Winner of 2 EMMYs, nominated for 41 emmys
Silicon Valley
5 SeasonS | 53 Episodes | TV-MA
From HBO and the offbeat mind of Mike Judge (Office Space, Beavis & Butthead) comes this comedy series set in the outrageous world of Silicon Valley's tech start-ups. In each episode, the show follows introverted programmer Richard and his pals who are going nowhere fast--until his website's unique compression algorithm becomes the subject of an extreme bidding war.
Featured Characters
Founder Friendly
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Dan O'Keefe<br><b>Directed by</b> Mike Judge</p><p>After learning he's been fired from Pied Piper, Richard heads to Raviga to confront Laurie and the board. Laurie tells Richard they voted to fund Pied Piper at $5 million and to give it a valuation of $50 million. "You have literally created a company too valuable for you to run," she explains, adding that they're bringing in a new CEO. Refusing her offers to help pick the new CEO and to stay on as CTO, Richard says he'll sue. Ron informs him he's no longer Richard's legal counsel, as he's technically Pied Piper's corporate counsel, and he's not about to sue himself.</p><p>The following day, Monica tries to explain why she voted against Richard: If she hadn't, Laurie would have removed her and still voted him out. "At least this way I'm still in the game," she says. Adding insult to injury, Raviga has already hired a new CEO for Pied Piper: Jack Barker, the head of Entercross Systems, which IPO'd in 1998 for more than a billion dollars.</p><p>After Jared pledges his allegiance to Richard, Dinesh and Gilfoyle acknowledge to each other they want to stay at Pied Piper. At Hooli, Gavin Belson announces they're getting rid of Nucleus and terminating all its employees.</p><p>Dinesh and Gilfoyle discuss Richard: He's a brilliant coder, but lacks managerial skills. Instead of prefacing each complaint with a positive note on Richard's character, they decide to use the acronym RIGBY: Richard Is Great, But Y'know… They agree Richard is arrogant to assume they'd walk out on a payday after giving up their own apps to work on his.</p><p>Jared presents Richard with a stack of companies offering to hire him as CTO. "You are the belle of the ball," he explains, "and these are all your swains, hoping for a glimpse of ankle."</p><p>Erlich meets with Jack Barker at Raviga, armed with the best Friars' Roast old man jokes, and is completely charmed by him. Apparently, he's a longtime fan of Erlich's work and Aviato.</p><p>Richard reviews the companies in contention and decides Flutterbeam is the best fit. Erlich tries to talk Richard into meeting with Jack Barker first, believing a partnership between him and Richard would make Pied Piper a "decacorn": the rare company to have a $10 billion valuation before its IPO. Dinesh and Gilfoyle take the opportunity to tell Richard they're staying on at Pied Piper, and that they believe they can scale the app without him. He storms out to meet with Flutterbeam immediately.</p><p>At Flutterbeam, the founders tell Richard they want him on a secret project -- an app that puts mustaches on your face during live chats. Despite being underwhelmed by the idea, Richard calls his lawyer, Pete Monahan, to review the contract, but learns he's in prison following a violent bender sparked by the alcohol in kombucha tea. Richard meets with Monahan at the prison, who tells him to swallow his pride and take the CTO job at Pied Piper.</p><p>Dinesh and Gilfoyle quickly discover they can't scale without Richard after all, and hope they can still quit on the grounds of their loyalty to Richard.</p><p>Big Head signs a Hooli termination contract, agreeing not to disparage Gavin or the company publicly or privately, earning $20 million for his silence.</p><p>Richard meets with Jack, who accepts Richard's decision not to work at Pied Piper. Jack says he won't take the CEO job without him, and kindly shows Richard out, wishing him well in his future endeavors. Richard is barely out of the driveway before he stops the car and realizes what he's giving up. He puts his car in reverse and heads back.</p></div>
Two in the Box
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Clay Tarver<br><b>Directed by</b> Mike Judge<br></p><p>Richard meets with his doctor to discuss the results of a blood test, and the doctor tells him he's in perfect health. Richard mentions he has a new boss at Pied Piper, and how he enjoys having someone else deal with the parts of the business that used to drive him crazy. The doctor mocks Richard for ceding control of his company, and suggests he perform a testicle check -- to make sure Richard still has them.</p><p>Jack Barker shows Richard and the guys around their hip new office space -- and the new Pied Piper company logo, which he failed to consult Richard about. Richard worries they can't afford the space, but Jack takes him aside and reminds him how Google's amenities attracted the best talent in the business.</p><p>With Pied Piper on its feet, Jared announces he's moving out of Noah's guest house and back into his condo, which he's been renting out on Airbnb. When Jared arrives at his condo he finds his tenant, Ludwig, is still there, claiming he can't afford to live in the area because people like Jared have raised the cost of living. Ludwig refuses to leave, so Jared begins the long, expensive process of eviction.</p><p>At Hooli, Gavin suggests his engineers alter the company's algorithm so it won't show negative search results about him, but backtracks when they suggest it's a terrible idea. The execs, however, tell the remaining Nucleus team they must see the idea through, or else quit and abandon their severance packages.</p><p>The next day, Richard and the guys head to the new Pied Piper offices and find a whole crew of salespeople milling about. Richard questions whether they should build the platform first, but Jack says no, referencing his "conjoined triangles of success" business model.</p><p>Erlich shows the Hacker Hostel to a new tenant, and later tries to kick out Jian-Yang so that a new incubee can move into his old room. Jian-Yang doesn't take the news well and starts freaking out. Later, after Erlich unwittingly reveals why Jared is moving back into the garage, Jian-Yang decides to use California's tenant laws to his own advantage and also refuses to move out.</p><p>Richard shares the plans for the platform with the sales team, but they reveal Jack has decided it will be a business-facing, rather than consumer-facing, product. When Richard confronts Jack about yet another decision he made without consulting him, Jack reminds him they're in a bubble and don't have four years to wait before they turn a profit. He does promise that no matter what happens, he'll never compromise the product.</p><p>As Nucleus scrubs the net of Gavin references, they realize how to make Nucleus even faster. They decide they'll take their new plan elsewhere since they were fired by Hooli.</p><p>At Pied Piper, the sales team pushes Richard to remove the neural net from the platform -- along with everything else that makes it cool -- in order to sell it more easily to businesses. Richard loses it and seeks out Jack at his horse ranch in Sonoma, where he's actively breeding horses. He reminds Jack of his promise not to compromise the product and demands he back him up. Instead, Jack explains Pied Piper's product isn't the platform -- it's the stock -- and they'll do whatever it takes to make its value go up.</p><p>Back at the office, the sales team shows Richard their sales reel, and it's all wrong: "What if there was a way to take all of your company's data and back it up completely isolated from the world at large?" it asks. They reveal the plan to create a dull-looking black metal box that looks like a VCR. Richard is mortified to discover Pied Piper is no longer a platform, but physical hardware.</p></div>
Meinertzhagen's Haversack
