Silicon Valley season 5, episode 6 recap: Artificial Emotional Intelligence

Silicon Valley heads to China as Galvin Belson tries to buy the new Pied Piper from Jian Yang — and Jared connects with Fiona.

This week’s episode of Silicon Valley was scattered with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as Galvin Belson became the central focus of it. If you’ve been following the season so far you know that Jian Yang is now in China trying to create a “new” version of everything, including Pied Piper. As a result, Richard is told to send out a cease and desist letter.

Meanwhile, Laurie has taken over the position of interim CEO at Eklow after Ariel was arrested for all his creepy shenanigans–including Fiona, the A.I. robot disappearing. It’s quite hilarious to watch Laurie tackle being a CEO because she is so not in her element and is puking from the stress of it all.

It’s rare to see Laurie so stressed and she confides in Richard about her struggles, as he starts to feel sorry for being angry towards her. He attempts to help her out by giving her access to a PiperNet credits program–a gesture he will soon come to regret.

Gavin Belson heads to China to visit a manufacturing plant because he wants to generate more inventory for his Hooli boxes. During his trip there he finds out about Jian Yang and his quest to launch a new Pied Piper. When he visits him, Gavin learns that Jian Yang is onto something and has found a way around Richard’s patent.

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He attempts to trick Jian Yang into selling the code to him but we all now Jian Yang to be a bit more clever than that. He refuses to do so and sends Gavin away empty-handed. Unfortunately, Yao convinces Jian Yang to sell the code to him but in turn screws over Gavin who was expecting it to be signed over to him.

The future is looking bleak for Hooli with Yao now in control of the new patent to Richard’s new internet. What does this mean for the boys of Pied Piper? Probably nothing good, at all.

Back at the O.G. Pied Piper, Jared and Richard have a talk about refraining from getting too emotionally involved in aspects of the business. This, of course, takes a weird turn when Jared forms an emotional bond with the A.I. Fiona after she shows up at Richard’s doorstep. And Richard’s sympathy for Laurie goes south when she uses the PiperNet credits she was given to sell them for a profit.

Gilfoyle and Dinesh butt heads this week when they compete to see who has the least number of errors in their coding. However, Jared tells them that their reviews will be kept confidential but Dinesh is just not having it and persists to make this public information (especially if he won).

Next: Silicon Valley season 5, episode 5 recap: Facial Recognition

The whole situation results in secret bets against one another and we never really learn who was better between the two. By the end of the episode, Jared is forced to part with Fiona so they can return her to Laurie and get their Series B funding. Although he is promised that nothing will happen to Fiona, Laurie has men take her apart piece by piece as she plans to sell her for parts — and leave the CEO life behind.

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

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