Year: 2006 (Page 81 of 228)

The demolition of Vince’s reputation continued this week, and man, was it fun to watch. With a company offering Vinnie $100,000 to “just attend their party” in Vegas, the boys head to Sin City for a wild weekend. Well, everyone except Drama, who tags along only so he can hook up with his favorite masseuse, Ken. With his pilot scheduled to begin filming soon, Drama insists that he needs a quiet, relaxing weekend with no distractions. On their way out of town, the boys convince Ari to join them (though he swears to his wife that he was kidnapped). The stage is officially set.

Speaking of stages, turns out Vince has to do more than just make an appearance at this party. Apparently, Turtle signed him up to be a judge for the “Queen of the Strip” beauty contest, which, we learn, is less a beauty contest and more a stripper contest. As Turtle points out, that would seem to be a good development, only E and Ari are worried that Vince sitting in on a stripper contest will only further damage his already wounded image. Fair point, but Vince can’t back out now…he already blew the money they gave him at the blackjack table, much to Ari’s chagrin, since he agreed to partner up with Vince for the weekend, splitting winnings (and losses) evenly.

A few scenes later, it’s worse, with Ari and Vince now down more than $200k apiece. There was no official Ari Moment this week because he spent most of the episode spittin’ fire at the tables, cursing out dealers and fellow players as he watched his cash get sucked down the drain with each hand. He even took a couple shots at Seth Green, who was in town with his own entourage and, whenever possible, ribbing E about Sloan. The guys assume that Seth’s been with Sloan, which gets E all riled up. Meanwhile, Drama’s getting exactly what he wanted out of his weekend: he’s loose, limber and feeling fine after an afternoon with Ken. He’s also sending poor confused Ken, an ex-NFL receiver, mixed signals, and when Ken winds up naked in Drama’s bed, Drama snaps, leaves the room and heads for the stripper contest. Just in time, as it turns out, because Seth won’t drop the Sloan issue and E snaps too, only when the shit hits the fan, an amped-up Drama is the one who throws the first punch, knocking one of Seth’s boys to the ground while Turtle takes another and Eric drops Seth. That ought to help repair Vinnie’s rep, huh?

Sorry for the fifth-grade plot summary this week, but there’s not much to analyze. It was definitely a fun episode to watch, but not a great one to blog about. The best scene had to be the final hand of blackjack, where Vince split 8s, splits again when he got an 8 on the first draw and, after drawing a 10 and a 9, doubles down on an 11 with his third 8. With $300k on the table, half of which is Ari’s, Vince is staring at an 18, 17 and (gulp) 14, all of which has Ari worked up beyond belief. The guy next to Vince (one of the Bobs from “Office Space”) splits his kings (huh?), which of course knocks Ari completely off his rocker (“Sir, you have to let him play his way,” the dealer says. “Well he’s playing like a fucking idiot,” Ari responds), but, no problem, the dealer still busts. Vince and Ari are back in the black and all is well.

The only lasting effect from this episode is, of course, the brawl with Seth Green’s crew. Will it actually make things worse for Vince, or will it blow over? I say it all blows over and this episode, while fun to watch, will essentially go down as a throwaway. With only three weeks left in the season, though, I wouldn’t expect many more throwaways.