Tree Trippers

Ari (Jeremy Piven) tries to convince Alan Gray (Paul Ben-Victor) about letting Vince (Adrian Grenier) star in Smoke Jumpers, but Gray refuses to allow it after Vince abandoned Aquaman 2. As a back-up plan, Ari suggests Benji, a children's film for $3 million film that could help him return to his A-list status. As Vince considers, Drama (Kevin Dillon) decides to get the boys on a trip to Joshua Tree National Park to cleanse his mind off with magic mushrooms.

The boys stop by the house of Eric Roberts, who supplies them with the mushrooms and decides to join them on the trip. As Melissa (Perrey Reeves) and the kids are in Santa Barbara, Ari calls Lloyd (Rex Lee), forcing him to cancel his weekend plans with Tom (Brandon Quinn) to watch the house on his behalf. Tom convinces Lloyd in throwing a party at the house with their friends to get back at Ari. At Joshua Tree, the boys start using the mushrooms, although the effects do not immediately take off. As Ari leaves to call Melissa, he finds that she is planning to go back to Los Angeles as Jonah does not like Santa Barbara. Ari bribes him to stay for another day, just as he realizes the effects of the mushrooms are taking effect.

Ari gets lost, while the boys also lose track of Roberts and their dog Arnold, panicking Turtle (Jerry Ferrara). Searching through the desert, Vince starts considering the Benji offer, while Eric (Kevin Connolly) refuses to say a word as he believes he has no mouth. As night falls, Ari and Arnold return with the boys, just as Vince realizes he will have to accept Benji through the signs he saw during the day. When Roberts returns to get them on his RV, Ari is called by Melissa, who decided to return anyway and found Lloyd's party at their house. Passing by a group of firefighters and hallucinating himself as one of them, Vince takes this as a sign to decline Benji and once again pursue Smoke Jumpers.

The episode was written by producer Ally Musika, and directed by Julian Farino. This was Musika's fourth writing credit, and Farino's 22nd directing credit.{{Cite web|url=https://directories.wga.org/project/859134/entourage/|title=Entourage – WGA Directory|website=Writers Guild of America West|access-date=February 24, 2024}}

In its original American broadcast, "Tree Trippers" was seen by an estimated 1.53 million household viewers with a 0.9 in the 18–49 demographics. This means that 0.9 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ratingsryan.com/2020/07/broadcast-cable-nielsens-20081005.html|title=Broadcast & Cable Nielsens: Week Ending October 5, 2008|work=Ratings Ryan|date=July 8, 2020|access-date=February 23, 2024}} This was a slight decrease in viewership with the previous episode, which was watched by an estimated 1.56 million household viewers with a 1.0 in the 18–49 demographics.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ratingsryan.com/2020/07/broadcast-cable-nielsens-20080928.html|title=Broadcast & Cable Nielsens: Week Ending September 28, 2008|work=Ratings Ryan|date=July 7, 2020|access-date=February 24, 2024}}

"Tree Trippers" received extremely positive reviews from critics. Ahsan Haque of IGN gave the episode an "amazing" 9 out of 10 and wrote, "This episode does very little to advance the overall storyline, other than revealing that Vince prefers doing Smokejumpers. It doesn't have to, as the simple story and brilliant comedy moments more than make up for the lack of progression. It was a fantastic opportunity to see the friends outside of the usually busy LA setting and put on some uncharacteristically over-the-top performances."{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/10/06/entourage-tree-trippers-review|title=Entourage: "Tree Trippers" Review|last=Haque|first=Ahsan|date=October 6, 2008|access-date=February 24, 2024|work=IGN}}

Josh Modell of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B" grade and wrote, "Am I tripping, or was that a pretty damn decent episode of Entourage. There's no doubt in my mind that it was the best of this season, and I'm pretty sure I know why: It wasn't about process, it wasn't really about this season's main storyline exactly, and there was some dumb, totally believable stuff going on. I think it was just last week that I was bemoaning the lack of Busey, and here we got Eric Roberts to take his place on an adventure-filled, funny episode."{{cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/entourage-tree-tripping-1798205057|title=Entourage: "Tree Tripping"|date=October 5, 2008|access-date=February 24, 2024|last=Modell|first=Josh|work=The A.V. Club}} Kristal Hawkins of Vulture wrote, "When someone who isn't Ari (or Lloyd) gets that focused on homosexuality, we know that the episode promises plenty of warm, wet brotherly love."{{cite web|url=https://www.vulture.com/2008/10/entourage_the_boys_eat_mushroo.html|title=‘Entourage’: The Boys Eat Mushrooms in the Desert|date=October 6, 2008|access-date=February 24, 2024|last=Hawkins|first=Kristal|work=Vulture}}

Trish Wethman of TV Guide wrote, "All in all, it is great to see these episodes returning to form. I think it has everything to do with moving the focus away from the day-to-day business of movie-making and back to the friendships at the core of the show. I hope they keep it up."{{cite web|url=http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TV-Show-Blog/Entourage/Episode-Recap-Tree/800047952|title=Entourage: Tree Trippers|date=October 5, 2008|access-date=February 24, 2024|last=Wethman|first=Trish|work=TV Guide|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081009040700/http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TV-Show-Blog/Entourage/Episode-Recap-Tree/800047952|archive-date=October 9, 2008|url-status=dead}} Rob Hunter of Film School Rejects wrote, "This week's show ended with Vince wanting Smoke Jumpers but with an offer for Benji. That said, this episode was still one of the funniest of the season so far (almost a complete flip from last week where there were few laughs but there was actual plot movement.)"{{cite web|url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/tv-review-entourage-55-tree-trippers/|title=TV Review: Entourage 5.5 – Tree Trippers|last=Hunter|first=Rob|date=October 6, 2008|access-date=February 24, 2024|work=Film School Rejects}}

Kevin Dillon submitted the episode to support his nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, while Julian Farino submitted this episode for consideration for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.{{cite web|title=Official 2009 EMMYS Episode Submissions|url=http://goldderbyforums.latimes.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1106078764/m/4121063191?r=482109683|publisher=The Envelope Forum, Los Angeles Times|accessdate=February 24, 2024|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713185217/http://goldderbyforums.latimes.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1106078764/m/4121063191?r=482109683#482109683|archive-date=July 13, 2011}} Dillon would lose to Jon Cryer for Two and a Half Men, while Farino would lose to Jeffrey Blitz for "Stress Relief" for The Office.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/arts/television/21emmylist.html|title=2009 Emmy Award Nominees and Winners|date=September 17, 2009|access-date=February 24, 2024|work=The New York Times}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.hbo.com/entourage-lwm/season-5/5-tree-trippers "Tree Trippers"] at HBO
• {{IMDb episode|1280587}}

{{Entourage}}

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Category:2008 American television episodes

Category:Entourage (American TV series) episodes