Winner of 2 EMMYs, nominated for 41 emmys
Silicon Valley
6 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.
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Sand Hill Shuffle
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Clay Tarver<br>nnn<b>Directed by</b> Mike Judge</p><p>A pitcher at AT&T Park winds up and throws a pitch across the plate...where Richard, at bat, flinches instead of swinging. "Sorry, I can't really throw it any slower," the pitcher says. Stern Taylor Capital Fund, a venture capitalist firm, is throwing a party at the stadium, in an attempt to woo Pied Piper while they're deciding on who'll fund their series-A financing. "Together, Richard," the Stern Taylor guy announces to everyone on the field, "we'd be a hoooooome run."</p><p>Gilfoyle and Dinesh meet a rep from Stern Taylor and fight over who's Pied Piper's Chief Technology Officer. "I get it," Gilfoyle tells Dinesh. "You hear the word chief and you think: Indian chief. But you're the other kind of Indian." Erlich tries to connect with the Winklevoss twins.</p><p>Richard runs into old pal Javeed, who relays his story of woe at Goolybib: The company was acquired, the investors fired him and he blew his signing bonus on rent. "Don't get f--ked," Javeed tells a fearful Richard. "You take money from the wrong dudes, you'll get smoked as bad as I did."</p><p>Jian-Yang casually mentions to the guys at the Hacker Hostel that Peter Gregory is dead. Richard and Erlich go to Raviga and ask Monica what happened. She explains that, while on safari, Peter ran out of his tent after a commotion. "He hadn't run in a long time," Monica explains, "maybe ever. And you know, he just...that was it."</p><p>On the way out of Raviga, Erlich calls Jared and tells him to set up meetings with all the other venture capitalist firms who've been courting Pied Piper. Erlich says they're vulnerable at Raviga now that Peter is gone. "By the end of the day," Erlich says, "there may not be a Raviga." </p><p>In a conference room full of executives, Gavin watches the new marketing spot for Hooli's Nucleus. "I have a question," Gavin says afterward. "That was horrible. I just got humiliated by a f**king teenager at TechCrunch Disrupt, and you give me this tampon ad." Gavin goes on a rant about the coming explosion in data. "Ninety-two percent of the world's data was created in the last two years alone," Gavin says. "At the current rate, the world's data storage capacity will be overtaken by next spring. There will be nothing short of a catastrophe. Data shortages. Data rationing. Data black markets. Someone's compression will save the world from data-getton, and it sure as hell better be Nucleus and not God-damned Pied Piper."</p><p>Laurie tells Monica that she's been named the new managing partner of Raviga, driving home the point that they need to appear strong to their investors. Laurie makes it clear she's unhappy that Monica hasn't locked Pied Piper's funding. "Why are they speaking to other firms about investing in their series A?" she asks. </p><p>Before their first venture capital meeting at Stern Taylor, Erlich tells Jared and Richard that they're walking in there with "three foot cocks covered in Elvis dust." The firm seems unimpressed by the presentation, causing Richard to storm back into the conference room and awkwardly yell at them. Ss the guys get to their car, Richard hears from Ron LaFlamme that Stern Taylor sent a term sheet for a $25 million valuation of Pied Piper. Erlich realizes the company was "negging" them. "Negging is going negative," Jared explains. "It's a manipulative sex strategy used by lonely chauvinists." </p><p>Erlich is mystified by what happened. "You shitting all over them," he tells Richard, "counteracted them shitting all over us. You negged a neg. Richard, this could be good." Erlich "negs" at several more firms, insulting several investors who appear uninterested. At the last firm, Erlich "negs" by putting his balls on the table. The antics draw a term sheet putting Pied Piper's value at $75 million.</p><p>Monica stops by the Hacker Hostel with Laurie, who presents a term sheet that ups Pied Piper's value to $100 million. Monica returns later to talk to Richard in private. She tells him not to take the deal because it's "classic runaway valuation." "If you have a down round," Monica explains, "you are f**ked. You want to start at a realistic valuation and grow at a realistic pace." Richard thanks her and goes to meet up with Javeed.</p><p>Javeed tells Richard he's "doing okay." Richard asks, "What if you had asked for less?" Javeed realizes that's what he should have done and it's why he lost everything. </p><p>Outside Peter Gregory's funeral, Laurie asks Richard if he's made a decision about her proposal. Richard says he'll go with Raviga if the valuation is reduced to $50 million. "I think this is more reasonable," Richard says. "One more thing: Monica gets Peter's board seat." Laurie says she'll lock it down the next day.</p><p>At the funeral, luminaries from Silicon Valley eulogize Peter Gregory. Gavin gives a moving speech, talking about his first business that he launched with the mogul from Peter's mom's garage. "I will miss my friend," he says as a sign-off. "Bye Pete." Just as his speech ends, Richard gets a message from Ron LaFlamme saying that Gavin Belson is suing him for stealing Pied Piper from Hooli.</p><p>nn</p></div>
Runaway Devaluation
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Ron Weiner<br><b>Directed by</b> Mike Judge<br></p><p>"How can Gavin Belson claim that he owns Pied Piper?" Richard asks lawyer Ron LaFlamme. "I mean, this whole lawsuit is insane, right?" Ron calls the suit "classic intimidation" that's designed to freeze Pied Piper until after Hooli's Nucleus comes to market. He encourages Richard to keep denying he used Hooli resources to build Pied Piper, even if that isn't the truth. Ron assures him: "We will win this." To Richard's bafflement, Ron also says Pied Piper needs a team of litigators. "I'm part of the team," Ron explains, "that team is on."</p><p>The lawsuit immediately impacts Pied Piper's funding status at Raviga. "We at Raviga are out of the business of funding Pied Piper," Laurie tells Monica, "at least while the Hooli lawsuit remains unresolved." Laurie explains simply -- "it's a rudimentary decision" -- and commands Monica to tell the guys.</p><p>Monica delivers the news. Dinesh tries to work out what has happened: "So the company that offered us the most until Richard talked them into offering us the least," he says, "is now offering us nothing?" Erlich seems to be unfazed, announcing that it's "on to the next one" before heading out with the intention of accepting offers from other firms. Monica advises Richard to try to close quickly while momentum is still on his side.</p><p>Playing down the lawsuit's impact, Erlich and Richard visit the same venture capitalist firms they were previously rude to, but they all decline to fund Pied Piper. Each firm personally rakes Erlich over the coals, culminating with one guy putting his testicles on the conference room table, just like Erlich did previously.</p><p>Jared says they're going to have to crunch their burn rate again -- $50,000 won't get them very far, and the guys won't get the $10,000 each that Richard promised as a cut from the TechCrunch Disrupt prize. Dinesh complains that he just donated $5,000 to his cousin Wajeed's Kickstarter campaign to launch his BRO2BRO app. Dinesh doesn't want to renege his donation because his cousin looks up to him; he hopes the Kickstarter will fail and the money won't be collected.</p><p>Dinesh tries to convince to cancel his Kickstarter campaign, claiming that people are bad-mouthing BRO2BRO, but accidentally convinces him to work harder on it. Wajeed decides to throw a Kickstarter party to raise the final funds, potentially screwing Dinesh. "Everybody," Wajeed yells, "this guy is the coolest cousin."</p><p>Jared tells the guys that he's been talking to a guy -- via BRO2BRO -- from Branscomb Ventures, a firm that possibly wants to invest in Pied Piper. Branscomb has a compression play, too, but not a good one. "Get some sleep, my bros," Jared says. "I'll set the meeting. Then I'll find some hoes to prioritize behind you."</p><p>At the Branscomb presentation, Richard goes into great detail, explaining Pied Piper's middle-out technology. Jared and Erlic huddle outside the conference room, agreeing that they're being "brain raped," a strategy where one company steals tech from another. Or, as Jared weirdly explains, "It's like when somebody says they want to go birding with you but really they just want to get you alone in the woods so they can take your binoculars." In the meeting, Dinesh and Gilfoyle explain Pied Piper's technology further, but Erlich barges back in, shuts down the meeting and rolls the whiteboard out the door.</p><p>At the Kickstarter party, Wajeed explains of BRO2BRO, "You can change the world in just one word." Dinesh takes a tour of the party's guests, making terrible comments about the app in an attempt to kill the Kickstarter funding. At the last minute, just as it seems the app might not be funded, Gilfoyle shows up and donates to the campaign. "I'm like the Warren Buffett of f**king with you," he tells Dinesh. At the last minute, the project gets funded, screwing Dinesh out of $5,000.</p><p>Ron calls Richard and says he found a litigator with a great price tag: $2.5 million. Richard gets a mysterious call and makes plans to meet with the person. At a restaurant, he sits down with Hooli's Gavin Belson. Richard urges him to drop the lawsuit, and Gavin makes a final play: "Let me acquire you." Gavin says Hooli is the perfect fit and that Richard is only going to build a big, soulless corporation anyway. Just as Richard is about to respond to the proposal, a mariachi band sidles up to them and drowns out their conversation.</p></div>
Bad Money
