We’re back with Vinyl, let’s spoil it all after the break.

Richie has been on a drug and alcohol fueled bender for a few days now, losing Devon and the kiddos in the process, and entertaining visions of long-dead friends as confidants. Before that, though, Clark got bumped down to Jamie’s level, who was thoroughly disregarded by her mother.

Richie is reading The Farther Reaches of Human Nature when he’s interrupted by CeCe: he wants to get rid of ALL the liquor? Like. All of it? All company credit cards are being turned in as well, everyone can still wine and dine Jose Feliciano with a sweet bottle of Dom, they just have to submit receipts. Which means, ask yourself: are you willing to cover this cost if it doesn’t get approved? Or as Zak puts it: Act British, Spend Yiddish and I’m pretty sure there’s a slur in there somewhere.

Skip is working the budget hard and Richie’s apartment? Only $1,100 so if that breaks them, they deserve to break: totes agree. However, the plane. There’s a half-mil offer on it, get in there! Oh, well, it’s in Los Angeles and the guy needs to know now. Today. Richie’s flying out but Zak gives him a hard time; he wants to come too. Andy comes in during the meeting, saying one of their bands is alllmmoooost in the Top 40, can Richie send Joe Corso in to do his Magilla Gorilla thing and push it up? Richie initially balks. He does NOT want to be around Corso at all, but agrees in the end, probably so as to not raise suspicion.

Scott makes a comment about drawing up a bill of sale saying they’re not responsible for anyone dying if the plane crashes and everyone flips out: just write a regular bill of sale, Scott! Jeez

Beach music: Surf City and I never really dug that, you know? I understand a lot of people do and I respect the artistry, but ehh.

A stewardess with a very short skirt serves the menz as Richie gossips about Jim Morrision having his last known threeway on this plane. Zak asks about Devon, and he’s still pissed about Richie screwing up his daughter’s Bat Mitzvah and he again has one of the lines of the night; when Richie says he was big enough to apologize, Zak says oh no, they’ve “entered the organ donor phase of contrition” and I absolutely have been there.

HAHAHAHA they have this awesome back and forth and “stop whining about money” “oh yeah, my kids are always ‘we wanna eat, Dad’ they’re such assholes!” and Zak comes clean: he came on the trip because he doesn’t trust Richie with 100k in cash and Richie “partly sees his point.”

Bravo, writers, Bobby and Ray, that was an awesome scene!

Zak wants to know…Maury Gold and Corrado Golasso, what’s the deal? Richie plays it off as some Godfather shite, kiss the ring, etc. Zak brings up the great piano player at the party doing Life on Mars? last week, I’m telling you, I CANNOT get that song out of my head! Especially since they played another version on Girls later in the evening. ANYWAY, he wants to bring him in for a demo. Just like that, they’re made up again. They gossip some more about Jim Morrison’s last knows threesome. You know Zak has never had one? I could totally have guessed that but he’s just not sure what goes where and he comes so fast: why disappoint two women?

More surfer music “two girls for every boy” HAHAHAHAH takes us out and over to Jamie Vine, who is just getting ready to leave her aunt’s place. Her mom is there, though, stopping her in her tracks. Her aunt is being encouraged to throw out trashy Jamie, whose mom offers to buy her an apartment and sell the business; buy her a respectable one. Jamie makes fun

and I wonder what level of hate you have to be at to say THAT to burn someone, while indirectly burning yourself.

Clark is taking a lot of shit from the mailroom crew, he too white, just like the Academy that they keep talking about.

Lou is very excited about the plane, and I’d like to make fun of the shag carpet, but I love shag carpet! Until you have to move furniture onnit. He tells Richie he’ll bounce back, no problem!  He invites them to a party; Richie gets visibly itchy. He thinks Lou is gonna spread the word they’re all done, so Richie vows to take half his roster. And they certainly need half of SOMEONE’s roster.

They meet Gram Parsons at the party and I have ALLLLLLSSS the premonitions: I have a friend who is a huge Gram Parsons fan and I believe he told me that Gram died in a plane crash? Dun dun DUN. Richie works Gram hard, but he’s heard ACR is on the way out. Before he can nail that down, a woman walks by, pushing a piece of pineapple into Richie’s mouth, saying “it makes your c*m taste sweet” and…I didn’t realise that myth went both ways. Zak says “pheasant just lands on your shotgun, doesn’t it?” and I even forgot now that he used to be Ray, you know?

