Fine Nights of Debauchery

**Fine Nights of Debauchery** is the eighth episode of the first season of Steins;Senior. It takes place during the Autumn Leaves Arc.

## Synopsis

The gang spends a weekend at Denicola’s lake house, leading to drunken mishaps.  Harrison is forced to confront his fears to save his friendships.

## Plot

To ease the tensions from the episode prior, Denicola invites Harrison, Connor, Shezan, and Riley to his lake house for a weekend. The gang heads out, buying a poker set before arriving. At the lake house, Denicola reveals that the refrigerator is stocked with alcohol. As night falls, the gang begins drinking for the first time.

The gang begins playing poker while heavily intoxicated. Harrison, despite being drunk, uses the reflection in Connor's sunglasses to cheat and win. In the second game, Harrison hides cards under the table to win again. Frustrated, the others give up and stop playing.

A montage sequence commences using a distorted, drunken filter. The gang plays volleyball outside during a rainstorm, laughing as Harrison falls in the mud. Harrison goes inside, and begins crying and rambling about Lucy. Back in the house, the group starts playing poker again. Shezan calls an assortment of women on his phone, confessing his sexual desires to them. Denicola makes a cruel reference to Harrison's sister, Harrison pushes him, and he pushes Harrison backwards, breaking a window. Shezan throws a can at Denicola's head, and Denicola proceeds to chase him up the stairs and breaks a bottle over his head once he catches up to them. Riley begins going on a racist tangent, and Denicola joins in. Connor, the least intoxicated of the group, tries to manipulate Harrison into confessing his love for Lucy, and Harrison refuses, later mentioning that he would prefer Reese over Lucy. Connor comments on his new shoes, which Harrison proceeds to vengefully vomit on. Shezan and Riley set up a ladder in the house, and Shezan topples off of it. Harrison eventually wanders to a couch upstairs, falling asleep and Shezan vomits downstairs.

The next morning, the gang wake up hungover and drive to breakfast. Afterwards, Connor confronts Harrison and explains to him that he drunkenly confessed his love for Reese last night. Harrison says that he simply said that so Connor would stop bothering him about Lucy, but Connor does not believe him. Connor then tells Harrison that he will convince Reese to start dating him, but only if he "makes peace" with Lucy. Harrison, afraid that this conflict will drive the gang apart, hesitantly agrees.

## Trivia

* The episode title is a reference to A Fine Night of Debauchery, a story mission from Red Dead Redemption 2 where protagonist Arthur Morgan and members of the Van Der Linde gang (Strauss, Trelawny, & Javier) fix a poker game in order to rob a riverboat.
	+ This is an obvious reference to the high-stakes poker game in both stories, which is won by Harrison/Arthur through cheating.
	+ This connection could be a parallel to the betrayals in both stories. By All Hail Harrison, Harrison's friendships with everyone from the episode have fallen apart as they all betray him in some way (Connor continues to manipulate him before becoming a criminal in college, Denicola & Shezan leave him in New York City and the rob him, Riley disrespects Gabrielle). In RDR2, Arthur is also betrayed by his fellow outlaws which eventually leads to his death.

* The episode was originally written under the working title **Truly a Banquet**. This would have been a reference to the two kinds of alcohol the gang drink throughout the night - Truly Hard Seltzer and Coors Banquet Beer.
	+ Another working title, **A Quiet Time**, is a reference to the story mission from Red Dead Redemption 2, where Arthur and Lenny get roaring drunk at a saloon. The drunken montage is a reference to the similar sequence in this mission.
* It appears that Harrison tends to tell lies often while drunk. His drunken comment regarding his preference for Reese over Lucy is most likely a lie, as he very quickly realizes that he has no attraction to her as he begins to get to know her more. In season 2, Harrison spins a web of lies while drunk in a desperate attempt to shut Connor up, which horribly backfires.