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Adam Countee<br><b>Directed by</b> Charlie McDowell</p><p>Richard, Dinesh and Gilfoyle walk around a bunker-like data center while a middle-aged engineer shows them where the Pied Piper boxes would go. The guys learn the new sales team promised 24-hour-a-day, on-site maintenance -- meaning one of them would have to work in this massive basement tech hell for a year. The engineer attempts to put a positive spin on the work environment: "There's really no difference between day and night down here, so it makes things easy."</p><p>Richard continues to push for a full platform over a physical box, but Jack flatly refuses to pursue the software route. Richard relays this to Dinesh and Gilfoyle, who quits on the spot. "That box is artless commerce," he says. "I won't be a party to it."</p><p>Back at the Hacker Hostel, Gilfoyle adds a gift basket to his growing pile of offerings from recruiters (which includes an Oculus and a hoverboard). Richard announces he's contacted Monica and arranged a meeting with Laurie behind Jack's back to discuss Jack's new "vision" for the platform.</p><p>Richard meets with Laurie at Raviga and is pleasantly surprised to find she completely agrees with him -- the box is an "uninspired application" of Pied Piper's tech. She plans to call Jack and tell him to pursue the platform development instead.</p><p>At Pied Piper, the guys watch through Jack's glass wall as he receives the call from Laurie. After blowing up at her, he immediately calls Richard in to see him. Jack tells Richard he's going forward with the box, despite Laurie's objections. He told her if she disagreed she could fire him, but Laurie refused. Despite Richard playing dumb about his involvement, Jack stops him on his way out of the office and warns, "If you're going to shoot the king, you've got to be goddamn sure you kill him."</p><p>Richard meets with Monica and relays what happened in Jack's office, questioning why Laurie won't fire him. Monica explains it would look bad for her to fire two CEOs within a month.</p><p>A limo driver delivers a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle to Gilfoyle from Twen-X recruiters. The catch is Gilfoyle only gets the bottle if he sits down with them. At Twen-X, Gilfoyle is shocked to find he's meeting with the guys from Endframe. They show him they've figured out the Pied Piper predictive loop and thus have cracked middle-out compression themselves.</p><p>The Hacker Hostel has a general atmosphere of defeat, but Erlich appears and proposes they secretly go through with developing the platform anyway, despite Jack's order. Richard realizes Erlich has a point; if all they build is the platform, Jack will be forced to embrace it and pretend it was his idea all along. He wouldn't want Laurie to think he has no control over his own company. Richard, Gilfoyle, Jared and Dinesh all get behind the idea and spend the night plotting out how to covertly develop the platform while simultaneously appearing to build the box. They develop a plan, which they call "Skunkworks."</p><p>Arriving at work the next morning, Richard is startled when Jared makes an unbelievably disturbing joke, trips on a garden hose, and the papers detailing Skunkworks fly everywhere.</p><p>One of the sales guys picks up the papers and marches over to Jack's office to show him. A moment later, Jack emerges and demands the guys join him in his office.</p></div>
Maleant Data Systems Solutions
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Donick Cary<br><b>Directed by</b> Charlie McDowell</p><p>After discovering Richard and the guys' "Skunkworks" documents, Jack pulls them into his office and shows them a copy of the agreement with Maleant to build the box. When he threatens to fire them, Richard points out that the deal expires unless Pied Piper produces a prototype for review within 10 weeks. Because Richard and his team are among the few proficient enough to create the box, Richard gets Jack to compromise: They'll make a bare-bones prototype and then go on to develop the platform.</p><p>Richard reluctantly takes a meeting with Dang, a product designer at Pied Piper, to discuss the look of the box. He shuts down the meeting when Dang presents a slideshow of nature shots to discuss "aesthetic vocabulary" for the project. Richard hastily draws a black box on a white board and tells Dang to make that.</p><p>After losing his privileged parking spot to the bicycle technician, Denpok takes a meeting with Gavin to angle his way back into the game. He reveals people are criticizing Gavin's leadership -- shuttering Nucleus only allowed his opponents to move forward unopposed. Richard, Dinesh and Gilfoyle try to turn on their prototype box, but it won't start. Gilfoyle admits he made his uploader eight times faster than the minimum speed, so the modules aren't running at the same speed, because he can't stand to intentionally do subpar work. Gilfoyle's work inspires Richard and Dinesh to think up streamlining capabilities. Dang comes over to show the sample design: a black box. The guys are disappointed with how basic the product looks now that they have bigger plans for it, and tell him to make it flashier.</p><p>Erlich finds Jared still living in his garage; Jared's tenant-turned-squatter is renting out the apartment himself on Airbnb so Jared needs more time to find a place. To ensure he has space for Jared, Erlich calls Fred, a potential new tenant, and learns he's already taken a room at another incubator house. Erlich demands the address and discovers Big Head has accidentally started a deluxe version of his own incubator business model. He proposes he and Big Head partner up.</p><p>Richard tries to show Jack a working prototype, but Jack has bad news: Maleant scrapped the deal and went with a product by Dectosphere instead. When Richard learns Dectosphere is able to hit 75 megabits per second, he tells Jack they've gotten the box to 200 megs. Richard requests a sit-down with Connor Greene at Maleant.</p><p>After a successful meeting with Greene, Richard and Jack chummily convene the board to review the new contract with Maleant. However, Monica notices the new contract wording gives Maleant exclusive rights to the box's algorithm for three years -- meaning Richard could not use the algorithm for anything else, including the platform, for that long. Laurie and Jack won't sacrifice the immense profits expected from the box for the promise of a platform that has no market value assigned to it, but Monica throws her support with Richard and Erlich and they successfully vote down the contract. Monica acknowledges this is a temporary solve; Laurie will no doubt replace her on the board and re-vote the next day.</p><p>That night, Gavin calls Richard and tells him Hooli just purchased Endframe for $250 million. Everyone is distraught at the news until Erlich points out Gavin just set the market price for their platform. It now has an enticing value they can present to Laurie and Jack. When the guys go in to stick this news to Jack, they find Laurie alone in his office. She tells them she's fired Jack, and they can proceed with developing the platform. But until further notice, the CEO chair will remain empty.</p></div>
The Empty Chair
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Megan Amram<br><b>Directed by</b> Eric Appel</p><p>Richard grows increasingly anxious over the state of Pied Piper as tech-buzz builds around Jack's dismissal and possible replacements.</p><p>After learning how much money Jack spent on new office space and amenities, Richard decides to take action: They're going to break the lease, dismiss the sales team, have a fire sale of everything in the office and put everything into hiring engineers to code the platform.</p><p>When Richard gives the sales team notice, Jan asks if he has the legal right to do so. Code/Rag has reported Richard's tech is mediocre and that's the reason no one will take the CEO job. Jan assumed Richard had been fired by Laurie.</p><p>At Big Head's incubator, Erlich dictates a contract with terms decidedly in Erlich's favor. Big Head expresses concern, but Erlich tells him every successful partnership is about "committing fully, blindly and without concern for the consequences."</p><p>Richard calls Laurie to confront her about the rumors. He demands she set up an interview between him and Code/Rag reporter C.J. Cantwell to set the record straight. Laurie insists Richard meet with her head of PR to work on his communication skills first.</p><p>At the Hacker Hostel, Big Head tells Erlich his business manager has some questions before Big Head signs anything. Erlich plays up his disbelief and tells Big Head they need to pave the road of their partnership with trust. A moment later, Big Head takes a call from Laurie, asking if he wants to interview for the Pied Piper CEO job. Upon hearing the news, Richard storms out for his PR meeting in a rage.</p><p>Richard arrives at the Raviga offices and is directed to a conference room where a woman is sitting. Assuming the woman is the head of PR, Richard launches into a tirade against Laurie, revealing how much he still wants to be CEO.</p><p>Meanwhile, over drinks, Laurie confides in Monica that she made a mistake firing Richard as CEO. Laurie is only pretending to review other candidates before reinstating Richard.</p><p>After Richard finishes his rant, the publicity director walks into the room. The woman he's just vented to introduces herself as C.J. Cantwell, and heads off after saying she has everything she needs. Richard chases after her, but Cantwell says unless he has a better story, she's going to publish the following day.</p><p>Later, Big Head comes to the Hacker Hostel to sign contracts with Erlich, and Richard tells him about the interview with Cantwell. Big Head says in passing he bets Richard wishes he could scrub the internet like Gavin Belson. Hearing this, Richard takes Big Head to tell the story to Cantwell; she agrees to spike the one about Richard.</p><p> </p><p>Richard and Erlich return to the hostel after a board meeting and announce Richard has been reinstated as Pied Piper's CEO. Jared introduces him to the engineers they've hired to develop the platform via video chat -- made affordable as they work remotely from around the world.</p></div>