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Alec Berg<br>nnnnn<b>Directed by </b>Alec Berg</p><p>Richard delivers Gavin's takeover pitch to his Pied Piper buddies. "This is a good buy out," Richard tells them. "It's way better than what Gavin offered before." The offer has the team vesting in Hooli stock after only four years. The guys all say they won't work for Hooli -- even Jared, who describes Hooli as "an abusive spouse to me."<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>As Richard heads toward Hooli to accept the offer, a sports car pulls up in front of him and a slick guy emerges to introduce himself. "Russ Hanneman," he says, "pleasure to meet you." Russ offers to take him to "get beef."</p><p>At a coder conference, Gavin talks about the "good of humanity" on stage. Journalist Kara Swisher responds that it's easy for him to talk about such things "being a billionaire." Gavin says he's tired of the "bias against the leaders of our community," adding, "You know who else vilified a tiny minority of financiers and progressive thinkers called the Jews?" The room gasps.</p><p>While tending to the beef on a grill at a Japanese restaurant, Russ tells Richard why he's rich: He radio on the internet. Russ mentions being worth $1.2 billion -- and he wants to back Pied Piper. "Let's make me a billion more," he says.</p><p>Richard shows up at the Hacker Hostel and slams a check from Russ down on the table. It's for $5 million. Monica frantically storms in, immediately making it known she thinks the Russ deal is bad. "He's a boorish, pompous womanizing douchebag," Monica laments, "who got lucky 20 years ago and hasn't done anything since then." Richard is intent on taking Russ' money. Gavin and Laurie, separately, can't believe the news. "I feel very strongly," Laurie tells Monica, "that you should have prevented this."</p><p>Now that Pied Piper is funded, Jared goes over hiring details with Richard -- both Dinesh and Gilfoyle want 15 people each for their respective teams. After some prodding from Richard, Gilfoyle and Dinesh cut a handful of heads from their hiring asks, but Jared says they can only have three employees each. Gilfoyle and Dinesh immediately agree to the plan. "We're negotiating against each other," Dinesh tells Richard.</p><p>Russ shows up at the Hacker Hostel. "This guy f**ks," Russ says immediately of Jared while totally ignoring Erlich, who seems desperate for approval from the billionaire. During a meeting, Russ interrupts a couple times, saying he can't believe the way Richard talks and then loudly taking a phone call.</p><p>Gavin Belson strategies with his lawyers about the Pied Piper lawsuit, although he takes a break to welcome Jewish leaders to the Hooli campus in an attempt to make amends.</p><p>During a work session, Richard mentions a subscription revenue model for Pied Piper, and Russ jumps in, sharply advising his against producing revenue. "If you show revenue," Russ says, "people will ask how much and if will never be enough." Russ says they should be a "pure play," encouraging Pied Piper to grow value rather than revenue. Russ continues by saying that he'll be hands-off but will check in with them every other week. "He's the worst man in America," Dinesh says after Russ heads out, "and now he owns us."</p><p>Later, Russ meets the guys on a highway and points to a billboard above featuring a woman holding a guitar and emblazoned with the words: "I Am Pied Piper." Russ claims its a play for brand awareness -- that he's getting Pied Piper out there. Russ gives them their two-week check, but he's deducted his fees for the Pied Piper billboards and marketing, completed by other companies that he owns. Russ placed 15 of the billboards between Gavin's house and the Hooli office to drive the executive crazy.</p><p>"This is war," Gavin says upon seeing the "I Am Pied Piper" billboard. His litigation team advises Gavin to elevate Big Head, posturing that he was close to Richard when he created Pied Piper, thus Big Head must have been integral to the germination of the company. "So what you're saying is the mode praise and promotion we heap on this person," Gavin confirms, "the more it looks like Pied Piper was created here at Hooli."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>
The Lady
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Carson Mell<br><b>Directed by </b>Alec Berg<br></p><p>Richard and Jared conduct interviews, looking for -- as Richard says -- "a few good engineers to join the Pied Piper team." Jared Patakian, a top candidate, describes himself as a "cyborg" and explains why he wants to work at Pied Pier: "Look, we all know that I could make a shit-load more money working for some multi-colored happytown in a hermetically sealed box. I like that you guys are so...weird."</p><p>Outside, Erlich teaches Jian-Yang about how to separate the Hacker Hostel trash from recyclables and compost. Erlich tries to explain that trash isn't burned in America.</p><p>Richard and Jared make the case for hiring Jared Patakian, to Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jared. "My only concern here is -- and it's a small one -- he's also named Jared," Jared tells the guys. "Will it be confusing with two Jareds?" Gilfoyle says they can instead call him "Other Jared," but Jared says the newer Jared should be "Other Jared." No, Gilfoyle tells him, "You should be flattered -- O.J. Simpson is one of the most recognizable people on the face of the planet." Erlich advises Richard to "Pass-adena" on Jared Patakian because of a previous hiring infraction with Aviato. Richard flatly asserts his authority, telling Erlich, "You don't get to Pass-adena on anyone."</p><p>Gavin introduces a new experimental division of Hooli called Hooli XYZ, a division where "no idea is too big." "Question," he begins during his introduction. "What is a moon shot? A moon shot is an idea so big, so bold as to be impossible...until it is not." Gavin announces that a professor and pioneer of robotics, Davis Bannerchek, will lead the new division as head dreamer of Hooli XYZ. Then suddenly, Gavin also introduces Big Head -- incorrectly calling him "Bag Head" -- as co-head dreamer. "He also co-founded Pied Piper," Gavin adds, putting his lawsuit tactics to work, "right here at Hooli." A clueless HR rep gives a rather resistant Big Head a huge, brand-new office, and Big Head's assistant arrives to tell him that a photographer from Wired has arrived to shoot him for a profile.</p><p>Another candidate the Pied Piper guys like is Carla Walton. "Her code is f**king great," Gilfoyle tells Richard. Jared says "it would behoove us to prioritize a woman," but Gilfoyle says "we should hire the best person for the job. Period." Jared further explains: "It's like we're the Beatles, and now we just need Yoko." Carla impresses during her interview, saying, "You design the engine, I just assemble the car." Jared makes it awkward when he says they'd love to have a "strong woman" on staff.</p><p>Monica, Erlich and Richard arrive at Russ' house for a board meeting. They all admire a painting on Russ' wall that features three commas, meant to represent the three commas in a billion dollars. "Yeah," Russ says, "I'm in the three-commas club." Russ' young son appears, and a voice on a PA system instructs him to go to bed. Russ explains that the system is called The Lady -- a company he's funding that tells his son when to go to bed, take a bath and so on. "I get to be his friend, and she's the bad guy," Russ says, with a smile. "I've disrupted fatherhood." At the board meeting, the group -- including Russ' girlfriend Nastia -- approve the equity packages for Jared Patakian and Carla, and Erlich supports Russ in a vote to buy Pied Piper swag for $30,000. Russ pawns off a couple tickets to Sean Parker's Muir Woods Preservation benefit to a delighted Erlich.</p><p>Carla shows up at the Hacker Hostel and immediately begins making references to how much money she's making and how much equity she has in Pied Piper. Under pressure from Jared, Richard tells Carla and the guys that he's prepared to answer any questions about the company's harassment policy and workplace code of conduct. Carla says her best friend's name is Cunty and asks if she can refer to her by name at work. Jared initially says no but then says he'll get back to her. Dinesh and Gilfoyle discuss Carla's many references to making lots of money. "I'm not jealous," Dinesh says, "I just want to make sure she's making less than me."</p><p>The woman checking Erlich in at the Muir Woods Foundation benefit tells him he owes $25,000 per ticket. Erlich tries to charm his way in with Jian-Yang, but he's turned away. The next day, Jian-Yang tells Richard that they ended up at Taco Bell.</p><p>Richard tells Carla that "several" employees have lodged a complaint against her for creating a hostile workplace. Jared quotes a complaint about how Carla's rubbing it in that she's making more money than others. "You and I both know how much you make," Richard says. "Are you f**king with them?" Carla confirms that she is and says she'll stop. Adds Carla: "Cunty's done."</p><p>Richard tells Erlich that he'll be out of the Hacker Hostel as soon as they find office space. "I will call the cyborg," Richard says, referring Jared Patakian, in a show of respect, "and I will rescind the offer." Richard calls Jared Patakian to tell him that the job isn't going to work out, but Jared tells him he took another job -- at one of Russ Hanneman's companies, in fact. "Our own investor poached him," Richard tells Erlich.</p><p>A truck pulls up in the driveway at the Hacker Hostel to drop off Russ' Pied Piper swag -- t-shirts, foam hands and golf balls...all with the company's old logo on it. Richard smells something burning, and Erlich runs off yelling Jian-Yang's name.</p></div>
Server Space
