Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 4 “Maleant Data Systems Solutions”
Posted by Katherine Recap | Hollywood, TV[For Silicon Valley “Maleant Data Systems Solutions” or any other recaps on Fetchland, assume the presence of possible spoilers.]
HBO Summary:
Maleant Data Systems Solutions. The Pied Piper guys struggle at work; Erlich faces competition; Monica takes a stand.
This episode revolves around the idea of the remake. Contracts, algorithms, deals, and even incubators and attitudes are rewritten and remade in this episode. The engineers do a reboot on their attitude toward the box, almost against their own will. The four of them wanted to hate it and slack off but can’t help themselves. Working on it gets them so excited that they invest their best efforts and improve the box by a ton, despite strong intentions to phone-it-in. Each remake story in “Maleant Data Systems Solutions” has a winner and loser. It’s no surprise when this reboot of the Pied Piper team’s attitude propels them, finally, into the winners circle.
Jack confronts the Pied Piper team about their SkunkWorks plan and asks them for one reason why he shouldn’t fire and blackball all four of them them right now. Richard then points out that Jack needs their engineering if he wants to meet his contractual deadlines. He suggests compromise – they will build the box to the minimum level that fulfills their contract but then construct the platform right after. To conclude his compromise proposal, Richard slips and falls on Jack’s desk; smashing himself into a bloody nose but he’s got a deal and that’s all that counts.
Meanwhile at Erlich’s place he’s trying to sell a new incubator tenant on the concept of hallway-as-bedroom when Jared comes in to discuss their rat problem. Because of this pathetic salesmanship Erlich’s potential tenant joins a different incubator. Out of pure envy, Erlich checks out this new incubator, and who answers the door but our dear old friend Big Head. It’s his house and unwillingly, out of loneliness, he’s started his own incubator as a way to have people around. Cut to upset Erlich standing on Big Head’s welcome mat. He huffs and puffs, indignant, to his car but when it won’t start in Big head’s driveway Erlich changes his tune, remaking yet another attitude in the episode and decides to team up with Big Head, who merely shrugs and says OK. Thus, when faced with a better, faster, sexier remake of his incubator funded by Big Head’s clueless $20m Erlich did what any loser-with-a-clue does – he switches sides and joins the team that beat him.
This is exactly what Gavin does in this episode – but on an even grander scale. When Hooli guru, Denpok pokes Gavin’s insecurities about “rumors circulating at Hooli,” Gavin holds a Hooli board meeting and his intense disdain for bulldogs flares up so that he asks questions like, “Kindly pet? …or humanity’s cruelest mistake?” and then uses the “grotesque creature” as an analogy for the Nucleus project. His claim: both are a result of too much inbreeding and naval gazing. Gavin then purchases EndFrame for $250m “to branch out of the Hooli network” and as a result changes the entire course of Pied Piper’s story, just not the way he’d hoped. He thinks he’s screwing the engineers but Gavin’s actually saving them. His remake of Nucleus using Endframe really is just a redo with the exact same engineers, although Gavin acts like they’re a completely new team; welcoming them to Hooli as if they’ve never met before. “You represent fresh blood,” he declares and just like that, Gavin’s rewritten Hooli history.
Jack then tells them Pied Piper lost their deal with Maleant because they went with another company but Richard points out there’s is much faster now so they can beat out this competition easily with their now-upgraded box. He’s right and they get a new Maleant deal. But then Monica points out that Maleant wants five years of rights to the underlying algorithm. That would mean Pied Piper couldn’t build the platform in the next five years. Richard is screwed; his plans and whole compromise down the toilet. The board then votes on this contract with Maleant and Monica ends up the deciding vote. She votes to not make the deal with Maleant unless they change this language. Thus Monica fulfills her promise to use her board seat to help Richard. Maybe they will smooch soon.
