If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: An overtired Richard pushes himself to the brink of sanity while trying to move ahead with his next big idea. Eyeing a comeback, Erlich pressures an uncooperative Jian-Yang. Monica sets a trap at Raviga to improve her standing with Laurie. Dinesh goes on a date; Big Head enters the world of academia; Gavin faces an unknown future. (HBO)
Writer: Carrie Kemper
Director: Jamie Babbit
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 29mins
When it appeared that Richard would be on the sidelines, this episode brought him back to the forefront.
In the last episode, Erlich went all in on Jian-Yang’s app. When he seemed to be failing during his presentation, Erlich took over the presentation by pretending to speak Chinese to him and making his app that was supposed to be about octopus recipes into a shazam type app for food. The VC firm they pitched to were much more interested in that idea but Jian-Yang wasn’t. The problem for Erlich was that he had to have something to present in order to get funding.
After his failure with PiperChat, Belson got fired with Barker taking over as CEO of Hooli. With Dinesh being originally responsible for PiperChat, Dinesh was paranoid of retribution from Belson. At least everyone else was making it more than it was. At least he got a date with a woman he met online named Mia (Phoebe Neidhardt). Their date was awkward at first since they had nothing in common but when Gilfoyle was brought up, they bonded over their hate of him.
Big Head’s dad wanted him to get a job or go to school so he decided to apply to Stanford. They were immediately not interested when they saw his grades. When the realized the improbable tech celebrity he was, they allowed him admission anyway. At least that’s what he thought but they actually made him a guest lecturer.
Richard was becoming restless with his new idea, literally because he wasn’t sleeping. Everybody just thought he was crazy and he was adamant that he wasn’t even though his actions were proving otherwise. When he turned to Monica for advice, he learned that Peter Gregory was working on the same idea but gave up when compression algorithms were not quite there yet. Gregory was a compulsive note taker so when Monica brought him and Jared to see Gregory’s work, Richard found exactly what he needed. This also brought on one of the moments from the previews for this season with Richard and Jared (but mostly Jared) wooing. More on this later.
Hearing about Erlich’s new app, Monica had a plan to move back up within Raviga. She tried to goad her main competition, Ed Chen (Tim Chiou), to take on the app just so they can get fired whenever it would inevitably fail. After a meeting with Erlich and Jian-Yang, Chen got scared off when Jian-Yang told him the truth in Chinese. After the meeting, Monica was given the lead. This was also a funny scene where Laurie was indifferent to the fact that she was pregnant.
Back to Richard, things got worse when Jared informed him that Peter’s work was patented by Belson. This led to Richard’s first real slapstick moment of the season where he destroyed a door. This episode ended with him going to Belson’s house so they could talk.
Overall, this was another good episode, sending the story in another direction. I just hope that they stick with it for awhile. It was also full of hilarious moments with Richard, Jared, Dinesh, and Jian-Yang. I am curious to see the impending Richard and Belson pairing but I think it will work out.
Score: 8.5/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.