Holy shit, has Silicon Valley been holding out on us? “Optimal Tip-To-Tip Efficiency” was the best episode of the show’s freshman season, by far. More than that, it was one of the funniest episodes of anything I’ve seen all year. Everyone is given something to do, and director Mike Judge, along with writer Alec Berg, knock it out of the damn park.
Team Pied Piper is still at TechCrunch Disrupt, where because of Erlich’s on-stage dustup last week, they are immediately promoted to the finals. They’re disheartened after seeing Gavin Belson’s presentation of Nucleus (which ends with a random performance by Shakira), and Jared floats the idea of “pivoting” the company to take it in a new direction. Zach Woods gets some of the funniest moments of “Tip-To-Tip,” as a sleep-deprived Jared accosts terrified pedestrians to ask them which kind of app they’d be interested in – how about one that tracks rats? Or one that tells you if you’re going to heaven or hell? Or one that acts as a GPS for your child? “I can track your baby all day,” he tells a horrified couple with a baby, “and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” Jared’s slow descent into madenss has been one of the most consistent delights of Silicon Valley‘s debut season. I was belly laughing this whole time, thinking Where has this show been?
Erlich decides to “get in Gavin Belson’s head,” so he loudly refutes rumors about Gavin’s alcoholism and sexual impropriety at work. TJ Miller plays Erlich as a gleeful, focused dickhead, so it’s great to watch him poke a bear like Gavin Belson. Erlich isn’t afraid of him because he genuinely doesn’t give a shit.
Dinesh and Gilfoyle assume they’re screwed and that Pied Piper is dead in the water, so they approach the head of another company, Kwerpy, to lobby for work – only to be told that Kwerpy is going under, and could Dinesh and Gilfoyle get the guy a job? Despondent, the team retreats to the hotel room, calculating how Erlich could jerk off every man in the auditorium to ensure Pied Piper’s victory.
But inspiration strikes at odd times, and Richard retreats into his room, where he completely rebuilds the Pied Piper platform. Instead of “bottom-up” compression, he’s going to utilize “middle-out” compression, making this one of the smarter dick jokes I’ve seen in a while. Their presentation kills, and they win the competition. So much of Silicon Valley is about the little guy finally triumphing, so this was a great, cathartic moment. But, as Monica reminds Richard in so many words, all big guys started out as little guys, and soon he could be looking at lawsuits and a workforce of potentially thousands looking up to him.
And then Silicon Valley ends on a shot of Richard nervously puking in a dumpster, proving that for all its intelligence and tech-speak, it’s really a comedy. And sometimes, it’s a damn good one.
Season Grade: 4 Stars
About Author
