Silicon Valley 2.08 "The Keenan Vortex"
Directed by Jamie Babbit & Written by Graham Wagner & Rachele Lynn
After Keenan Feldspar's introduction earlier in the season it's great to have an episode that's largely focused on him and Erlich's perspective. Erlich starts the episode happy, with Keenan having signed an agreement that allows Erlich to keep his job and if he leaves, Keenan goes with him, as he knows that Laurie and Monica aren't too keen on having him around. Erlich's new office set up is impressive for him, but things all start to go downhill very quickly, in true Silicon Valley style.
The onslaught of unusual cold weather that has hit California has led to multiple insurance claims and following the people's freakout about the change in the climate, FGI is looking at a larger amount of data processing requirements than what Pied Piper would have normally been able to handle, having exceeded their data allowance in a matter of days. In order to combat this situation Richard hopes to attract investment from another client so turns to Erlich, who uses his influence on Keenan to get Keenan to hear their pitch. Whilst Richard tries to talk Keenan into backing Pied Piper, he can't help but notice how Keenan's Virtual Reality tech is anything more than a fad, despite not only Dinesh but also Gilfoyle being incredibly impressed by his tech. When Gilfoyle is impressed by something Richard, you know it's probably a good idea to listen. However, Keenan is impressed in turn by Pied Piper and wants to acquire it, which is something that Richard, knowing that Pied Piper is his baby, doesn't want Keenan to be in complete ownership. Richard counters with $25 million, designed to put off Keenan, but Keenan still accepts this anyway, leaving Richard slowly backing into a corner.
Richard gets some advice from Monica who warns that the VR isn't all it's cracked up to be, and Richard could be walking headlong into a trap. She has an agenda of her own though and promises Richard that if they turn down Keenan's deal, she'll fund their series A round if they can get their decentralized internet project working on a certain number of cellphones. The gauntlet has been thrown for Richard and the team, giving them an end goal now to reach by the end of the season, and although if this show has taught me anything you know it's not quite necessarily going to play out as planned, but it's good to see the series giving itself an end objective to deal with in the remaining two episodes. That said, this is Silicon Valley, so Monica's challenge could just as easily be resolved in the first cold open of the next episode. It remains to be seen what direction the show will take but this nonetheless has given Richard plenty of ground to cover. Richard is persuaded off the extravagant offer by Keenan, declining it, and then Keenan instead signs with Jack Barker and Hooli.
This understandably annoys Erlich, who's infuriated by Richard so he resorts to the silent treatment, sitting out in the cold alone. Keenan played to Richard's desires in making him feel important, and now having backfired, Erlich sits abandoned in the burning palapa. Given the news that T.J. Miller was leaving the series I honestly thought that this could potentially be the end of Erlich's character for a second, and that this was how he was going to go out, but thankfully, Erlich lives to fight another day, and appears to be okay for now. Pied Piper may be $25m worse off but they have a better plan in mind, as Jack Barker's HooliCon seems to be the stage for their next bold gambit.
After almost falling down The Keenan Vortex completely, it's good to see that the team are back on the right track and have a goal in mind. With only two episodes left to go, it'll be interesting to see this season come to a conclusion, and I certainly can't wait for everything to unfold in the remaining two half hour timeslots remaining. Hopefully this isn't the end of Keenan's tenure on Silicon Valley though as he has easily been one of the best things about this season, and I'm really hoping that especially with the inevitable departure of Erlich, he becomes a bigger player if not towards the end of this season then by the end.
What did you think of this week's episode of Silicon Valley? Let me know in the comments section below and be sure to check out the next episode this Sunday at 9pm on HBO.
