Entourage: Searchin’ For A Sign

Now that’s more like it! After the good but not necessarily great string of episodes that launched season 5, Entourage is officially back on top thanks to Sunday’s instant classic outing featuring Eric Roberts, a Winnebago, and more magic mushrooms than Haight-Ashbury in the Summer of Love.

It all starts when Vince finds himself mercilessly barred from costarring in Smokejumpers by the studio head he wronged in turning down Aquaman 2. Faced with a choice between starvation and a Benji movie, Drama proposes the only logical course of action: get high in the desert and search for a sign! And as (apparently) everyone knows, there’s no ‘shrooms dealer in LA better than Eric Roberts– gladly joining the self parodying ranks of past guest stars such as Dennis Hopper, Gary Busey, and James Cameron. Between this and his role in The Dark Knight, it seems Julia’s big bro is officially enjoying a late career resurgence. A reluctant Ari agrees to tag along in the Winnebago Roberts-Mobile, free to do so with his family out of town. This also leads to Lloyd and rarely seen boyfriend Tom enjoying their own very funny subplot when they decide to turn a bit of house sitting into a hedonistic slice of West Hollywood in Ari’s backyard.

Once out in the desert and high as proverbial kites, Vince and the gang fill the promise of hilarity that such a premise makes. Eric loses the ability to speak, Turtle contemplates his own pointlessness, Drama hero worships Vince even more than usual, and Ari simply loses his mind. Everyone leaves in one piece, but not before Vince receives his sign from above when he witnesses the purity of Turtle’s love for his dog, so it’s game on for Benji!

But wait, just when you think Vince has committed to the ultimate sin of acting just for the paycheck, he decides to act on one last hallucinogenic omen when he sees his own face appear on a firefighter along the road. Back to square one, it’s Smokejumpers or nothing. Can’t wait to see how the sparks will fly in Burbank over this one.

Season 5, Episode 5: “Tree Trippers” (originally aired October 5, 2008)

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Sundays at 10pm on HBO

Photo courtesy of filmindustry.com