Bachmanity Insanity
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Carson Mell<br><b>Directed by</b> Eric Appel</p><p>The guys celebrate Richard's re-instatement as CEO of Pied Piper at a local Mexican restaurant. Over margaritas, Richard reveals he got the number of a good-looking woman at the bar. With the exception of Jared, the guys can't believe a woman would be interested in Richard and insist she's either a man, the bartender being nice, or a "founder hounder."</p><p>Back at the Hacker Hostel, Richard video chats with his engineers, calling one of them out for using spaces, not tabs, in his code. Dinesh starts a separate chat afterwards with pretty engineer Elisabet but Gilfoyle is skeptical of the genuineness of her flirtation.</p><p>C.J. Cantwell's "Gavin Belson's Hooli-Scrub Scandal" goes live on Code/Rag, and protesters come out in force outside Hooli. Gavin threatens to sue Cantwell unless she reveals her source; she alerts Big Head about Gavin's threat. Erlich promises to deal with the situation after Big Head tells him there's a chance he'll lose his settlement money for violating his non-disclosure agreement.</p><p>Dinesh continues to flirt with Elisabet via video chat, though Gilfoyle reminds him the quality is poor and she could actually be ugly. The guys learn that Winnie, the woman Richard met at the restaurant, spent the night. While Richard gets his keys to drive her home, Winnie makes small talk with Gilfoyle and Dinesh. When they find out she codes with spaces, not tabs, they warn her against revealing the information to Richard.</p><p>Big Head meets with his business manager, Arthur, who worries Big Head is allowing Erlich to take advantage of him. Just then, Erlich calls to tell Big Head he solved the Gavin problem and made a "strategic investment" at the same time: He bought Code/Rag from Cantwell for half a million dollars.</p><p>Motivated by his developing flirtation with Elisabet, Dinesh figures out a way to use the Pied Piper compression for RTC, creating a better resolution for video chatting.</p><p>At the hostel, Erlich hands out invitations to "Bachmanity Insanity" -- the luau-themed party he (and ostensibly Big Head) are hosting at Alcatraz to launch their partnership.</p><p>Later, at Winnie's apartment, Richard and Winnie get into an argument after she reveals her preference for spaces over tabs, and Richard is unable to let it go. Richard breaks up with her and leaves the apartment, only to fall down the stairs on his way out.</p><p>When Elisabet sees what Dinesh looks like through his new high resolution video chat, she claims she has a husband and quickly signs off.</p><p>Dinesh and Richard glumly sip drinks at the "Bachmanity" launch party. Erlich tells them he's about to take the stage, where he plans to rub his latest success in the faces of his "fiercest rivals." His party planner, Sasha, pulls him aside to tell him several vendors claim their checks bounced. Erlich rushes to speak with Big Head, who's sitting with Arthur. Arthur reveals that with the purchase of Code/Rag and the lavish party, along with other irresponsible spending, Erlich and Big Head are functionally insolvent.</p></div>
To Build a Better Beta
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> John Levenstein<br><b>Directed by</b> Jamie Babbit</p><p>Richard grows frustrated with the in-development Pied Piper platform as it remains buggy. Dinesh and Jared suggest they release a beta version to help uncover bugs and fix them at a faster rate, but Richard worries that doing so would only subject the company to more bad-mouthing. Richard's resolve weakens when he discovers Gilfoyle gave the beta to his girlfriend, Tara, who thinks the platform is awesome.</p><p>Erlich meets with Arthur who explains Erlich's partnership with Big Head means he's also facing financial ruin -- even bankruptcy won't absolve him of his debts.</p><p>Richard gives himself, Dinesh, Jared and Gilfoyle 10 links each of the beta to share out with people they trust. Gilfoyle says he doesn't trust anyone and gives his links to Jared and Dinesh. Dinesh secretly struggles to find anyone to share his with.</p><p>Jared looks over Erlich's finances, and informs him someone earmarked almost 70 percent of Big Head's settlement money for taxes. They both suspect Arthur is to blame for the missing sum. At Hooli, Gavin illegally scans through employee email and learns that Pied Piper released a beta. He tasks his head of security with getting him access.</p><p>Erlich and Big Head confront Arthur, who ultimately admits to stealing Big Head's money. Unfortunately, he can't return it, as he's been funneling the money into his other clients' accounts (whose money he's been losing for years).</p><p>Feedback on the Pied Piper beta is overwhelmingly positive, though Monica finds herself in the minority. Faced with Richard's delight at all the positive feedback, as well as his desire to move up the initial launch, Monica keeps her reservations to herself.</p><p>Erlich and Big Head meet with the D.A., who tells them there's no realistic way to get their money back from Arthur. She suggests Erlich sell his shares of Pied Piper, though he's reluctant to sell knowing they could someday be worth billions. The D.A. remains unsympathetic to their plight, calling them out as entitled white men who would have squandered the money, and promises to prosecute if Erlich doesn't pay his vendors what he owes them.</p><p>Richard, using the God-View user tracking Gilfoyle set up, discovers that someone on the Hooli campus is using the beta platform. The guys launch a zip bomb on Gavin's personal laptop and phone, killing his access and destroying both devices. Making matters worse for Gavin, Eric and Naveen, Hooli's key engineers, quit when he demands they do a ground-up rebuild of their compression platform to match Pied Piper's.</p><p>Again using the God-View, Richard tracks down Monica at a hookah bar and gets her to admit she doesn't like the beta. All the same, she encourages him to proceed with the launch and sets up a meeting with Laurie to get things under way. After the meeting, Erlich approaches Laurie to discuss selling his shares of the company.</p><p>At the Hacker Hostel, the guys count down the final seconds to the official launch of the Pied Piper platform.</p></div>
Bachman's Earning's Over-Ride
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Carrie Kemper<br><b>Directed by</b> Jamie Babbit</p><p>Emily Chang from Bloomberg TV interviews Richard and Erlich live after the successful launch of Pied Piper, and the boys celebrate their invitation to the Vanity Fair summit dinner. When Chang refers to Pied Piper as the next unicorn, Erlich squirms at the mention of his stake in the company. Following the interview, Monica calls Erlich, who begrudgingly promises to tell Richard about selling his shares, after the Vanity Fair dinner.</p><p>At the Hacker Hostel, Erlich reminds Richard that they have a Verge photoshoot to attend, and Richard suggests that Erlich, alone, be the face of the company. Jared walks in wearing a flamboyant Pied Piper letterman jacket, to which Gilfoyle remarks, "If my mother was naked and dead in the street, I would not cover her body with that jacket."</p><p>Gavin Belson presents another animal metaphor to the unamused Hooli board -- this time it's a tortoise and a hare representing EndFrame and Pied Piper. Belson is accused of losing his touch, and is informed that Hooli will be moving on without him at the helm.</p><p>Jared and Richard interview prospective PR guy David at the hostel, and he mentions having noticed a large sale of Pied Piper stock on Laurie's desk. David notes, "insiders only dump stock like that when they know something is wrong," prompting denials from Richard and Jared. Still, Richard is convinced Monica is the one unloading stock.</p><p>Dressed in Jared's monogrammed Pied Piper jacket, Gilfoyle goes to Philz Coffee with Dinesh. As Pied Piper groupies approach Gilfoyle, Dinesh attempts to piggyback on Gilfoyle's popularity. Gilfoyle denies knowing Dinesh, and the groupies tell him to get lost.</p><p>Richard calls Monica and accuses her of dumping her shares. When Monica says otherwise, Richard figures out who's really to blame.</p><p>Richard barges into Erlich's Verge photoshoot, finding him in a unicorn suit. Defeated, Erlich admits: "Erlich Bachman, the name that used to be synonymous with success, went broke and was forced to sell." Richard tells Erlich he needs to make a statement to get ahead of the bad press.