If it had not been evident already, “Runaway Devaluation” made it crystal clear just how difficult Pied Piper’s route to success is going to be. Not only are they dealing with a lawsuit that could cost them over two million dollars to fight, but all the investors who seemed so keen on supporting Pied Piper in the previous episode, have now gotten cold feet. From the start of the episode I knew that “Runaway Devaluation” was going to be quite an entertaining one considering that the episode began in the office of Richard’s hilarious and unconventional “lawyer.” While Richard is struggling to comprehend the fact that this lawsuit is going to require not just one lawyer, but an entire team of lawyers, Ravega’s new leader is explaining her harsh decision that Ravega has to drop Pied Piper completely.
Monica’s attempt at reconciling the Pied Piper team after delivering them the news that they were dropped was extremely ineffective, despite that she decided to dress down in order to make the harsh news more bearable. Once again this led to Monica and Richard having another awkward encounter in which Richard struggles to actually articulate what is on his mind. While I certainly like Monica’s character and the interesting plotline she adds by being Richard’s dream girl, she certainly seems to be incompetent at doing her job and looking after Pied Piper.
While I normally would assume that watching Pied Piper enter an immense struggle with their future for 30 minutes would be tiresome and a little painful, Erlich’s performance throughout the rejection meetings certainly made this episode a delight. Despite that every VC has decided to pass on Pied Piper, Erlich still feels the need to hold onto his cocky attitude. Mike Judge did a great job in illuminating how Erlich’s obnoxious attitude has really come full circle, as the same people who he aggressively sassed in the previous episode now have completely capitalized on the opportunity to making Erlich look foolish. But as I mentioned in last episode’s review, Erlich seems to be the one who is always getting Pied Piper out of trouble despite his foolish façade. When Pied Piper finally lands a meeting with a VC who actually seems interested in Pied Piper, it is Erlich who is able to come to the conclusion that they are being “brain raped” by Hooli. So once again, Erlich manages to come out on top and save Pied Piper from being completely demolished.
Richard and Erlich are not the only ones who spend this episode dealing with animosity, as Dinesh is forced to cope with the fact that he donated 5 thousand dollars to his cousins app called “Bro.” Not only does the app “Bro” clearly have no future for earnings, but with the turn of events for Pied Piper, Dinesh certainly is in no position to be shelling out money left and right. I never thought of Dinesh as being one who actually cared about his pride and how he is viewed, but it seems that Dinesh actually cares about being looked up too, as he refuses to take back the donation he made to his cousin because Dinesh exclaims that he was always the “cool” cousin. What I found was particularly comical was that, as predicted, Gilfoyle feels the need to harp onto any adversity that Dinesh faces, and he decides to further support the app “bro” in order for it to achieve its funding goal.
At the end of the episode, Mike Judge sets up a situation I know we all have been dying to see, and that is a confrontation between Richard and Gavin Belson. Belson seemed a lot more laid back and was not as aggressive with Richard as I would have expected. Gavin explains that while he still is certainly not willing to drop the lawsuit, he is willing to acquire Pied Piper, and even goes so far as to inform Richard that the best-case scenario for Pied Piper would be its transformation into a soulless corporation akin to Hooli. The entire time I was watching this scene I was just hoping that Richard would heroically tell off Gavin Belson and spit in his face, but right when Richard is about to give his decision to Belson he is cut off by not only the credits, but a group of joyful musicians. While I am almost certain that Richard will decline Belson’s offer, we will still have to wait until next weeks episode to see exactly how this all plays out, along with the numerous other financial and structural issues that plague Pied Piper.
Check out the preview below for next weeks episode and locate our review for Season 2, Episode 1 here.
Check out our review of Episode 3 here!