Richard gets a call from Gavin Belson telling him Hooli just acquired EndFrame for 250m. This sets a standard for a compression platform market value and thus Pied Piper is technically now valued at least that much and can win their fight for the platform after all. The team goes into work at Pied Piper the next day to find Jack gone. In his place is an empty office with prim Laurie sitting behind his desk looking like a librarian, as always. Laurie tells them she “exited” Jack and they’re going to build the platform now with no CEO. He said either they did it his way and make the box or it would be the end of his tenure as CEO. So, Jack’s chair will remain empty “henceforth” and Gavin’s move with EndFrame really did save their platform.
So, even our five heroes get a remake in this episode. At the onset they’re utterly dismal and depressed. All is lost. But by the end of the episode things are completely flipped and they’ve got a whole new set of challenges. This great writing is what keeps Silicon Valley fresh and invigorating each and every week. It’s like the Breaking Bad of sitcoms. The characters start out unbelievably screwed with no possibility of overcoming their challenges. Then by the end of the episode that issue’s resolved but there’s a whole new and much bigger challenge. It’s high level stakes-raising done well. At the onset the Pied Pipers were nearly fired in Jack’s office and feeling disheartened. But then in the final scene of “Maleant Data Systems Solutions,” they find themselves in the exact opposite position. Jack’s a mere memory and they’re free to work on the platform. No more Jack means no more box. Shouldn’t this be bliss? But it never is… their challenged now is racing Gavin and EndFrame because the very thing that saved them now faces them with a hardcore battle. With Pied Piper valued at a minimum of $250m, our five heroes suddenly have a whole lot more to lose in this war between compression algorithms.
–Katherine Recap
Bedlam: Officially London’s Bethlem Hospital, it’s notoriety for inspiring “lunacy reform” in the psychiatric movement earned this institution the nickname Bedlam. What a perfect place for Dr. Jekyll to conduct his research – the corrupted bowels of a lunatic asylum. Although Bedlam was a real place, it certainly felt like hell to its many inhabitants and thus the painting by Hieronymous Bosch, “The Garden of Earthly Delights – Hell” portrays just the sort of pandemonium that the occupants of the infamous Bedlam experienced. A catastrophic scene of mayhem employed by the great master of macabre, “Hell” depicts every particular agony of the damned. From what we learn of Jekyll’s work in its basement, Bedlam too housed the damned. Bedlam inhabitants’ only hope lies in the twisted experiments of a mad scientist. Some of which cause them great agony indeed.
Dr. Henry Jekyll Henry obsesses over the duality in each person throughout “Predators Far and Near”. Jekyll is, of course, the main example of a predator lying “near” considering that his beastie lies within himself. Being both monster and man, he’s been the exemplary literary archetype of this precise duality for the past two centuries. Jekyll believes the pull between light and dark/angel and devil not only energizes us, it is the meaning of life itself. This is why “Gustave Courbet’s “The Wave” perfectly captures Dr. Jekyll. The painting conveys the mutual battle between the tossing emotion of the sea and the wild fury of the sky. Courbet also admires the dignity with which the water and air maintain their individuality. It’s perfectly parallel to Jekyll’s work. Especially in this episode where we see his use of the beast-taming antidote for the first time. The beastie and the man who remains after the injection are two separate entities locked in an eternal battle over their one body.
Kaetany & Sir Malcolm: Both of these men follow a higher calling as they engage with Ethan in what they believe is their duty to help him. They’re aware of his murderous rages but still, Kaetany also makes it clear in this episode that Ethan is just the Apache he needs. So, it’s an interdependent situation much like in Jean-Baptiste Oudrey’s painting “The Dead Wolf”. The two hounds represent Kaetany and Sir Malcolm, aware that they are in the presence of greatness next to the tremendous symbol of courage and violence beside them. While Ethan is, of course, the wolf. By all appearances this beast is down for the count – much like the perpetually handcuffed Ethan. So, why do the two hounds look so scared? Because you can never be too careful around the truly wild. Just when you begin to lament their death, the untamed rise again to fight the next battle with ferocious resilience. 
