[rating=7.00] “Homicide”
This week, Pied Piper almost manages to pull off a victory, but in the process learns that their streaming platform is indeed in great working order. Gavin on the other hand is not so lucky.
After a hilarious series of events last week, Gavin is proud to stream a UFC fight exclusively through Nucleus. He’s under the impression that everything is in perfect working order because no one wants to tell him otherwise. At first, things are going pretty well. The opening video for the fight is Gavin breaking through multiple glass walls to bring you the fight. As it gets going, the video starts to glitch. It eventually becomes pixelated, and ultimately freezes during what’s described as the best ending to a fight in history. Gavin freaks out. Over at Erlich’s, Richard and the guys are having a ball with the fact that the nucleus platform looks like a game of Minecraft.
Carla gets awkward when she finds out Monica is coming over, explaining that since they are the only two females in the company, they’re going to be pressured to be friends. The two are total opposites, so it’s understandable that it would get uncomfortable fast. While commenting on the characters themselves, it also teeters back to issues women face when breaking into a world they should rightfully be a bigger part of. While Carla’s assumption is initially brushed off, Jared soon begins prodding them to stand closer to one another as he wants them to be comfortable.
In a moment of clarity, Monica tells the guys that they should hop on the streaming train while the getting is still good. Both Carla and Gilfoyle assure Richard that they’ll have the platform ready in time, and Erlich is friends with the CEO of an energy drink company that sponsors extreme stunts. Recipe for succ…failure, most likely. At first, Richard is uncomfortable with the idea as there’s a chance they could fail like Gavin. Jared, being Jared, then pulls out his latest team building tool, the S.W.O.T board. “I’ve booby trapped the house with corporate resources,” he explains as he tries to point out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with the project. In an effort to avoid Jared’s process, Richard agrees to the proposition, and he and some of the team head to the Homicide energy drink headquarters to get acquainted with their upcoming collaborators.
Aaron, or Double A as Erlich keeps referring to him as, is happy to work with Richard on the project. He’s been looking for something big to boost the Homicide brand and this is a good way to do it. While they’re talking, Erlich proceeds to make a fool of himself all around the room. Gilfoyle and Dinesh are on hand to get the ball rolling, and Double A enlists Gina to help guide them through the process. Dinesh geeks out on Gina, he thinks she’s cute and has no game. “Pretend you’ve seen a woman before,” Gilfoyle snarks as they tour the facility. After several interruptions by Erlich, Double A lays it on the line for Richard. He hates Erlich, and has since they were in college. Erlich was called the Kool-aid man as he was always smashing into the room like the pitcher of the same name. He wants to work with Pied Piper, but only if it’s with Richard.
Over in the control room, Dinesh continues to geek out around Gina as she takes an interest in his name. It really does seem like he’s never been around a woman before. As he discusses the merits of the interest with Gilfoyle, he misses Gina making out with a dude over his shoulder, something that’s pointed out to him immediately in a fit of hilarity. Gina introduces them to the stunt guy, Blain who turns out to be a shithead who refuses to take any advice from Gilfoyle and Dinesh. As they walk away wounded, they notice that his calculations for the jump are off. Of course, if he doesn’t account for all the factors, he’ll most likely die a fiery painful death. They try to point this out, only to be rebuffed again. Blain’s blasé attitude leaves them in a conundrum. Should they let him die for being a douchebag?
Gavin is still freaking out about the nucleus failures. He doesn’t understand why no one is telling him about the truthful status of the platform, “All I hear from anybody is good news. Have I just surrounded myself with sycophants who just tell me exactly what I want to hear…” he asks, to which his advisor gives him the side eye gauging what he wants to hear and quickly says, “No”. Moving forward, Nucleus is still not testing well with people. In a focus group dedicated to the Nucleus platform, a group of millennials are given phones with Nucleus pre-loaded. In a hilarious scene, the overall opinion is that they, “Took a good phone and made it like…shit.” A sentiment felt throughout the group. Gavin flips out, and angrily pounds on the two way mirror separating him from the focus group. The mediator keeps his smile, and continues the questioning.
Back at the house, Dinesh and Gilfoyle continue to debate whether or not they should let Blain die, and ultimately decided to “S.W.O.T” the idea back and forth. Meanwhile, Richard explains his conundrum to Erlich, afraid of the outcome. He brushes it off, tells Richard to go for it anyway, but with an air of caution. Apparently Double A wasn’t well liked in college, thus earning him the nickname Double Asshole. Even after getting an explanation of his nickname, Erlich continues to assert that he’s the Kool-aid man because he was “cool” and gave out “aid” in the form of advice and knowledge.
As Gilfoyle and Dinesh continue to debate Blain’s future (they even bring their S.W.O.T board to Homicide with them like fools) Blain walks in. He wants to apologize for his earlier antics, explaining that he’s truthfully scared but uses aggression to keep him going. After-all, he wants to make it to tomorrow in order to provide for Gina and their multiple children. Dinesh and Gilfoyle do their best to keep a straight face as Blain stands underneath a sign that reads “Let Blain Die”, “Blain’s last moment is realizing his face is gone,” sits on his shoulder as a strength. As he walks out, he of course notices his name plastered all over the board, and freaks out.
This a perfect example of the comedic footing the show has fallen into. The antics played out by Dinesh and Gilfoyle are more than a good laugh, they’re truthful to the characters. Of course they would get caught by their polar opposite talking about whether or not they should let him live. That’s just the sort of luck they’ve been given. Additionally, everything going on with Gavin is gold as he flounces about his company blissfully clueless to what’s happening around. It’s the perfect balance to Richard’s awkward shortcomings.
As the final preparations are getting tied up, Richard has a breakdown when the Pied Piper logo isn’t used on the final production screen for the upcoming stunt. He’s played into Erlich’s perception of Aaron, and snaps at him, “Erlich was right, you are a double asshole.” To which Aaron responds by lifting up his shirt and revealing a colostomy bag. Aaron literally has two assholes. As Richard wraps his head around what just happened, standing in an awkwardly silent room, Dinesh and Gilfoyle hurriedly walk towards the exit. Blain reads on the strengths and weaknesses they’ve listed on their S.W.O.T board out loud as the defeated group leaves, “Possible three way with Gina and Blain’s hot mom question mark?!”
Erlich finds the whole thing hilarious, though he’s effectively put the company on a down turn before it can even launch with his antics. Predictably, the deal falls through, and instead of streaming a stunt Pied Piper streams a condor egg hatching. On the Brightside, the picture quality is great. Hanneman calls to congratulate their victory, condoning their change of name. Confused, Richard goes to the Homicide website just in time to see Blain successfully complete his jump, with a large “End Frame” logo sitting in the right hand corner. End Frame turns out to be the new streaming company put out by the group that brain raped them back when they were looking for investors. The episode ends with Jared trying to discuss what this means for Pied Piper, “I file this one under weakness Jared.”
The guys are their own worst enemy. Between Erlich’s antics, Gilfoyle and Dinesh’s failures, and Richard’s constant back and forth over whether or not he has the ability to bring his platform to fruition, they are effectively screwed. The only thing that was keeping them afloat was the fact that Nucleus has been doing so poorly. Now with this third party platform in the mix, there’s not a lot of chance they will get this off the ground to make money before the market is flooded.
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