Priveleges

I missed Entourage last night, so I borrowed this summary from EW.com:

Somebody is gonna owe Drama 50 bucks. At least it seemed that way at the end of this jaw-dropping episode. Clearly, human resources in Amanda's agency forgot to conduct a sexual-harassment-prevention seminar this year. As we saw, Amanda made Vince a onetime offer to slip between the sheets because, as she put it, ''I hate sexual tension. It always leads to confusion.'' Now, I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that kind of behavior is usually frowned upon by corporate America. Granted, Vince did call her ''cute'' at a business dinner, where he passed on the Sam Mendes movie, and that would totally justify her indecent proposal — if the duo were dining at a Club Med.

Now, I know last week I wrote that parts of Entourage play like a documentary — and I'm still sticking with that statement. There have been rumors swirling through Hollywood for years about high-powered agents like [name redacted by Time Inc. legal department] having liaisons with their famous clients like [name redacted by Time Inc. legal department]. See! Everybody's heard about those two. So some of you might grumble that Amanda's proposition is outside the realm of reality, but I see it as more of a wink and nod to the belief that everyone in Tinseltown is sleeping with everyone else. Besides, how much better is this story line than if Amanda had gotten all huffy and insulted by Vince's inappropriate compliment. For Amanda, maybe this is about reasserting her power over her bad-boy client. Granted, Vince's claim he dug the Edith Wharton script because Amanda was excited about it (''I liked that Amanda liked it,'' he told E) would never have even arisen if Ari had still been around, but Amanda was taking back control, and if that involves having sex with a big movie star, so be it. Gosh, I really admire that kind of work ethic.

Out on the West Coast, folks talk about two things: sex and psychology. We've already hit sex, so let's move on to therapy. At last, Ari finally got his mojo back. It took not one but two visits to his therapist (nicely underplayed by SNL's Nora Dunn) for Mr. Gold to regain his edge. After starting out the show not able to fire a poorly performing underling because the man's wife had left him (she apparently created the clothing line Juicy Couture, or something like it), Ari even started to weep at a screensaver picture of him and Vince. So, there's no crying in baseball and agencies.

After tracking down the good doctor at a golf course for an emergency session, Ari learned that his feelings of compassion and protectiveness toward his staff were evidence that he was ''evolving.'' ''I like me,'' wailed Ari in response, and Piven got his second greatest freak-out moment of the night. (Best was his rant with Mrs. Ari at the first therapy appointment when he claimed that each of his clients was just a number and he didn't have personal feelings for any of them. A total lie, since we know he loves Vince, but the obnoxious little salute aimed at wife and shrink before he stormed out sold his bravado perfectly, and was knock-down funny to boot.) And so Ari came to a crossroads: become a better person or remain the agent he's always been. Happily for us, Ari choose the low road and returned to the office for a round of firing, stealing candy bars from chubby coworkers, and cursing up a storm.

Now that Ari's over his break-up doldrums and it looks like Amanda will sleep with Vince, can a reconciliation between the former client and agent be far away? But are Vince and Amanda really going to go through with it? And if they do, will it really be just a onetime event? Or is this a clever mind game on Amanda's part? Yeesh, with all the possible secrets and plotting, the series is starting to feel like Lost.