What I’m Watching: Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley: Season 4, Episode 8 “The Keenan Vortex” (B+)

It’s almost dizzying to keep up with the rate at which fortunes keep changing on this show and with who has intellectual and actual ownership of Pied Piper at any given time. At the start of this episode, Richard was not at all impressed with Haley Joel Osment’s Keenan Feldspar, and then all of a sudden both Dinesh and Gilfoyle were equally obsessed with him, encouraging Richard to strike a deal to be bought in the wake of the unfortunate realization that their contract with Dan Melcher was a bad idea due to its ignorance of overages, which were killing them during this cold front. Richard made a counteroffer meant to scare Keenan away, but then he took it, and then Monica pointed out just how much of a no-nothing showman he was, having minions work hard on making the demo look great because he was hiding the fact that there was nothing bigger and better, or even nearly as functional, behind the curtain. Screwing Erlich over clearly had a very detrimental effect, and fortunately no one was hurt in the fire he started by not bringing his bong outside with him. Jack is all about the flashy tech, and so it’s no wonder that he signed a deal with Keenan, and I’m eager to see how Richard and the boys bounce back in the season’s final two episodes as they go head-to-head with them in preparation for HooliCon, their next big chance to upstage the competition and score an underdog victory against a former ally.