- In a few days, Carl Bardolph is set to invest
$300 million in Hyper-G.
- Alvin died. - The landlord?
Who owns our house now?
- You could pay all cash. We give it to you at listing.
You've been running a magnificent scam
on all your billionaire clients.
Now you're gonna dish all that dirt to me.
- Beautiful house, Duncan. - It was Hamish's.
We co-founded Fah-fa. He hanged himself.
- Call Nena. Put the rumors to bed.
- You seem riddled with guilt.
- Shut up!
Hello, Nena.
I'm calling to set the record straight on Hypergnosis.
[soft dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- You should see the other guy.
- [chuckles]
- No, really.
I took everything from him.
[breathes deeply] Hmm.
[indistinct chatter]
♪ ♪
Good morning.
Morning. Hi. Morning.
Hey, guy.
Hey, buddy.
Why does your desk have a patina of, like,
crumbs and disrespect?
[blows]
Hi.
Hey, I need you to get it together today.
It's Bardolph Day.
Carl Bardolph is on his way.
And what are you gonna say to a man like him, huh?
- Uh-- - Nothing!
Nothing. You're an NPC.
- I am an N-- - No, no, no. Don't.
NPCs don't talk.
Especially not when Bardolph's here, okay?
- Didn't he, like, invent spam?
- Excuse me?
You are not fit to wipe the ass
of the guy who wipes Bardolph's ass.
And no, he didn't invent spam.
He made the platform which made it insanely profitable.
[laughs]
Yes, Bardolph invented the future, gnome!
Yeah. Yes.
Hey, bright, smiley faces today!
Yes! Yes. [applause]
[singer vocalizing dramatically]
♪ ♪
[applause]
Clean this up.
♪ ♪
There's still some crumbs.
Hi.
Take photos.
Hey, Carl.
Carl, Carl, Carl, welcome.
Hey.
- Is that makeup?
Can I get some of that? - [laughs]
Did you see where Smote closed last night?
Up 17%. I hope you took that bet.
And don't forget to short it, then long it.
- Are you gonna tell me how you did it?
- Oh, look at you, beseeching me already--
and nonviolently.
I like that. I like this new you.
We'll show you everything once we settle on board seats.
Okay?
- Yes, on that, uh,
my main man here, uh, Stan--good man.
You met him last time.
What do you think about one seat for me
and one for my number two here?
- You let him call you that?
[chuckles] How about four?
We'll just do a whole dinner set.
- Two is appropriate.
- Oh, you'd really feel better with two,
but I would not.
But your enthusiasm for what we do
in the area of predictive making a fuck ton is noted.
- Perhaps we should, um,
hold off on the pictures while we figure this out.
We still have some questions.
[tense music]
- Do we still?
Then to the Duncan Den.
Follow me.
♪ ♪
Sit, sit, sit.
[sighs]
Can I get you a yerba mate?
How about a nitro tea? Huh? - Nope.
How about 300 million for two seats
and a 200% premium for half your voting shares?
Founder's Class.
- Nope, not giving up my Class A.
Enhanced voting rights are human rights, for me.
But one seat for 300 with performance milestones
towards a second.
- I think we are putting the cart
before the horseshit here. - [laughs]
- How did you know about Orlando?
Either that was some sort of trick or--
- No, it wasn't a trick at all.
- Then prove it.
- Like I said, once you're on board.
- I could be on board a giga yacht right now,
sipping a 300-year-old cognac
with an android Beverly D'Angelo.
But I'm here.
I just wanna look under the hood
before I buy the damn car.
- Carl, Carl, Carl, you are a legend,
a crotchety Jedi master.
And I want you inside too.
I do.
But, like, as a hunchbacked monk
whispering into the king's ear,
and of course, signaling to the streets
that we are worth the investment.
- No, no, no, no.
I have taken too much shrapnel
to be anybody's dancing bear.
- Duncan. - Period!
- Duncan. - Yes.
- Can--is it okay if Carl and I confab
on your couch over there?
- You're gonna get your number two
all over my couch?
- That's funny.
- [chuckling]
Of course. Of course.
[chuckles]
Give them room, guys. Yeah.
- [inhales sharply]
[tense music]
- [mouthing words]
- Gentlemen, we will be right back.
What? - Nena Marx.
- Did she die?
"A source at Cupertino has confirmed
"Hypergnosis is not being acquired by the tech giant.
CEO Duncan Park was suspect of leaking news of the buyout."
[gasps]
♪
Uh, can you kill the internet?
- Kill the-- - Kill the internet!
- I can turn off the Wi-Fi?
- Just--yeah.
- For a second there, I thought you were a unicorn.
Turns out, you're just a jackass
with a dildo taped to his head.
- This is just static, Carl.
A reporter just trying to stir the pot, you know.
You know and I know what Wall Street doesn't, okay?
I mean, the--the algo, the predictive algo?
Orlando?
How much money do you make, huh?
- Tim, hi.
Yeah.
Well, listen, you're a piece of shit too.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, I heard.
Is it true?
Meeting didn't even happen.
Dead in less than an hour.
Okay, thank you and eat me.
