What I’m Watching: Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley: Season 3, Episode 5 “The Empty Chair” (B+)

On this show, there are always constant things that happen to threaten the fragile stability that Richard and Pied Piper enjoy, and it’s not often that they end up coming out on top. Ending this episode on a positive note is refreshing given the two completely terrible things that happen over the course of the half-hour. Richard’s decision to fire everyone and get out of their lease so that they can get back to basics and get back on track was smart, and that backfired right away with everyone telling him that they figured he had already been fired. Dinesh and Gilfoyle’s analysis that the empty CEO chair was sturdier than Richard wasn’t too far off, and Laurie’s call for him to be professional definitely set him off in a big way. Saying everything he needed to say to the blogger instead of the PR woman was unfortunate, and it seemed like all hope was completely lost after that. Erlich was busy screwing Big Head over in their partnership, and luckily that inspired Big Head to divulge the fact that Gavin scrubbed the Internet to get rid of any negative mentions of Nucleus to give that reporter the bigger story she needed. Laurie apologizing to Monica and telling her that she thought Richard was the correct candidate was a big win for the newly-reinstated CEO of Pied Piper. Gilfoyle accidentally selling Dinesh’s hard drive was a fun side plot, and his drill solution was a bit blunt but did get the job done. Their outsourcing solution seems to be brilliant, and if the worst thing is that Richard can’t stay seated, Pied Piper’s future will be very bright.