ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 1
“Welcome to the Jungle”

The making of Medellin unfolds before our eyes in the form of a behind-the-scenes doc, as the boys (Five Towns is on hiatus, so Drama's on for the ride) tromp through Bogota to shoot their dream movie, with neurotic enfant terrible Billy Walsh at the helm.
Tension between E and Billy spikes and fluctuates throughout the process, sparked as early as pre-production by a discussion over the number of extras in a scene. Billy then just keeps on going, ranting about sex and cell phones and obsessing over a local actress playing “the Village girl.”
Meanwhile, we see Ari’s reactions from Stateside, as he deals with the Tinseltown perception that Medellin is a “troubled shoot.” Things come to a volatile head when Billy insists the script’s ending is crap, but can’t focus enough to actually do the re-write. So he wants Steven Gaghan, but Gaghan’s an Oscar boy, and he costs, a bill which Nicky Rubenstein can no longer foot, as he apparently got arrested on the way to the airport with a cocaine baggy in his car.
But in a great scene, Billy asks for E’s help, and E pulls it all together, FedExing Gaghan the script and a check. But even as Gaghan is flying to Bogota, Billy is at his typewriter readying his notes for the Oscar-winning screenwriter. He ends up doing a brilliant re-write, and Gaghan ends up getting paid to read Billy’s re-write, and give it his thumbs-up.
Having reached an understanding with Billy, E steers the shoot to a triumphant close, even as Billy makes a comment which foreshadows the turbulent waters ahead.

Parting shot: Yay! Mrs. Ari’s finally in the opening credits.
But now, Shauna’s gone! Shaunaaaaaa!!!

(Image courtesy of hbo.com.)

ENTOURAGE
Season 3 Episode 20
“Adios Amigos”

Offscreen, Vince ended up saying “No” to Yair’s indecent proposal in last episode’s cliffhanger, so the boys are back trying to find a Medellin financier.
Re-enter Nicky Rubenstein, who’s just turned 35 and his trust fund’s kicked in. Eager to finally emerge from his father’s shadow, he throws down $25 mil for the production. But that’s way below the estimated $60 mil budget, so E and Vince turn to the one man they know is brilliant and can stretch a film budget dollar: Billy Walsh.

It turns out Walsh is now working under the alias “Wally Balls,” and is directing porn (to “bring the 70’s class back”), his experience with Queens Boulevard a little too painful to relive.
Walsh turns down the Medellin offer first, until a threatened throwdown with E makes him stop and listen. He reads the script (“Get me a fluffer in the Green Room. I’ve got some reading to do.”), and he’s in.
But he wants $30 mil from Nicky (the “Trust Fund Baby”) and final cut.
Rubenstein’s ready to bail, but E does the Voice of Reason again and gets him to sign the check.
E’s just produced his first movie!

Meanwhile, E’s moving in with Sloan, since the boys have said “Goodbye” to the Aquamansion (a nice little scene there).
E’s also been canceling and postponing lunch and dinner because of the Medellin deal, so Sloan throws down a relationship gauntlet: If you’re gonna be gone for half a year to shoot this movie, figure out where we’re headed with this, so I know what I’ll be waiting for.
When Vince says to E, “You don’t have to go to Colombia for the shoot,” E says he wants to see this through.
“Sloan will just have to wait…”
“But what if she doesn’t?” Vince counters.
And E flashes that look: “Then she doesn’t.”

There’s a subplot involving Drama getting a new place, and when he finds a dirt cheap loft, Shauna (yay! Shauna’s back!) directs him elsewhere, since he can’t live like a “transient crack whore,” lest people think Vinnie Chase’s brother—and by extension Vinnie—is flat broke (which they are).
But a wrong address brings Drama to a $1.4 mil condo which he promptly falls in love with. Decimating his budget, he ends up paying $1.5 mil for it. (Hell, he’s in a hit pilot, right?)

And since the plot’s at the point where the deal for the latest movie is firmly in place, we all know the season is winding down. (Though they did pull the rug out from under us mid-season, sneaky buggers…)
Thus, the episode—and third season—ends with a toast, as the boys celebrate Medellin, while a Spanish-language version of “Hotel California” plays…

(But fear not, Season 4 premiered on June 17 with “Welcome To The Jungle,” where a behind-the-scenes doc shows us what went down in Bogota during the filming of Medellin!)

(Images courtesy of hbo.com [vince, e, turtle & drama] & aol.com [shauna].)