Silicon Valley: Adult Content
May 27, 2015 9:14 AM - Season 2, Episode 7 - Subscribe

Richard explores his options with EndFrame, the company that stole his algorithm. Russ Hanneman is reeling from some devastating news, and asks Pied Piper to flip their business model on its head immediately.

After a less-than-successful confrontation at EndFrame, Richard's lawyer breaks it to him that there is very little recourse for Pied Piper, given that Richard gave away all of the information (under the pretense of pitching for investors) he claims they stole. It turns out that EndFrame has not only taken Richard's idea, they have hired a huge sales team which is already hard at work making deals while Pied Piper and Nucleus continue their tech and PR battles. Gilfoyle wonders why Pied Piper can't just get a deal with a company like EndFrame has, and Monica says that a deal like that took months to iron out. Fortunately or unfortunately, Gilfoyle stole a Post-It while at EndFrame with a user name and password on it that allows him to log into EndFrame to see the very details of this deal.

Dinesh spends most of the episode trying impress a woman he met online by putting on a persona of a man who is constantly on the go by signing emails sent from his computer with "Sent from my iPhone," when his actual iPhone is in his bedroom, which he is too lazy to walk to. When this woman shows up at the house, Dinesh's efforts to take her to a Catalan animation film festival are thwarted when she and Erlich reveal their previous romantic involvement and their interest in re-involving themselves.

Russ Hanneman is out of the Three Comma Club, as he has lost enough millions due to bad investments his money guy let Russ talk him into. Russ cannot get over owning exclusively cars with doors that open at traditional angles, so he tells Richard and Erlich that they have to start making money right away. Russ's solution is to bring EndFrame and Pied Piper into the same room to merge the two companies, because with EndFrame's sales and Pied Piper's tech, he's sure to be able to round down to 1 billion again, and not 0 billion. Richard walks out.

So even though it is illegal, Richard decides to embrace Gilfoyle's left-hand path and use the ill-gotten details of EndFrame's deal with porn company InterSite to offer the same deal with better specs. InterSite exec Molly Kendall is at first appalled that Pied Piper would know the details of her deal with EndFrame, but ultimately she agrees to a bake-off: a 1 week competition to compress InterSite's entire video library, with InterSite's business awarded to the company that most impressively compresses.

Meanwhile, back at Hooli, Gavin Belson is trying to convince Hooli's board that the UFC live stream was not a failure, but merely a stepping stone to success. Gavin calls for a "moonshot" from his Hooli [XYZ] team, which is now headed exclusively by Bighead. Unfortunately, their best suggestion is several decades from realization. Unless you count their broken potato cannon.
posted by joan cusack the second (9 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I guess this episode was needed in order to establish a direction for the rest of the season, but it really felt a bit mechanical. We need this plot element here and that one there and this twist to further character development down the road.

That said, I'm really liking Gilfoyle these days. It's what I mentioned in an earlier post about characters being the best versions of themselves. If he is a smart, dark, conniving Satanist, then let's see him act like one. Finally it seems we're getting that and not just smart, lazy sarcastic guy.
posted by sardonyx at 9:25 AM on May 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


At the end of the episode, Richard's hypercorrection of whoever to whomever was incorrect. I've been waiting all week for this thread to go up so I could get that off my chest.
posted by dfan at 10:21 AM on May 27, 2015 [6 favorites]


I really liked that Molly Kendal was just a normal CEO sort of person, and InterSite wasn't an occasion for HBO to add lite-porn to the show. Russ is much easier to stomach as a despondent ex-billionaire reminding Richard what he's lost in car door angles.
posted by gladly at 10:27 AM on May 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


Gavin's swearrific breakdowns are delicious, and Gilfoyle is my startup spirit animal. That is all.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:23 AM on May 27, 2015


I really liked that Molly Kendal was just a normal CEO sort of person, and InterSite wasn't an occasion for HBO to add lite-porn to the show.

I was thinking the same thing. It seems like Silicon Valley has actually been ducking HBO's vice president in charge of nudity for much of the show's run.

Russ is much easier to stomach as a despondent ex-billionaire reminding Richard what he's lost in car door angles.

The two different times he complains about the car doors were inspired, especially when he makes the hand motions to try to explain the difference.
posted by drezdn at 11:32 AM on May 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


The juxtaposition of the conventional corporate culture with the unending parade of obscene domain names was both hilarious and an acknowledgement that no one is on the side of angels here.

34% when Erlich is online.
posted by cardboard at 12:00 PM on May 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


Did anyone notice the awesome Crazytown song that Russ was playing in his normal-door-opening car? Thought it fit his character perfectly.
posted by Falconetti at 12:44 PM on May 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


Yes, Falconetti, when it came on I said to my SO, "Is that what I think it is?" It wasn't super loud but it was just damn perfect.
posted by radioamy at 7:29 AM on May 28, 2015


Of course he listens to that, so perfect.

I’m starting to seriously dislike Richard. He really needs to pull his thumb out. It’s INFURIATING to watch him screw up and sabotage everything with his serious incompetence and general cluelessness. I wish it was funny but I’m so humorless. Arghhhh.

I’m also on team Gilfoyle is the best.
posted by iamkimiam at 2:27 PM on August 16, 2021


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