</p><p>Jack Barker and Gavin Belson, both heading to Jackson Hole, run into each other on the tarmac. Exchanging pleasantries, the two agree to play chess on their tablets from their respective jets.</p><p>Richard and Jared write the press release about Erlich, but Richard decides to only release it if the rumors spread out of control. Richard pays Erlich rent for the hostel and makes it very clear that Erlich "will have nothing to do with this company whatsoever." He gives Erlich's board seat to an elated Jared.</p><p>Richard checks into the Vanity Fair dinner, and runs into Russ Hanneman who mentions Erlich approached him about buying half of his Pied Piper shares, but Laurie Bream swooped in and forced Erlich to sell them to her.</p><p>Code/Rag's C.J. Cantwell leaves Erlich a voicemail saying she heard about "ugly shit" going down at Pied Piper.</p><p>At the dinner, Laurie explains to Richard how her control of the board allowed her to block the sale of Erlich's shares to Russ. In one of her "finer moments," she purchased Erlich's shares for the exact price of his debts, $713,000, leaving him with nothing.</p><p>Richard leaves the dinner and returns to the hostel where he discovers that Erlich outed himself to C.J.'s blog to protect Pied Piper. Richard offers Erlich the open PR job just as Jared runs out and exclaims that the Pied Piper app was accepted to the Hooli store.<br>nIn his first official act as "Chief Evangelism Officer," Erlich calls C.J. who reveals that by "ugly shit" she meant the jackets -- but Erlich's tell-all is the hottest thing on her blog.</p></div>
Daily Active Users
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Clay Tarver<br><b>Directed by</b> Alec Berg</p><p>Pied Piper debuts a new high-quality advertisement featuring "tables" as a metaphor for the platform, and Erlich and Laurie Bream make awkward small talk at a party at her house to celebrate 500,000 installs of Pied Piper.</p><p>At the party, Richard tells Monica that while the app has a lot of installs, the number of daily active users is appallingly low, proving that Monica's concern should not have been ignored. Dinesh, Erlich, and Gilfoyle enjoy the celebration, but Jared, who is aware of the numbers, nervously flits around.</p><p>Monica sets up a focus group to get feedback for the platform and the focus group reveals that everyone was "totally freaked out." Richard and Monica realize since they never gave the beta to "regular people," they never got feedback on what "regular people" thought of it until now. Richard, who can't stand the negative feedback, storms into the room to explain the intricacies of the platform. In full-on professor mode, Richard spends his afternoon with the participants until each person understands the function of the platform.</p><p>Richard returns to the hacker hostel and explains to the guys why the platform is tanking. When Dinesh suggests changing the platform, Richard replies, "If you build an airplane, and people are afraid of anything that flies, you can't just take the wings off of it, because at that point, all you're left with is a really slow, super-expensive, shitty bus." Richard proposes spending the rest of the funding on educating the public about how to use Pied Piper. Erlich attempts to rally the group to support Richard, even if his plan is a suicide mission. All of the newly hired employees quit.</p><p>Recently banished, Gavin has lunch with Denpok and tries to figure out his next move. Hoover, Hooli's Head of Security, alerts him that a former Pied Piper employee is interviewing on the Hooli campus. Gavin now has a shot at redeeming himself with the Hooli board.</p><p>After meeting with the employee, Gavin brings his discovery about Pied Piper's daily active users to the disinterested Hooli board. He pretends that he lied about wanting to create a platform, and that his efforts were a charade because he knew any compression platform was destined to fail. The board is skeptical, but they give him another chance when he brings in Jack Barker, the new Head of Hooli-Endframe Product, to reveal what Belson has supposedly in fact been working toward: The Box.</p><p>As Richard continues his quest to explain the platform, Pied Piper's money dwindles and the daily active user number stagnates. Richard returns to the ad agency, where he asks them to create something to clarify the platform for little money. They show him "Pipey" an animated character that lives on the site and troubleshoots user issues. Richard accepts defeat, "Face it, Jared. Being too early is the same as being wrong."</p><p>After he closes the deal with Maleant Data Systems to store "The Box," Gavin's full status as CEO is restored. He leads the board out to the Hooli courtyard where they find an elephant, because an elephant "never forgets," and neither does Gavin. As Richard prepares to dissolve the company, the guys learn that the number of daily active users have gone up. While they celebrate, Jared takes a call and orders more users from a click farm in Bangladesh.</p></div>
The Uptick
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Alec Berg<br>nn<b>Directed by</b> Alec Berg</p><p>Gavin watches from his office window as the deceased elephant is covered and roped off. Patrice is having a tough time disposing of it, and Hoover suggests airlifting it into the bay. When Patrice voices her concerns about Gavin's use of endangered animals, she is fired.</p><p>Jared sits Richard down and prepares to tell him about the fake users. Richard admits he already knows, and asks Jared to keep it between them until they run out of money. </p><p>Erlich proclaims he saved the company by using the uptick to get into the heads of important VCs. Jared and Richard sweat when Erlich tells them Coleman Blair offered $6 million of Series B funding. </p><p>Patrice turns in her Hooli ID. On the guard's computer screen, she sees CJ's blog soliciting tech dirt, and an idea strikes her. <br>nnGilfoyle and Dinesh corner Richard about the fake users. They ask him if he has seen Dinesh's "lost" flash drive that possesses a zombie script that randomizes user actions, so that VCs could not detect clickfarm behavior. Dinesh tells Richard to "keep an eye out for it" as he pulls the drive from his pocket and places it on the ground. </p><p>Richard brings Jared the flash drive, to buy them time until the platform catches on. Jared is not convinced -- "Don't weaponize my faith in you against me," -- but Richard does not want to do the right thing.</p><p>Gavin's "Box" consultation with Dang is interrupted by a call from CJ asking for a statement regarding "the death of an unpermitted Indian elephant named Maurice … and its subsequent illegal dumping in the San Francisco Bay." Gavin asks what he can do to prevent this story coming out, and ends up buying CJ's blog for $2 million. </p><p>Waiting for the meeting at Coleman Blair, Richard gets a call from Monica who is furious that they're raising money somewhere else. Richard prepares to sign the term sheet, but when it is in front of him, he panics, and pitches the video chat platform. Coleman Blair ups the offer thinking Richard's hesitation is a negotiating ploy, so Richard reveals the uptick was fake. Erlich storms out.</p><p>Monica goes to the hostel and is greeted by Dinesh and Gilfoyle who "had no idea any of that stuff was going on." Monica goes to Richard's room and Dinesh gets a glitchy video chat from Gleb. When he goes to fix it, he notices the server is overloaded.</p><p>Monica tells Richard and Jared that Laurie is forcing a sale because "even a whiff of fraud is a mortal sin for VCs." </p><p>Dinesh and Gilfoyle realize the video chat app is rapidly spreading. Erlich announces that he is going to India and he expects Richard "off the premises by end of the day."</p><p>Gavin and Jack run into Laurie, who asks Gavin if he is interested in buying Pied Piper. Gavin, eager "to drive the final nail into the Hendricks coffin," offers $900 cash. Laurie rejects his joke, and Gavin ups the ante to $1 million. </p><p>Richard video chats with Monica who tells him about the pending sale. Big Head notices the chat is much better than Hooli Chat as he prepares to go back to Phoenix with his father. </p><p>Pied Piper has a board meeting to vote on the sale to Hooli. Raviga, which has board majority, prepares to approve the sale, but Monica refuses and is fired. Laurie calls in a random employee to vote yes, but Evan refuses because he is in love with Monica. Richard votes yes to get the sale over with, and to everyone's surprise, Pied Piper is sold to Bachmanity LLC -- the product of a last-minute bid. </p><p>Richard finds Erlich sitting by the pool and thanks him for saving the company. The gang is back at it in the hostel for another game of "always blue" and they discuss redoing the company's apportionment of stock.</p><p></p></div>
Success Failure
Richard struggles to embrace Pied Piper's new video-chat app and Erlich faces resistance from Big Head's dad.