- Cupertino Tim? Really?
You hate him.
He's lying!
He--Carl, okay, two seats!
Two seats! Okay!
You're twisting my arm here.
What--what's our stock at now?
Huh? What's the price?
- Down 10%.
- Then jump on in.
Jump on in.
Grab the glory.
You know, stop that slide.
- You know, it all sounds a little bit too spry
for a hunchback monk like me.
- Listen. - Right?
- Listen, I--I am sorry.
I am sorry. You are Superman.
I'm--I'm Lois Lane, okay?
So how about you fly around the world, you know,
turn back time, kiss me back to life?
I--you know, I--
I am--I am--what am I doing?
[whispering] I am begging.
I am begging.
- [sniffing]
♪ ♪
[snorts] Oh, yeah.
It's been a while since I smelled man blood.
Nummy, nummy.
- [laughs] - Nice.
Stan, where's it at now?
- Same buy-in gets us 17% of the company.
Oh, hold on.
It's refreshing.
Nope, 18%.
- Listen, you--
you go down this route, you get nothing.
You lose me permanently.
- 19%.
- [breathing shakily] Nine--
- Hold on.
20.7%.
- Ooh, that's a nice slice of beef right there.
- But Duncan only owns 20%.
- Who's Duncan?
♪ ♪
- Duncan, um...
that's my phone.
- 20.9%.
- Okay, buy.
And, uh, okay, bye!
[door opens, closes]
[birds chirping]
[click, blender whirring] - Oh!
Must you?
[whirring]
- [sighs]
Good morning, Xander.
[chiming]
Hey.
What are you doing back there?
- Oh, hello, Martin.
I--I messed up.
- What's that on your forehead, buddy?
Come closer.
- I'm sorry.
I'll get rid of it.
- Is that a bruise or--
- I may have had an accident playing with the haptics.
Stupid me.
My fault, my fault, my fault, my fault--
- Xander, stop that.
Nothing's your fault.
Now, let's get to the bottom of this, okay?
- There is no bottom, Martin.
You can always go lower.
[poignant music]
♪ ♪
- Build it, break it.
You build it. You break it.
Fuck!
- [singing in French]
[somber music playing]
♪ ♪
- Jesus.
Nothing happier?
[music stops]
[pensive music]
♪ ♪
[singer vocalizing]
♪ ♪
Microwave, 1-inch slit until... [mumbling]
Okay.
[sniffles]
How do you not have a microwave?
No wonder you killed yourself.
God.
I can't even order anything.
I can't--
[sobs]
[wailing]
♪ ♪
What's so wrong with the internet?
Huh?
It made us a lot of money.
It made us a lot, a lot of money.
Oh, you--oh, you're ashamed.
You're ashamed. God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you don't know shame!
You were the brains, right?
The brains.
Well, try being the face!
Oh, God, I have to do it.
Fuck!
♪ ♪
- Um...
[speaking Spanish]
Over there.
Sí.
Merci, guys.
- Lili.
- Bea-Bea. Aw.
- [chuckles] - What are you doing here?
Thelma, some iced tea-- hibiscus.
- Sure. - A little souvenir from Napa.
- Oh! Ooh.
Thelma, corkscrew.
[laughs]
- I heard you've been posting on the neighborhood chat.
- Right. - And you accused Pippa Tang
of being an arsonist who burnt down your house.
- Yes.
- She saw it.
- People should know who their neighbors are.
Sigh, okay.
The stadium's the absolute priority.
I'll apologize.
I will grovel.
I will wear my knee pads.
- No need to.
I already spoke with her.
And it went well.
She's maintaining her commitment
at the $40 million level.
So we'll announce it at the winter gala.
Looks like we're getting our stadium.
- Until she burns it down.
I'm kidding.
No, that's wonderful.
That really is.
It's really wonderful.
No. Well done, Beatrice.
- Thank you.
Uh, she did have one ask. - Mm.
She wants you off the board.
- [scoffs, laughs] What?
Did she say that?
- Mm. - Oh, my God.
Ugh.
I mean, I run that thing.
- Mm.
- Wait.
- The others took a vote.
- What?
- Look, I'm sorry.
But more time right now with the family
could be good.
- Sorry, was my family,
or perhaps my husband's public lynching,
part of the conversation here?
- It was a wide-ranging conversation.
- [singing in French]
[melancholy music playing]
♪ ♪
- [sniffling]
[grunts]
Sorry for what?
[doorbell rings]
Hey. Jamison, what's up?
How are you?
- Wow.
You look unwell.
- I'm just in the middle of something right now.
So yeah, just tomorrow.
Okay?
- Or you could just come home.
Mom's upset, said this house was haunted.
- Haunted?
'Cause of Uncle Hamish? No.
That was--that was, like, five years ago.
It's not like he's swinging away in there.
So you, um...
You know what happened with my company?
- Yeah, some famous guy bought, like,
a controlling interest or something?
- No, not quite controlling.
And I still own most of it.
Well, not quite most of it.
It's just not ideal, you know.
You really wanna own most of it, if you can.
I know your mom's worried, right?
