‘Silicon Valley’ season 2, episode 9 review: Erlich’s arbitration situation

Throughout most of “Silicon Valley” season 2, we have been waiting for arbitration to happen between Hooli and Pied Piper, and it was just about everything that we hoped that it would be and then some. We had one of the funniest scenes in the history of the show with Erlich on the stand, and also one of the biggest screw-ups that we have ever seen.

Basically, we saw Erlich slip up after getting riled up on the stand by Pied Piper’s own counsel, which led to him bringing up the subject of his laptop … which was in the shop at a period of time in which he accidentally also used a Hooli computer to work on the algorithm. This one mistake may cause the company everything, since this is the information that gives Gavin Belson and his company the other hand.

Richard was given a choice: Lie about the work that he did hoping for the best, or admit the truth and face consequences. He decided for the latter, which was an extremely bold move given the circumstances. At least all of this happened with a constant emphasis on getting laughs; the crowning achievement tonight was Erlich standing up with some crazy scheme to try to get Richard out of it.

While all of this happened, a major incident with the live-stream camera set up by Jared may actually be turning the condor situation into a big deal. Who would’ve thought?

Even though Russ now seems to be gone, tonight’s episode was still a fantastic showcase of comedy, smart dialogue, and also terrible performances on the stand by someone who considers himself to be the greatest thing ever. Grade: A-.

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