ENTOURAGE: I Wanna Be Sedated

"It's sad to watch the kids leave the nest".

It would seem that those words uttered by Vince at the start of this episode could be foreshadowing where the final two episodes are headed. If last week was a fun speed bump along the road, this ep. was like pulling the "E" break; this odd entry was about ten notches down the fun scale from last weeks' Vegas extravaganza.
It starts out with Turtle about to sign Saigon's record deal, so he's pumped, and Drama offers to chauffeur him to the meeting. But when they arrive at the office, Saigon is nowhere to be found. Heart pumping, Turtle goes into the meeting alone, only to be rebuffed('the pen is for artists only") by the annoyed agent (David Paymer). He has until 5:00 to bring Saigon in or the deal is off.
Meanwhile E has been trying to see Ari, who has been ignoring Vince in favor of picking out a shower and fabric for his luxurious new office. After E has it out with Ari, who claims he's available when Vince decides he wants to work again, Ari hooks him up with landmark Hollywood producer Bob Ryan (a great Martin Landau) and sends them on their way. Little does E know, Bob is a stodgy old-schooler who whisks E off to his estate to tell him ancient anecdotes; he also has a habit of prefacing every other sentence with "what if I was to tell you...now would that be something that you might be interested in?"
As they boys are doing their own things, Vince is doing his own thing- bedding a chick. I must say Vince's behavoir in this ep was a little bit squirrelly, such as taking a cab by himself to a bookstore, meeting an average-looking girl in the store, taking her shopping, then screwing her in the dressing room and her apartment. Like I said, a little strange for Vince (other than the screwing part), but the weird thing is, after they finish, Vince implies that he likes her and wants to see her again-tomorrow. "I'm unemployed" he says to her more than once. He also says "sadly I usually spend my lunches with my knucklehead friends". Hmmmm. But then she drops a bomb on Vinny's curly little mop- she's engaged, but since he was on her "celebrities to-do list" her fiancee would be okay with it. The look on Vince's face was priceless. I thought for a minute he was going into the "Mandy Zone" again.
It all wraps up with Turtle finding Saigon at a hotel, where he learns that Saigon has been "forced" by his former agent to honor a 10-year old, non-written contract. Despite Drama's proclamation that their agreement with Saigon is "a binding legal document", the new/old manager, Bunky, and his boys (nice cameo by Oscar winners Three 6 Mafia) make them see the light by dangling Drama over the balcony, an obvious homage to the legendary story about Suge Knight's similar treatment of Vanilla Ice. This was a classic scene, especially when Bunky recognized Drama as the star of "Viking Quest". The two parties come to an amicable agreement when Bunky gives Turtle the $40k he was to earn on the deal. But is Turtle's career over before it even got started? All he knows is that he's gonna buy a ton of chronic with that cash!
E finally realizes that Bob has no script for Vince and pleads to go home. But suddenly E finds common ground with Bob when he sees a picture of The Ramones in the house; Bob learns that they are all from Queens, same street as Joey Ramone, and a lightbulb pops on in his white-cropped head: "what if I was to tell you that somewhere in this house I've got a script about the Ramones?" Next thing you know, E, Vince, and Bob are strutting into Ari's office with Vince's next perfect script in hand: "I Wanna Be Sedated".

-Cue the (perfect) outro music: "Blitzkrieg Pop".
FOR MORE ON THE SHOW'S MUSIC, CLICK TITLE LINK AND SEARCH MUSIC FROM THE EPISODE GUIDE.

Vince as Joey Ramone? I can definitely see that before I can see him as Pablo Escobar! But the path the show is taking is a little harder to digest. I know the writers have been sending false signals all season (remember Dom? Me neither), but it does appear they are at least splitting the group up a bit. Next week we see Drama spread his wings as he begins shooting his pilot with "Eddie" Burns. These developments are certainly necessary in order to flesh out the characters and add some "drama"(sorry) to the show. But just remember guys, the cardinal rule of hit television: don't F**K with a good thing; this show works when these guys, plus Ari, are all together(hence the beauty of the Vegas ep). Split 'em up, and you have a show like this: some decent parts, but by themselves they don't up to a whole lot.