Silicon Valley season 4 episode 8 review: Did Richard, Keenan get a deal?
Admittedly, the story about the new firm wasn’t all that interesting other than Richard randomly hooking up in the office. Therefore, getting Keenan (Haley Joel Osment) on the show was a nice change of pace. He had a new virtual-reality technology, and as it turned out, his middle-out technology was perfect for it … so perfect that it led to Keenan giving him an offer. He had a chance to sell Pied Piper, and get himself out of a ridiculous bind.
However, what happened from here was either Richard’s ambition or his ego getting in the way. He put Keenan in a position with a counteroffer that he knew that he would turn down. This was an offer that Richard thought was ridiculous, and hilariously, he decided to take it! Therefore, Richard managed to find himself in a position where he made $25 million, but with an arrangement he never thought was even possible going into it. This was the twist the show needed.
At this point, Richard suddenly realized that there was nothing else he could do other than embrace the deal. Keenan somehow found a way to get Richard excited about working with him; the vortex is what he does best, and he found a way to effectively suck him into it. For the first time all season, Richard was happy … until Monica clued him in that Keenan was effectively a snake-oil salesman with bad tech for the average consumer.
This put Richard, in turn, in a rather bad spot given that so many of his friends were going to be mad at him. Or were they? Well, it turned out that Keenan ended up selling his entire company elsewhere, which meant that he didn’t have to be angry at all.
So who did Keenan sell to?
Hooli. Well, that should make everyone made. Also, Erlich had to be even madder given that he got cut out of the deal. He set his own gazebo on fire, and then spent the entire night sitting outside.
Final Verdict
The best part of the entire episode was seeing both Dinesh and Gilfoyle get completely indoctrinated under Keenan’s control to the point where they wore matching bathrobes. This was a story of victory, followed by a story of loss. Richard and Pied Piper have never been lower, but at least the show seems to be moving forward. Grade: B+.
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