Entourage: Vinnie the Villain

After a break for Independence Day, Entourage was back last night for the second episode of season seven. In case you forget what happened in episode one, you can read a recap here. Or I can tell it to you short: Vince became a daredevil.

Vince just wrapped the Nick Cassavetes movie where he performed his own dangerous stunt (and apparently hurt himself a little) and the incident sparked a new rebellious streak in our formerly laid-back Hollywood playboy. First, Vince cut his hair. Sure, it sounds like no big deal, but when your image is your commodity and your hair is part of your trademark, it is a very big deal. It also screwed up the continuity of the Cassavetes film because he wanted to shoot a few more scenes. And no one wants to piss off a director with neck tattoos.

Next Vince did an interview, apparently under the influence of some pain meds, where he joked that the Cassavetes move would “probably end up sucking”. I could buy Vince giving himself a spur of the moment haircut, but I couldn’t buy him trashing his own movie. Vince has always been a take-it-easy kind of guy, but he’s also always been charming. We were supposed to think he was trying to be funny, but that’s not how it came across. The upside of the less-than-believable gaffe was that we got a few scenes with Vince’s loudmouthed publicist Shauna. She was as funny as ever, saying that she thought Vince was “Samantha Ronson from behind” when she saw his new haircut.

Finally, Vince went skydiving with the douchebag that E works with. I’d actually forgotten about that guy, but I kind of like when E gets toyed with so I was happy to see him (and Bob Saget!) back. E and Drama didn’t get much storyline this week – they basically just read scripts and tried to look worried about Vince.

Meanwhile, Turtle suspected his super-hot former driver was behind a $10,000 Tiffany charge on his company credit card. Turtle confronted her, she reminded him that he’d asked her to buy his mother a birthday gift an told him it had only (only!) cost $1,000. Oops! Tiffany had screwed up and added an extra zero (does that happen?) and Turtle had to visit Miss Hottie at home to apologize. I liked how Turtle admitted his mistake, but the whole thing seemed like much ado about nothing. Is this all we’ll see of Dania Ramirez? If so, the storyline was a waste of time. I hope it was just building up to something bigger.

Finally, Ari tried to get the chance to sell the NFL’s TV rights and takes a meeting with the Dallas Cowboys’ owner and one of his other agents – Lizzie Grant, the one who’d slept with Andrew and ruined his marriage. Ari didn’t get the TV rights, but he did get the chance to bring an NFL team to L.A. How does the L.A. Gold sound to you? Too bad his wife caught him celebrating/dancing with Lizzie, and given Lizzie’s history, that meant trouble for Ari. The King of Hollywood still has to keep his Queen happy, and it’s not easy.

Overall, I thought it was a so-so episode. Personally, I need more Lloyd in my life. The stuff with Turtle and his business was OK, but I’m still not buying the Vince as a reckless jerk storyline. Pretty soon they’ll have to fly out his mama to set him straight! What did you think of the episode?