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Sonny Lee<br><b>Directed by </b>Mike Judge<br></p><p>Richard wakes up in his top bunk drenched in sweat. He visits his hapless doctor, who asks, "Are you sure it's not urine and you're not just wetting the bed?" The doctor says his night sweats could be a precursor to bedwetting, which he notes is very serious. "I am stressed as hell," Richard explains to the doctor, who is instead laser-focused on the potential bedwetting.</p><p>Gilfoyle, Dinesh, Jared and Richard look at an office space for Pied Piper. Jared asks Richard about the sweats, advising him to not think about the bedwetting possibility. "Just thinking about it," Jared says, "would probably stress you out enough to make it happen." Jared thinks he can make the finances work to afford the space, which he tells Richard will be an "investment in your mental health." Dinesh is particularly excited about the new office because there's a modeling agency in the same building.</p><p>Dinesh and Gilfoyle pack up at the Hacker Hostel, while Erlich interviews potential new inhabitants. A guy pitches a Christian-oriented riff on pet sharing, suggesting that scale could be achieved by moving into other pets like ferrets, but Erlich tells him that ferrets are illegal in the state of California. After showing him out, Erlich looks longingly at the now-empty table where the Pied Piper guys used to work. A kimono-clad Erlich bows to Richard and presents him with a parting gift, a kimono of his own.</p><p>While Richard packs the U-Haul, a nosy neighbor -- Noah -- stops by in his wheelchair to ask if they're moving out. "I'd be lying to say I was sad to see you go," Noah says. "Houses full of renters aren't great for property values." Jared delivers the news that Gavin Belson has blocked Pied Piper buying server space from all companies in the Valley. Gilfoyle proposes a solution: He wants to build servers in the house, which he says will take him about a week. "It's server or offices, Richard," Jared says, "we can't afford both." Erlich says they can stay if they want, and Richard agrees to stay put.</p><p>Dr. Bannerchek tries convincing Gavin that Big Head is worthless, pointing out that his team is working on a potato cannon. Bannercheck touts the fact that his own team has developed prosthetic appendages for a monkey, although the animal like to use them for unsavory things, like throwing poop. "What Kiko chooses to do with the technology is not important," Bannercheck says, as Gavin turns away. Bannercheck demands that Big Head be removed if he is to continue at HooliXYZ but Gavin seems unmoved by the threat.</p><p>Gilfoyle says he'll need the entire garage to house the servers, forcing Jared out of the space -- he'd been living there, "high on the hog," as the head of business development explains. Jared moves into Richard's room, and Richard soon discovers that Jared speaks German in his sleep. When Richard asks about it, though, Jared says he doesn't speak German.</p><p>Gilfoyle begins building the servers in the garage and refuses Dinesh's help. "Why don't you go inside and write some princess code?" Gilfoyle says, enlisting assistance from Carla. "Leave the hardware up to us servants." Noticing that Pied Piper is moving back in, Noah rolls up the driveway again and asks about what's happening in the garage. Erlich freaks out and tells Richard not to say anything because the house isn't zoned for business. Richard awkwardly fumes at Erlich.</p><p>Jared tells Richard about the neighbor situation: "That gentleman next door has the power to ruin us." Jared again inquires about Richard's night sweats, suggesting laying off the Red Bull and starting kegel exercises as possible solutions.</p><p>The power at the Hacker Hostel -- and on the whole block -- goes out, the result of Dinesh fiddling with the servers. Noah rolls up to the Pied Piper team in the darkened driveway and tells them: "Guess what? I'm reporting you to the city inspector." After being awoken by Jared's intense German, Richard tries to sleep next to the pool but is kept up by Noah talking on the other side of the fence. Richard peers over and sees Noah baby-talking to a ferret. Richard snaps a photo and shows it to Erlich, who cites California's no-ferret law while threatening Noah to back down about their illegal business. Erlich demands, too, that Noah rent his guest house to Jared. "Well, if you'll excuse us," Richard says as they leave, "we have an illegal business to run."</p><p>Gavin Belson announces to the Hooli staff that Dr. Bannerchek resigned and Big Head is now the sole head dreamer of Hooli XYZ. "Just a few months ago you co-founded Pied Piper and now you've been promoted twice," Gavin says, beaming at a surprised Big Head. "It speaks to your competence." Gavin also announces that Nucleus will be the exclusive partner of an Ultimate Fighting Championship event next week. The Nucleus team watches Gavin's big message in dismay before discussing how far the platform is from being ready.</p></div>
Homicide
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p> </p><p><b>Written by </b>Carrie Kemper<br><b>Directed by </b>Mike Judge<br></p><p>Hooli and Pied Piper employees gather, separately, to watch the Hooli UFC livestream. When Monica arrives at the Hacker Hostel, Jared introduces her to Carla, in a very awkward and unsolicited effort to make the women friends. "I knew you two would hit it off," Jared says. As the stream begins, the Pied Piper team notices glitches in the stream. Gavin does, as well, but the executives and programmers around him act like nothing is amiss. Eventually the stream freezes. "F**!" Gavin screams as he storms out of the screening.</p><p>Monica sees an opportunity in Hooli's failure, suggesting Pied Piper do its own livestream. Richard is apprehensive. Jared suggests streaming the hatching of a condor egg, but Erlich says he'll reach out to his friend, Aaron "Double-A" Anderson, who owns Homicide Energy Drink, to see about streaming one of their extreme events. Richard still isn't sure about it, so Jared suggests using SWOT -- a decision-making matrix that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats -- to figure out if they should partner with Homicide.</p><p>Double-A explains how the extreme jumping event will work, detailing the 27 cameras that will feed into Richard's livestream. Erlich keeps interrupting to say how "awesome" everything is. About Erlich, Double-A tells Richard, "To be honest, I could never stand the guy. Just hearing his voice again is giving me PTSD."</p><p>Dinesh and Gilfoyle meet Blaine, the guy who's doing the Homicide stunt. He's wholly uninterested in meeting the pair, who realize that the stuntman calculated the velocity for his stunt incorrectly and will die if he doesn't change it. Blaine is rude when Gilfoyle tries to point out the blunder. "What do we do here?" Dinesh asks. Gilfoy responds: "This is a tough one." Double-A tells Richard to lose Erlich. "I love your tech," he says, "but come back tomorrow without Kool-Aid or don't come back at all. Honestly."</p><p>Denpok counsels Gavin about the Nucleus situation., asking, "Have I just surrounded myself with sycophants who are just telling me whatever I want to hear regardless of the truth?" Denpok swallows deeply and assures him, "No." Gavin likes this response: "Thank you, Denpok. I really needed to hear that." Later, Gavin watches a focus group talking about the Nucleus operating system on a Hooli phone. "It's just stupid," one guy says. "Well, it's slow and the apps keep quitting on me."</p><p>Dinesh and Gilfoyle continue to debate the Blaine conundrum. "This might be morbid, but the cold, hard fact is that if Blaine died on our livestream, this could be good for us," Gilfoyle says. "We'd get a lot more traffic." Dinesh questions the moral issues around not saying anything, deciding to apply SWOT to the situation. Richard explains to Erlich that Double-A doesn't want him around. Erlich says he'll step aside but warns Richard that Double-A isn't to be trusted -- people used to call him "Double-Asshole," Erlich says.</p><p>While Dinesh and Gilfoyle SWOT the Blaine decision, the stuntman walks into the room and apologies for being rude the day before and mentions spotting an error in his math that would have probably killed him. "Are we cool?" he asks the guys. Just before leaving, Blaine sees the SWOT board and is enraged. "Would you believe," Dinesh says of the board, "that was here when we came in?"</p><p>Richard confronts Double-A about not using the Pied Piper logo on the video frame but he refuses to change it. Richard loses it. "You know what Double-A?" he says. "Erlich was right. You are an asshole. In fact, you're a Double-Asshole." Double-A pulls up his shirt to reveal a colostomy bag. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be 10 years old and carry your own shit around in a bag?" he says. "To have two assholes?" Dinesh and Gilfoyle scurry past and grab Richard on the way out.</p><p>At the Hacker Hostel, Erlich finds the the situation hilarious. "You tore Double-Asshole a third asshole!" he says, laughing uncontrollably. Jared convinces the guys to use their livestream to instead show the hatching of the condor egg. Russ Hanneman calls to congratulate Richard on the livestream -- and new name for the company, Endframe, which is the company credited for the Homicide event. "Wait, Endframe isn't you guys?" Russ asks. Dinesh figures out what's going on: "Endframe is those guys who brain-raped us," he realizes. Richard is again enraged: "Those pricks! They stole my algorithm." Richard explains to Russ how Endframe got their technology, prompting Russ to hang up the phone.</p><p> </p></div>
Adult Content