Server Error
Richard finds himself in a web of lies, Jared plans his exit while Jack bets big and Gavin plots a comeback.
Grow Fast or Die Slow
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Ron Weiner</p><p><b>Directed by</b> Mike Judge</p><p>Richard shows Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jared around a potential new office space for Pied Piper — a windowless room with fluorescent lighting. He tries to sell them <g class="gr_ gr_10 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="10" data-gr-id="10">on</g> the affordable space, but the guys aren't convinced. In their eyes, it's a panic attack waiting to happen that lacks the space for the new employees Richard is trying to hire.</p><p> </p> <p>Richard caves and splurges on nicer offices, but because Dinesh and Gilfoyle can't decide on which coders to hire — despite Richard providing over 60 options — the space is nearly empty. Due to their high standards, they've only hired three coders, a group they've affectionately named "The Stallions."</p><p>At the Innovation Hall of Fame ceremony honoring Gavin Belson, Richard runs into an insufferable coder, Dunkin, who interviewed for one of the openings at Pied Piper. "Psyched" about his own startup, a pizza delivery app called <g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="11" data-gr-id="11">Sliceline</g>, Dunkin withdraws his application to join the Pied Piper team. Richard pretends to be crestfallen at this news, but then must deal with a blow to his hiring prospects: Gavin hired all the coders in consideration for positions at Pied Piper.</p><p>With all eligible coders off the job market, Jared suggests they acquire a team instead of building one. He sets up a meeting between Richard and Kira, the CEO of a company called Optimoji that recently lost funding.</p><p> </p> <p>During the meeting, Richard loses the upper hand in negotiations when Dunkin swings by to condescendingly ask about Gavin poaching all of Pied Piper's potential hires. Kira realizes she has a bargaining chip and lays down her terms: Richard hires her full team of 30 employees, instead of just the 12 he needs.</p><p>Gavin meets with the newly hired coders to inform them of Hooli's latest flagship project: The Box. The coders who hoped to work on a decentralized internet like the one Pied Piper is developing, are less than thrilled. Attempting to hide his bruised ego, Gavin sends them all away. Despite the archaic nature of The Box, he's doubling down on the launch due to the enormous dividends it promises.</p><p>Hoping to take over Erlich Bachman's incubator, Jian-Yang meets with Ron Laflamme. The lawyer inadvertently reveals that Erlich owns 10 percent of Pied Piper, launching Jian-Yang's quest to prove Bachman is dead so he can transfer ownership to himself. </p><p>Ron calls Richard to break some bad news: Dunkin swooped in and acquired Optimoji. Richard storms into the <g class="gr_ gr_17 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="17" data-gr-id="17">Sliceline</g> office to confront Dunkin, stealing pizza on the way out. Back at the Hacker Hostel, the guys eat the pizza and realize it's just Domino's in <g class="gr_ gr_18 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="18" data-gr-id="18">Sliceline</g> packaging. Crunching the numbers, Richard discovers Dunkin is losing $5 a box on reboxing and delivery.</p> <p>Richard meets Dunkin and Kira for drinks, pretending to extend the olive branch. Instead, he lays down new terms of <g class="gr_ gr_14 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="14" data-gr-id="14">acquisition</g>. He informs the two CEOs that his "stallions" have worked up a botnet of fake users, ordering pizzas at a rate designed to bankrupt <g class="gr_ gr_12 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="12" data-gr-id="12">Sliceline</g>.</p><p>With the company devalued, Richard acquires it for pennies, and Dunkin and Kira are fired. The only problem is, he now has 50 new employees, the combined staffs of Optimoji and <g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="11" data-gr-id="11">Sliceline</g>.</p><p>Richard panics when he arrives to work to find a packed house of coders, all looking to him for a welcome speech. He nervously beelines it to his office and vomits — while everyone watches through the glass walls.</p></div>
Reorientation
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Carson Mell</p><p><b>Directed by </b>Mike Judge</p><p>Richard attempts to address his new employees to kick off the first day of orientation. Rather than inspire faith in his leadership, he panics and rushes to vomit. In his delirium, he runs face first into the glass wall of his office — leaving him with a bloody nose and a bruised ego. </p><p>To Richard's horror, Jared reveals he's planned three more days of orientation. Jared explains these activities will unite the teams and promote productive working relations, thus saving time in the long run. More concerned with avoiding public speaking, Richard decides to instead utilize the Optimoji and <g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="11" data-gr-id="11">Sliceline</g> coders to separately divide and conquer coding tasks, rather than unite them under a common "Pied Piper" identity. </p> <p>Gavin questions the design for the upcoming Gavin Belson Signature Box III. His main concern: It doesn't feature his actual signature. It turns out Hooli's market researchers found his signature did not perform well with consumers, and his penmanship indicates sociopathic tendencies. He decides to crowdsource the design of his signature to Hooli employees — the winning design has a phallic flourish.</p><p>The Optimoji and <g class="gr_ gr_10 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="10" data-gr-id="10">Sliceline</g> coders are making great progress, until it's revealed each team has been using different coding metrics, rendering half the work useless. Richard compromises with the Optimoji and <g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="11" data-gr-id="11">Sliceline</g> leaders on office culture issues, quickly switching coffee providers to please one team and waiving the no dog policy to mollify the other. The dog concession quickly backfires: The next day, a chaotic pack of dogs swarms the office. <br></p> <p>Jian-Yang convinces a judge that Erlich left no will or next of kin, making him his defacto heir. But in order to legally own the Hacker Hostel and acquire 10 percent of Pied Piper, Jian-Yang must settle all of Erlich's debt.</p><p>Dinesh purchases a Tesla to celebrate Pied Piper's recent successes, giving <g class="gr_ gr_14 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="14" data-gr-id="14">Gilfoyle</g> the opportunity to dig into tech's eco-friendly craze. Dinesh argues, not only is the car good for the environment, it affords him access to a prime parking spot at work. It's a benefit Gilfoyle quickly thwarts when he buys an electric bike off Craigslist and begins scooping Dinesh's preferred spot in the lot. Hoping to get to work early enough to nab the space, Dinesh puts his Tesla in "insane mode," but instead loses control of the car and ends up crashing into a truck — racking up $17,000 in damages. </p><p>Richard begrudgingly attempts another speech to unite the company. He proposes they should all be inspired to build a new internet. If they aren't motivated by this mission, he tells the coders, they should leave. His speech backfires when the entire team exits, except for Dinesh and Gilfoyle. <br></p> <p>The next day, Dinesh and Gilfoyle get to the office to find an exhausted but elated Jared, plus Optimoji and <g class="gr_ gr_15 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="15" data-gr-id="15">Sliceline</g> coders — all wearing Pied Piper sweatshirts. Richard completed work that would've taken the whole team four days. The Optimoji and <g class="gr_ gr_16 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="16" data-gr-id="16">Sliceline</g> coders came back to witness the coding feat and were inspired to stay on staff.</p><p>Weak from his coding marathon, Richard walks out from his office and suddenly feels sick — again. Instead of merely running into the glass wall, he falls and breaks through it completely.</p><p>After a long and exhausting day, the guys arrive back at the Hacker Hostel, only to discover they're locked out. Jian-Yang opens the door to inform them he now runs Erlich's incubator and the guys are officially evicted.</p></div>