Vanessa & Dr. Seward In Vanessa’s second session with Dr. Seward she lets her freak flag fly at full mast. First Vanessa warns the doctor that if Seward believes what she says it’s likely she’s had her last restful night’s sleep. Then Vanessa plunges into the depths of her torturous past while Seward intently records the session. Edgar Degas’ “Melancholy” suits this part of the story with its classic repose of suffering and the feeling of inertia grief often brings. Vanessa has reached the depths of her despair in this scene. So, Dr. Seward recommends she go out and do something she believes will make her happy. This, of course, points Vanessa toward the charming Dr. Sweet.
Dr.Sweet/Dracula The title of this episode, “Predators Far and Near” forewarns that evil lurks all around, even in the most unexpected places. The most shocking and, admittedly kind of thrilling, part of this episode rolls out with a terrifying revelation at the end. After a delightful date with Vanessa, the modest and seemingly oblivious zoologist, Dr. Sweet, turns out to be Dracula himself. His whole dismissive-of-Vanessa-thing is an utter charade. Max Ernst’s “Celebes” portrays just this sort of alluring facade. Ernst presents a mechanical-pseudo elephant as a headless figure, eerily reminiscent of a mannequin, entices us to encounter the beast behind it. Nothing in this painting is at it seems. Dracula seduced Vanessa so easily with his apparent disinterest because up until now she’s been constantly harassed, stalked, and tormented. Thus Dr. Sweet seems like a refreshing change for the better. The man can’t even remember her name… little does Vanessa know he’s just more of that same old evil she can’t seem to shake off.
Lily The opening scene of this week’s episode holds us spellbound as Lily slits the throats around a circle of men with the finesse of a figure skater dancing on ice. She’s truly an out-of-this-world phenom, taking down the men who paid top dollar to watch a girl tortured to death. While Dorian does help Lily quite a bit, he shoots his gun from a distance in a matter of fact way. Lily’s grace and obvious delight in the more intimate process of cutting throats seems mystical in comparison, as if she’s found her calling. Paul Delvaux’s painting, “A Siren in Full Moonlight” portrays just this sort of vision Lilly now exemplifies – a woman, but no longer a woman. Delvaux depicts a siren in the secret world of her unknowable mysteries, woman as alien. She is distanced from us, seemingly with a mixture of fascination and fear. Much like Lily, the siren’s also surrounded by symbols of luxury but looks only at her tail. Lily too, has no interest in opulence. Vengeance remains the only thing left that matters to her now.
Justine: We’re introduced to a new character in “Predators Far and Near,” the incomparable Justine. Naked, bound, and facing imminent torture and death, she spits in the face of her executioner. No ordinary girl, she’s a perfect match to James Whistler’s portrait “Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cecily Alexander”. Because Whistler made her stand for hours upon hours, Cecily has a rather disgruntled expression which reminds us of Justine’s testy reproach to her savior, Lily “You killed them!” she crankily accuses the morning after. But Lily’s resolute and bold reply shows us Justine’s vulnerability, her softer side. Whistler portrays this fragility of youth with the butterflies hovering above Cecily’s head. Justine is just a girl, after all, barely a woman. Although she’s no longer the chattel of men, Justine belongs to Lily now rather than to herself.
Speaking of “picture” this show integrates current cellphone technology into the story in a perfunctory manner. Why more spy stories don’t do this these days makes no sense. Of course spies would be using their phones all the time! It’s the most realistic thing about “The Night Manager” and gives it a sense of “now” that works. The episode opens with Roper explaining to Pine how he’s the straw man in the arms deal. He’ll play Andrew Birch and all the contract signing and dealing will be done in his name. Then Danny and Jed come in so Roper can say goodbye to his son as he goes back to be with his mother, location classified.
Speaking of classified, Burr has a secret meeting with Harry, an MI6 agent from her old days working there. Harry says Halo is Dromgoole, the head of MI6, and Felix is Langley in London. They’re falsifying MOD certificates with Harry’s help. This is corruption and fraud. So, a contrite Harry gives her helpful documents that she and Steadman analyze with their team. Through these docs, Angela finds out Roper and Langbourne are on a plane to Instanbul with a man named Andrew Birch. Burr then realizes that Pine may now be Andrew Birch.
