Note: This is less an episode summary than a larger discussion of the series’ surprising change in direction.

Oh Entourage, how you confound me. I’ve rarely had such an emotionally turbulent relationship with a TV series – alternating between apathy and sympathy, between eye-rolls and gasps. What once was a great show about a meteoric rise to Tinseltown fame had, by the beginning of this season, arrived at a predictable plateau of greed and gratification. But something strange started brewing a couple weeks ago in the world of Vince and Ari, and I now think the show is teetering on the brink of doing something really quite remarkable: Depicting the decline and failure of its heroes. The new question worth debating is: Will the show’s writers and creators have the guts to follow through?