'Silicon Valley' episode 2x06 review: 'Homicide'

Even though Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) does threaten to kill Jared (Zach Woods) once or twice, nobody gets murdered in Silicon Valley’s latest episode, “Homicide.” Rather, the name spurts from a major energy drink company, one that bars some similarities to Monster and whose tagline tells people, “Don’t Give A F**k.” Thanks to some connections, this is the company soon set to spread Pied Piper’s name on a public platform, especially with their competitors at Hooli down for the count.

You see, as hinted last week, Hooli goes bold with their plans to unveil Nucleus out onto the public, as the tech company sponsors a UFC live stream provided by their mock-up service. But as the tech men muddled to themselves at the end of the previous episode, Nucleus is several weeks behind at least in efficiently, and that certainly bites them in the ass big time when it comes to broadcasting this big event. Gavin Benson’s (Matt Ross) cocksure plan resulted in viewers missing one of the biggest sports events in years, and he ultimately — as Erlich (T.J. Miller) puts it — “just s**t everyone’s pants.”

Because Benson built his company around a bunch of yes men, all of which are afraid to let the man in charge know when their product is not going as well as hoped, he has messed up big time, and he’s definitely suffering from it. In addition to the disastrous streaming, it turns out the Nucleus-opportunity phones test absolutely terribly, with no one liking the product created. Apps drop constantly. Movies won’t load. Even the texted is messed up, and it’s pissing everyone who uses it off. So things are very, very bad for Nucleus. Not just Windows Vista bad, or iPhone 4 bad, or even Zoon bad. It’s Apple Maps bad.

So now that Pied Piper has the upper hand for once, of course they try to take advantage of this. They have the 4K stream resolution power Benson’s company did not, and they can use that to stream their own event and get people to appreciate the power of their product. The question, of course, is what event will they sponsor? Despite Jared’s eager plans to broadcast a rare bird’s egg hatching to eyes across the world, it looks as though options are limited. But that’s before Erlich reveals Aaron Anderson, a.k.a. A.A., a.k.a. Double A, the CEO behind the aforementioned energy drink, is a college buddy of his and should let them sponsor their upcoming monster truck ramp jump across two buildings.

Because they have no other choices, they decide to go forth with these intents. Things seem well enough at first. The coding is great, and Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) hits it off seemingly very well with the beautiful young Homicide assistant, Gina. There is one big problem, though: Erlich. Although A.A. calls him Kool-Aid, a pet name the owner takes to mean because he’s “cool and supportive,” it turns such a name was given because he’s like the Kool-Aid pitcher mascot, always smashing through the walls whenever A.A. or his other friends don’t hang out with him.

He was cool with it enough at the time, because he got them beer and weed when they were 19. Now, though, it makes the Homicide creator feels like he’s getting PTSD, just by how his old college acquaintance seems “allergic to letting other people talk.” Sure enough, the mouth Erlich owns doesn’t seem to stop during their meetings and, based on his annoying talking habits and his other irritating traits like picking up a bunch of Homicide merchandise without asking, gives Richard (Thomas Middleditch) an ultimatum: either come back tomorrow without his co-manager or they’ll pull the plug on the sponsorship.

Meanwhile, when Dinesh and Gilfoyle discover Gina is a taken woman thanks to the stunt driver Blaine, they also notice his physics are not quite as tight as his firm cheekbones. He doesn’t account for some speed changes and how the ramp is shaped, and this may ultimately take his life if he doesn’t plan accordingly. They do try to warn him of such miscalculations, but Blaine, as it turns out, is “too busy to deal” with either of them and their petty complaints. This puts them in a difficult and very funny situation, where they bring up Jared’s SWOT diagram — something established to laying around the house before — to not figure out what Pied Piper should do, but rather how they should handle this news they have.

SWOT — as you may remember if you didn’t skip the wrong Economics lecture in school — are one’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And as the two tech heads sit down to figure out their options, they find some fruitful strengths, like Blaine destroying his face as he crashes, and opportunities, like Dinesh having sex with Gina and possibly even a threesome with Blaine’s mother, somehow. And this is, by far, the best moments of the episode. While brief, these twistedly fun interactions prove just how dynamite Silicon Valley can be when focused and willing to push itself in weird, off-put directions. This is the best use of their odd couple chemistry yet, and that they would work together on something as gleeful morbid as this is pure fun.

Although this whole episode — while, just like last week’s “Server Space,” feels exactly like the middle episode it is — is more continuously entertaining and funny than it was the week prior. The tangents, although not what one may have expected, do feel more cohesive and natural than they did before, and are made all the more entertaining by how it’s not only more readily funny but also oddly sincere.

What’s most interesting about Silicon Valley season two thus far is how it sympathizes Erlich by making him an oddly broken man. He’s something of a social simpleton, oblivious or perhaps more heartbreakingly beaten by life’s attacks on him and more the butt of the joke than his false ego or unearned pride wish him to believe. He’s always talked more game than he’s had, but especially in “Homicide” is interesting to see just the kind of slump, beaten man he ultimately is on a day-to-day basis. It’s also to the credit of show creators Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky that Erlich is not too gently cared for. He’s still the ass we know and want him to be, but he’s quickly become a puppy dog-like ass. If that makes some sense.

Add into the equation some last minute hearty laughs and an ending twist worthy of a season finale, and “Homicide” becomes the fun diversion this HBO show should rightfully be again. Where last week’s episode stumbled on how ho-hum it felt, especially as it was boggled down by too much overly established character moments, it’s nice to see Silicon Valley compress its rhythm back again and still find room to expand on its characters. The gang finds some big threats on their board as this new episode wraps, but their show finds more than a couple strengths and opportunities in its wake.

Image courtesy of ACE/INFphoto.com