Jed then confronts Pine, asking if he’s Andrew Birch, Thomas Quince, or Johnathan Pine. He says he can’t tell her. For some reason this mystery gets Jed really hot. So, they go up to his room and do it. Question now is whether Andrew Birch is a sentimental schmuck like Pine with his lady in Cairo or more like the douchebag he was as Thomas Quince in Devon – just lovin and leavin them. Or perhaps Birch is a new brand of blue-eyed babe. He certainly seems comfortable in Roper’s world now.
The next day during the contract signing part of the deal the sellers do a biometric iris scan of Andrew Birch and take a look at his bank account, which miraculously contains three hundred million dollars. Pine’s come a long way from being “The Night Manager” now.
Part two of the deal takes place late at night on a cargo ship. The sellers then do another retinal scan on Birch and the purchase gets authorized. They give Birch/Pine special vodka and convey the arms from their cargo ship onto Roper’s trucks. The next day Roper, Langbourne, and Birch will fly out to the buyer with enough weapons to start a war.
Late that night Jed calls Pine “just to know he’s there” but instead of cooing back, he tells her to get off the line. Pine knows Burr’s team is listening. The next morning Angela says Pine’s in too deep. Pine retorts that Burr can’t nail Roper without him. She’s certain to get him, though, as long as the operation goes forward. Angela still insists Pine has to flee the operation but Instead he notifies Roper that being monitored by police. So, Roper calls for a full evacuation, everybody on the road in ten minutes. Pine leaves with Roper, off the grid now and officially pisses off Burr who’s mad pregnant at this point. Anyone familiar with pregnancy rage knows that the real action hasn’t even started yet on “The Night Manager” so stay tuned for the inevitable blitzkreig.
“Meinertzhagen’s Haversack” takes a page from the playbook of military deception to tell the story of five software engineers in battle with the very company they created. In fact, this whole episode revolves around the theme of taking a page from another’s playbook. The first line of the show is a guy who tells Richard, Dinesh, and Gilfoyle, “This is your future,” while pointing into a space for a small box to fit. Needless to say, they’re not inspired by this vision of their future and are looking for a new play in the Pied Piper game. If Jack Barker goes through with the sales team’s “box” vision the three of them will end up living in this basement warehouse so they can provide the 24/7 service the sales team promised.
So, Richard approaches Jack about turning Pied Piper into an appliance. But Jack’s unreachable and says he needs the box. What the engineers want doesn’t matter, a moot point with him. Gilfoyle, in response, changes his LinkedIn status to “looking for work” and immediately starts getting wooed by every engineering recruiter in town. The more Gilfoyle refuses to take meetings, the more goodies they send. It’s straight out of the “playing hard to get” playbook AKA The Rules. In Gilfoyle’s case, unlike the majority of women who actually bought that book, this play works and he uses it throughout the episode; even getting pizza for the house with the mere promise of a meeting.
Meanwhile Richard’s going off book when he decides to talk to Laurie (head of Raviga – their investor company) behind Jack’s back. Jared points out that this is a “serious breach of protocol” but Richard does it anyway. He’s always been a rule-follower before, so Richard’s gone rogue and uses a whole new playbook here. Considering this play involves a breach of ethics and two beautiful women, maybe he’s using Barney Stinson’s. As a result of Richard’s attempt at rebellion, Laurie calls Jack to root for the platform and nix the box idea. But Jack’s working out of the sandbox playbook and says either they do it his way or he’s taking all his toys and going home. Laurie just fired Richard, so she can’t oust Jack now without looking like she fires a CEO every time her phone needs charging. So, when Barker threatens to leave Pied Piper, Laurie has to concede and they’re back to “the box”.
Gilfoyle finally ends up taking a meeting but it’s an unwelcome revelation. The company EndFrame, who stole half of the Pied Piper Algorithm in a previous episode, now has the other half as well; thanks to the Nucleus team who cracked that code in the last episode and then joined EndFrame. It’s a dark day for Pied Piper. They underestimated their competition, a classic mistake for those not mindful of their Art of War in the workplace playbook.