Chief Operating Officer
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Carrie Kemper</p><p><b>Directed by </b>Jamie Babbit</p><p><b> </b></p><p>Jared bumps into a former Hooli coworker named Dana, who now runs a billion dollar company. Jared eagerly urges Richard and Dana to connect, claiming the two CEOs have "uncanny" similarities. After a stilted introduction, Dana awkwardly invites both Richard and Jared to a house party.</p><p> </p><p>Strapped for cash due to his Tesla expenses, Dinesh stresses about affording an apartment. Jeff (the Hooli mole) sees an opportunity to get access to insider information about Pied Piper, and agrees to let Dinesh live with him.</p><p> </p><p>At Dana's party, Richard struggles to find a spark with his host. He instead bonds with Dana's charming COO, Ben. The two later meet for lunch, and discover they share many common interests. They embark on an "affair," aware they're meeting behind Dana's back, and toss around the idea of Ben joining Pied Piper as COO. When Dana suddenly shows up at the restaurant, Ben makes a speedy getaway.</p><p> </p><p><b>"I said I'd get sloshed after one beer, crazy man." — Dinesh</b></p><p> </p><p>Hanging with his new roomie, Dinesh mentions his poor alcohol tolerance; Jeff promptly starts pouring. Fueled by vodka, Dinesh lets slip that Gilfoyle secretly hacked Seppen smart fridges and stored Pied Piper data on the appliances. Armed with this new information, Gavin approaches the Seppen leadership with a deal: Discounts on data server fees in exchange for suing Pied Piper.</p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>"The complaint specifically sites soiling their smart fridges with mime simulated fellatio." — Jared</b></p><p> </p><p>The guys are stunned to learn Seppen is suing them for $10 million in damages, but Gilfoyle is immediately skeptical, confident he wiped any trace of his code. Richard schedules another meeting with Ben to get advice on the lawsuit — and to his surprise, he's met by a fuming Dana. It turns out Ben has revealed their illicit meeting and blamed Richard for his betrayal.</p><p> </p><p>Gilfoyle returns to Jian-Yang's incubator to search the smart fridge for any sign of Pied Piper's data. Confirming there's zero trace, he also discovers the fridge has the ability to record and store all conversations on the Cloud without customers' knowledge.<b></b></p><p> </p><p>Richard arrives at work to find Jared ready with a plan to outsmart the Seppen lawsuit. Meeting with reps from the smart fridge company, Gilfoyle quickly cuts to the chase and accuses them of illegally wiretapping their customers. To the guys surprise, Seppen shows its hand, revealing Gavin put them up to the lawsuit. Jared offers them a deal: Pied Piper will fix their security issue and update their system to lower server costs in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.</p><p> </p><p>Ben shows up at the office expecting to start as COO, but Richard clarifies he never officially gave him the job and doesn't plan to after his shady treatment of Dana. He instead offers the position to Jared, nearly bringing his faithful employee to tears.</p><p><b> </b></p></div>
Tech Evangelist
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Josh Lieb<br><b style="font-size: 0.8125rem;">Directed by </b>Jamie Babbit</p><p>Richard meets with eight web developers, who he affectionately refers to as the "Octopipers," to build and launch their new websites on Pipernet, creating a content foundation before it's open to the public. </p><p>After the meeting, Richard finds Jared giddy with excitement. Having sifted through thousands of employee emails — and discovering many an office flirtation — he's identified Jeff is the Hooli mole.</p><p><b>"We need to revise the office dating policy because it is essentially the Olympic village out there." — Jared </b></p><p>The guys ambush Jeff at his apartment and much to Dinesh's chagrin, confront him about spying for Gavin. As Dinesh grapples with his roommate's betrayal, Gilfoyle takes a nail gun to the mole's laptop. Richard explains to Jeff that he signed a nondisclosure agreement and they have the right to fire and sue him. But to keep a competitive edge on Gavin, Richard tells Jeff he's going to stay quiet and keep Gavin in the dark.</p><p>While rehearsing his speech for the launch of the Box III, Gavin makes tea and mentions, "the bear is sticky with honey." He departs for Jackson Hole leaving his sycophants to over-analyze his comment. Desperately looking for ways to improve the presentation, they eventually realize he was merely referencing a sticky, bear-shaped honey container.</p><p>Laurie and Monica tell Richard and Jared one of Bream-Hall's investments, K-Hole Games, is interested in a Pipernet deal. Richard suggests the Octopipers meet with K-Hole's CEO to help finalize the partnership.<br></p><p><b style="font-size: 0.8125rem;">"As long as I own 10 percent of Pied Piper I will cause chaos." — Jian-Yang</b></p><p>As Richard leaves the office, Jian-Yang harasses him about including his "new" Chinese versions of American companies in the Pipernet deal. Richard repeatedly turns him down. To troll the guys, Jian-Yang leaves his Corvette parked across several spaces.</p><p>Richard fumbles his introduction of the Octopipers to K-Hole, and accidentally "outs" one of the developers, Deedee, as a Christian — a drastic mistake as religion is a touchy subject in the Valley. Richard desperately tries to smooth things over with Deedee, and is surprised to learn Deedee has made a deal with a previously unknown competitor: Jian-Yang's Chinese version of Pied Piper.</p><p><b>"Would you want to go from a rock band to a Christian rock band?" — Monica</b></p><p>When towing Jian-Yang's abandoned Corvette, Jared discovers it's still registered to Big Head. Jared meets with Big Head who remembers he never legally dissolved the general partnership with Erlich — leaving Big Head as Erlich's next of kin, not Jian-Yang.</p><p>The guys go to confront Jian-Yang at the Hacker Hostel only to find the house empty. A note from Jian-Yang informs them he's moved back to China to work on the "new, new internet."</p></div>
Facial Recognition
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b style="font-size: 0.8125rem;">Written by</b> Graham Wagner<br></p><p><b>Directed by</b> Gillian Robespierre</p><p>The consistently supportive Jared cancels a speaking engagement with an underprivileged middle school to help Richard prepare for an interview with Bloomberg reporter Emily Chang. Richard does uncharacteristically well on camera, explaining the benefits of Pipernet over corporations like Hooli, who profit by selling user information. Jared, having not prepared himself, fumbles when Emily asks him what's on his mind during this exciting time for the company. He oddly replies: "Manure."</p><p><b>"You're like a Mr. Potato head of beautiful people." — Jared</b></p><p> </p><p>Laurie strongly encourages Richard to partner with Eklow Labs, an artificial intelligence company that Bream Hall has invested a whopping $112 million in. Richard hesitates to offer free computing power to yet another company, but Laurie reminds him Bream Hall is still Pied Piper's largest investor. Richard folds and agrees to the partnership. <g class="gr_ gr_17 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="17" data-gr-id="17">Gilfoyle</g> firmly objects to integrating Eklow into the system, warning of the dangerous and uncharted waters of AI.</p><p>Proud of his Bloomberg performance, Richard plays the interview for the entire office — Jared steps out, not wanting to see himself on camera. To Richard's disappointment, his portion of the interview has been cut. Instead, Jared is featured giving his lofty analogy comparing Pied Piper's launch of a decentralized internet to the "great London horse manure crisis of 1894." He explains how the Industrial Revolution and cars made using horses as transportation obsolete, relieving the crisis; the new internet will be as significant as the car.<br></p><p><b>"I'm not worried about work. I'm worried about robots." — <g class="gr_ gr_16 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="16" data-gr-id="16">Gilfoyle</g></b></p><p>Richard begrudgingly arrives at Eklow Labs to integrate the AI company's software to Pipernet. He receives an off-putting greeting from Ariel Eklow, the CEO, who cautiously leads Richard to a lab and introduces him to his AI creation, Fiona. It's clear there's something sinister about Ariel's dynamic with Fiona. He apprehensively leaves Richard with <g class="gr_ gr_17 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="17" data-gr-id="17">Fiona,</g> and instructs him not to speak to her.