Written by Charles Kline (based on the book by Clara Darling), directed by Kenny Golde

Well, I’ll get right to the big spoiler for those who’ve been following since the first episode. Sophie (Mary LeGualt) decides not to sleep with the client. Instead she ends up quitting her job, and threatening to expose Avi’s (Daniel Messier) sexual pecadillos if he tries to hurt her reputation. It’s all very satisfying for her, and played well.

A couple of background characters get the spotlight in this episode. Justine Jolie returns as Jen, an erotic model who has been in previous episodes posing in photo-shoots with Belle. We get a scene of her and Elena Turcu, who plays another model, doing a photoshoot together. Danny Crawford plays Vincent the photographer, who has also appeared in earlier episodes although I don’t think I’ve mentioned him before, because his role wasn’t significant. But here we see that Vincent has to keep correcting Jen during the shoot. Afterwards she asks him if he could help show her what she’s been doing wrong, and then the two of them have sex. It was a good scene, presumably added because the story didn’t call for Sophie’s character to have a sex scene, and they needed to fill that void.

Maya (Krista Ayne) is preparing for her first kickboxing match, although D (Clayton Cannon) doesn’t think she’s ready. They have a hot scene, which starts as a massage but leads to sex. However, when the time for the match comes, D ends it early because he thinks Maya was getting hurt. Maya is upset and the two of them appear to break up.

Likewise Belle (Heather Vandeven) has a hot sex scene with Andre (Adrian Quinonez), but later she shows up unexpectedly at his restaurant and runs into his bitchy ex-wife Elizabeth (Adrianna Dragut), who was there to discuss a custody issue regarding her and Andre’s son. After this awkward meeting Belle and Andre have a fight, as he expressing concern about how her job as a nude model could affect his 12 year old son. They also end up breaking up. And I do have to say that this scene showed the limits of Heather Vandeven’s acting at the time as, frankly, her sad tears didn’t look believable at all.

Belle goes to Cassia’s apartment to talk, but then Cecile (Karen Fiji) shows up. So Belle leaves, and Cassia and Cecile have hot lesbian sex.

And with that, we’re now halfway through the first season (and at the end of the first Disc for this compilation). Overall, Life On Top continues to shine as one of the best original softcore series’ ever created. Chacebook rating: 4 STARS

Life on Top Season 1 and 2 DVD