'Silicon Valley' episode 2x08 review: 'White Hat/Black Hat'

Behind all the tech jargon and product names, the heart of Silicon Valley always comes from its lighthearted human interactions. Profanity-heavy, lowbrow and often awkward interactions, sure, but human communication nevertheless. One-on-one contact is both touched upon and brought into question in this week’s “White Hat/Black Hat,” but the most important thing is it leads naturally to some funny and inspired bits. But the big takeaway from this new episode is how, sometimes, general business tactics and well-meaning humanity are not what’s important in 21st century entrepreneurship.

Thanks to Gilfoyle’s (Martin Starr) hacking skills — or, more precisely, taking unhidden access codes on sticky pads talents — last week, Pied Piper and EndFrame stand toe-to-toe in a weeklong bake-off contest to earn a $15 million deal from the adult content provider InterSite, run by Molly Kendall (Romy Rosemont). Time is of the essence, but for Russ Hanneman (Chris Diamantopoulos) this is a call for celebration — particularly with some shots of tequila from his own brand, Tres Commas (which, of course, translates to “three commas”). Between coughing down sips of alcohol, Richard (Thomas Middleditch) tries to persuade Russ to give them more money for their work, but the one-time billionaire declines.

The reason is simple: when he gave them no money before, Pied Piper crawled their way into a multi-million deal, so when they need to be more creative than ever he thinks their lack of funds will play in their favor. With that, and the promise they’ll finish his family-vintage alcohol in the near future, he’s out of their tail and the gang works hard to win out the week. But when softhearted Richard discovers EndFrame’s network security guy Seth Lee (Joshua Chang) was given the sack for Pied Piper’s hack, despite not being responsible, he reaches out via Gchat to hopefully clear the air man-to-man. He’s probably tearing his hair out figuring out what he did wrong, Richard professes, but this is of little concern for Gilfoyle and Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani).

As they see it, whether or not he did something wrong he’s associated with “the pieces of s**t” over at EndFrame — and whether or not he was in the wrong or right, “he is, therefore, also a piece of s**t.” While Richard tries to explain how his piece of s**t status was now reversed in light of his job termination, they somewhat convince him that Seth equivocally remains in the category. Math aside, however, Richard meets the man in the park to make amends. In the process, however, he unleashes a furious hacker dead-set to “skullf**k” the start-up company thanks to what they did to him. So Richard is now paranoid — para-paranoid, in fact, as he worries about others not being worried enough — but Gilfoyle and Dinesh remain as cool-minded as could be. They are all black hats now, they tell him, but he’s a coder so “by definition,” Dinesh notes, “we’re all pussies,” so he’ll do nothing.

The threat still looms over Richard’s head, but in the meantime Gavin Benson (Matt Ross) has his own concerns with his disastrous Nucleus. With the project's prospects continuing down the drain and his name potentially tarnished, he promises the chairmen of his board, and Rachel, someone will be to blame for this if it goes wrong. So he decides to try roping back Dr. Davis Bannerchek (Patrick Fischler) under Hooli’s umbrella, though the man declines. Not only did MIT give him tenure, but his wife, kids and mother have moved to Boston already. He stands with the moving truck nearly packed when Gavin gives him the chance to expand his talents beyond Hooli [XYZ] and run Nucleus entirely. He would be the one remembered solely for the project, and Gavin may not even come up in conversation about the matter. Bannerchek is on board for a whole 11-minutes he learns the gravity of the situation, cloaks out, drives far away from Hooli’s offices and isn’t heard from via calls or email again. It would seem as though Gavin now remains the one behind Nucleus again, much to his dismay.

On a different playing field, Erlich (T.J. Miller) and his buddy Jian Yang (Jimmy O. Yang) come to Monica (Amanda Crew) with an exciting new app idea. The product would let parents know how crowded local playgrounds would be, which sounds fine at first except when you consider the possibility of pedophiles using the new app for more nefarious reasons. In the meantime, they accidentally let word of Amanda’s occasional cigarette habit slip in her office, which causes their co-workers have a smoker intervention for her.

In light of Peter Gregory’s death, show creators Mike Judge, Dave Krinsky and John Altschuler struggle to figure out how to put Amanda back into the overarching narrative. That said, "White Hat/Black Hat" is probably the best behind last week's episode with regard to how to handle her character. Her now-addressed smoking habit leads to funny results on Erlich’s end, and also lets her have more an edge than the straight-laced girl she always seems. She still seems merely a cheerleader or helper for the Pied Piper gang, however, and this is disappointing primarily because it's clear Crew can do a lot with the little she’s given. It’s possible she’ll continue to play a role in Pied Piper’s journey, but she mostly seems a resource whenever the gang or the story needs her to be there. She’s not dead weight, though, and hopefully she can become more fruitful either in these final two episodes or next season.

“White Hat/Black Hat,” behind the mid-season string of episodes it followed, falls somewhere between plot-heavy build-up and Silicon Valley’s general shenanigans. The conversation on how human interaction is so very flawed for these new tech companies is fun, but it doesn't go too far into any discussion on the topic. It does led to some interesting final moments, though, with Pied Piper in a sticker situation than they have been ever before. So it's interesting to see how they can possibly get out of this jam thanks to one member’s mistake. But considering how well planned Judge, Altschuler and Krinsky have been so far this season, there’s more than enough reason to believe there’s a satisfying finale in store here.

The road there has certainly been more than enjoyable at least, and while the jokes this week were more predictable than usual, they turn even a tired running bit with adults swearing in front of children into an unconventionally amusing payoff on unintentional predator comments. Because at the heart of this HBO series is talking, even if it’s yelling or Russ meager (and highly funny) attempt at sympathy in the final act, and sometimes these interactions don’t lead to the best results for Pied Piper but it always makes keeps the laughs coming. Whether or not the math adds up or not on that, “White Hat/Black Hat” keeps Silicon Valley’s comedy of social errors coming with more stride than its lead character could ever obtain, in person or otherwise.

Image courtesy of ACE/INFphoto.com

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