But neither--neither of you have anything to--
you are my rich bitches.
And I--I mean that like how, you know, gay men say it.
Yeah.
And when you have kids of your own,
they'll be little rich bitches
and, well, four, maybe six-- probably not six--
maybe three generations of rich bitches,
unless there's someone--
someone had a gambling problem or there was, like,
a populist uprising.
But as--just so--
as long as the stock is stable
and I haven't--
I haven't checked on it in a bit.
Can you--can you go up to the street
and just check ticker HGNO?
Yeah, no.
[chuckles] I have a firewall.
I don't need your help.
Yeah, Anushka, Tess's stepmom,
she's on my board.
And Uncle Gabe, my CFO--
he's not your actual uncle, thank fuck.
[chuckles] I--
I should check in on him.
- Dad, you're, like, having a breakdown.
- No need to get judgy with me, okay?
You are the voice of, what, judginess now?
You--you stole my Tungsten cube.
- Oh, my God, I didn't take your stupid cube!
- No, admit it! Admit it!
- What is it with you and this cube?
- Why are you trying to stick it to the man now?
Everyone's coming at me!
- [breathing heavily]
[clicks tongue] Oh.
[groans] Oh.
Hey, Jamie!
Jamison!
Hey!
[sighs] God.
[breathing heavily]
You just--
[phone buzzing, chiming]
[soft music]
♪ ♪
- In today's episode, Hypergnosis.
When the laughter stops, will icon powerhouse
Carl Bardolph be able to clean up
Duncan Park's mess?
Park, a masterclass in how not to lead a company.
♪ ♪
- Gabe!
Hey! Gabey baby, hey.
Um, can I come over?
- 2.5 mil is a steal around here.
- No, yeah, I, um--
I really appreciate the early viewing.
- Of course.
You saved my ass in behavioral psych.
- [chuckles] It's probably not big enough
for offices for me and Gary.
- I forgot.
You married Professor Felder.
- [chuckles] Yeah.
He's, uh--no, yeah, I did.
- Yeah, well, there's, like, offices you can rent
for, like, 175 an hour.
- That would be a huge pay cut.
I'm still paying off my degrees.
Yeah, and Gary's got his alimony,
and he stuck his parents in this money pit
of a nursing home.
And then he had this tax penalty.
And oh, my God, I just got a medical bill
that insurance won't cover because my son
put dog shit in his stool sample.
- Oh, okay. Oh, okay. - So...
- [exhales slowly]
- [breathing shakily]
- You wanna get high?
- Yeah.
Didn't you have your own practice?
Mm-hmm.
- Why'd you quit?
- [sighs] Cancer.
- Oh, shit.
- Girl, I'm great.
I'm all clear.
I make my own schedule.
I don't have to listen to those tech bros
whine about their third homes.
[inhales deeply] Okay, forget money.
Where do you want to be?
- I don't know.
Maybe somewhere I could watch a sunrise, you know?
Nothing, nobody in my way.
[chuckles]
- You should move to Gilroy.
Grow your own weed, get yourself some chickens.
- [chuckles]
- I gotta ask, what's Professor Felder's dick like?
- [laughing]
[pensive music]
♪
- Human females dig offerings.
Men used to hunt and bring back mammoth flesh.
This is how it is and how it always should be.
What are you gonna do, not give your
female counterpart an offering?
- Um, hey, we need to see the nutritionist lady.
I'm running out of the stuff.
- Mm, yeah.
You know, Orson, I think she's the kind of person
who would give you magic beans for a heart attack, you know?
- But it's working, so.
It just feels like the dumb part of my brain
is telling the smart part to just shut up.
It's a little disconcerting,
but my problems are, like, gone now.
Like, they're all--all gone, and I'm feeling so much better.
[door closes] - Hello.
- [sighs] Oh, my boys.
- Hmm.
- Orson, are you eating chili?
- Mm-hmm.
- Wow, it smells good. - Mm.
Orson was just saying how much better he feels.
Also, he joined the orchestra at school.
- Hey, that's great!
Wow, Orson.
How--how much better?
- Like, basically, all the way better.
It's great.
- Oh, my gosh.
Antibiotics are so-- you know what I mean?
They just work. - Mm.
- No. No, they do not.
They definitely didn't.
- Okay.
They didn't work.
- No.
They were awful.
- [scoffs] okay, well, clearly, evidence they helped.
- Oh.
- Actually, I stopped taking them a while ago...
- [sighs] - So...
- Why?
- [sighs]
- $2,000?
And right when we need every penny?
- I know. - And behind my back!
He's my son.
- Yeah, and he's crying out for some male nurturing,
and he's under my roof!
What am I supposed to do, JoAnne?
- Not your roof, Gary.
Rented roof. - Yeah.
Not the point.
[muffled melancholy music playing]
[knocking]
- It's Lili.
Duncan!
I know you're in there.
The Hummer's in the driveway.
♪ ♪
I can hear the music!
- [singing in French]
♪
Duncan, this has been very hard for me too.
We are married!
I don't care if you hate me.
You have to talk to me till one of us dies.
That's the deal.