Then the Pied Piper core team has a meeting and Erlich inspires them with a revolutionary speech saying they should just build the platform anyway. What can Jack do? Richard gets inspired by this idea. He realizes that if they could get away with doing it surreptitiously, Barker would have to act like it was his idea all along when they ended up delivering the platform rather than the box. So, they plan to create a secret company inside the company – a Skunk Works. They’ll pretend to build the box and the whole time secretly build the platform, all the while hiding it from the sales team. This is where we’re hit with a barrage of playbook references, Oceans Eleven, Shawshank Redemption, and The Great Escape, are all mentioned as they try to configure a playbook for their own version of Skunk Works.
After they work it all out and have a playbook ready, Jared tells them about “Meinertzhagen’s Haversack,” a principle of military deception. Essentially, you keep acting “the part” to maintain the appearance of the status quo and thus protect your secret deeds from detection. But when they go into the office the next morning all prepped and ready to pull of their secret mission, it all falls apart. Richard trips, falls, and sends the Skunk Works secret documents right into the hand of a sales team guy. That guy brings their Skunk Works playbook to Jack right away and thus, they’re busted before they even began. This creates a conundrum for Jack. He can’t really fire them because without them he has no Pied Piper Algorithm. Jack can demand that they make the box but can’t watch them every minute to make sure they’re not really making the platform. That would require George Orwell’s “1984,” probably the most unpopular workplace playbook of all time.
Vanessa Ives: Hermit, introspection, searching, guidance, solitude. Tarot cards sometimes work on a literal level, like here with Vanessa opening the episode in classic Hermit fashion. Vanessa has pulled the drapes closed and left piles of dirty dishes on every surface of her house, waking only to eat and ignore visitors. She’s the Rip Van Winkle of Penny Dreadful in “The Day Tennyson Died,” and deeply depressed too. Vanessa rises from a sleep of the ages to a state of semi-consciousness thank to Lyle at her front door. The Hermit card signifies solitude but also searching, which Vanessa begins anew in this episode. She seeks the guidance of Dr. Seward and, by the end of the episode, takes her advice. All this seems to point to the beginning of a new phase for Vanessa. She’s ready to come out from Hermit hiding now and into the sunlight.
Sir Malcolm Murray: Hanged Man, reversal, suspension, sacrifice. Malcolm just buried Sembene in his homeland of Africa and now contrite, just wants to disappear and never face a demon again. Who can blame him? But The Hanged Man card instructs to turn back and face that which we’d rather ignore. In Malcolm’s case this means facing his destiny as a demon-hunter. It’s clearly a sacrifice for him to resume his Allan Quatermain lifestyle now just when Malcolm most wants to Netflix and chill. But Murray is, above all else, a man with a mission no matter how much he wants to deny it. This is why The Hanged Man card is perfect for him at the this juncture because it’s about putting self interest aside and following one’s “calling” which Kaetenay, a new friend, reminds Malcolm.
Ethan Talbot: The Star, hope, inspiration, serenity (The Moon) illusion, imagination, shadows. Normally, Ethan would clearly be The Moon card. In fact, the actual card has wolves on it and is all about secret hidden selves, in other words – Ethan’s jam. But “The Day Tennyson Died” remarks on many new beginnings for characters and this is where Ethan finals begins to seem at peace. He’s accepted his situation and is finally ready to shine a light on his own personal truth. He’s finally facing his father and in the meantime everybody else is looking at him. This is The Star tarot card in a nutshell. He’s inspiring a whole new territory now, New Mexico and all the wonders of the American West. Ethan’s The Star of this show, with a group of hired bandits taking over an entire locomotive just to steal him away from Scotland Yard and return him to his father. Meanwhile Hecate isn’t letting Ethan out of her sight. So, he’s being watched from all sides. We’re certain he’ll be back to his hidden moon phase soon enough. The last words from him were wishing his captors luck at getting him “home” because though Ethan doesn’t know exactly what the wolf inside him will do, he knows it’s gonna be dangerous.
