sleeping with Melinda?! Eric's got himself in a bigger hole than Ari (Jeremy Piven) now. It's going to take what Turtle and Drama did for Vince x1000 to get him out of this one next week. Not to mention his foul mood may have damaged his partnership with Scott as well.

Turtle joins the Millionaire Boys Club

In addition to callbacks to the past, series finales are also expected to take the characters to places that they probably wouldn't go to if the show were continuing, but that are nonetheless appropriate for an ending. Even moreso than the taming of Vincent Chase, Turtle's new bank statement is the hugest indicator that we are indeed at the end, and however bittersweet that is it's great to see the homie score this win.

He started the show as the ultimate (loyal) moocher, got embarassed with that life more than halfway through, and has now finally succeeded in making something of himself. The despisable Don Peppe people may not deserve that restaurant but Turtle sure does, and for once Entourage pulls off a deus ex machina moment that doesn't feel cheap.

In reality, Turtle never would've been so stupid as to cash in his Avion shares before it went public, so it's comforting to know that Vince was at least thinking with his head on straight. Turtle's business genius has finally been rewarded, and it damn near makes him cry tears of joy, pretty much wrapping up his story a week early.

Ari gets back to work

The drama with Mrs. Ari—excuse us, Melissa (Perry Reeves)—has had Ari so caught up this season that we've been pretty much robbed of the joy of seeing him do what he does best: handle business in the most profane way possible. So it was refreshing to see him do that one last time before it's all over, even though his whole drive to get Vince and Drama's movie made was contextualized by all the wife strife.

We don't know if we can back the direction this whole Ari-Dana-Flay-Melissa trapezoid is headed, though. Seven episodes of shrill screaming and slightly unreasonable actions and anger have convinced us that the Gold's are past the point of no return but Dana just can't take being second in Ari's thoughts and pushes him back towards the possibiltiy of a reunion. A tad bit impetuous on her part, and a tad bit unrealistic on the show's part, but we'll reserve judgement for now.

Drama's career is headed up

Tack this on to Turtle's new millionaire status as a move the show could only make at the end: Drama may be headed for a huge career surge. Sure, he had the TV series for a couple seasons, but that was always presented as a commentary on terrible American TV shows that are laughed at by critics but stay on cause of good ratings.

Now, Drama may have a bonafied hit with his cartoon, and a lead role in a CBS MOW co-written by his superstar brother. The only road bump is Phil, who took Johnny's walk-out stunt personally, even resorting to hilariously smashing up Drama's apology cookies. In the show's effort to remind us that Vince puts on for his team, a $100,000 charity donation cures Phil's drama with Drama.

We weren't as invested in the partnership as it seems Phil was, but it still probably would've been more appropriate to see Drama handle his business with Phil himself. This pretty much resolves Drama's plotline as well, moving him and Turtle out of the way for Vince, Ari, and Eric's affairs of the heart to dominate next week.

Interestingly enough, the stakes for the final episode of the series don't hinge on some big movie deal or other Hollywood business; instead, not one but three romantic, everything-on-the-line showdowns. Even though we think we know how everything will turn out, we still can't wait.

Line of the night

"At least I get laid often enough to be a suspect." —Drama

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