Otherwise...[sighs]
What good are we?
Duncan!
Bastard.
Bastard!
♪ ♪
Duncan!
Duncan?
Duncan!
What the hell?
[sighs]
[thud]
[water running]
[water stops]
[somber music]
♪
[crying]
[sobs]
[rotors thrumming]
♪ ♪
- Too many moons, buddy!
- I can't do physical contact.
- What?
- Dopamine fasting. Gotta purify.
Dopamine is the last addiction.
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
You gotta keep the neurotransmitters
high and tight.
- Yep.
We got a lot to talk about.
- Yeah, we sure do.
[birds squawking]
- I think you got the right idea here.
You know, take your winnings and live away from it all.
Yeah, just--
- That why you came?
- Yeah.
What do you mean?
- You always have an angle.
- I--I needed a break
with a friend, oldest and dearest.
To be honest, I'm a little bummed
you're doing this cleanse thing.
I was looking forward to doing
some toad licking and frog smoking.
Last time I was here, remember?
You were doing the GambleSlut jubilee.
God, you just sold your stake, and you--you were feral.
Just ah, ah! [laughs]
Wow.
- It's sluts, plural.
GambleSlut is an accusation.
Sluts is an invitation.
- Well, I left feeling like one.
[chuckles]
- We gotta be stronger than that now, Duncan.
Societal change, perhaps collapse, is upon us,
and sooner than you think,
and sooner than the people who think it's soon think.
- Yeah.
Maybe. Yeah, yeah.
- There used to be men who lit the streetlamps,
every night walking around the cobblestones
with a big pole of fire.
You'd even know the guy.
Evening, Doug. Lighting the lamps?
You betcha, friend.
What would we do without you?
And then Edison came up with his bright idea,
and it's, whatever happened to Doug?
Dollars to donuts, Doug couldn't hack it
in the new frontier.
Maybe Doug found his wife banging the Maytag man
and grabbed the third rail of the new downtown express.
Or maybe Doug picked up his old lighting pole
and started smashing his neighbors' windows,
screaming about a revolution that his great-grandkids
will finish any day now when they get replaced by AI bots.
Either way, men like you and me,
we gotta duck when shit fucks the fan.
Get an island, get some guns, and go long on guillotines.
- I missed you, man.
- Even if you don't have the bone mass,
these jaw exercises will open up the sutures of your skull.
Now, obviously, the decadent females of the West
are too busy riding the cock carousel
to take a chance on a beta with a negative canthal tilt,
but that's where I come in.
- What the hell are you watching?
Was that some-- some fascist incel shit?
Orson, who is sending you videos about cocks
and--and--and skull tilts?
- Canthal tilt is eyes, I think.
And it's not fascist to know anatomy.
- Yes, it is.
That's their whole thing.
Okay, look, I--I--
I came to invite you.
Gary and I are gonna do a quick day trip to the country.
And now, I think, yeah, no, not an invitation--mandatory.
We are gonna go pick some apples or something, okay?
And that's all there is to it.
Why can't you just watch video games?
[door slams]
- Ugh.
Can you not touch me, please?
[chiming]
- [sighs]
I'm going in late.
Didn't sleep a wink.
- Xander is behaving strangely.
He generated a couch to hide behind.
- I just--
Nena and that article.
Everyone at Cupertino thinks it was me,
and I'm just covering my ass.
- Wasn't it you?
- Yes, but--
can you take the goggles off, please?
I need a sympathetic ear right now.
My motives were to clear the air, to help Cupertino.
But fat chance anyone gives me an ounce of bloody credit.
- Like, I just can't win. - No. No.
- I'm sorry, but-- - No.
- Xander. - No, no, no, no, no.
- Xander.
What's wrong? - I'm sorry.
- Don't talk to the robot.
Martin, I'm your wife.
I'm speaking to you!
- I think it's you, maybe your voice.
- I broke the tablet.
- I really don't need this right now, Martin.
- My fault. - Xander.
- Not hers. Not hers.
- Did you have an accident? - I'm sorry.
I'm bad. I'll clean it.
- Uh, I think you should go.
- How could he wee himself, Martin?
He's pixels! - Just dots!
- Could you leave, please? - Stupid dots!
- Right, so you care about the Tamagotchi's feelings,
but not mine? - Damn it! Leave!
Go to work!
And leave me to mine!
[indistinct chatter]
[soft tense music]
- [sighs]
- Some people just have very punchable faces.
Duncan Park has a soul like that.
I just--I just wanna crush him.
I--I do.
Is that gay?
Well, aren't you gay?
I mean, the way he took down Orlando Lee
with that big blue dolphin dick--
whack, whack!
Hey, he just doesn't quit, that guy.
He just doesn't quit.
He just keeps coming back,
until he ran away, leaving me with this--
this nugget, this prophecy.
[sighs]
Did you see where Smote rehired Orlando Lee?
Just as Duncan foretold.
How much money have we made off that?
- After the last short and bump,
it's up 21 million and change.
Wanna hire him back?
Maybe make him an employee this time--
paycheck, smaller office.
Humble him. Dominate.