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Amy Aniobi<br><b>Directed by </b>Alec Berg<br></p><p>Richard and his team arrive at the Endframe offices to confront their staff about stealing Pied Piper's middle-out technology. Dinesh is contacted by a woman, Karen, on Tinder while the team waits. "It says here that she's looking for a man on the go," Gilfoyle notes. "You don't go anywhere." Richard discovers that Dinesh has the password for the wi-fi of the company next door saved on his phone -- a result, Dinesh explains, of interviewing at the company a while back when Richard was going to sell Pied Piper to Hooli. Tired of waiting, Richard marches in to confront the Endframe guys. The Endframe guys care little about Richard's threats because their platform is finished, and Pied Piper's isn't. Endframe has no competition.</p><p>Gavin presents to the Hooli board, suggesting that Nucleus' failure is "pre-greatness." The board doesn't buy it. Gavin reveals that Nucleus has a "secret function," which excites the board. "Imagine, if you will," he continues, "a function so game-changing that it's integration into Nucleus will justify any miscue in the platform's rollout." Gavin repeats this line to Big Head and the rest of the dreamers at HooliXYZ, asking them to come up with a "moon shot" for Nucleus. "If there is any greatness in any of you at all, now is the time to access it."</p><p>Erlich and Richard show up at Russ' house to find him bereft, laying on a couch. He's depressed, he tells them, because he's "financially ruined" by losing more than $200 million. Richard counters that he's worth much more than that, but Russ says that he's only worth $986 million now. "I'm not a billionaire anymore," he explains. "I'm out of the three-comma club." Russ says he needs Pied Piper to turn a profit -- exactly the opposite of what he told them to do previously. Jared says it'd be nearly impossible to switch Pied Piper to a sales-based company. "We're just not built for it," Jared tells Richard.</p><p>Dinesh remains in touch with Karen, sending emails with "sent from my iPhone" in the signature to make it seem like he's an "out and about" kind of guy, even though he's sending them from his computer at the Hacker Hostel. "It is a mystery why you think you'll ever see a woman naked," Gilfoyle tells him.</p><p>Richard tells Russ he can't make Pied Piper profitable, but Russ offers a solution: Pied Piper should merge with Endframe. "I mean, seriously, I'm a genius, right?" Russ says. Richard disagrees, but Russ makes the case that the two companies are better together -- and then he'll take a buyout. Russ storms off in his car. "F**k you!" he tells Richard multiple times. Richard tells Ron LaFlamme he wants to sue Russ and Endframe. Ron balks. "Like it or not, Richie," Ron says, "you're stuck with Hanneman."</p><p>"Technically, it's not even a merger," Monica tells the crew at the Hacker Hostel of a Pied Piper-Endframe union. "I mean, Endframe just absorbs you. You're gone." Gilfoyle suggests they get their own client, like Endframe has with the porn company Intersite. It turns out that Gilfoyle knows the details of Endframe's deal because he found the password to their system on a Post-It. The Intersite deal is worth $15 million. "If we can put a half-decent build of our platform in front of Intersite," Gilfoyle suggests, "we can shark this $15 mil right out from under Endframe." Richard warms to the idea.</p><p>Karen wants to come to the Hacker Hostel to visit Dinesh, who's nervous but agrees. Karen stops by, and Dinesh notices that she's on the wi-fi at the house, meaning she's signed in there before. It turns out Erlich knows Karen -- the two have some sort of romantic past, and they saunter off together.</p><p>Armed with the information Gilfoyle stole, Richard approaches Intersite CEO Molly Kendall at a conference, pleading with her to let Pied Piper compete against Endframe for the deal. "How do you know the specs of my Endframe deal?" Molly questions Richard. "Okay, I don't like this at all." Richard pleads with her, saying he can best Endframe. "I can prove it," he says. "Before you spend a dime, let me prove it."</p><p>Big Head presents an earbud headphone with a sensor that can control a Hooli phone to Gavin, who is entranced by the invention. "Holy shit?" he says. "Seriously? This is great!" He asks Big Head about a timeline, and Big Head tells him, "It'll probably happen in our lifetime. We just have to figure out how to make it work." Gavin is crestfallen. "What do you have," the desperate Hooli chief asks, "that's ready now?"</p><p>At Intersite, Molly greets the Endframe guys and brings them back to a conference room where the Pied Piper team is seated. "This is a bake off," Molly tells the entire group. "I'm gonna give Endframe and Pied Piper the same video library to compress, and in a week I'll review and award the contract to whoever does a better job." Gilfoyle smiles and tells Richard, "Welcome to the left-hand path, my friend."</p></div>
White Hat/Black Hat
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Dan Lyons<br><b>Directed by </b>Alec Berg<br></p><p>The Pied Piper team returns to the Hacker Hostel to start the bake-off, but Russ is there with an over-sized bottle of tequila. "Shots, baby!" he says. "We are going to drink to re-billionizing." Richard asks Russ to leave a check, but Russ tells him, "Giving you money right now is the worst thing I could do for you. Look what just happened. I threatened to walk, and you turned lean and hungry and you clawed your way into a $15 million deal."</p><p>At a meeting with executives, Gavin suggests the company shroud Nucleus in mystery until its official rollout the following January. The board asks whether they should be worried, but Gavin assures them Nucleus is "on track" and someone will be held responsible if it fails. Gavin begs Dr. Bannerchek to come back to Hooli. "We need you, now, guiding critical components of our core business," he says. "Components like Nucleus." Bannerchek likes the idea of being in charge of Nucleus. "There's a chance," Gavin tells Bannerchek, "no one will know I had anything to do with it at all."</p><p>Richard thanks the Pied Piper team for forgoing their salaries that week and reminds them that if they win -- <i>when </i>they win, he corrects himself -- there will be bonuses all around. Richard tells Gilfoyle and Dinesh that Seth, Endframe's network security guy, changed his LinkedIn status to "unemployed." The guys think it's amazing that they got him fired, but Richard feels bad and sends Seth a message. "Can we meet?" Seth asks Richard.</p><p>Seth tells Richard that he's been tearing his hair out and asks how Gilfoyle hacked the Endframe system. Richard tells him about Gilfoyle finding the login information on the Post-It. Seth calls Gilfoyle, telling him, "You just f**ked with the wrong hacker." He runs off, screaming, "F**k all of you Pied Piper f**ks!" Gilfoyle and Dinesh are mad Richard talked to Seth. "He's not going to do shit," Gilfoyle says of Seth. "He's a coder." Adds Dinesh: "By definition, we're all pussies." Richard remains worried that Seth will "skull f**k" Pied Piper, as he threatened.</p><p>Arriving at Raviga to pitch an app, Erlich and Jian-Yang find Monica outside smoking a cigarette. Later she calls and "thanks" Erlich for outing her habit and tells him that his app idea -- a way for parents to find the least-crowded playground -- won't work because it will mostly appeal to pedophiles. She finally agrees to ask Laurie for five minutes to present the app.</p><p>After looking at the mobile beta for Nucleus, Bannerchek quits Hooli without even telling Gavin. "Now the world will know you were responsible for Nucleus," one of the execs excitedly tells a bereft Gavin. "You, and you alone."</p><p>Richard is still paranoid that Seth is going to attack their system, while Gilfoyle and Dinesh could care less. Richard again meets with Seth, who says he was just blowing off steam with the threats until he realizes that Gilfoyle didn't think he could attack the system. He calls Gilfoyle again and renews his threats.</p><p>Erlich and Jian-Yang pitch the app to Laurie, but they give it a new twist: Erlich says the app is a real-time, crowd-sourced map locating smokers. "With our app users can locate and, thus, avoid these self-indulgent, self-destructive, negligent monsters," Erlich says, as Monica glares and Laurie smiles. "We call it Smokation." Afterward Monica tells Erlich there's promise for the app, and Jian-Yang lights up a cigarette in the office.</p><p>Gilfoyle and Dinesh continue to assure Richard that their system is safe during the transfer of Intersite videos. Russ shows up and insists on more shots of his tequila, but Richard calls Russ an "asshole" because he's stopped giving them their money. "We're gonna win this bake-off and pay you enough money to go away forever," Richard tells Russ. "So take your shitty tequila and your shitty jeans with f**king metal chunks on them and get the f**k outta here." Russ is hurt. "Wow, that's harsh," he says, "I guess, with you, it was all about the money, wasn't it, Richard?" Before he goes, Russ shows Richard the gift he bought for himself: a McLaren.</p><p>Richard gets a call from the frantic CTO of Intersite; Pied Piper is deleting all their data. The team runs inside and is baffled at what's happening. "You guys are killing me," the CTO tells Richard. "I'm losing hundreds of hours of content." Neither side can shut it down. "How the f**k did Seth do this?" Gilfoyle asks. Russ notices that his tequila bottle is sitting on the backspace key of a laptop; he lifts it up, and the content stops being deleted. "The Tres Comas bottle was on the delete key," he sheepishly tells the team. "That's not great, but...we're good now. I gotta go." The Pied Piper is stunned.</p><p>Richard explains to Intersite CEO Molly Kendall that they deleted over 9,000 hours of the company's premium content. "Our compression is so incredibly powerful that we were able to delete all those files at a rate that, until now, was unthinkable, if we're considering just raw speed," he says, trying to spin what happened. Molly doesn't find any of Richard's explanation amusing. "Get out," she tells him. "Now. All of you."</p></div>
Binding Arbitration