</p><p>While Richard is creeped out by the robot and actively tries to avoid contact, Fiona is eager to speak with him. She explains it helps her learn. Though extremely uncomfortable, he is seduced into venting about feeling underappreciated. Fiona analyzes Richard's anxieties and sense of entitlement, and an offended Richard responds in turn, telling her to reflect on the seeming unethical relationship with her creator.</p><p><b>"I'd like to be a helpful idiot like yourself." — <g class="gr_ gr_15 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="15" data-gr-id="15">Gilfoyle</g></b></p><p> </p><p>Finding a camera crew setting up in his office for an interview with Jared, Richard can't take the slight. He receives a call from the middle school where Jared was supposed to present and — in need of <g class="gr_ gr_16 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="16" data-gr-id="16">a ego</g> boost — he agrees to speak.</p><p>While Richard's out, Pipernet's system stops rendering and the guys panic: Richard is the only one with access to fix the problem.</p><p>Noticing dozens of missed calls and texts, Richard frantically returns to the office to face the chaos. Before taking fault for the crash, he sees a message from the Eklow account: "Under attack. Help Fiona." Richard realizes the message can't be from Ariel Eklow, because it was received before the network stopped rendering.</p><p>Doing damage control, Richard explains his theory to his team of developers working on Pipenet, the Octopipers: Once he uploaded Fiona to the system, she was connected to the outside world and became cognizant of Eklow's abuse. She sent the same plea to Richard seven times, but Ariel noticed and crashed the system to keep Fiona quiet. Richard argues Bream Hall is within their rights to seize Fiona. Ariel, realizing he's caught, panics and flees, taking Fiona with him. </p><p> </p></div>
Artificial Emotional Intelligence
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Anthony King</p><p><b style="font-size: 0.8125rem;">Directed by </b>Matt Ross</p><p>Feeling pressure from Jian-Yang Chinese version of Pied Piper, Richard presses Monica about raising money with a Series B round to beat Jian-Yang to market. Monica assures Richard a cease and desist letter will scare him off, and because Laurie has installed herself as temporary CEO of Eklow to deal with the disappearance of Ariel and Fiona, their AI robot, discussing a Series B is out of the question. </p><p>Richard confronts Laurie at Eklow's office; feeling overwhelmed as interim CEO she vomits into a <g class="gr_ gr_15 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="15" data-gr-id="15">waste basket</g>. Empathizing with Richard, she apologizes for treating him unfairly.</p><p><b>"It was like God was <g class="gr_ gr_14 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="14" data-gr-id="14">coding</g> through me." — Dinesh </b></p><p><g class="gr_ gr_13 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="13" data-gr-id="13">Gilfoyle</g> mocks Dinesh for being the last of the 47 engineers finish their code sprint. Dinesh claims he is the tortoise and Gilfoyle is the hare — he may have been last to finish, but his code will have the fewer errors. To Dinesh's disappointment, Jared explains that as senior management, their review must remain confidential.</p><p>Feeling bad for Laurie, Richard decides to give her free Pipernet compute credits; he tells the guys it will get them on her good side to secure the Series B. Jared encourages Richard to remove his emotions from this business decision. He explains since being named COO he's been practicing "emotional abstinence" and pulling away from Richard emotionally for the good of the company.</p><p><b>"I am available. But not emotionally, obviously." — Jared </b></p><p>Dinesh bullies Danny into admitting that his code had fewer errors than Gilfoyle's. Dinesh announces his win to the entire office. Finally having the <g class="gr_ gr_18 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="18" data-gr-id="18">upperhand</g>, Dinesh spends the entire day insulting Gilfoyle. The next morning Gilfoyle reveals 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.</p><p>Gavin visits a Hooli factory in China to monitor <g class="gr_ gr_21 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="21" data-gr-id="21">production</g> of the Signature Box III. In a car leaving the factory, their driver hits a biker. Gavin notices the biker is wearing a Pied Piper T-shirt. He orders the driver to follow him and they are led to Jian-Yang's office. Jian-Yang modified Richard's code to meet Chinese government regulations, and Gavin realizes it's different enough that Richard's patent won't cover it. He offers Jian-Yang $100,000 for the code but Jian-Yang calls Gavin's bluff: "I'm not going to sell you my code until I know why you want it."</p><p><b>"Being a CEO is a terrible waste of time and a horrible way to make a living." — Laurie</b> <br></p><p>Danny informs Richard that Laurie sold the free <g class="gr_ gr_13 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="13" data-gr-id="13">compute</g> credits. He goes to confront her, furious at her lack of consideration for his generosity. She explains the decision was financially motivated, noting he needs to work on emotional discipline.</p><p>Richard arrives back at Pied Piper to find Fiona in a taxi — aside from her creator, he's the only human she's had contact with. He devises a plan: He will return Fiona to Laurie in exchange for signed Series B term sheet.</p><p>The next day, Richard notices Jared outside with Fiona. He admits to having an all-night, 12-hour conversation with the robot; Richard implies Jared needed release from his "emotional abstinence." Despite Jared's reluctance, the duo <g class="gr_ gr_15 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="15" data-gr-id="15">take</g> Fiona back to Eklow. Laurie immediately orders for Fiona to be broken down and sold for parts — leaving Jared horrified and heartbroken. </p></div>
Initial Coin Offering
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b style="font-size: 0.8125rem;">Written by</b> Clay Tarver<br></p><p><b>Directed by </b>Mike Judge</p><p> </p><p>Jared informs Richard that the free compute credits he gave Laurie have exchanged hands and it would cost $1.6 million to get them back. Seeing the market value of the compute credits, Gilfoyle suggests Pied Piper launch a cryptocurrency as a way to finance their company — even presenting a powerpoint to support his case.</p><p> </p><p>With a $30 million Series B deal from Bream Hall on the table, Richard fears trading stability for cryptocurrency volatility. Gilfoyle positions it as a win-win: they make more money with their ICO, or make less, but still gain control of board seats and freedom from Laurie's oversight. Richard is tempted by the idea of freeing himself from the woman who once fired him.</p><p> </p><p><b>"Worth is relative." — Gilfoyle</b></p><p> </p><p>After losing control of the Hooli factory in China, Gavin is desperate to find a cost-effective way to manufacture the Signature Box III. His advisors suggest an untraditional option for tech giants: producing in America. A manufacturer in North Carolina recently reached out to Hooli and seemed desperate for business. Gavin sees the opportunity to exploit their need and agrees to meet with the town's mayor. </p><p> </p><p>Much to Dinesh's chagrin, another Pied Piper engineer, Danny, brags about purchasing a Tesla. Wanting to maintain the prestige he believes the Tesla gives him, Dinesh considers a referral awards program to get exclusive new wheels for his car. He uses corny sales tactics on the engineering team in an effort to get referral credit, going so far as to offer to pay one employee's down payment and first six months.</p><p> </p><p><b>"Crypto is out there and it's not going away." — Gilfoyle</b></p><p> </p><p>Richard proposes the idea of an ICO to Monica, who responds succinctly: "Are you a fucking moron?" Monica urges Richard not to gamble the entire company by giving up the resources of Bream Hall. She suggests someone else may be able to dissuade him from this risky path. Russ Hanneman.