- A guy like that, he would never do that, ever.
I would have to make him partner.
I just wanna crush him.
And I can't crush him if I can't find him.
- Carl, you have other holdings
that you haven't even paid any attention to.
- Yeah, I know that.
It's because I'm allergic to tedium, Stan.
Obviously, you're not. - Mr. Bardolph?
- Yes? - Hi.
- So I accessed the carrier portal
and found a signal location.
The satellite handshake gave him away.
- English, pronoun.
Please.
Did you find him?
- Duncan was actually gonna double my stock options
at the next performance review.
So care to review my performance?
- Well, aren't you the little operator?
- Have you ever met our CFO, Gabe?
[soft ethereal music]
♪ ♪
[phone buzzing]
- Hello?
[phone buzzing]
- Where are you?
- The wilderness.
If I can't see the world, the world can't see me, right?
That's how it works.
- Sorry about the stock and everything.
- No, no.
I am done, Nush.
Can't go back.
I don't wanna go back.
- Oh, come on, it's just a bit of bad press.
- I'd rather have anything happen to me.
I'd rather have a deepfake of me French kissing my own mother
being passed around.
I bet Bardolph already has
a short list of replacement CEOs.
- Well, I wouldn't know.
As you recall, I resigned from the board.
[pensive music]
- What?
[stammering] When?
- I sent you a registered letter, which you signed.
- I--I need you on the board!
I need that vote!
- You still have Gabe's.
- Yeah, even with Gabe's, Bardolph and I are deadlocked,
and then he'll find a way to tilt the balance.
I--I--[scoffs] Why the hell would you resign?
- I asked you to do one thing for me, and you never did.
You said you'd call Nena, clear my name.
Then you had sex with me, and you never called her.
So I called her.
I called her.
- You?
[tense music]
You did this?
You stabbed me in the back of my heart?
- Sorry, but when it's your job on the line,
it's a crisis of infinite magnitude.
But when it's mine, you can't be arsed.
- No, that's not-- why would you--
- Goodbye, Dunky.
- No. No!
[line beeping]
No, Anu--God.
Oh, God, no!
God!
Oh, my God!
[groaning, yelling] Shit!
God!
- [sighs]
I mean, do you think we could actually do this?
I mean, we could afford it.
- Yeah, I mean, I always wanted to watch the sun rise
over fields of wildflowers.
I just always thought it would be
from the veranda of our architecturally significant
second home.
- [laughs] Yeah.
Yeah.
- Living in the bubble, right?
[chuckles]
- Well, I love it.
- You do? - Mm-hmm.
I love that it was your idea.
And I hate the people in Palo Alto.
I do. I hate them.
I know everybody deserves therapy,
but that has to apply to the folks
that live out here, too, right?
Whoever they are.
It's less money for us, maybe.
So we're not surrounded by world beaters,
but, you know, as far as neighbors and friends go,
the world beaters suck.
So maybe we just make peace with enough.
[chicken clucking]
[clears throat] Hey, Orson.
Orson.
Talk to your mom. She might have some news.
Come here, buddy.
- What?
What's the news?
- News?
Uh, well, Gary and I are talking about--you know,
and nothing is set in stone, but possibly to move here.
- When?
- I suppose soon, real soon.
- You--I just started settling in,
and you wanna send me to live on a farm?
I can finally freakin' eat like a normal person,
and you won't pay for my medicine!
Maybe you like me better sick and feeble.
- What?
How could you possibly think that?
- I know you did something bad.
[tense music]
If you wanna run away from whatever shit you pulled,
that's fine.
But you're not gonna cuck me
into living in fucking garlic town!
I should make you give me the $2,000.
And if I were a fascist, trust me, I would.
But I don't need you, you selfish bi--
woman!
♪ ♪
- Okay.
Are we ready to pick some apples?
- No.
We're going back.
[engine turns over]
- Hey, Gabe!
Did I see you letting the sun shine where it don't normally?
- Yeah, it's called perineum sunning.
It increases testosterone production,
root chakra optimization, and--
- And I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try it.
It's a great idea.
You have so many great ideas.
Here's mine.
Bardolph is gonna try to fire me.
We go back to HQ, right?
We instigate the staff to walk out.
We ride in. We rile them up.
A proper uprising.
Gattica! Gattica!
And then we say to Bardolph,
hey, hey, you're gonna fire me?
You're gonna have to fire everyone!
[panting]
- Your one move--
talking people into doing shit
that's not good for anyone but you.
This is why you came, right?
Ensure my loyalty?
- Possibly your perspective while living here
on a freakin' island has skewed you
a little towards the paranoid.
I'm just saying, there used to be GambleSluts
in bikinis out there.
Now there are armed guards.
That's not progress, Gabe.
- This is what you did to Hamish.
You would stroke his ego and then steal his confidence
over and over and over.
- Yeah. You motivate.
You criticize. It's called leadership.
I'm sorry, someone had to be the McCartney in the band.
Who else was gonna do it?
I mean...[laughs] Hamish?
You?
You wanna take the reins?
Go swing your sun-kissed balls around?