<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<br></p><p>At a bar, Big Head runs into the Hooli brogrammers, who tell him that Nucleus is "dog shit." The two of them are rude to Big Head. "Do you have any skill at all other than magically failing your way to the top?" one of them asks. The pair exits, leaving a Hooli Nucleus phone behind. Big Head gives the phone to Richard, who describes the Nucleus interface as "Soviet era" and plans to use it in his battle against Hooli.</p><p>Ron LaFlamme listens as Richard talks on the phone with Gavin, who wants the Hooli phone back. Gavin and Richard threaten each other in veiled ways, under the advisement of their lawyers. "Alright, Richard, so what do we do here?" Gavin asks. Ron says he'll sidebar with the Hooli lawyers, and later Richard explains to the Pied Piper team that they're going into binding arbitration, which is "a trial but massively accelerated." Arguments for the Pied Piper-Hooli lawsuit will happen over two days, then a retired judge will make a ruling.</p><p>Richard and the guys meet with their new litigation lawyer, Pete, who has a sketchy history that possibly includes cocaine and underage sex. He's taking the Pied Piper case on spec because he's been disbarred, although Pete assures them he can work on an arbitration like theirs.</p><p>Boxes upon boxes of documents are delivered to the Hacker Hostel, and Jared explains that it's a "classic" document dump. Richard explains to Pete that he never used Hooli resources to develop Pied Piper. Pete warns him that if there's a conflicting version of Richard's story anywhere, though, that could be a problem. Erlich offers a list of questions he should be asked on the stand, but the lawyer says he doesn't intend to call him to testify.</p><p>Jared wonders if anything is wrong with the condor egg that's streaming on their website -- nothing has changed in two weeks. Jared wants to call the museum to check on the egg, but Gilfoyle and Dinesh scare him into not reaching out...yet.</p><p>Pete confronts Richard, asking him why he said he hasn't had a girlfriend in three years even though there are lots of emails to Big Head that reference a girlfriend. Richard says it's a joke. "Big Head and I, we call my laptop my girlfriend," Richard says, "because it's the only warm thing that's touched my crotch in a little while." Knowing this, Pete deduces that Richard did Pied Piper work with Hooli resources and explains that the company is screwed if "the attorneys at Hooli figure out that your girlfriend is your laptop."</p><p>At the arbitration, the Hooli lawyers start by calling Big Head to the stand. "Haven't you received three Hooli promotions in a month?" a lawyer asks him. "It seems like everything you touch is made dramatically better." Pete is excited -- he thinks Hooli's case rests on building up Big Head as a strong contributor to Pied Piper.</p><p>Jared gets off a call with the museum. "They said that it's very unlikely that the condor egg is still alive," he tells Dinesh and Gilfoyle. "But my phone call itself drew their attention to the low viewing numbers, and they've decided to take down the cameras today."</p><p>Pete switches his tactic and calls Erlich to the stand. "Is it also fair to say that every instinct that you have as a businessman has been completely and totally wrong?" the lawyer asks. "Aren't you considered a joke in this town?" The lawyer establishes that Big Head is a moron because Erlich is a moron when it comes to business. In defending his business decisions around Big Head's app NipAlert, Erlich lets it slip that it crashed his laptop for three days -- the exact time period that Richard used a Hooli computer to work on Pied Piper. The Hooli lawyers seem to have picked up on the slip.</p><p>Erlich suggests Richard lie about the computer use when he goes on the stand. "Richard do the right thing here," Erlich says. "Lie on the stand." The Hooli lawyer questions Richard about the last time he had a girlfriend, and Richard admits he calls his laptop his girlfriend. "Mr. Hendricks, did you at anytime use a Hooli computer to test and or alter your Pied Piper algorithm?" the lawyer asks. Richard doesn't directly answer the question. "I wanted Pied Piper to be different," Richard explains. "But if this company is built on lies, then we're really not much different than Hooli." He admits to using a Hooli computer, prompting Erlich to dramatically stand up and say that he's his girlfriend. "You don't have to protect me anymore!" Erlich says.</p><p>Jared views the condor cam livestream as a museum employee climbs up to take down the cameras. Jared, Gilfoyle and Dinesh watch the still-streaming camera as the guy falls backward out of the nest and lands with a thud.</p></div>
Two Days of the Condor
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Alec Berg<br><b>Directed by </b>Alec Berg<br></p><p>"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" the stranded museum employee asks on the condor cam livestream. The Pied Piper guys are watching -- along with 7,000 other people, Dinesh notes. "It's working flawlessly," Dinesh adds. Richard shows the lead Hooli lawyer out of the Hacker Hostel, telling the guys that the litigators wanted to "make sure the platform they want to seize is ready for them." Erlich demands an apology from Pete, who tells Erlich that he lost his composure and "ruined our entire case." The decision is set to be announced at 3 p.m. that day.</p><p>On the street, Erlich sees Noah, who tells him that he sold his house. The realtor approaches Erlich about selling his house, too, and it takes very little to convince him. The guys are surprised Erlich's selling and ask what will happen to the incubator. "Functionally, all I've really achieved is running a flophouse where guys have shat, jerked off and paid me no rent," Erlich says. Dinesh reports that the livestream of the stranded museum employee has more than 20,000 viewers now, after links on BuzzFeed and Reddit. The guys lament having to give the great technology to Gavin Belson, but Gilfoyle suggests deleting Pied Piper before it can be taken. "We can't give it to him," he suggests, "if we don't have it to give." Richard doesn't want to delete it. "I kind of want to see how big it can get, right up until the point where Gavin Belson has to f**king take it from us," Richard says.</p><p>Jared announces that Manny Pacquiao tweeted a link of the livestream to his more than two million followers. The guys scramble to make sure the system can handle the traffic, and it isn't long before they're up to 50,000 viewers. Gilfoyle says they're about to "blow the main breaker." Richard heads out to hear the judge's decision. "Keep it online as long as you can, okay?" he tells Dinesh and Gilfoyle before he goes. Meanwhile, Monica shows the livestream to Laurie, who's very impressed with what she sees.</p><p>Gavin helps Richard tie his tie in the bathroom at the hearing. Gavin tells Richard that he would have paid $250 million to buy out Pied Piper if the arbitration wouldn't have happened. "Believe it or not," Gavin tells him, "your algorithm is the only way to make Nucleus work."</p><p>Gilfoyle is jamming the Hacker Hostel's breakers so they don't trip. Erlich is worried about the place going up in flames just as he's about to sell. Dinesh notes that they're up to 200,000 viewers. The realtor, Louise, shows up with potential buyers who plan to tear down the house. The buyers want to make an all-cash offer right then, but Erlich tells her, "You can tell your clients, respectfully, that they may go f**k themselves." Erlich puts on wrist braces and jumps in to help Dinesh code to support the growing livestream viewership. The server overload causes a fire at the Hacker Hostel just as the museum employee drinks his own urine and a rescue team arrives and shuts off the camera. "Holy shit," Gilfoyle says, staring at the now-blank screen. "We did it."</p><p>The judge rules that Hooli has a right to ownership of Pied Piper's underlying IP. Richard texts Jared; "Delete it all," he writes. The judge adds a caveat about Pied Piper's hiring of Jared; Hooli contracts forbid the hiring, but the judge notes that the California Supreme Court deemed such rules unlawful. "So effectively, Mr. Hendricks never had a valid employment agreement with Hooli," the judge notes. "As a result, Hooli has no claim to ownership of Pied Piper's underlying IP. That is my ruling and, per your arbitration agreement, it is binding and final." It take a couple minutes for Richard to realize, however, that he told the guys to delete the technology.</p><p>Dinesh is about to delete the Pied Piper code. Richard tries to call Erlich to tell them to stop, but his phone battery dies. Then he drops his car keys into the sewer. The guys are about to hit delete once again. "One click," Dinesh says, "and poof." Just as Gilfoyle is about to push the button, Erlich suggests they have one last toast to Pied Piper. The guys cheer, as Richard desperately tries to figure out how to contact them. Richard hops on a bus and uses the bus driver's phone to email...but the message goes into spam. The guys delay the deletion further by procuring a lemon for their beers. Richard finally arrives. "We won," Richard tells the guys. "We beat Gavin Belson, and we won."</p><p>On the Hooli campus, Gavin heads to face the company's board, as executives postulate that he could be fired and Big Head could be put in charge of the company because of his many accomplishments. "That doesn't just happen," one says. "He must be smart as hell." Denpok overhears this and approaches Big Head, telling him he has "an aura" that could be "harnessed to great effect."</p><p>Russ approaches Monica at her office. "Question," he says. "What's got two thumbs and three commas? This guy." He tells Monica that Laurie bought his stake in Pied Piper. Laurie tells Monica that they now have a majority on the Pied Piper board. "We can now take the necessary steps," Laurie says, "to make sure Pied Piper is properly managed."</p><p>The guys are partying at the Hacker Hostel when Monica calls Richard. "Um…" he tells the guys, "...apparently Raviga held an emergency meeting of Pied Piper's board of directors and they all voted to remove me as CEO of my own company. I just got fired." That prompts Erlich to ask: "And what about me?"</p></div>
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 Earnings 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
Season Four Premiere. In the wake of Pied Piper's clickfarm scandal, the guys struggle to find funding for their video-chat app to keep up with their rapidly-growing user base. Erlich faces resistance from Big Head's dad. Richard gets some sage advice from an unexpected source, leading him to a big idea that could change his future.
