It was only a matter of time before Doug Ellin and Co. slipped up and delivered a bad episode, but considering it’s taken this far into the season for it to happen, it really isn’t worth getting upset about. Still, not a whole lot went down in tonight’s show, and even worse, the filler portions weren’t very entertaining. The only subplot that did accomplish anything was the one involving Andrew Klein’s midlife crisis, but although fans of Ari were no doubt happy to see Jeremy Piven back after his pseudo-absence on last week’s show, this story is really starting to get on my nerves. Gary Cole may have been a great addition to the back-end of Season Five, but this year, they’ve turned his character into a boring mess.
Now that Marlo has locked him out of the house and frozen his assets, Andrew has started crashing at the office, and Babs has taken notice. With his meeting with Aaron Sorkin set to take place later that day, Babs gives Ari an ultimatum: either Andrew signs Sorkin or he’s gone. Of course, when it’s time for Andrew to prove his worth to the agency by reeling in the big fish, he isn’t there because he’s busy trying to get his notes from his home. When Marlo refuses to let him, and then burns said notes for him to see, Andrew absolutely loses it and drives his car through the house. Not a smart move, as it forces Ari to take the meeting in his place. Sorkin, however, hates Ari’s guts, and refuses to even listen to anything he has to say. So when they discover that Andrew has been sent to county jail, they go to visit him, only for Andrew to miraculously sign Sorkin after telling his lame sob story. I can’t say I was happy about that, though, as it only means Andrew is bound to stick around. This was the perfect time to get rid of his character and allow for Ari to get back to business, but now he’s stuck babysitting Andrew for what looks like the immediate future. Le sigh.
Meanwhile, in Other Subplots That Just Won’t Die, Eric and Sloan get together for drinks to try the whole friendship thing again, only for Eric to suddenly bail on her when Ashley comes crawling back. This whole back and forth between Eric and Sloan was always going to play a big role this season, but what was the point of bringing them together for a few seconds only for them to end up exactly where they were before? If Eric was upset that Sloan can’t decide what she wants, then why did he decide to meet her in the first place? It’s a pretty maddening storyline that I hope gets settled soon, because while I’m sure Eric will end up with Sloan eventually, the writers just need to get them together and be done with it.
The other story of the night focused on Vince’s recent break-in after agreeing to meet with Ari’s security friend (played by Peter Stormare) for a demonstration of his services. There didn’t seem to be much to this plotline except for a chuckle-worthy scene where Drama stood in for Vince during a simulation, but the final scene of the episode did open a few doors for the rest of the season. At first, I was going to criticize the guys for even considering paying the outrageous cost for security (after all, the unwelcome visitor only snagged some underwear), but now that they’ve uncovered a possible identity with the driver’s license of a particularly creepy-looking guy named Curtis Tucker, it might be more serious than we were led to believe. That, or the security guy planted the evidence in order to scare Vince into paying their steep fee. I’ll admit that the former offers a more interesting premise, but don’t count my other theory out just yet.