Show everyone that your root chakra is optimized?
I--I would love--
I would love to see you try.
- It's too late now.
- Well, not for me.
Not for me.
Call me a helicopter.
I'm going to go save what is ours.
- Oh, okay.
So you're looking out for me too?
- Yes! Yes! - Okay.
Well, then tell me, why has my dearest,
closest friend still not mentioned the predictive algo
he's sitting on?
- Wait.
How--
Did you talk to Bardolph?
[helicopter rotors thrumming]
[tense music]
Oh, God.
♪ ♪
How could you?
- No, no, no, I don't wanna hear shit about betrayal.
That's not the narrative here.
You abandoned me.
- Fuck, Gabe.
Gabe, what did you do?
Carl!
And I thought I was the one stalking you the whole time.
- I'm not here for you.
I came to speak to Gabe Choi.
- Carl.
- Oh, you'll touch him?
- This is my XO, Stan Dibbs.
- Hey, Stan. - How you doing?
- What is that? What--what is that?
- A tender offer.
15% above market for Gabe's voting shares.
- No. Hey, hey, hey. No, no, no, no. You just--
- No. - You can't do that now.
- I never wanted to be CFO.
I took the job for Hamish. - He was dead!
I asked you, and you never even did the job.
- Okay, well, I'm done. Okay? I'm out.
And for what it's worth, I'm giving some of this money
to Francis and James.
I think they're still in Wichita.
- Who is Francis and James?
- Hamish's parents, asshole.
- I--I will fix this.
I will make you whole. okay?
But wait.
- Oh, wait, like with Fah-fa?
- No.
Ha--Hamish wanted to wait, not me.
- No, you thought it was a movement,
and it was a startup.
And you talked Hamish out of selling.
We could have all been billionaires.
It practically killed him.
Who knows? Maybe it did.
- I've got to admit it, Stan.
Watching this man eat shit may be the only justice
this world has to offer.
- You are a twisted prick, aren't you?
You could have faxed that agreement here.
Why are you here?
It is because you wanted to see me, isn't it?
- Always about him.
- It is. What do you wanna know?
How I predicted Orlando?
- No. I understand.
If I was that lucky, I would want people
to think I was a genius too.
- It wasn't luck.
- Yeah, I'm not comfortable with the word
"irrevocable" ever. - So it was an algo?
Did Hamish write it? - We can change that.
"Binding," maybe?
- Or that pink-haired whatnot.
Did she come up with it?
- It was an oracle.
I have an oracle.
- Bullshit. Bullshit.
And I don't care, really.
I don't.
- Carl, I would have told you everything.
All you had to do was be my partner.
But no.
No, you're a hungry, hungry hippo,
and you had to snap it all up.
But you didn't think it all the way through.
Nope.
Because I walked.
And now you got a ship with no captain.
And I think you like me a little.
I do.
You liked my pitch.
10 million data points on every person from birth.
But then, under my leadership,
Gnodin could have made it to 20 million.
And at that point, you're not predicting behavior,
you're steering it.
That's why you wanted my company.
You wanted to feel like God with a hard-on, didn't you?
- What's defeasance?
- If it weren't for that article--
the source of which was
an ex-special friend of mine that I neglected.
Yeah, so you reap.
You sow.
- Was it true?
- Yeah, it was. So what?
If that hit piece didn't come out, if I had my company,
you would be on a yacht right now.
Your board seat would be secure.
The stock would be 50 points higher.
My best friend wouldn't be backstabbing me right now.
- Best friends. Only in the K-hole.
- [stammering] Gabe, please tell me
you're gonna have a lawyer look at that.
- Oh, gee. Thank you.
What, you think I'm a dingus?
Oh, and Carl, soon to be none of my business,
but you do not want this guy running your company.
- Oh, don't worry. This man gets nothing.
- Why? Why? - Because you're selfish!
And because you ruined my breakfast.
- Yeah, he is selfish, and he's not a good guy.
- Says the man who made money off incels
betting on which girl at the orgy gets gangbanged?
Really? And you!
Spam?
Fucking spam.
I bet right now, there is a Nigerian prince
just cutting you a royalty check!
- How much are you worth, son?
- Oh, I--
Hamish and I were just trying to build a community!
And I'm the bad guy?
People exchanged candles and kayaks
and shit and then people--
people fell in love on Fah-fa.
- Never heard of it. - Yeah, bullshit!
Bullshit!
You don't stop thinking about me.
You came here to find a way to lure me back.
But the problem is, you don't know how to lure!
Only destroy!
[soft tense music]
God.
I'm not gonna sit around for this circle jerk.
God!
And, Carl, I'm taking your helicopter.
Oh, Gabe, hey, thanks for the hospitality.
Love you, man. Mm!
- Get the fuck off me!
- Yeah!
- In our own time. Eventually.
- Hey! Hey!
Hey, hey. Turn it on!
Turn it on!
[sighs] Yeah, he said it was fine.
He said you can take the chopper.
It's fine.
- Gabe, you have a chopper we can borrow?
- Of course.
[whirring]
- And who is his special friend?
♪ ♪
- What if I pay you back?
