Silicon Valley

Sand Hill Shuffle

Pied Piper becomes the hit of Silicon Valley, leaving Richard to make a major decision.

Bad Money

Richard is courted by a new backer, Monica deals with a high-strung Laurie and Gavin finds a new strategy in dealing with Pied Piper.

Homicide

Pied Piper tries to one-up Hooli by livestreaming a big stunt, Gilfoyle and Dinesh brainstorm and Jared pushes Carla and Monica together.

Adult Content

Richard finds himself with few options and pursues an unconventional client, Gavin looks for success in failure and Dinesh woos a woman online.

White Hat/Black Hat

Richard grows paranoid when Pied Piper competes for a client while Erlich and Jian-Yang work on a pitch.

Two Days of the Condor

As the guys await the verdict on Pied Piper's fate, an unexpected real-life drama draws a spike in traffic to their livestream and leaves them fighting to hold things together -- literally.

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

The new and improved Pied Piper impresses Dinesh and Gilfoyle, but worries Richard. Meanwhile, Jared and Erlich each face housing issues.

Meinertzhagen's Haversack

Facing the bleak future of Pied Piper's new business agenda, Richard tries to appeal to Laurie for help. Gilfoyle opens himself up to recruiters' pursuits. Dinesh's latest flashy purchase brings him unwanted attention.

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' &quot;Skunkworks&quot; 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 &quot;aesthetic vocabulary&quot; 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 &quot;committing fully, blindly and without concern for the consequences.&quot;</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

Richard's new relationship is threatened by neuroses, Big Head and Erlich's launch party has snags and Dinesh falls for a foreign coworker.

To Build a Better Beta

The beta version of Pied Piper receives an unexpected response, Monica worries about how to deliver criticism and Erlich faces financial woes.

Bachman's Earning's Over-Ride

Erlich struggles to come clean to Richard, Jared's latest fashion makes a splash and Gavin faces major life changes while the guys celebrate a rare victory.

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

Richard and the guys of Pied Piper consider their company's future and Gavin's comeback is threatened.

Success Failure

Richard struggles to embrace Pied Piper's new video-chat app and Erlich faces resistance from Big Head's dad.

Terms of Service

Dinesh and Richard butt heads over PiperChat, Erlich's interest is piqued by Jian-Yang's new app and Gavin grows paranoid.

Intellectual Property

Richard works tirelessly on his next big idea, Monica sets a trap and Dinesh goes on a date while Big Head heads back to school.

The Blood Boy

Richard deals with an unexpected interloper, Dinesh searches for a way out and Monica considers her options.

The Keenan Vortex

Richard ponders a deal with the tech world's latest "it" boy while Jack faces setbacks.

Hooli-Con

The Pied Piper guys try to pull off a stealth plan at Hooli-Con and Erlich takes a trip to get his mojo back.

Server Error

Richard finds himself in a web of lies, Jared plans his exit while Jack bets big and Gavin plots a comeback.

Grow Fast or Die Slow

Richard faces new challenges as a leader as Pied Piper levels up and Gavin worries about being antiquated.

Reorientation

Richard faces challenges while trying to unite new employees, Jian-Yang goes to court and Gavin is questioned over his signature.

Chief Operating Officer

Richard's infatuation with another company's COO causes friction with members of Pied Piper and Dinesh gets a new roommate.

Tech Evangelist

Richard attempts to woo a new client, Gavin's team ponders a cryptic message and Jared gains intel from Big Head.

Facial Recognition

Richard's confidence takes a hit, Gilfoyle worries about an artificial-intelligence partner and Gavin questions his future beyond Hooli.

Artificial Emotional Intelligence

Richard decides to help when Laurie gets in a jam, but his lack of emotional discipline threatens to backfire on Pied Piper. Gavin tries to make a deal with a stubborn partner while abroad. Dinesh relishes a rare win. Jared bonds with a surprising figure.

Initial Coin Offering

Richard gets unsettling news, Gilfoyle suggests a risky proposition and Dinesh tries to compete with a coworker.

Fifty-One Percent

The launch of PiperNet finds Monica suspicious of an early success, and the team must race against the clock as their future is threatened. Realizing he's made more enemies than friends, Richard makes a surprising move.

Artificial Lack of Intelligence

Richard discovers his promise to keep Pied Piper free from collecting user data is under threat. Jared finds himself missing his role as Richard's go-to guy and revisits the hacker hostel.

Blood Money

Richard meets a potential investor, Gilfoyle butts heads with HR and Gavin explores a leaner Hooli's future.​

Hooli Smokes!

The Pied Piper team races to close a major deal and Dinesh considers being a better person.

Maximizing Alphaness

Richard's authority is threatened by a former Hooli manager and Monica tries to prove her support of other women.

Tethics

On the verge of a major success, Richard fumes when Gavin gains new notoriety for spreading a message of tech accountability. Dinesh's trip to Hawaii quickly turns into a nightmare.

Russfest

Richard, Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jared face their greatest challenge yet as a massive event tests PiperNet, while Laurie's unexpected presence makes them wary of sabotage. Monica discovers Jian-yang is using Pied Piper's name for his own benefit.

Exit Event

Series finale. Ahead of a career-defining moment, Richard makes a startling discovery that changes everything and sends the entire Pied Piper team racing to pull off the biggest bait-and-switch that Silicon Valley has ever seen.