Terms of Service
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Clay Tarver<br>nn<b>Directed by </b>Mike Judge</p><p>Sporting a new haircut and a blazer, Dinesh pitches Piper Chat to VCs who respond well to his pompous attitude. Back at the hostel, the Richard walks in on the team playing a celebratory round of "almost blue," although Dinesh and Erlich attempt to minimize their success. Richard asks Dinesh why he can't access the data from Piper Chat and Dinesh admits he intentionally revoked his access, despite their verbal agreement. </p><p>Jack Barker interrupts Gavin's acupuncture session to apologize for not understanding why he was demoted to the basement. Instead of resigning like Gavin expected, Barker announces he has a brilliant new idea</p><p>Erlich reprimands Jian-Yang for going behind his back and arranging pitches with VCs, but is told he gave up his 10 percent of the idea when he evicted Jian-Yang. Richard asks Jared to back him up on the squabble with Dinesh, but Jared, fiercely loyal to his new boss, refuses to discuss the issue. Big Head overhears and offers his login..</p><p>After Dinesh proudly watches his appearance on Bloomberg, a frustrated Richard looks at the Piper Chat data and notices the majority of the users are underage girls. He tells Jared to survey the users.</p><p>The next day, Jared and Dinesh go to a car wash where their lawyer now works. They present him with the user data and he reveals they've violated the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act because Dinesh failed to port over Pied Piper's Terms of Service. The mistake will cost them $21 billion. </p><p>Hoover presents Gavin with surveillance options for Jack Barker, and Denpok overhears Gavin tell him he's the only person he can trust. Desperate to return to Gavin's good graces, Denpok falsely accuses Barker of scheming against Gavin. Gavin buys it but Hoover demands proof. Fishing, Denpok tells Gavin that Barker must have been on Piper Chat, prompting Gavin to make plans to acquire the startup.</p><p>Finding Dinesh in fetal position in the tub, Richard opens up about his own failings as a CEO. Gavin Belson calls and asks Dinesh to dinner. When they tell the team about Belson's interest, Jared is certain Gavin's legal team will discover the user issue and turn him in. </p><p>At dinner, Gavin tells Dinesh he's meeting to "take" Piper Chat because Dinesh basically admitted to stealing his IP in the press. Dinesh tries to warn Gavin who does not listen and Dinesh signs the paper. </p><p>Erlich makes a deal with Jian-Yang before they pitch to the VCs. Erlich thinks he's getting in on a virtual reality company, but Jian-Yang reveals Big Head must have heard "Oculus" instead of "octopus"; the app is actually just eight ways to cook a Chinese octopus dish. </p><p>Gavin, Hoover and Denpok review Jack's Piper Chats and a research analyst interrupts to show Gavin a room of 12-year-old girls participating in a focus group.</p><p></p></div>
Intellectual Property
<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>During Jian Yang's pitch to VCs at Coleman Blair, Erlich deftly pivots the octopus recipe app to "Shazam for food" -- SeeFood. The VCs offer a seed investment of $200,000 but the money is contingent on a demo. Back at the Hacker Hostel, Jian Yang resists the shift in vision until Erlich cites Richard as the type of crazy person who'd walk away from that kind of money. Noting that Richard has wandered into the pool fully clothed, Jian Yang relents. Erlich tasks Gilfoyle and Dinesh with helping to develop a demo. </p><p>Richard seeks out Monica's advice, as he loses hope on figuring out how to develop a decentralized internet. Monica tries to console him, casually dropping that Peter Gregory had tried to crack the idea but eventually abandoned it. Richard jumps at the opportunity to look through Peter's journals for any relevant notes. </p><p>The Hooli board is irate that Gavin acquired PiperChat, making the company liable for all its underage users. They fire Gavin and appoint Jack Barker CEO. During his farewell speech, Gavin invites his staff to take his departure as a final opportunity to give him honest feedback -- positive or negative. No one takes him up on the offer.</p><p>Under pressure from his father to either get a job or go back to school, Big Head meets with a rep from Stanford's Computer Science program. The rep is unimpressed by Big Head's academic credentials (five years of college before dropping out) until she realizes he's the Nelson Bighetti of Bachmanity, recently featured on the cover of Wired magazine. She offers Big Head what he thinks is a spot in the CS program but turns out to be a guest lectureship.</p><p>Off of intel from Richard that Erlich and Jin Yang won't be able to develop a SeeFood demo in time to complete the deal with Coleman Blair, Monica deliberately lets her rival, colleague Ed Chen eavesdrop on a fake phone call praising the app. Taking Monica's bait, Ed convinces Laurie to offer Erlich and Jian Yang $200,000 for SeeFood, app unseen. But Jian Yang let's slip over celebratory drinks with Ed that they don't even have a demo. Realizing he's been set up, Ed gets Laurie to make Monica lead on the SeeFood app development. </p><p>Dinesh gets an email from someone named Mia complimenting him on getting Gavin fired. It turns out Mia is a badass female hacker, who believes Dinesh intentionally took down Gavin by ceding ownership of PiperChat. The two go on a date, which gets off to a rocky start until they realize they share a mutual hatred of Gilfoyle.</p><p>Monica brings Richard and Jared to the Raviga basement, where all Peter's journals are stored. The guys get to work sifting through all the notes. Stumbling upon a page detailing Peter's plans for a decentralized internet, Richard realizes Peter thought it wasn't feasible unless compression surpassed the theoretical limit of a 2.9 Weisman score -- a number Pied Piper shattered at Tech Crunch Disrupt. </p><p>In addition to Peter's plan for a decentralized internet, Richard and Jared find a number in the notes. It turns out to be a patent number for the exact internet platform Richard wants to build. Jared discovers the patent was in fact created in Gavin Belson's name. Gavin took out the patent when he and Peter were partners, intending it to be a roadblock that would focus Peter's energies on creating the company they started together -- Hooli. After kicking a hole through a closet door at the Hacker Hostel to vent his frustration, Richard regroups and seeks Gavin out at his home.<br></p></div>
Teambuilding Exercise
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by</b> Meghan Pleticha<br><b>Directed by </b>Jamie Babbit</p><p>Richard arrives at Gavin Belson's estate in the middle of the night. The place is a mess, broken statues litter the floor. Richard presents Gavin with a license for his peer-to-peer communication pattern in exchange for his patent, but Gavin refuses to sign and tells Richard he's wasting his time. Determined to get him on board, Richard explains why his idea will work this time around.</p><p>Monica views the demo of the See Food app and it correctly identifies a hot dog. When they scan a piece of pizza, it yields: Not Hot Dog. Jian-Yang admits he did not want to scrape the internet to have the app identify more food items, but Monica insists he fix it.</p><p>Richard tells the guys he's going into business with Gavin Belson and has hired a recruiter to replace them. Jared, Dinesh and Gilfoyle watch as Richard interviews engineers for his new company, and Erlich informs the crew he is building a palapa with the See Food funding. As Gilfoyle scans the recruiter's list of candidates, he notices Jian-Yang's name. Erlich yells at Jian-Yang and angrily takes a dick pic with the app, which identifies his penis as a hot dog. </p><p>Later that afternoon, Erlich hears an engine revving and goes to the driveway where Jian-Yang is at the wheel of a brand new Corvette. He tells Erlich it's a "business expense" so the money will run out and he can stop working on the app. </p><p>Jared pitches his skills to Richard who agrees to hire him. They sit down with Gavin to review Richard's interview notes, and Jared suggests hiring Gilfoyle who is crying for help by insulting the other candidates. </p><p>Big Head, who has been teaching his Stanford class by showing them movies about the internet, changes his syllabus after Erlich compels him to use his class to scrape the internet for pictures of food. The next class, the students admit they're boycotting the assignment because they founded their own "Shazam for food" and are taking Coleman Blair's funding. </p><p>With no company, Erlich "releases" Jian-Yang and tells him he can pursue his own app. He trades in his 10 percent for the car and the palapa, and instructs Jian-Yang to tell Monica what happened.</p><p>Gilfoyle turns down Richard's job offer before conceding; he'll work for Pied Piper because the company will fail without him. </p><p>Laurie tells Monica Jian-Yang made a "nimble pivot"; his new app is "an amazing tool for the real-time detection and filtering of penile imagery." She tells Monica Jian-Yang interviewed for a job at Periscope and received a $4 million acquisition offer. Laurie credits Ed Chen for this major win. </p><p>Driving in his new car, Erlich hears from Monica about Jian-Yang's lucrative move. Dinesh describes his new job at Periscope to Gilfoyle -- looking at dick pics for Jian-Yang's acquired technology.</p></div>