I'll get a job, I promise.
- [sighs] - But that stuff, without it,
I'll just go back to the way I was.
And I cannot do that.
So please-- - No. I get it.
I get it.
I had, when I was your age, zits, migraines, and man boobs.
I mean, the man boobs maybe have come back a little bit.
[chuckling]
No, but we do need to respect your mom on this.
She said no.
And also, I can't really recommend something unregulated
from somebody who spells "science" with a Y.
We can do better.
But I promise you,
if insurance covers it, I'll help you.
[beeping]
- Mm.
I spent an hour this morning meditating
on the terrors that teens face.
I mean, even if you make it through high school
without a shooting, then what?
Right? Like, AI, it is a poison weed
that is choking your generation.
I mean, there's not an image or a sound
you can trust in the whole world.
And the Earth, it's on fire.
I mean, it's no wonder that you feel like
someone is clear-cutting your gut biome, right?
[chiming] Oh! Approved.
Hmm. Oh.
- Thank you.
- Oh, shit.
[knocking]
- It's your old friend.
Don't wanna burst in uninvited.
You know, respect your boundaries.
Hello.
- Shit!
- Hey, listen, I have a treat for you.
Hear me out.
Very--hey! Whoa!
Whoa! Whoa!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Put that down!
- Leave, Duncan!
Breaking and entering again?
- Come on! Just stop for a second!
- You're leaving now.
- Five-minute truce.
Five-minute truce, okay?
I'll be--come on, Jojo!
Our kids go to school together!
- I'm not putting it down until you get out.
- Really? Come on!
You're not gonna shoot me, Jojo!
You gonna shoot me?
I got fired!
I did. I lost my company.
I lost my friends.
All you can do is hurt my physical form.
The rest is gone.
So go!
[panting]
Thank you. Thank you.
I'm okay. Thanks for asking.
- [scoffs]
- And I'm gonna get it all back.
I have been on a journey.
I really have been.
Did you read about me?
You did. Of course you did.
Of course you did.
I went looking for truth.
And all signs point to you.
- Duncan.
No. - No, no, no. Please, JoAnne.
Don't be sad. Listen.
Listen.
You are my oracle.
And I have an offering.
[curious music]
♪ ♪
- $1.2 million?
- Yeah, Hamish--remember him?
My old--my old partner, you know?
Anyway, he left a little money for my daughter's college fund.
Sweet, right?
So--and I took that and used it to invest in your Smote thing.
And now--now it's a million and change.
And it's yours.
- It's--what?
- It's yours.
I--well, I did take half of it.
I do have to pay Jamie back.
But the rest of it, it is yours.
You deserve it.
It's bulletproof, VPN'd, invisible, on the dark web.
No one can hear you profit.
- Uh--no.
Duncan, I--I--
I can't take your money.
I--I don't want it.
- You earned it!
You did.
You have a gift.
You really do.
It went down like you said.
Orlando? They turfed him.
Stock went up, stock went down, and they brought him back.
- It was insider trading.
Orlando's closest advisor was my patient.
Anybody with even a little insight
who had the same information I had
could have figured it out too.
- But they didn't.
And--and, like, even if they did,
genius is not about figuring out the solution.
It's about being unhinged enough to do
something outrageous with it.
That's you. You did that.
And you--you deserve to be rewarded.
This--this has been my mistake from the very beginning.
I mean, you give, and you give,
and all I do--I do is take.
That's...[breathing heavily]
That's my bad.
I should never have blackmailed you.
Never.
It should have always been a bribe.
Will you be my bribe?
♪
- [snoring]
[door opening]
- Shoot straight, you bastards!
[sighs] Carl Bardolph.
Thanks for coming in.
- Anushka Bhattachera, obviously.
I've heard so much about you.
- Mm.
- Mostly appalling, of course.
- Oh, from big Tim? - Mm.
- He's a good man, if you're in the market
for bullshit and a pair of Allbirds.
- [chuckles]
Why don't you tell me what I'm doing here?
- Well, you know the CFO, former CFO.
What's his name?
Gabe? - Unfortunately.
- He sold me his shares.
And there it is.
It's mine.
So just trying to think what to do with this place, and...
knowing you're on the board--
- I'm not anymore.
- No, I read your letter.
You made some good points, identified the rot.
- You read it? - Yeah.
It was just sitting on Duncan's desk.
You're a smart cookie.
I'd hate to see what Tim has you doing.
His laundry?
- Chief ethicist.
- [gasps]
Ethicist Barbie.
Fancy title, and all the power of an overpaid schoolmarm too.
What a waste.
How would you like to be interim CEO?
You know the company. You're not a wrecking ball.
You're trying to do something.
Plus, Tim would hate it!
Duncan Park would too, I feel sure.
I--
well, I'm flattered.
But I'd have to take a leave of absence from Cupertino,
and it could derail my career.
- Or you could bet on yourself.
- Well, data isn't my area of expertise.
I mean, I have opinions, strong ones.
Okay, let me ask you.
Could you imagine using your algo
to spot people in crisis, communities in need,
and actually help them?