Dr. Victor Frankenstein: Devil, bondage, obsession, addiction, materialism. We knew Victor was becoming a drug addict because he ended season two with a needle in his arm. So, when “The Day Tennyson Died” reveals that he’s descended fully now into narcotic oblivion we’re unsurprised. Victor’s obsession remains the same, his creation, Lily, and the drugs that help him forget her. Frankenstein enlists his old pal from medical school, the notorious Dr. Jekyll, to help him tame Lily. Or, if that doesn’t work, help him destroy her. The Devil Card arises at just these times, when addictions compel one to act in complete disdain of reason. Victor can no longer be reasonable. He’s wrapped up in his addiction to Lily and the fact that she’s actually a monster drives him drugs and becoming a madman himself. Of course, because he’s Victor Frankenstein, he thinks he can “tamper with the formula” of his creation and perhaps fix her. Little does Victor realize that his only fixable problems are his own. Victor would be best off hitting a twelve step program at this point but instead he’s riding The Devil train to his own destruction. More fun for us to watch, at least.
Dr. Henry Jekyll: Temperance, balance, health, combining.
The Creature: The Fool, beginnings, faith, folly. The Creature ended last season in “The Bell Jar” so, we imagine it’s all uphill from here. Yes, he starts season three in a starvation snow storm situation… but soon leaves it behind to start a new adventure. He’s The Fool because finally, after a veritable lifetime of anguish, The Creature has a twinkling of hope. A vision of himself in his former life, before he became The Creature, gives him a glimpse of the man he once was. He had a son and a home life, apparently. It’s a brief vision but enough for The Creature to shift into gear and ready himself for a new beginning. He declares that he’s going “home” to the ravenous men left behind on an the abandoned ship in the middle of an arctic nowhere-land. The Creature starts on the journey of The Fool the “zero” card because it signifies the fresh start of the whole archetypal story. He has no idea what lies ahead but still, he can’t wait to get there and find out. That is The Fool in a nutshell.
Dr. Seward: The Magician, action, concentration, conscious awareness. Patti Lupone brought one of the most powerful characters to season two with the Cut Wife/Joan Clayton and she’s set up to be no less a master in season three. Dr. Seward personifies the Magician in her conscious awareness of how to help Vanessa. She jumps in and gets Vanessa focused on a small achievable goal for the day, “do something new,” and it has magical results. This is how the Magician works. It’s a card about creating change through conscious intervention. Dr. Seward energizes the bereft Vanessa into action when she least wants to do anything. Therapists really can help people this way but it’s gonna take a true Magician to face down Vanessa’s demons.
Dr. Sweet: The Sun, vitality, enlightenment, greatness, assurance. Vanessa meets Dr. Sweet for the first time right after her first therapy session. He quickly wins her (and us) over with his sunny disposition in only one tiny scene. Like The Sun, Dr. Sweet is all about vitality and joy. He’s intrigued by the world of animals and can’t help but share his enthusiasm as he bubbles over with amazing facts from the animal kingdom. Dr. Sweet is delightful and inspiring, just the burst of charming sunshine Vanessa needs in her life right now.
Dorian & Lily: The Lovers, sex, love, passion. Admittedly, we don’t see Dorian and Lily in “The Day Tennyson Died” but we all know what’s going on with them offscreen. They’re doin’ it and doin’ it and doin’ it well.
Hecate: Justice, responsibility, cause and effect, consequences. Speaking of Satan’s minions, this brings us to Hecate AKA hottie-from-the-coven. She’s the only character on the same mission this season as in season two. The girl is out to get Ethan no matter what it takes. The Justice card speaks to facing consequences and taking responsibility which Hecate wants Ethan to do for her. She sees him as the “Wolf of God” calling him “Lupus Dei” and thus, the key to getting Vanessa for her master. Hecate believes she’s a servant of Justice and seeks only to fulfill her servitude. She’ll keep her eye on Ethan and watch him like a cop sitting in wait at a roadside speed trap. The moment he’s vulnerable, she’ll strike with her sexy, naked Hecate brand of Justice and wrath.
