Silicon Valley series finale recap: Exit Event

What will become of Pied Piper in the Silicon Valley series finale?

Silicon Valley has had a pretty amazing six-season run, and the series finale did a wonderful job encapsulating everything we admire about it. The clever series finale brought the entire story full circle but in a documentary style. In fact, the series jumps ahead ten years following Pied Piper’s epic failure.

The episode picks up after RussFest, during which Pied Piper is all in with their AT&T deal and just a few days away from their launch. With everything going so perfectly, it was fairly obvious something had to go wrong. And go wrong it did, in the worst way possible.

Amidst the celebrations, Monica gives Richard a present–a screenshot of the conversation between them in which they confirmed the deal. But something about the text catches Richard’s eye. Something the average person may not have caught onto, but of course, Richard did.

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He takes notice to the fact that there are only three periods on the screenshot, but he used four in the actual text. What does this actually mean? Pied Piper’s algorithm is doing a much better job than they could have imagined–too good. It’s compressing text messages, aka surpassing encryption. You see the problem here?

Basically, with this bypass, the algorithm can eventually break into anything and everything. And that won’t bode well for the safety and security of the world. I love that this is the idea they went with for the Silicon Valley series finale because they end up being their own worst enemy. After spending years fighting so many others, the final battle is against themselves.

Basically, Pied Piper is SOL, and there is no way they can allow this launch to go through. Unless they allow it to fail on its own. But that ends up failing in the weirdest way possible. Trying to jam and block out the signals results in a weird frequency that brings out rats–a lot of rats.

That’s basically the end of Silicon Valley as we know it, and the absolute end of Pied Piper. Which is why the ten-year jump and documentary done on Pied Piper makes a fitting end. When we catch up with everyone, Richard is a professor at Stanford, Dinesh and Gilfoyle have their own firm, Monica potentially works for the NSA, and Jared is spending his days working at a nursing home.

The best part about the series finale, at this point in the episode, is Bill Gates’ cameo, who comments on Pied Piper’s epic failure. He’s a fan of the show so it was the perfect addition to an already perfect finale.

With all said and done, and years since their failure, everyone has moved on in their own way. But there might be one slight problem. Richard saved the flash drive containing the algorithm, but he can’t seem to find it. Idea for a potential Silicon Valley movie? I’d say so.

Silicon Valley, you will be missed dearly. Sunday nights will not be the same without you.