The Blood Boy
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Adam Countee<br><b>Directed by </b>Tim Roche</p><p>Richard, Gilfoyle and Jared meet with Gavin to discuss the launch plan for their new internet. The presentation is underway when Gavin's "transfusion associate," Bryce, arrives to hook himself up to Gavin, something he does to slow Gavin's aging process. Richard is frustrated when Bryce interjects to suggest they pursue a big launch rather than his preferred "stealth roll out" but Gavin favors Bryce's plan. Once Gavin leaves the room, Richard yells at Bryce for steamrolling the presentation and Jared lashes out, calling Bryce a "d**k."</p><p>Attending Ed Chen's baby shower for Laurie, Erlich realizes the party is a guise for Ed to cozy up to board members and stage a coup. Erlich warns Monica that she needs to "bro down" or she'll be cut out of the new regime. </p><p>On Gavin's instructions, Richard goes to Bryce's apartment to apologize. He finds the place filled with shopping bags from Geary Street Organics. Bryce isn't interested in hearing an apology. He tells Richard off for assuming that someone with a pretty face can't have good ideas. </p><p>Dinesh realizes he needs to breakup with Mia because she keeps divulging her involvement in major hacking scandals. He decides to confess he's not the "badass" she imagines him to be. Instead of getting angry learning he didn't intentionally take down Gavin, Mia finds Dinesh's honesty an even bigger draw. In a final attempt to get out of the relationship, Dinesh reports Mia to the FBI and has her arrested at her sister's wedding. Free from the relationship, he quits Periscope and return to his role at Pied Piper. </p><p>Taking Erlich's advice, Monica bros down with Ed and successfully secures a place for herself at the new Raviga -- as long as she doesn't say anything to Laurie. Erlich realizes Ed hasn't secured all the votes needed to oust Laurie and warns Monica she may have backed the wrong horse. When Monica informs Laurie of Ed's plans to take over Raviga, she is shocked to discover Laurie is pregnant with her fourth child, and that she is well aware of the coup. Laurie explains she plans to start a new VC firm. Touched by Monica's show of loyalty, Laurie invites her to jump ship as well.</p><p>Richard learns from Erlich that Geary Street Organics is a dispensary -- not a health food store. Richard realizes "blood boy" Bryce isn't the pinnacle of health Gavin expects of a transfusion associate. Richard goes to reveal his findings but discovers Gavin has once again trashed his home: Bryce is writing a tell-all and plans to air Gavin's dirty laundry to the world. Richard tries to comfort Gavin, but the ex-CEO is demoralized by the many recent upheavals in his life.</p><p>In an effort to rally Gavin's spirits, Richard does an interview with Code/Rag and goes public with the news that he and Gavin are partnering on a new project. Touched by Richard's move, but realizing he'd never do the same were their positions reversed, Gavin decides to go away on a journey of soul searching. He signs over the patent needed to create a decentralized internet and sends the massive portrait of himself to Richard as a parting gift.</p></div>
Customer Service
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Graham Wagner and Shawn Boxe<br><b>Directed by </b>Clay Tarver</p><p>Russ Hanneman drops by the hostel and accuses Richard of stealing his idea and bringing it to Gavin. When Richard asks him for funding, Russ pees in Erlich's Corvette in response. After being rejected by the last person with money in the Valley, Richard decides to pivot and focus on securing a customer before their product is built. </p><p>Erlich and Richard shop the storage-saving component of their peer-to-peer internet to companies across the Valley. They speak with Liz at Fiduciated General Insurance who agrees to introduce them to the CTO (and her fiance) -- Dan Melcher, the TechCrunch judge whose first two wives Erlich slept with. Erlich and Richard miraculously get Melcher to consider their proposal and Richard works through the details with Liz because Erlich can't be trusted around Dan's fiance.</p><p>While Richard works with Liz, Erlich asks Monica and Laurie for a job at their new firm, and is told he'll need to convince Laurie of his value. Defeated, Erlich goes to a coffee shop where he accidentally sits down with a group of VCs meeting with Keenan Feldspar: a tech guru who developed a new VR headset. Erlich impresses Feldspar with his bravado, and returns to BreamHall with the tech star to prove his worth to Laurie.</p><p>While testing the newest version of Pied Piper Dinesh and Gilfoyle do something that accidentally merges the data on their phones. Jared confiscates the devices before they can do too much digging.</p><p>Richard and Liz work late on the agreement and end up having sex. Panicking, Richard confides to Jared, who asks if he's in love. Jared notes it might be difficult to extricate Richard from the situation because Liz might be in love with him: "Richard, this is no time for false humility. You're a catch, just deal with it."</p><p>Richard goes back to FGI to talk to Liz and they agree their tryst was a mistake; Liz notes it's the worst sex she's ever had "by far." The two agree to just close the deal and move on.</p></div>
The Patent Troll
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Andrew Law<br><b>Directed by </b>Jamie Babbit</p><p>Richard heads to his doctor for an STD test after his escapade with Liz, Dan Melcher's fiancé. Shocked that Richard had sex, the doctor informs him that he's shrinking. His "unhealthy lifestyle" has led to a loss of mineral bone density and Richard is an inch shorter than he was the year before.</p><p>Pied Piper cracks the Top 500 list in the Hooli App store among utilities (sub group mobile, sub group storage). The success catches the attention of Stuart Burke, who issues a note stating Pied Piper's technology infringes on his patent. Presuming Stuart is a fellow coder, Richard tries to reason with him face-to-face. It turns out Stuart is a "patent troll" who makes his living acquiring patents and suing people for copyright infringement. He used to run in music licensing but decided to branch out into the booming technology market. Stuart demands Richard pay $20,000 to license his patent covering "storage of media files on a network."</p><p>After successfully signing Keenan to Bream-Hall, Erlich talks his way into a fulltime VC position at the company. Ed Chen invites his new colleague to join him and "some of the boys" on the floor of Oracle Arena for what Erlich assumes will be a Warriors basketball game. Realizing the VCs play a pickup game on the court each week, Erlich breaks his leg installing a hoop on the Hacker Hostel garage door. He gracefully bows out of playing -- instead manning the scoreboard. </p><p>Struggling on the phone to reach various sales reps for software upgrades and office supplies, Jared takes Dinesh's advice and pretends he works for a larger company. He manufactures a fake supervisor to connect reps with. Doing his best Ed Chen impersonation, he takes on the persona of "Ed Chambers" and bros out via phone. Ed Chambers gets immediate results negotiating Cloud Storage rates and seltzers for the house at an "amazeballs" price. Unfortunately, Jared is forced to fire Ed when Jian-Yang chooses to spend some of his newfound wealth on a $14,000 smartfridge. Gilfoyle takes an immediate dislike to the talking fridge. When he discovers the voice-response settings are password protected, he decides to wage war. He's able to successfully use energy from his server, Anton, to hack into the fridge, leaving a personal message: "Suck it, Jin-Yang!"</p><p>Seeking legal advice from Ron LaFlamme, Richard learns that Stuart is working his way up the Hooli Top 500 list, making a stronger case for copyright infringement with every settlement he collects. Ron advises paying off Stuart, which would be cheaper than going to court. Unwilling to let Stuart get away with his scheme, Richard tries to form a coalition with other CEOs on Hooli's app list. The plan backfires when the eight CEOs Richard approachs preemptively agree to settle with Stuart and license his patent. So bolstered, Stuart demands a higher fee from Pied Piper -- $300,000.</p><p>Richard realizes he can use his original Pied Piper music software to search songs Stuart claimed copyrights on. He then goes to Stuart and convinces him that one of the songs he owns was previously licensed to someone else. Successfully trolling the copyright troll and threatening to air this revelation in court, Richard secures a perpetual royalty free license for Stuart's patent. He nevertheless has to pay Ron LaFlamme $22,000 for the paperwork required to assemble the Hooli coalition. </p></div>
