Silicon Valley

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This occurred the week before Alice Wetterlunds character, Carla, debuted.

But what about Monica?

Monica is surprised that she, the CFO of Pied Piper, wasnt considered for a mentoring panel.

Laurie is surprised she would ask.

Youve never shown the slightest interest in supporting women, she says.

Monica isnt a coder, but heres a refresher list of prior programming divas onSilicon Valley.

Carlas a good place to start.

Charlotte, the Cupcakely Coder, whose sole purpose was to seduce Dinesh with her code.

It turns out that her code had been written by Gilfoyle.

She figures in this episode by attending the Women in Tech event and then firing Jared as a result.

Monica has always brought knowledge that the Pied Piper guys lacked.

Monica navigates Lauries prickly nature because shes like her first boss, the late Peter Gregory.

Monica has earned the respect of the guys by being as knowledgeable or as petty as they are.

She even earned Gilfoyles begrudging respect inlast seasons finale.

So its a surprise when Monicas femininity suddenly becomes expedient to Pied Piper.

Granted, she pulled the old are you gonna let a woman tell you what to do?

Monica doesnt give a shit about the optics of Foxhole until she has to run it.

Knowing this, Monica dumps Foxhole on Priyanka.

Laurie motions Monica off the stage so Priyanka can have her spot.

Since Monica is asked to woman up, it makes sense to make Richard man up.

Nobody expects him to be ruthless, though in season four he made a valiant attempt at Gavin-level nastiness.

Unfortunately, Ethan isRuss Hannemanlevel obnoxious!

Of course, Richard takes these insults in stride.

Leave it to our reigning King of Petty to convince Richard to embrace his CEO status.

After all, the CEO is the alpha of the company, not Ethan!

You are an alpha male is superimposed on the bottom of the screen.

This sequence repeats ad nauseam and looks like a Michael Bay movie.

Maximizing Alphaness appears to work on Mr. Hendricks.

When Ethan starts in on his nonsense, Richard punches him in the forehead.

Since Richard doesnt know how to make a fist, hes the only one injured in this altercation.

The episode ends with Jared and Holden in a stare down over who will get to serve alpha Richard.

Jared, Gilfoyle, and Gavin all have subplots in this episode.

Ill refrain from making the same comment about Matt Rosss screenplay forCaptain Fantastic.

Oddly enough, the sweetest moment this week comes from Gilfoyle.

His subplot brings him John, a chess-playing Hooli employee whose stoicism makes him a kindred spirit.

After beating him in 42 straight chess games, John attempts to friend Gilfoyle on Hooli Chat.

Watch how the two men look sideways at each other just before Gilfoylereluctantlydeclines the request.

Maybe Bertram Gilfoyle has a soul after all.