“You’re on notice, consider yourself kicked to the curb!” Marcy exclaims toward Hank before bring he brings her and Charlie in for a group hug. That one hug is about all the love Hank receives in this episode, as Hank finally faces the repercussions from years of his questionable actions. Yet with his family not talking to him as well as a potential three-year prison term on the line, Hank remains his charmingly brazen self, failing to learn from mistake after mistake.
Hank misses his appointment with Abby, who warns him once again of the gravity surrounding his impending court case. “The D.A. is looking to make an example of you,” she sternly warns the partially-aloof writer who still somehow does not fully grasp the weight of statutory rape. Yet despite Abby’s professionalism, Hank still rubs some of his irreverent charm onto his lawyer.
With all the trouble going on in Hank’s life, writing remains the last thing on his mind, much to Charlie’s dismay. Despite his agent’s protests, Hank refuses to work in the face of his impending charges, saying that he was interesting in rewriting Fucking and Punching’s screenplay “before I became Hank Moody, statutory rapist. That doesn’t exactly inspire one to sit in front of the typer.”
Hank jumps at the chance to see his moody adolescent daughter Becca after Karen reluctantly allows for it. Becca now can shred her guitar like nobody’s business, and takes up Hank’s desperate attempt to spend time with a much-needed trip to the guitar shop. But rather than making a pleasant return to their old life, Hank remains confronted with the brutal truth of his crumbling familial relationships.
Later that night, Charlie gets Hank and bad-boy superstar Eddie Nero (Rob Lowe) together to discuss playing him in the movie. Eddie comes across as overly erratic, to say the least, but carries an attitude fit to play the part. “Excuse me,” he coolly requests. “I see a girl over there that I defecated on in Palm Springs once.”
Sasha shows up soon after, immediately attempting to seduce Hank. Her character seems a bit over the top at times, but nothing too far out of the realm of Californication’s hedonistic past. Hank attempts to resist her advances, given that she’ll be playing the girl who he allegedly raped. But almost on cue, he succumbs to the actress’ blunt come-ons.
Hank arrives home, where he downs more than handful of Sasha’s recreational prescriptions along with some whiskey. The novelist finally overcomes his writer’s block with a good old-fashioned letter to Becca, explaining how much she means to him. In the process, it seems for the first time that Hank truly understands himself not as some misunderstood hero, but for what he truly is. “Your father is a child in a man’s body,” Hank elaborates. “He cares for nothing and everything at the same time. Noble in thought, weak in action. Something has to change. Something has to give.” And something does give, as Hank accidentally overdoses, leaving our noble-minded writer in serious peril as he attempts to escape the messed up situation he created.