The Entourage Review: Season 5, Episode 8: First Class Jerk

Posted by Tim Livingston on 10.27.2008

Ari gets the chance of a lifetime! Why would he possibly turn this down? Well, the title of the episode speaks volumes.

LAST WEEK: Vince tries modeling. John Ellis gives Ari the job offer of a lifetime. Vince gets propositioned by the dude who gave him the modeling job. Vince doesn't know what to do with Ari's job option.

Now, for “First Class Jerk.” The boys are leaving Hawaii after their little trip to be with those models on their shoot. All the guys got laid. You know, the flowers? After a bad pun, Turtle comes back with four airplane tickets, but they could only get one first class seat. That sets off the debate about who will get the seat, with Turtle saying that since Vince is king, that he can get it. But Vince and E decide the can do coach. This brings it down to Turtle and Drama. Unable to democratically choose who gets the ticket, they send it to the cab driver. The cabbie picks Turtle. Drama is not a fan. Sucks to be Drama.

They get on the plane and Turtle is loving it, and rightfully so. He takes a seat in the middle and sees Jaime-Lynn Siegler crying about not getting an aisle seat. The guy next to her doesn't like it, so Turtle offers to trade. He gracefully accepts and then switches with Jaime! Smooth. Jaime needs a drink, but there's no attendant, so Turtle grabs two little bottles of scotch! Smoother move! Jaime is loving it! GO TURTLE! Jaime-Lynn Sigler! In coach, Vince has a young kid tell him that it's cool that he's in coach. In the middle aisle, Drama gets stuck between a fat dude and a woman with her baby. Drama makes the most of it, smiling at this girl across the aisle...until her mom sticks her head out behind her daughter. PHENOMENAL. I continue to love what they're doing with the show.

At the office, Lloyd can't even talk to Ari, for obvious reasons. It becomes even more apparent once Lloyd shows Ari the copy of Variety with him as the cover story. And the fax from John that says he's offering the job to Ari for $10 million, which Ari does a double-take on.

On the ground in L.A., the boys are getting their luggage as Turtle and Jaime-Lynn talk. Turtle gets the digits, home and cell! Turtle is absolutely awesome. The boys then just maliciously break his balls about how this could possibly happen, and Drama especially can't believe it since he missed his chance to have that seat. So when Turtle asks what happens, Turtle tightens up before coming clean about him getting a handjob. Drama doesn't believe it at all. Meanwhile, E gets a call from Josh Weinstein (ugh) and knows about Ari going to Warner Bros. He then says he can do something for Vince, offering up a role with the man who made “The Shawshank Redemption,” Frank Darabont. The boys are suddenly a bit interested.

Ari discusses his options on the job with his wife. Lloyd comes in to try and get E on with Ari, but Ari says no, and then he goes on a tirade against Ari, talking about what he'd leave behind. Lloyd is impassioned here. The misses hears the entire argument, and Ari resorts to flipping a coin...just like he did when he decided to propose to his wife. Mrs. Ari: “Did you seriously flip a coin before proposing to me?” Ari's look when he eventually does is priceless. He still has no idea what to do.

Downtown, Drama continues to bust Turtle's balls while the fellas try to figure out what to do about Ari not calling E back. Drama is seriously on fire when the waiters comes up. “Well, Turtle here got a handjob from Jaime-Lynn Siegler, but I'll take an iced tea.” Incredible. Weinstein shows up with Frank and he brings the fellas along for a meeting. Frank gives the pitch as I contemplate pitching a baseball into Josh's face, and Vince likes what he hears about his new project, but Frank didn't want Vince to be a part of the project. He wants him to be a part of his new TV project. E is not pleased as Josh basically tried to slime his way into getting with Vince. Frank apologizes for the mixup. God, you wonder if Josh is acting.

At Ari's office, Lloyd and B have a couple of choice words for Ari's eventual leave of the company. So Dana Gordon calls, asking to be Ari's #2. Ari says that he doesn't know, so Dana lets him in on something she heard. Ari's replacement is at hand if he doesn't take the job: Amanda Daniels. You might know her as Vince's hot ex-agent. All of a sudden, Ari goes a bit ballistic knowing one of his enemies is going to take the job he has cherished. GREAT turn there.

Josh, like the sniveling little punk he is, tries to amend, but the boys don't take it. He tells Vince straight up that he doesn't think he's a movie star and the fellas say there's no way he goes back to doing TV, as it's basically a death knell for Vince's career if he does.. E gets sick of Josh, gets in his face and tells him to walk away. Of course, when he does, Drama gives him a nice little shoulder tap. Fantastic.

Ari storms into Amanda's office and offers to bury the hatchet. That didn't take long, and talks about how he'll support Amanda taking the job as he bows out of the race, but he wants Vince in “Smokejumpers.” Of course, that ain't happening, so they clash. Ari implies the bitterness about Vince sleeping with her. Amanda says she's never needed anyone's help and won't take it now. Ari hears enough, and says she'll take the job just to spite her, and Amanda is pissed. GREAT scene.

At the crib, Vince talks about not wanting to be on TV and wanting to know what's up with Ari. Turtle brings up a couple of good points about Vince's dilemma while Drama brings the negative, saying Ari might not even give him the gig. Ouch. Well, Vince wants to find out, so he goes right to the source.

Ari is at John's office at Time Warner and gets called in. Meanwhile, at the agency, the fellas speak with Lloyd, and he feels awful trying to be happy around them. Drama, of course, brings up Jaime and Turtle again. Almost gets a chuckle out of Lloyd. Ari comes back in and meets with E and Vince. E gets right to “Smokejumpers” and wonders what's going to happen with Ari not being their agent. Of course, Ari doesn't take the job, but he promises something in return. Dana Gordon calls. Ladies and gentlemen, the new head of the studios at Warner Bros.! “Ari, I'm going to wrap my mouth around your dick like it's 1990.” “Uh, Dana, you're on speaker and I'm not alone. Say hi, boys!” Phenomenal. So, of course, Vince is in the movie, gets his full quote, so on and so forth. Dana is absolutely amazed at what's happened and thanks Ari. Ari talks about the bait and switch that they pulled. See, that's what's great. It's somewhat predictable that Ari doesn't take the job and Dana gets it, but I liked how they dealt with it.

The fellas are all celebrating at a club downtown and Drama sees Jaime! Jaime sees the crew, walks up, and throws her drink in Turtle's face! He can't believe she heard about the handjob from other people. Ari gets a fantastic South Park reference in right before Jaime gets up there. Afterwards, Drama goes to try and patch things up, but Jaime isn't having any of it. She actually DID get Turtle a handjob and she would have had sex with her if he didn't open his big fat mouth! Of course, this is ALL Drama's fault because he had to spread it around town! The fellas end the show toasting to things never changing: Ari is Vince's agent, Vince is in a movie and Turtle...well, Turtle still doesn't get any.

The 411: God, I'm like a broken record at this point, right? Best show on television, comeback complete, blah, blah, blah. However, I will say this. Veterans of bait and switches, you know, wrestling fans, can see things like this coming a mile away. Just like wrestling, it's not that you do the bait and switch, but how you do it. This was a really well done bait and switch. The story is all in how you get there, not the fact that you get there, but how you get there, and this is another episode that proves just how good this season is. I couldn't quote all the dialogue, but this has some of the best one-liners of the season, as well. You guys should be all over this one for the replays this week.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]