The Keenan Vortex
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Graham Wagner and Rachele Lynn<br><b>Directed by</b> Jamie Babbit</p><p>Erlich moves into his new office at Bream-Hall and meets with Keenan Feldspar who tells him he's made Erlich his key man -- if Erlich is ousted from the firm, Keenan can walk. Erlich tells the guys his news and Jared informs them of a financial hiccup with Melcher: The company has already reached its monthly data limit. Richard calls Melcher who explains the insurance business booms when it gets cold outside. Because Pied Piper is responsible for the overages, Richard proposes finding another customer to pay Melcher's fees and asks Erlich for Feldspar's business.</p><p>Meeting secured, Richard and Jared's pitch to Keenan is interrupted by Dinesh and Gilfoyle, who rave about Keenan's VR. Keenan agrees to the data storage deal after Richard tries the VR, and Dinesh and Gilfoyle decide to stay and hang out at Keenan's. </p><p>Because of the cold, there's a delay on The Box 2, and Jack is told it will not make the Hooli Con deadline. Barker analyzes videos of Gavin at previous conventions and begs for a miracle. </p><p>With new paperwork, Jared and Richard return to Keenan's where they find Dinesh and Gilfoyle in matching pajamas. They show Richard a new and improved VR experience in which Dinesh and Gilfoyle integrated Richard's compression algorithm. Keenan presents Richard with an offer to acquire Pied Piper. </p><p>Agonizing over Keenan's offer, Richard laments his future in tech if he sells, and Jared compels him to accept because if he doesn't, he might lose his crew. Richard counters with $25 million, hoping Keenan will reject it. Instead, Keenan announces he has the money because he went to Raviga with the new demo and they tripled Bream-Hall's $20 million deal. In order for Keenan to accept Raviga's offer, Erlich quit his job. The Pied Piper crew and Keenan celebrate at the palapa.</p><p>Richard goes to apologize to Monica and tells her about the deal with Keenan. Monica warns him Keenan will probably "f*ck them over." She also reveals they aren't mad about Erlich and Keenan's move because the "tech is dogsh*t"; it only works "when you run it on a $10,000 rig." Richard emails Keenan "no deal" and joins the guys, learning the deal is off the table: Keenan sold his company to Hooli and left Erlich out in the cold. </p><p>Richard goes outside to find Erlich sitting in the palapa, which is engulfed in flames. The next morning, still sitting in the charred palapa, Erlich stares off into the distance. They watch a Hooli Con commercial and Richard proposes attending to acquire more customers.</p></div>
Hooli-Con
<div class='episode-body-left-aligned' style='text-align: left'><p><b>Written by </b>Chris Provenzano<br><b>Directed by</b> Mike Judge</p><p>Still struggling to store Fiduciated General Insurance's data, Richard devises a plan to hack Pied Piper's code onto the Hooli app during Hooli-Con. He realizes attendees will download the app to access free Wi-Fi, allowing PiedPiper to store data across their devices. Gilfoyle and Dinesh are on board to carry out the hack, and Dinesh heads to visit Mia in prison to pose a "hypothetical" hacking challenge: How would she hack into the Hooli app servers through a Wi-Fi connection? </p><p>At Mia's suggestion, the guys realize they can position Wi-Fi "Pineapples" around Hooli-Con, putting PiedPiper's server between everyone's devices and the real Wi-Fi. Jared resists taking part in the scheme and warns Richard the move is dangerously close to Gavin-like behavior. But Richard justifies it as a means to an end for the "greater good" -- they're trying to give free internet to the world. </p><p>After burning down his palapa, Erlich has an epiphany: He'll visit Gavin Belson in Tibet, on a soul-searching journey of his own. Jian-Yang is quick to provide a one-way premium economy ticket and assistance getting a visa from his "corrupt uncle"; he personally drives the Aviato founder to the airport. </p><p>The guys arrive at Hooli-Con and set up their meager folding table. Sending Jared off on various tasks, Richard mans the table while Gilfoyle and Dinesh hook up Pineapples. Hooli head of security, Hoover, immediately homes in on their suspicious behavior, but is brushed off when he reports it to Jack Barker, who is busy preparing for his big moment. </p><p>In an awkward run-in, Richard sees Winnie with her new boyfriend, Joel. He's the founder of an app called PeaceFare, which lets users send virtual coins to virtual homeless people and grow virtual corn for virtual starving villages. Unable to resist, Richard hacks into Joel's computer and changes his PeaceFare screen saver. </p><p>Richard's petty move immediately causes problems when Joel calls the Hooli Technical Response team to locate the hacker. The team quickly detects the Pineapples and the guys are taken to security. Awaiting Hoover, Jared snaps when he learns all their hard work will come to nothing and PiedPiper is on the precipice of a true crisis because Richard couldn't resist changing "PeaceFare" to "PoopFare." </p><p>Moved by Richard's kind words about Gavin Belson in Code/Rag, Hoover decides to let the guys' scheme slide. He pretends the PiedPiper guys are working on a covert penetration test of the Wi-Fi security and returns their equipment. With Hoover's blessing, the guys head back to the conference floor and complete their mission. </p><p>By the end of Hooli-Con, the guys are able to get the necessary number of users to store Fiduciated General Insurance's data, but Jared is completely disillusioned. Richard tries to console him by promising he won't behave badly during the next crisis. Mollified for the moment, Jared joins Richard, Dinesh and Gilfoyle to watch Jack's keynote. </p><p>On stage, disaster strikes the Hooli CEO: while testing Keenan's new VR capabilities, the audience's HooliPhones begin to overheat and combust.</p></div>
Server Error
Season Four Finale. In a final attempt to save Pied Piper from ruin, Richard finds himself caught up in a web of lies. Concerned about Richard's future, Jared plans his exit; Jack bets big in an attempt to change the narrative. Gavin plots his 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
Season Six Premiere. 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. Gilfoyle devises a creative way to deal with Dinesh's complaining.
Blood Money
When Richard meets an interested investor with a sketchy past, he must weigh his integrity against a tempting financial offer. Jared seeks a new future, putting him at odds with Richard. A defiant Gilfoyle butts heads with HR over his lack of direct reports. Hoover and Denpok worry when Gavin explores alternative solutions to keep a leaner Hooli afloat.
Hooli Smokes!
Feeling backed into a corner, Richard commiserates with a former rival. Dinesh considers being a better person in order to right his string of bad luck.To help Gwart, Jared works with Richard. And Monica suggests a drastic move that finds the Pied Piper team racing against the clock to close a major deal.
Maximizing Alphaness
When Richard's authority is threatened by Ethan, his former manager at Hooli, Dinesh advises him to assert his dominance. Monica tries to prove she supports other women by participating in Laurie's female empowerment panel. Gavin pens a book that's light on tech talk. Jared finally meets his birth parents and commits himself to Gwart.
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. Gilfoyle and Monica set out to improve their peer review scores in the office. Holden braces for a showdown with Jared, who decides to kill him with kindness.
RussFest
Richard, Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jared face their greatest challenge yet as a massive event tests PiperNet's capabilities, 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.
