Silicon Valley season 5, episode 3 recap: Chief Operating Officer

Silicon Valley gets a new chief operating officer and takes down a potential lawsuit–and discovers a mole

The boys at Pied Piper continue to surprise us with their clever, last-minute decisions, and this week on Silicon Valley is yet another example of it. The role of chief operating officer is yet to be filled in Pied Piper and becomes the central focus of this week’s episode. When Jared and Richard bump into one of Jared’s old Hooli co-workers, Dana, now the CEO of a startup called Quiver, it sets things in motion in a way no one saw coming.

Jared takes it upon himself to set Richard and Dana up as friends, but things get weird when Dana’s awkward personality doesn’t bode well for Richard’s even more awkward demeanor. Nonetheless, Dana invites the boys over to his house for a party where Richard meets Quiver’s COO, Ben Burkhardt. Ben shows an interest in Richard and Pied Piper and the two make plans to meet up for lunch.

During their lunch meeting, Ben expresses an interest in ditching Quiver to become Pied Piper’s COO. However, before their meeting can go any further, Dana shows up at the same restaurant and Ben bolts out of there before he is seen, leaving Richard to have lunch with Dana. This all comes to a head when Ben lies to Dana about Richard bothering him and tries to jump ship from Quiver without looking bad.

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On the Pied Piper side, things aren’t looking too great. Gilfoyle is slacking off at work and showing up as he pleases while the company finds itself on Galvin Belson’s radar once again. As we all know, there is a mole within Pied Piper that reports to Belson and this week sheds light on the mole’s existence. Since Jian Yang kicked out the boys from the incubator, they are left to find a new place to call home. Richard is staying with Jared, while Dinesh and Gilfoyle are looking for an apartment.

Gilfoyle is able to find something he can afford, but thanks to his impulsive Tesla purchase, Dinesh is struggling to find an affordable place and tries to bunk with one of the Pied Piper employees. He ends up asking Jeff, who is also Belson’s mole–and the plot thickens. One drunken night Dinesh spills company secrets involving the hacking of Seppen fridges which Jeff shares with Belson. Unfortunately, Belson takes this information to Seppen to push for a lawsuit against Pied Piper.

However, the boys, mainly Jared, are one step ahead and come up with a plan to save Gilfoyle (who actually hacked the fridges in the first place) and the company. Not only did they acquire Seppen as a client (after accusing them of illegal wiretapping), but they managed to get them to drop the lawsuit as well.

Next: The cast of Silicon Valley talks about the new season without T.J. Miller and incorporating the message of #MeToo

Thanks to Jared’s witty thinking, Pied Piper is saved once again, reminding Richard who truly deserves the position of COO. He asks Jared to take on this position, which of course he graciously and emotionally accepts. During this conversation, Ben from Quiver shows up assuming he is getting the COO position. Richard sends him away reminding him that a COO who tries to fool his CEO and who also tried to convince him to send Gilfoyle to jail isn’t someone he trusts or wants.

And as the episode comes to an end, Gilfoyle brings up that he believes there is a mole within their company. He now knows that Seppen had no idea they broke in and there is no other way for it to have gotten out. While the audience knows exactly who the mole is, how quickly will the boys realize it is Jeff?

Silicon Valley returns airs Sundays at 10/9c on HBO.

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