Silicon Valley season 4 episode 6 review: The tables turn

On Silicon Valley season 4 episode 6 Sunday night, what we saw was a story about turning the tide. Going into the episode, Richard Hendricks was desperate than ever to get his new venture off the ground. Unfortunately, what he started to realize was fairly clear: His history preceded him. Not only that, but losing Gavin Belson proved to be a further hindrance.

Well, there was one thing that Richard had going for him: His appearance. Oh, and also his mind. For a good 50% of the episode, Richard was busy criticizing Erlich about his interest in hitting on Liz, one of the few people who was interested in his technology and actually gave him the time of day.

Herein lies the problem: Dan. Erlich previously ruined his life by sleeping with his last wife, and he didn’t want anything to do with him working on this new project. After all, Dan and Liz were engaged! Where things got super-awkward here was when Liz ended up showing an interest in Richard, and it was him who she ended up sleeping with after a late night in the office.

Here is the funny twist to this story: Richard sleeping with Liz was actually enough to convince her to stay with Dan, mostly because it was so terrible. Richard got to make his deal, and he also had to take an incredibly awkward elevator ride with Dan after the fact.

Side stories

Richard and Gilfoyle got into a huge, ridiculous back-and-forth when it came to the secrets on their phones. It was funny, but also not exactly jam-packed when it comes to content.

Meanwhile, Erlich stumbled upon a major player in Kenan (Haley Joel Osment), who he ended up using in order to get leverage on Laurie and Monica’s new company. He wanted to have a new-found purpose, and he found that by landing him one of the biggest whales out there in the valley.

Final verdict

The best moment of the entire episode probably came when Jared asked Richard if he was in love with Liz. There were some laughs elsewhere, but nothing here managed to take away from the central problem of the show: The show spinning its wheels when it comes to the growth of Pied Piper as a company. Eventually, the show has to go somewhere, and it needs to do so fast. At this point, the assumption was that Richard and company would be getting somewhere. Grade: B.

Where will Silicon Valley go from here?

In the event you do want to get some other news when it comes to the show, head over here for more details on what’s next! (Photo: HBO.)