This week, in the aptly titled Monkey Business, Ruknle and Hank find themselves in quite the predicament. As we start off, Runkle is hanging out with Hank, telling him how good his script is. Runkle really likes it, Hank doesn’t seem too enthused though. He tells him ‘as much as I enjoy a good ol fashioned ego hummer, it’s time for you take your leave bald sir, I have much self pity in which to wallow.’ Runkle tells him they have a meeting with the producers that night and he drags Hank out of bed. As they head to the meeting we cut to opening credits.
After the credits we come to Karen, Marcy and Becca, hanging out at Marcy’s house. Karen asks if Marcy has heard anything about Hank’s trial while Becca practices guitar, waiting for her band to arrive. As Becca’s bandmates walk in, Karen and Marcy head out to get some food. Meanwhile, Hank and Runkle are meeting with the producers of the film, which is quite humorous and sees the return of Stephen Tobolowsky as well as a great performance by Fisher Stevens who plays Zig Samitur, one of the film’s financiers. At the meeting, they strike a deal and it looks as if the film is going to head into production. Afterwards, they all go back to Zig’s house and continue the meeting there.
Back at the house, Becca and the band are practicing some of their songs and Karen and Marcy arrive home. Marcy takes a pregnancy test because she’s worried she may be pregnant. Turns out she is! Karen and Marcy start trying to figure out whose baby it is and they can’t seem to come up with an answer.
Meanwhile, at Zig’s house, the boys are smoking some weed while two of Zig’s girlfriends are putting on a bit of a show for them. Runkle ends up going upstairs with one of them but Zig’s monkey is watching and the girl tells Runkle to get him out of there. Turns out to be quite difficult as the monkey attacks Runkle, biting him pretty hard. Runkle then throws the monkey off his arm, killing him. Zig doesn’t know his monkey is dead yet and the group decides Runkle should be the one to tell him.
Back at Marcy’s house, we get a guest appearance from Michael Ealy, he plays Ben, the father of one of the girls in Becca’s band. He flirts briefly with Karen and I think it’s safe to say there could be something here. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hook up at some point this season.
At Zig’s house, Hank goes with Runkle to break the bad news to Zig. They go to find him and discover him dead, hanging from a door. The cause, autoerotic asphyxiation. Of course, everyone freaks out and Hank tells them “I’m not averse to the occasional choke and stroke but this is a prime example of why one must always use the buddy system”, referring to Zig. The police arrive, due to one of Zig’s girls hitting the panic button. They start to question Hank and Runkle but Hank knocks out the cop just as his lawyer arrives, apparently he called her. She gives him advice on how to handle the situation and tells him she’ll deal with it.
Hank drives Runkle home and sees Karen’s car. Runkle tells him to come in and see her. When he walks in, he sees Ben talking with Karen, being very touchy. Hank turns around and walks out before they can spot him. He gets in his car, drives off and so the episode ends.
I really enjoyed this episode, Fisher Stevens was hilarious in his role as Zig and the whole monkey business (no pun intended) was great. As usual, Tobolowsky was entertaining and there was also a great, although too short, guest appearance by Michael Ealy, who I’m sure we’ll see more of. Too bad Zig had to meet an unpleasant end as I really enjoyed his character. Once again, the absence of Sasha was upsetting and I was hoping Rob Lowe would pop up but oh well, maybe next week. Overall, very enjoyable episode.