“The Cap Table” is a much better episode of Silicon Valley than last week’s “Minimum Viable Product.” The ensemble meshes better, stakes are introduced, and all in all the show really begins to take shape.
Erlich and Richard meet with Peter Gregory, who demands a business plan. This sends them home in somewhat of a panic, but not before Erlich gives Richard a heart-t0-heart about the importance of being an asshole. “You’re being a tool, and I need you to be an asshole. Do you understand?” But it’s here that Silicon Valley shows that its characters will have actual depth – when Richard asks if Erlich will help with the business plan, Erlich replies, “Richard, I believe in you. So no.”
The business plan itself proves problematic. Jared Dunne, a former assistant to Gavin Belson, comes by to help, and is greeted warmly by everyone except Erlich, who is hilariously myopic in his conviction that everyone agrees with him (“Jared’s an asshole, we can all agree on that”). I think unexplained, uncalled-for animosity is a good running joke, and T.J. Miller sells it well.
Guilfoyle and Danesh get more screen time, and Martin Starr and Kumail Nanjiani make the most of it. They both have dry, nicely understated deliveries, especially when they’re downplaying the others’ achievements (Guilfoyle: “I could have started a second Iranian revolution!” Danesh: “Did he tell you about the Iranian revolution? Those words mean nothing.”). The real problem arises when no one can tell what, if anything, Big Head brings to the table. Richard wants to keep him around because they’re best friends, but as Erlich points out, Bill Gates doesn’t have a hired best friend. I like watching this unfold; it’s fictional, so unlike The Social Network or Jobs, we don’t really know where it’s going. We do know that Big Head accepts a six-figure position under Gavin Belson, part of Gavin’s revenge against Richard for not selling him Pied Piper (Danesh asks, “So you’re the Vice President of Spite?”). We also know that Belson’s programmers are trying to reverse-engineer Richard’s Pied Piper algorithm, which is an interesting development. It should have been obvious, but I didn’t see it coming. The race against time will add some dramatic tension to Silicon Valley, and make it a compelling business drama as well as satire.
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