With Jian-Yang’s Chinese version of Pied Piper making Richard feel pressure, he goes to Monica to see about raising money with a Series B round. Monica tells him that is not necessary and that he a cease and desist letter will scare them off and Laurie has appointed herself as the temporary CEO of Eklow Labs until they find Ariel and Fiona, so discussing the Series B is out of the question.
When Richard goes to confront Laurie at Eklow you see that she is stressed beyond belief, eventually throwing up because of the stress and empathizing with Richard about the struggles of being a CEO.
Gilfoyle starts to mock Dinesh because he is the last of the 47 engineers to finish their coding. Dinesh then compares himself as the tortoise to Gilfoyle’s hare, saying that though he may have been slower there will be fewer errors in his work. Jared bursts his bubble and tells him that the errors will be kept confidential because they are senior management.
Richard feels bad for Laurie and wants to give her some free Pipernet credits; he says in doing so it will put them in a better position to get their Series B. Seeing that Richard is making an emotional decision, Jared urges him to remove his emotions from making business decisions. He goes on to explain that he has been practicing “emotional abstinence” and has been pulling away from Richard since becoming COO.
Dinesh bullies Danny into telling him who had fewer errors and after some time Danny tells him that he did. Dinesh quickly announces his victory to the entire office. Dinesh then spends the rest of the day hurling terrible insults at Gilfoyle. The next day Gilfoyle reveals he was actually the tortoise and that he struck a deal with the other coders: If they told Dinesh he won, he would take “24 hours to cobble together over 200 uniquely terrible insults.” Danny states the results will stay confidential.
Photo Source: Silicon Valley, HBO
Danny informs Richard that Laurie sold the free credits that were just gifted to her. Angry at the lack of appreciation he goes to confront her. She explains the decision was financially motivated, noting he needs to work on emotional discipline.
When Richard arrives back at Pied Piper, he finds Fiona in a taxi — aside from her creator, he’s the only human she’s had contact with so she didn’t know where else to go. He quickly devises a plan: He will return Fiona to Laurie in exchange for signed Series B term sheet.
The next day, Richard is talking to Jared and finds him outside with Fiona. Jared tells him that the two of them have been talking all night, and they had grown quite close. Richard tells him that he was feeling over emotional because of the “emotional abstinence”. Richard eventually convinces Jared that they need to take Fiona back to Eklow on the pretense that she would be fine. Laurie immediately orders for Fiona to be broken down and sold for parts — leaving Jared horrified and heartbroken.
Photo Source: Silicon Valley, HBO
Possibly the most important part of this episode was what Gavin was up to the entire time. While in China trying to get his Signature Box III to be fast-tracked, his car accidentally hits a biker. Gavin notices the biker is wearing a Pied Piper shirt and orders his driver to follow him. When they get there Gavin finds Jian-Yangs version of Pied Piper. Gavin notices that Jian-Yang has modified Richards code enough to make it usable and the patent won’t cover it. Gavin offers him $100,000, but Jian-Yang won’t accept it without knowing why he wants it. Eventually, Jian-Yang does sell it, but he sells it to Gavin’s partner in China.
My favorite part of this episode was the Dinesh/Gilfoyle arc. It was so petty and silly. The insults Dinesh was using were so bad, but hilarious. Then to find out that it was all for nothing was great.
Jared’s emotional connection to Fiona was also something that was a lot of fun. When he was telling Richard about their conversation he was so excited about it. Jared is just simply the best character on this show. He was very close to falling in love with her, which made the ending so hard to watch. He was truly devastated when they were tearing her apart to sell her for parts.
I am very intrigued to see what happens with the Chinese version of Pied Piper. I hope nothing happens and that our guys get the win, but it very rarely seems to happen with them. Overall though this was not my favorite episode. There was a lot to like about this episode, but it didn’t pull me in as much as the other episodes this season have.
If you would like to contact me you can find me on Twitter @NilesHougaboom and as always be sure to check out The Game of Nerds for your other nerdy needs.