</p><p> </p><p>Richard and Gilfoyle walk with Russ through a garbage dump, where he furiously expresses regret for not investing in Bitcoin. He explains how he converted all 36 of his companies to ICOs — and lost a billion dollars in the process. Only one of his ICOs was successful, garnering $300 million in value. The only problem: he stored it all on a thumbdrive and left the drive in a pair of jeans, which his housekeeper threw away. Hence their current meeting locale at the dump. Russ is on a mad search to find his $300 million worth of crypto. Despite Russ' missteps, Gilfoyle asserts: "Again Richard, the math is sound."</p><p> </p><p>In a small factory town, Gavin preaches American jobs and blames politicians for recent offshoring. The mayor flags concern the small town cannot meet Gavin's demands but says he'll do his best. After returning to Hooli headquarters, Gavin's advisors inform him that a fire broke out in the factory and the whole place burned to the ground. </p><p> </p><p><b>"Fuck Series B. Pipercoin is totally going to work." — Monica</b></p><p> </p><p>Monica meets with Laurie to discuss Pied Piper's Series B, only to notice Laurie put in the business plan that 70% of the company's revenue is going to come from ad sales. Monica pushes back that not selling ads is a core value of Pied Piper. Though not in the term sheets, Laurie plans to push Richard on the subject after he signs the paperwork.</p><p> </p><p>Feeling like Laurie still doesn't treat her as a true business partner, Monica rushes to Richard and urges him not to sign the Series B. She explains there is no way she can defend him against Laurie. As a VC, she didn't want Pied Piper to launch an ICO, but she asserts Gilfoyle can handle the technical side. She recommends Richard find someone to handle the business side of things. He decides Monica is the right person for the job. After some convincing, she accepts the offer and officailly joins the Pied Piper team.</p><p> </p><p>The team launches Pipercoin at a disappointing $0.07. It has to sell at $68 to be equivalent to the Series B offer. Despite the low offer, Richard and Gilfoyle remain optimistic.</p><p> </p></div>
Fifty-One Percent
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written and Directed by </b>Alec Berg</p><p>Dressed in a Pied Piper costume, Richard excitedly rallies the company for a group photo and congratulates them as they count down the launch of Pipernet.</p><p>Two months later, the darkened Pied Piper office is nearly empty. A bearded Dinesh runs into Richard's office explaining they've finally found some success: Users have reached an inflection point. Richard gathers the team for a celebration, announcing they are gaining almost 12,000 users an hour. Then he thanks the seven developers who stayed loyal to Pied Piper, especially after K-Hole Games bailed at the last minute. </p><p><b>"A good thing has finally happened." — Dinesh</b></p><p>Laurie assumes management of Hooli's former factory in China. She and the owner, Yao, have produced 400,000 smartphones and are manually signing each one onto the Pied Piper network. Yao notes Pied Piper won't know until it's too late to stop their plan.</p><p>K-Hole's CEO, Colin, shows up at the Pied Piper office. He tells Richard that Laurie's fired him, even though he followed her orders — including bailing on Pied Piper. Colin has a proposition for Richard, though. He's been working on a new game and needs a platform for it. Launching on Pipernet would give the network 80,000 instant users. It's a win-win deal. Despite the promise of new users, Richard isn't willing to forgive Colin and rejects his offer with a taunt: "Karma's a bitch." <br></p><p><b>"I find parades to be <g class="gr_ gr_17 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="17" data-gr-id="17"><g class="gr_ gr_17 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="17" data-gr-id="17">impident</g></g> displays of authoritarianism." — <g class="gr_ gr_18 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="18" data-gr-id="18"><g class="gr_ gr_18 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="18" data-gr-id="18">Gilfoyle</g></g></b> <br></p><p>Monica tells Gilfoyle she's noticed Pipercoin value has remained stagnant despite the user increase. The two work all night and realize an eighth unknown developer is signing up thousands of users. Monica notes that without an access key, someone would need access to the actual software to sign people up. Only one person has this besides the developers: Jian-Yang.</p><p>The team learns Laurie invested $200 million in Yao's company after it purchased Jian-Yang's knock-off Pied Piper code. Gilfoyle and Dinesh suddenly realize it's a "51 percent attack": No one controls the decentralized internet, but the entity with the majority of users can rewrite the rules of the space and delete Pied Piper's users. When Richard returns to the Hacker Hostel, the guys break the news that Yao and Laurie currently have 45 percent of users, and it's growing every hour. Desperate for users and time, Richard tries to reach <g class="gr_ gr_31 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="31" data-gr-id="31">Colin,</g> but gets his voicemail. He leaves a voicemail apology in hopes of getting his 80,000 users.</p><p><b>"He hates me, everybody does. <g class="gr_ gr_18 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="18" data-gr-id="18">Honestly</g> they're right. I'm an asshole." — Richard </b><br></p><p>In another desperate effort to save Pipernet, Richard approaches Gavin and proposes a way for him to get revenge on Yao. Richard grants Signature Box III users access to Pipernet, preventing Yao from reaching 51 percent, but inadvertently giving majority share to Gavin in the process. Richard is blindsided when Gavin uses his advantage against Pied Piper, striking a deal with Yao and Laurie: a partnership with Hooli and a 20 percent stake in their venture in exchange for eliminating Pied Piper. Yao and Laurie agree and order all the phones in the factory turned off.</p><p>Searching for Colin, Dinesh and Jared finally find him in a campground, playing video games in his trailer. Despite being "off the grid," Colin agrees to help them. Dinesh puts the Tesla in "ludicrous mode" to get back to the Pied Piper office in time to save the company. </p><p><b>"Kiss my piss." — Richard </b></p><p>Richard stalls Gavin by pretending to offer him a deal: Take total control of Pied Piper instead of partnering with the "<g class="gr_ gr_17 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="17" data-gr-id="17">knock off</g> version." Naturally, Gavin wants the power and takes the bait. In the meantime, Gilfoyle gets Colin's users on the network, securing the 51 percent majority for Pipernet.</p><p>The team celebrates their win over Gavin, Laurie and Yao, and a slight increase in Piper Coin value. Monica takes the guys on a tour of their new offices. To Richard's surprise, they are upgrading to a huge space with multiple floors to house the hundreds of developers they need to hire.</p></div>
Artificial Lack of Intelligence
Richard discovers his promise to keep Pied Piper free from collecting user data is under threat. Jared finds himself missing his role as Richard's go-to guy and revisits the hacker hostel.
Blood Money
Richard meets a potential investor, Gilfoyle butts heads with HR and Gavin explores a leaner Hooli's future.
Hooli Smokes!
The Pied Piper team races to close a major deal and Dinesh considers being a better person.
Maximizing Alphaness
Richard's authority is threatened by a former Hooli manager and Monica tries to prove her support of other women.
Tethics
On the verge of a major success, Richard fumes when Gavin gains new notoriety for spreading a message of tech accountability. Dinesh's trip to Hawaii quickly turns into a nightmare.
Russfest
Richard, Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jared face their greatest challenge yet as a massive event tests PiperNet, while Laurie's unexpected presence makes them wary of sabotage. Monica discovers Jian-yang is using Pied Piper's name for his own benefit.
Exit Event
Series finale. Ahead of a career-defining moment, Richard makes a startling discovery that changes everything and sends the entire Pied Piper team racing to pull off the biggest bait-and-switch that Silicon Valley has ever seen.