[rating=8.00] “Teambuilding Exercise”
The formulaic days of Silicon Valley are officially over. We’ve now entered a new era for the series, extending the far reaches of the season three monotonous hump. Big Head is once again the seeming leader of a pack of intellectuals, Richard is on the path to global domination (with Jared sitting at his right hand) looking at full funding and nothing in his path, Erlich is primed to take the profits of his friend’s ideas, Gilfoyle finds himself at the helm of Richard’s new endeavor, and Dinesh deals with girl troubles he’s never once taken a moment to consider. This is a whole new world, and it’s time to stop treading lightly.
Jared’s insistence at working with Richard seems clingy, but if we consider it closely, it’s the smartest decision Richard’s made thus far. Jared has always been on Richard’s side, and if we’re being honest he’s the only reason the dudes haven’t imploded on themselves thus far. With Jared constantly throwing shade at Gavin, Richard is free to explore this new working relationship; he doesn’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back because Jared will (literally) stab Gavin in the front first.
Gavin still seems wary about Richard’s plan, but the fact that he’s interested at all leaves one wondering if he’s more intuitive than we’ve been led to believe. Gavin helped build Hooli from the ground up, and that doesn’t just happen. There were schemes hatched, plots thickened, and so many upheavals of management/staff that we’d need a flow chart to even begin to keep track of it all. Gavin has something up his sleeve, the question is, will he let Richard in on the action?
Erlich continued to flounder this week as he searches for his identity. As it turns out, it’s not at the wheel of a used Porsche, but perhaps working on new material. Erlich’s main problem is that he loves to give away work to other people. If he would just sit down and deal with things himself this would never be a problem. He doled out work to Big Head’s class, and lost the easy money app he had lucked into. He pushed Jian Yang to work harder on an idea, and effectively screwed himself out of a major deal with Periscope.
If Erlich ever sat down and did an honest day’s work, he’d find fulfillment, easy. But he’s a lay about pothead who solely reaps the benefits of his friend’s work, so unless this latest blow to his ego changes anything, it seems he’s destined to run his incubator unless he accidentally kills himself in a new scheme to masturbate more efficiently.
Jian Yang’s sudden success has put Monica in a precarious situation. Laurie is happy with her taking the lead on the project, but is still citing Alan as the true winner for bringing in the acquisition. As we’ve learned, nothing is fair when it comes to the cutthroat game of dealing in million dollar ideas, but Monica is between a rock and a hard place. She effectively lied to Alan about the success of Jian Yang and Erlich’s app, who then lied to Laurie about Monica needing to be the point person on the project, who then also lied to Laurie about how well it was doing. She can’t complain about the praise Alan is receiving, because she needed the whole thing to implode to regain her position as Laurie’s go to. All Monica can do is sit and wait for her next opening; she’s too smart to be operating as a flunky.
The whole “Dinesh is banging a hacker” storyline could prove to be incredibly dangerous for everyone working in the house. Her undying hatred of Gilfoyle leaves an open door for a hack, and with Richard’s new internet idea slowly come to fruition there’s no telling what sort of damage she could inflict. Yes, Gavin owns the patent, and Richard owns the algorithm. But if history has taught us anything with these types of situations, it’s that there’s no room for leaks when it comes to this group.
So while we wait with baited breath for the next step, we must congratulate Judge and co for continuously pumping out this original content. Who knew the ins and outs of the tech world could be so riveting? Ideally the shows will continue racing down this path of change, and growth. On the other hand, they’ll probably allow them all to fail and leave us wanting more as they gather themselves out of the dust and start from scratch again. At least we’ll learn a few dick jokes along the way.