Gram and space suit guy tell Richie to check out The Joshua Tree and in my head I was all “but. That’s not until the 80s?” Mama Cass is there! And I stop liking Zak so much, with the fat jokes.

Lou is getting high, Richie declines and another great line:

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are there! Yay! Classic rock segues us in to people talking about Elvis looking to maybe move…the boys are off to Vegas woo hoo!

Clark and Jamie are having a come to Jeebus meeting on the back stairs; they both come from the same background, parents with high expectations and the music industry not meeting any of them. I will just say this, and you can skip if you don’t want to be exposed to some kind of feminist rhetoric today.

This is exactly how the women are treated: Clark is busted down to Jamie’s job, which is fine for her, but HE’S better than that. Jamie is demonstrably better at his AND her job than he is, but he still thinks of her as a lower life form, because: woman. She should be expecting to stay at that level, AND be grateful to be working the step up the ladder, even if she’s not getting paid that way. Now, I’m a big fan of working, and you could absolutely argue that that’s how EVERYONE gets ahead, but how Clark treats Jamie is the crux of the problem some men have with women in general. He just doesn’t see her truly as his equal, and all the camaraderie they shared before was because she was subservient to him. I hope their friendship AND he evolves. Rant ovah!

Jamie takes pity on Clark and gives him weed. He ponders the inevitability of life, looking around to see Skip railing ? Someone? I didn’t think Skip had that in him! Or in. Nevermind

In Vegas, Richie is bribing the front desk to get a room when they spot Colonel Tom Parker, who gets all mystical but says he will tell The King and get in touch if he is interested. But none of this happened and they are not there. How is it Zak is even in sales? He can’t read between the lines, he can’t read ANYTHING, including people.

Joe Corso is doing the Magilla Gorilla on Buddy Stengel from WABC when Maury Gold and Golasso walk in and he actually introduces them, like whut? Why would he do that?? The mobsters don’t know either, threatening him as they leave.

Richie is by the pool seeing two lovely young lasses, Patti (Frances Eve) and Vivian (Kati Sharp), at the bar who he steers towards Zak, who swallows one’s hand. I mean.

They flirt, they do NOT want to go see Elvis. One brings out coke, Richie decides to snort the women instead and throws the redhead in the pool, jumping in after.

Clark is about to get his honky arse kicked from one end of the mailroom to the other when he pulls out that joint from Jamie; all of a sudden he has 5 new best friends and he’s passed the hazing.

At the Elvis show, he’s doing Polk Salad Annie and Zak can’t TAKE it: The King of Rock and Roll is singing about LETTUCE! They walk out and go gamble; Zak is high AF and mentions the 90k in their room, which the ladies very much notice. It’s all over, the money is as good as gone.

Richie stashes the dough in the safe while Zak talks the two women into making out and then there it is: Zak’s first threeway. I have to say; the last two weeks we’ve seen a lot of nipple-licking and that’s definitely a new trend, all non-prawnographic films would feature someone making their way up the middle, but never where people ACTUALLY go when having sex: the nipple. Odd. Richie sneaks out and goes to see The King.

The Colonel isn’t there, but Richie and Elvis talk about the music. Richie wants to take the King to get back to what rock and roll used to feel like, not this bloated shite. It’s going great! Right until The Colonel shows up and there’s a gun and Chi

Richie should see himself out.

Back in the room, a shaken Richie finds Zak passed out and I did not need to see Zak’s nekkid arse. The ladies are gone and so is the 90k. BUT. I would bet 100k that Richie set that all up to get Zak to shut up about Richie fcuking him over. 100k, yo. I mean, he talked to the ladies first, at the bar, bringing them over. I would not be surprised at all. Zak cries.

The next day, Richie and Zak are in coach with crying babies and Zak thanks Richie for taking care of him. Richie, though, he’s thinking about his evening; he snuck in while Zak was entertaining Patti and Vivian and gambled ALL the money on #18, which he’s seen recurring throughout the day. He’s gonna let Zak keep feeling bad for a while, though. Oh. And he’s drinking again. Yay.

Well, I guess that’s the cyclical nature of addiction. It was a fun episode, Zak and Richie needed a boy’s weekend away and I just wish it wasn’t consistently shite at the end, you know? AND NEEDS MORE ANDREA ZITO!!