The Entourage Review: Season 5, Episode 7: Gotta Look Up To Get Down

Posted by Tim Livingston on 10.20.2008

Yeah, the show might revolve around Vince, but this time, it's ARI who gets the unexpected job offer of a lifetime. Let's just say it could turn things around a tad...

LAST WEEK: Turtle blows off Drama. Ari golfs to win Vince a movie part. Dom goes to jail. Alan dies a horrible death. Does Vince get another shot at "Smoke Jumpers?"

Now for “Gotta Look Up To Get Down.” The crew shows up at a party for Dolce & Gabana, meaning there's models everywhere. Shauna meets them there, and we find out Vince is there to do a shoot for Annie Leibowitz that will get him a cool million dollars. It should be mentioned at this point that Drama will continue to try and pick up girls with his ridiculously awesome fedora and he will fail. Shauna introduces Frederick Lydon (sp), who is coordinating the shoot, and then introduces the model that Vince will be shooting with, Natasha, who Vince recognizes immediately. Vince plays it off, but then confides in the guys that even though they didn't hook up, they had something. It just wasn't their time. Interesting play, there.

Ari is shown with the misses at Alan's funeral. Ari is not happy with himself because he can't like Alan, even when he's dead. Go figure. All of a sudden, Alan's boss, John Ellis, shows up and shakes hands with Ari, and confesses he didn't really like Alan either. Again, go figure. Ari then lies to John, saying that Alan had promised Vince “Smoke Jumpers.” John does Ari one better: He offers Ari Alan's job as studio head for Warner Bros. Yep.

The crew then heads for the fitting for the shoot as Drama continues to strike out, much to the delight of the rest of the crew. Vince gets met up with a replacement for Natasha, which upsets Vince. She might be hot, but she's not Natasha. The crew also meets a model named Rita, who immediately takes to Eric, even though E is probably 5'7” and she's in the 6'1” range. She hits on E a bit and it's baffling to the crew, although E just shakes it off as nothing.

Ari is giddy with excitement leaving a funeral as he discusses with Mrs. Ari exactly what happened. Dana Gordon then calls, asking to be Ari's #2 if he takes the job. Ari alludes to the fling he had with Dana, much to the chagrin of Mrs. Ari. Ari will contemplate and get back to Dana.

Meanwhile, Vince talks to Shauna about trying to find out what happened to Natasha and why she's not there. Shauna gives Vince the address to the hotel that the girls are staying at and they give chase.

At the office, Ari arrives to a message from Jeffrey Tambor and Lloyd's kind words, but after that, Barbara comes over (remember her?) and talks about a meeting they're going to have with these two reality show writers who want a shot at doing a feature. Ari balks, mainly because of his bigger offer that he doesn't want to reveal to anybody. He then goes into his office to see a model airplane from John and a ridiculously nice gold watch. John calls and talks about BUYING ARI OUT along with bringing Ari along to be the studio head. This is where everything gets turned upside down.

At the hotel, Drama gets shot down again as Vince goes looking for Natasha. The guys hang out at the lobby bar and there's Rita looking for Eric. She takes him away to her room to show him something. That's what I'm talking about, E! Vince gets to Natasha's room but finds another model there instead, who tells Vince that Natasha got fired by Freddy. The model thinks it's jealousy rearing its ugly head, but she says she'll help Vince out because he really does want her. She even asks him to stay back to take a bath with her, which Vince smartly declines. See, she was testing him a bit with the proposition, and the model will pass along to Natasha that he's a good guy. Over in Rita's room, she invites E in to the room speaking of her talents. She wasn't kidding, either. She shows E her reel! She hopes that E will represent her! It's a scene from a horror movie, looks to be right out of the Eli Roth library. Nice little fake out.

At his office, Ari is positively giddy about the new developments, but in walks Mr. Tambor. Lloyd tries to interfere, but gets shot down. I'm loving this. Ari talks about trying to get Jeffrey work, but he's tired of doing TV. He wants to do a movie. He also mentions his displeasure with Alan. So what does Jeff do? In a move straight out of the “Arrested Development” playbook, he sits down with a bunch of movies he's heard about and beings to pitch parts he thinks Ari could get for him. THIS IS PHENOMENAL.

Vince gets mad as he goes back to the outside bar where the guys are, and says he's going to go straight for Frederick. E comes down soon enough as Drama and Turtle talk about E not closing the deal. Drama says they couldn't figure out the physics that would have gone into it. Turtle has diagrams. Awesome. E talks about what happened, saying she treats him poorly, standing over him every time she talks to him. The guys end up heading out.

Tambor is still causing a ruckus in Ari's office and it's as great as it sounds. Lloyd interrupts with Mrs. Ari on the phone asking about a new set of Louis Votton luggage, but Tambor shoots him down! Go Jeff! Now Barbara interrupts for the meeting with the writers, which Ari is begging to go to for a long time. He soon regrets that about 30 seconds in, as the writers drop a horrible proposal about wanting to the write the script for Peter Jackson's “The Hobbit.” They drop a HUGE script on the table as Ari looks like he's about to just crumble in his chair. Wow. He excuses himself but then gets caught between a rock and a hard place, as Babs yells asking where he's off to and Tambor yells about other parts he could play. Ari gets the wife on the phone and tells her to pack the bags for Geneva.

Vince heads for Fred's and confronts him on the issue of firing Natasha. After lying about Natasha quitting on the job, he confesses he did fire her, but not for the reasons Vince believes. It's not because she didn't want Fred, but it's because she wanted Vince...because Fred wants Vince. Vince tells him he's not interested and leaves. Natasha then calls Vince and talks about what happened, as Vince tells her that she quit because of Fred. She then offers to take Vince with her to a shoot in Hawaii. Vince asks if the crew can come and she says sure, and to make sure to bring E with him.

Ari and Mrs. Ari are at the airport as Mrs. Ari announces her displeasure about Ari perhaps working with Dana Gordon because they had a thing. It may have been before they got married, but she still doesn't like it. They meet John and his wife Kate and are all ready to go, but Ari then notices that Vince has shown up to get on the Hawaii-bound plane. Ari wonders how he's doing it with no money and points to the models, as he's doing it on their dime. Ari: “Nice dime.” I concur. Ari then tells Vince that John has offered the studio head job and Vince is very surprised. He says that while he wanted to see it through to the end, he says that Ari has to do what he's got to do. They say good-bye and Vince gets on the plane with the fellas. He and Natasha start to catch-up, Rita talks to E about...well, she grabs on his junk, what do you think they talk about? And, of course, Drama still has no game at all. As Ari looks to get on the plane, Vince gets distracted a bit looking at Natasha, but pulls down the window cover and the plane takes off, ending the episode.

The 411: Now this was just full of more great writing and phenomenal acting all around. All the main issues the show brings up were in full force here, and now it's Ari who has to make the biggest decision of his career. He would have to sacrifice all the clients he helped build up to take the job that would make him one of the biggest minds in Hollywood, but what would happen between him and Vince? We are now officially into the meat and potatoes of this season of Entourage. Hold on to your hats, my friends. This show has made the comeback. Can it now continue its run of excellence or will it run out of steam? I hope you'll join me and find out, because I am damn sure ready to see where this leads. Another superb episode in a line of great ones for the show this season.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]