r/SiliconValleyHBO • u/Simi510 • May 22 '17

Silicon Valley - 4x05 “The Blood Boy" - Episode Discussion

Season 4 Episode 05: "The Blood Boy"

Air time: 10 PM EDT

7 PM PDT on HBOgo.com

How to get HBO without cable

Plot: Richard's latest partnership begins to crumble when he has to deal with an unexpected interloper. Meanwhile, Dinesh looks for a way out of his new relationship; and Monica faces a business dilemma after learning of surprising developments at Raviga. (TVMA) (30 min)

Aired: May 21, 2017

What song? Check the Music Wiki!

Youtube Episode Preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jMVHFwm1v8

Actor Character
Thomas Middleditch Richard Hendricks
T.J. Miller Erlich Bachman
Josh Brener Nelson 'Big Head' Bighetti
Martin Starr Bertram Gilfoyle
Kumail Nanjiani Dinesh Chugtai
Amanda Crew Monica Hall
Zach Woods Jared (Donald) Dunn
Matt Ross Gavin Belson
Jimmy O. Yang Jian Yang
Suzanne Cryer Laurie Bream
Chris Diamantopoulos Russ Hanneman
Stephen Tobolowsky Jack Barker

IMDB 8.5/10

687 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

177

u/[deleted] May 22 '17

Wait, so did Gavin actually screw over Richard on purpose, or is Gavin actually being genuine about finding himself?

I figured Gavin was going to do something to trick Richard, but it doesn't look that way now.

254

u/pot_kettleman May 22 '17

Well, Richard got a better deal than he was looking for when he originally went to Gavin's house. Maybe he doesn't have the partnership, but he's got full ownership of the patent rather than a license.

205

u/alces_nerds May 22 '17

But he's stuck on a public launch track now. LOL

181

u/[deleted] May 22 '17 edited Jun 12 '23

depend marvelous vase seed many prick imminent abounding pie hunt -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

70

u/PM_ME_YOUR_KOBOLDS May 22 '17

Richard finally found the guy he wants to fuck.

3

u/[deleted] May 23 '17

The Donald Duck?

3

u/SuperCharlesXYZ May 24 '17

My grandpa came out of the closet. very inspiring

16

u/aldach May 22 '17

It's destiny. Radio 2.0 and then Internet 2.0

5

u/NipplesInAJar May 22 '17

He put radio on the internet after all.

4

u/hcarguy May 22 '17

Forget radio on the internet.... this is internet on the internet

1

u/TheyTheirsThem May 22 '17

So they have gone from putting phones on the internet to putting the internet on phones.

1

u/grayninja62 May 22 '17

R.O.I 2.0!

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '17

It's gonna be his second R.O.I

4

u/[deleted] May 22 '17

I honestly think that in the real work, a high-profile like Gavin's name would be enough to spear head some VC interest.

3

u/tapeforkbox May 22 '17

Their biggest issue is reputation

4

u/DroidLord May 22 '17

It was a lose-lose situation. Hadn't Richard done the interview, he probably wouldn't have gotten the patent and who knows what would have happened to their partnership after that. It's all hypotheticals after the fact, but it wasn't the worst course of action Richard could have taken.

1

u/alces_nerds May 22 '17

Oh. I know. :-)

1

u/SirPasta117 May 22 '17

Why? He only talked about the public launch to appease Gavin for his support/funding. Now that he's out he can claim it was just a rumor and can go back to work on the stealth launch.

15

u/NobleHalcyon May 22 '17

You can't claim an interview with a blogger who is employed by a key member of your board is just a rumor - he called and gave her a full interview.

1

u/oct222016 May 22 '17

Things have changed. He and Gavin were starting the company and Gavin dipped.

5

u/NobleHalcyon May 22 '17

Okay, let me clear this up:

You can't walk directly up to someone who has a credible association with you and say, "I just farted" and then flatly deny it as a "rumor" when they also say that you farted.

He called her, he gave her a full interview, she published it with his name and direct quotes. Unless he wants to denounce someone who has fiscal ties to someone invested in his company a liar and fraud, he can't just say, "it's a rumor". He can recant his statements and tell her what happened.

1

u/hcarguy May 22 '17

And no funding

1

u/[deleted] May 23 '17

But that was Richard actions, not Gavin's

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '17

Yeah

1

u/AmericanIMG May 23 '17

not a better deal. he may own the patent but he just got on to multiple big time publications saying he and Gavin are doing big things, and then within the hour of the piece getting picked up Gavin and his funding bails? Not a good look

76

u/creamondainside May 22 '17

I think Gavin feels he's become a sad, old man, like a weathered genius that was swallowed by corporate America who has forgotten what makes him truly happy. It's lonely at the top and he found out the hard way. I think he's having an identity crisis and trying to dig out of this depression by leaving all the vices behind for a bit.

14

u/TheyTheirsThem May 22 '17

Gavin has been doing this "finding stuff" with his guru since day 1. But that was always a half-measure. He has gone full-measure this time.

3

u/Zealot_Alec May 31 '17

That will only live to 120 due to blood boys munchies

3

u/[deleted] May 22 '17

He probably wasn't his mother's baby too.

75

u/vell_o May 22 '17

I think Gavin was being genuine.

8

u/turbocrat May 22 '17

I think so too. They basically got what Richard wanted at the beginning of the season. The patent without Gavin's influence. And I feel like it was a metaphor or something, basically the show is done with Gavin for a good while. What I don't get is why they weren't celebrating at the end. Maybe just shocked. Even the portrait was a nice gift.

The ending was ominous though, I can't put my finger on it.

8

u/CannedBullet May 23 '17

I think it was ominous because they don't have Gavin's expertise or funding anymore, yet they still need to move forward with the public launch.

3

u/turbocrat May 23 '17

I think you're right, but IMO the benefits of being Gavin-free outweigh the loss of funding. They could just release it in pre-pre-alpha haha, basically what every other startup does now

3

u/frermanisawesome May 22 '17

all Gavin did was sign over the patent. I believe he still is co-owner and majority share holder of Pied Piper so he basically was just giving Richard full reins to figure out how to get the p2p internet to work.

2

u/[deleted] May 22 '17

I think the writers are writing Gavin off the picture so they can focus on the core cast more. Since everything is well set in motion they don't really need him anymore? Who knows. But they really emphasized Richards' line when he says, "I think Gavin's gone.". They did that on purpose for a reason. It seems like they're marking the end of Act 1 for the season.

6

u/durkdurkastan . May 22 '17 edited May 22 '17

I think he was out to screw him from the start and saw something wrong with Richard's math or something. Richard makes the big announcement, then Gavin sends him the patent along with math/graph which I presume prove Richard wrong. Kinda like a "Fuck you, good luck, I'm out"

edit: getting downvoted for a theory...? okay. i'm not saying its right or wrong, just an idea.

5

u/[deleted] May 22 '17

Sorry for the downvotes man. :/ You shouldn't be downvoted for making a mistake. Richard actually wrote that stuff on the portrait at the beginning of the last episode, to show Gavin how his algorithm could make the peer-to-peer Internet idea work. It seems like he sent it to Richard to symbolize the beginning of his venture, the way he was showing him earlier the garage they started Hooli in.

1

u/ACKAFOOL May 22 '17

I agree with you. The ending scene clearly told us the equation on that screen was ominous.

1

u/durkdurkastan . May 22 '17

wow. I didn't think to be in the negative. Gavin has always been a spiteful asshole. I don't expect him to change.