Lyle: Strength, patience, compassion, resilience, persuasion. We’ve always seen Lyle as the sort of Oscar Wilde of Egyptogolists but now, with season three, we also get to see his softer side. The Strength card does this as well, it shows a lion to signify inner strength but there’s also an angel on the card because it’s really a card about compassion and composure. Much like Lyle, the Strength card cares deeply. He wants to help Vanessa out of her funk and so he tells her how Dr. Seward guided him out of his own similar depression years before. This persuades Vanessa to get help. Lyle’s inner fortitude, his resilience, enable him to be such an incredible friend that he’s like Vanessa’s guardian angel. The Strength card has the lion beside the angel to remind us that one has to be strong as a lion inside to behave like an angel in this world.
Then Frisky brings Pine’s to meet with Roper and Corcoran soon joins to interrogate Pine about his “sordid” past. “Makes a man wonder who you really are,” Roper says. Then he suggests maybe it’s time for Pine to become somebody new since there’s a worldwide warrant out for him. Pine acts like he’s gonna leave but he can’t. It turns out Roper has confiscated his passport. They want him to stay in the cottage down the beach until Roper figures out what to do with him. It’s a forced welcome into the fold. Corky, though, still doesn’t trust him and wishes he’d just walk into the sea with stones in his pockets, Virginia Woolf style.
Meanhwile Steadman tells Burr that since Apostel’s daughter killed herself he’s been attending church daily and even called the investigators in Madrid to say he has information about a big arms deal about to go down. The guy’s contrite as fuck. So, Burr approaches him at church and tells him she’s his guardian angel. She claims that if Roper wasn’t in Apostel’s life maybe his daughter wouldn’t have killed herself. Although this isn’t really logical or even a reasonable thing for a stranger to say, Apostel isn’t thinking clearly. Burr then tells him he can find redemption by assisting her and taking down Roper. The first step will be extricating Corky from Roper’s inner circle. Right away Burr puts Apostel to this task.
Next we finally see the big meeting between Apostel, Roper, and Langbourne. During it Pine listens in on Jed talking to her mother and crying. He interrupts to tell her the guests are arriving and sees her partially naked in the process – just a side boob, really. But much is made of it by Pine who apologizes later. During the party he and Jed go for a walk along the beach and she says she doesn’t care who sees her naked but makes him promise not to tell anyone she was crying. Then Jed strips down and skinny dips to prove her point about nudity and though Pine refuses to join her in the water, it’s obvious he wants to. We’re meant to understand that women are Pine’s speical weakness and yeah, we get it. He’s here in this mess to avenge a woman he literally slept with once. But guess what? Being into women isn’t really so unique. It’s what straight guys do. You’re not so freaking special, Pine!
While at the meeting Apostel tells Langbourne that “Mr. Bargatti,” the guy with the arms to sell, is concerned about Corky and thinks he’ll run off at the mouth because he’s a big drinker. So, when Langbourne passes along this info to Roper, he starts alienating Corky a bit from the inner circle. Corcoran is an instinctual fellow and immediately senses something is off. Speaking of Langbourne, it turns out that hot potato teen he was flirting with isn’t his daughter at all. She’s the family nanny. We were right about him screwing her, though. Langbourne’s wife tells Pine all about it on the sexy end of the pool where all the action seems to happen at Roper’s place. She also divulges a ton of insider info about the arms deal going on between Bargatti, Apostel and Roper. Her motivation for this seems rather implausible as all she gets out of it is a half-ass back rub from Pine while he puts sunscreen on her. Then Pine sends a surreptitious text to Burr and Steadman using Danny’s cellphone to give them all the dirt Ms. Langbourne told him about the arms deal.
Speaking of secrets, one of the MI6 peeps meets with Roper and Langbourne to tell them about Burr and Steadman’s operation. So, he’s a double agent of sorts and then it turns out Halo itself – a division of MI6 is in on the whole deal. This is also in the documents Pine photographed. Then Roper and Jed have a huge fight over the phone where she accuses him of hiding stuff and he confronts her about having a secret kid. Meanwhile Pine’s texting the documents he photographed to Burr and Steadman. This is when they discover Halo’s involvement. In this rapid unfurling of two parallel secrets, the truth comes out on both sides of the story, personal and business.
