'Silicon Valley' season two finale review: '2 Days of the Condor'

At its heart, Silicon Valley is about teamwork. In the face of adversity, the tech boys trying meagerly to make it big often often throw cusses and colorful derogatory terms in each other's directions, but it all comes from the heart. Pied Piper is their baby, and they're the five fathers raising it on computer plugs, weed and poor decisions. They always work together, though, and at the start-up company's lowest point do they display this most beautifully in what could very well be the best episode of Mike Judge, Dave Krinsky and John Altschuler’s series yet, “2 Days of the Condor.”

At the very least, it’s the most satisfying episode to date. Despite what looked to be a pretty brutal fatality last week, the ranger taking down the rare bird egg Pied Piper live streamed is trapped but not yet dead, as he pleads for his life to the viewers watching. And they are watching, we find out, as the video first attracts 7,000 viewers, then 20,000 before Buzzfeed, Reddit and Manny Pacquiao’s 2 million Twitter followers get involved. With all pain and suffering the ranger deals with, though, the traffic brought to watch the ranger’s plies for survival shows their stream is "all working flawlessly,” as Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) notes, and “this guy falling off a cliff is the first good luck we’ve had.”

Despite the hilariously callous nature of Dinesh’s remarks, it’s pretty much true. With Hooli soon set to destroy them in court, and their debacles with Homicide, EndFrame and InterSite these past couple weeks, it appears this will be the peak of their success. They’ve managed to get their popularity just before their final death notice from Gavin Benson (Matt Ross), and if that’s the case, they’re going to go out with a bang, one way or the other.

Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) thinks the most appropriate course of action is to stick it to Hooli for the final time, deleting the entire server and its existence before they can get their big-spending hands on them. Based on their clumsy accident with InterSite, it can’t be too hard to believe they’d make a mistake that big. Richard (Thomas Middleditch), on the other hand, believes it’s best to keep their nobility in check. They should be proud of what they’ve created, and enjoy their moment in the sun just before it gets swept away from under their feet.

Either way, Jared (Zach Woods) is enamored by how “magical” it all is around him. True, he backed himself out of a top-tier company — one where he’d now be working in a high position most likely and living comfortably — and may be out of a job in a matter of hours, but money doesn’t have value, at least according to him. What does matter, in his eyes, is seeing his peers coming together, working to make the best of their momentary popularity even as everything comes crashing down above them. It’s a house of cards, he knows, but he likes playing the game.

Not only is it deeply refreshing to finally hear why Jared backed himself into such a risky operation — even though it was mentioned briefly in the pilot — but this logic makes perfect sense for the character, despite being the most logical minded of the group. As the optimist, it’s clear now he’s the heart of not only Pied Piper but also Silicon Valley in general. Even though he’s the easy punching bag, he’s also the one whom keeps everyone working hard and controls the fires when he can. He motivates everyone as best he can, especially Richard, and, when he’s not speaking German in his sleep, he’s doing a decent job at it. Despite the fact that the company he charged forwards looks like their pretty deep into the quicksand by now.

But while Richard mesmerizes in the house they've created, Erlich (T.J. Miller) looks only to tear it down in the wake of defeat. Realizing he can potentially make some decent money of the Pied Piper’s headquarters, he decides to let investors look at his territory, especially as his home can apparently rake in three times more than his moving neighbor Noah for his before heading with his ferrets to Arizona. But in the nature of things, he even learns teamwork is what really matters. Particularly when the ranger finds himself drinking his own urine on the stream, their site is at full popularity and he discovers his house will be turned into a lot if he signs on the dotted line.

And, again, it’s this budding and odd friendship that carries this through. As funny as the characters are individually, they're little without budding heads and reconciling with one another. That’s something this season’s done an exceptional job with, particularly at the end. In addition to the gracefully elevated stakes and the sharper writing, the character’s growth is what made this second season so invigorating.

It’s almost remarkable how well the creators balanced the characters' growth with nearly equal attention, all while keeping the laughs and elevating the plot progressive and added great new characters too. While it looks like this may be the last we see of Russ Hanneman (Chris Diamantopoulos) or Pete Monahan (Matt McCoy), they were given great time and fine send-offs this week, and in the end, this is all about Pied Piper. With firm proof they can progress their shares with more profits, it’ll be fascinating to see how they expand their interest in their already-greenlit third season. Because man, does this one end on a delightfully big dozy.

Thanks for reading everyone. To check out more of my weekly TV reviews, check in on Sundays for my Happyish recaps and then be on the lookout for Sense8 breakdowns throughout the month.

Image courtesy of ACE/INFPhoto.com