House of Lies - Season 2 Episode 1 - Recap - Stochasticity - PREMIERE

Here's the recap for Season 2 Episode 1 of House of Lies: "Stochasticity" on SHOWTIME!

House of Lies is back and looks to be a promising season of Marty Kaan's egotistical fun antics and ethic-lacking business practices.

Marty Kaan and his team.

Season two opens up with the self-loathing Mart Kaan (Don Cheadle) walking into a reflective Jeannie Van Der Hooven (Kristen Bell) outside their office building. Jeannie is still questioning the events that surround her "fall from grace" with her fiance and company, after a drunken outburst at a company function that concluded season one. Neither Marty nor Jeannie have a clear recollection of their last night together. Marty and Jeannie are relentless in trying to decipher what took place but since both were highly intoxicated neither are able to put the pieces together. Throughout the episode we witness flashbacks that help put the events in perspective.

In the wake of a new dawn for Galweather Stern, the office is called together and introduced to the new interim CEO, Julianne Hofschrager. Julianne opens her speech by complimenting the good looking bunch and then stating that she is not being, "inappropriate or harassing," in my opinion this statement overshadows the  tactics of Marty and his team of consultants (Jeannie, Doug and Clyde). Julianne continues by demonstrating the future of Galweather Stern by promoting Jeannie to "Engagement Manager" and putting the focus of the company on, ethics and women leaders. Marty points out that the promotion is fake and the group jokes about it. Then Jeannie directs the conversation to a flashback of Marty and herself doing the "running man."

The group is then interrupted by an office assistant to remind them of a call with a Mr. Pincus, a new character that no one on the team actually knows. The team leaves Marty immediately to get some research in before the call; while Marty is pulled aside by Juliann and advised that she needs him to be at the top of his game to close clients because the firm is hemorrhaging. We shortly find out that they don't have access to information on Mr. Pinkas and have to hold the call blindly. When the call starts the stage is set with Mr. Pincus not taking any bullshit while the teams tries to get information out of him. After not being able to obtain any intel on Mr. Pincus or more importantly the company he runs, the team decides to offer up a face-to-face meeting. Mr. Pincus advises he will be visiting them in LA the next morning.

Jeannie and Marty.

Flashbacks of the night in question keep jumping back into Jeannie's head and derail her from the current conversation. This time the flashback proves to be more exciting as we find Jeannie in bed on top of Marty, as he asks her to punch him, as if it is a turn on for him. Jeannie is brought back from the flashback by Clyde who is seeking her attention. Jeannie, sounding defeated she talks about a short time ago when she felt she was on the rise to be partner.

In the next scene, Roscoe (Marty's son) joins Marty for dinner at a very colorful and eccentric restaurant. The scene opens with them arguing about what is best for Roscoe. This picks up from the first season regarding Marty's battle for custody of Roscoe from his ex-wife. Roscoe simply wants to feel like a child and does not want to have to think about what is best for himself. Following their experience at dinner, Marty drops Roscoe at home and finds himself alone with his ex-wife Monica.We are introduced to Monica's stable home environment and the house chef Tessa.  Marty and Monica always end up locking lips and hips and just as we think its happening, Monica calls it off. There relationship is something that always keeps the audience asking, "What's next?."

Marty runs off to what looks like an exclusive night club to meet up with Clyde. Marty meets Clyde's new girls and questions their relationship that is very open. Hopefully, this relationship is something we will see more of this season.

The next morning at the office, Mr Pincus arrives at the Galweather Stern office earlier than expected. This is particularly alarming because the team still hasn't determined who Mr. Pincus is or anything about his business. However, they have narrowed it down to about five possible options.

Before the team sits down with Mr. Pincus, Jeannie brings us into another flashback of her riding on Marty's back as he does an excess amount of drunk pushups that end with them vomiting and passing out.

When the team settles into the meeting with Mr. Pincus, they set a stage with generalities and try to pry information out of him without directly asking what they need. Realizing that this plan is not going to work, Marty calls for an all out, "BLITZ" or questing, assumptions, assertions and more that are directed at Pincus. This plans proves to be brilliant and reminds us all why we love Marty and his team. They get Pincus to trust them with a little reverse psychology so that he gives up his business as a third generation casino owner that needs to turn his business around.

The teams heads out to celebrate that they were able to get the information needed without ruining the relationship with the client and that they get to head to Las Vegas to get hands on with the casino.

Then the episode closes with a final flashback from Jeannie as she realizes that during her drunk antics with Marty, she told him that she loves him.