When Roper’s back from Monaco he has a present for Pine, a new identity and passport but first Pine needs to witness a document for Roper. He’s going to be Andrew Stephen Birch now and sign on to a “new company” with this new name. Best line from “Part Three” of The Night Manager is when Pine asks about what he’s signing and Langbourne says, “Jesus, for a murderer on the run you’re pretty bloody picky”. While reading it over Pine sees that he’s officially replacing Corky as Roper’s right hand man. Then as “Part three” concludes Roper says, “Welcome to the family, Andrew,” and thus Pine’s in like Flynn. We can only presume/hope he’ll ruin this picture perfect postcard family situation by banging Jed in the near future. That beautiful face of his is just begging for another beating. At least we think so.
Episode two opens with Richard in the same doctor’s office he visited way back in the first episode of Silicon Valley. Difference is that this time he’s healthy, glowing even. But then, just like in the pilot, the cheerful doc somehow manages to dishearten Richard about his prospects, “You have a boss at your own company?” the doc asks. Speaking of Pied Piper, in the next scene Richard and his whole team enter their new super dope office space brought to them by new CEO Action Jack. Dinesh and Gilfoyle get sucked into how amazeballs “work” is now. But Richard immediately asks Jack if the company can really afford all this. In response Jack tells Richard a story about Google without really answering the question. He’s all about growth, baby.
Jared remains a beacon of positivity and he’s right about the new logo Jack gave Pied Piper. It’s better. Sometimes Jared’s sunny disposition can be his undoing, though. For instance, he can move back into his condo now that Pied Piper’s funded and he’s got the money for the mortgage. But it turns out the guy who was air-bnbing his place never left and has transitioned to squatter status. Given the California tenant protection laws, this doesn’t bode well for Jared having a home anytime soon unless he breaks some – a most un-Jared proposition.
Action Jack sets up a sales team meeting with Richard where he hears more news that upsets him about the path Action Jack’s choosing for Pied Piper. But where is he? The CEO rarely seems to be around the office. In fact, he’s preoccupied at a horse stable when Richard finally chases Jack down to confront him about all this. They watch a stallion mount a mare as Richard tries to do his own brand of drilling down to what exactly is going on with his company. Why does sales want to cut all the best parts of Pied Piper? And how can they when Jack promised he wouldn’t compromise the product?
Richard is caught up in all the possibilities of his compression capabilities, as he should be because they’re his and have potential to be world-changing for reals. But then Jack breaks the news to him that right now his job as CEO is simply to raise the price of Pied Piper stock. That this is actually the “product” everybody is talking about, the stock. We know from when Jack was introduced in the last episode that his value as CEO was measured by how much he raised the stock value at his last company, so this makes total sense. It’s what he does. Problem is, this goal creates a trajectory that twists Pied Piper into something other than what it actually is. Sure this thing can “sell easily to businesses” but it’s not even a compression service. It’s a black box for backing up and storing your company’s data to “safely protect it from spies, thieves, criminals, and foreigners”. These fear-mongering words end the video the sales team shows Pied Piper about their “product”. Everybody’s celebrating at the conference table while horrified Richard watches.
Meanwhile at Hooli, Gavin demands the former Nucleus employees, hanging on for their last few days at work, “fix” Hooli searches. This means he wants any search on Hooli to only bring up results that speak of the company in a positive way. It could require changing the search algorithm or promoting other websites to outrank the bad Nucleus news – both highly arduous and troublesome methods that would violate public trust in Hooli search. In the process of figuring out how to fix this “problem” for Gavin the team just happens to crack Richard’s compression algorithm. This means now that they’re leaving Hooli, they can startup a competitive company that’ll have essentially the same capability Pied Piper has. Uh oh. The feces storm has officially flown into Richard’s fan. All while Dinesh and Gifoyle rave happily about how the chef serves watermelon jello in a real watermelon rind.