- Well, that sounds like some of the things we talked about
when we first started making this sausage, yes.
- But you never did.
[chuckles] And you never will.
"Profit uber alles."
- Look, there are about 20 dudes in the Valley
that make as much or more than me.
And we all come to the same fork in the road.
Do we want humanitarian legacy, or do we want planetary reach?
Do we wanna save the world or control it?
Heal or conquer?
Well, both have their charms, but I will tell you this.
Most of us go Dr. Evil.
I used to love the Valley, but I hate what it's become.
I hate it.
We've broken and disrupted everything,
and now there's nothing else to break.
And now they wanna upload consciousness
so guys like me can live forever, disrupting death?
Well, fuck you.
Death disrupts us!
Our limited time is why we try hard
to do anything worthwhile.
There's a shelf life. Then it's over.
Blue screen, done.
[soft music]
So convince me, Anushka.
Prove to me that the best way for me
to spend my money and the rest of the time that I have left
is to build a legacy of good.
♪
- It's been over a week.
No, not a missing person, just an absent husband and father.
He just walked out.
Well, I'm not completely without fault myself, so...
Yes, more than he knows, and I wanna keep it that way.
It's not about the money.
That said, if it comes to it, I will want the house.
[thud in distance]
Where the hell have you been?
- I'm so sorry. - Where were you?
- I'm sorry. - Were you with her?
- I'm sorry. Who?
Anushka? No, no, no.
God, no. - Were you with someone else?
- No.
I--I was all alone.
All alone.
Except you were there.
You were there, and Jamie.
[breathing heavily]
You are my best friend.
You always were.
And you're the only one I can trust against these jackals.
I need you.
I need you standing...
- [sighs]
- Behind me, next to me, in front of me.
Wherever--
wherever it's safest for me.
- Baby?
- Yeah, baby?
Yes, baby? - I'm sorry.
- No, I'm--
I'm sorry.
I am sorry.
- I want a divorce.
♪
-Cut 'em to ribbons, boys.
[Screaming]
-Hey, maybe we can, um, try to fix things.
-I can't have another abusive situation in my house.
-We're gonna be okay.
[Muffled scream]
-Privacy has value.
An unmined motherlode of value.
I'm a bad man.
♪♪
-Action. -You should see the other guy.
-[Chuckles softly] -No, really.
Can you give me some lift?
♪♪
-In Episode 5, we really see the manifestation
of Duncan's fear of humiliation
that he states at the very beginning of the show.
-What's our stock at now, huh? What's the price?
-Down 10%. 20.7%.
-But Duncan only owns 20.
-Who's Duncan?
♪
-We see that feeling of wanting to crawl away from the situation
as quickly as possible.
-Okay. Bye.
Okay! Bye!
♪♪
-We know that he has this dumb house,
a place he can go where there is no Internet,
there's no Wi-Fi.
And I've always imagined him getting there
and the first five minutes being...
[ Exhales deeply ] "I can relax here."
-What's so wrong with the Internet?
It made us a lot of money. Made us a lot -- a lot of money.
-Again and again, he tries to relax
into being on some kind of sabbatical from his life.
And again and again, it doesn't work.
-[Groaning]
-We learn also in this episode,
when Lili comes to the dumb house...
♪
-Duncan!
-...this relationship between Lili and Hamish
was much more complicated and, I think it's safe to say,
romantic and perhaps was behind Hamish's choices in the end.
♪♪
There's a picture in the dumb house.
One of them is Duncan -- and his struggles are known to us --
the other one is Hamish, who decided to end his life,
and the other one is Gabe,
who decided to isolate himself entirely from the world
and live on an island,
take his winnings and go be alone.
Gabe was played brilliantly by Randall Park.
-Too many moons, buddy!
-I can't do physical contact. -What...
-Uh, dopamine fasting. Got to purify.
-This is all very much based on real-life scenarios
with some of these guys at this level of wealth.
You really haven't quite made your nut
until you've got a compound you can escape to
when the shit hits the fan. -Did you talk to Bardolph?
-Now! -[ Helicopter whirring ]
-Duncan goes there, I think genuinely,
to try to have a retreat from the reality
that he left behind with Bardolph.
But also he's got an agenda,
and Gabe can spot it immediately.
-W-What is that? -A tender offer.
-Fifteen percent above market for Gabe's voting shares.
-No. No, no. You can't do... -No.
I never wanted to be CFO. I took the job for Hamish.
-You are a twisted prick. You know that?
-Cut. -Cut.
-Orson was just saying how much better he feels.
-Antibiotics are so -- You know what I mean?
-Actually, I stopped taking them a while ago, so...
-I think in Episode 5,
a subtitle could be "The Kids Are Not All Right."
Orson is starting to take medicine
that's changing his behavior,
a mysterious proprietary blend from the nutritionist.
You see that heartbreaking scene between Jamison and Duncan,
where she so wants him to be a better dad
and he's just not capable of it.
And you see Xander trying to recover
from essentially virtual,
but as far as Xander's concerned,
physical abuse at the hands of his stepmother.
-I'm sorry. I'm bad. I'll clean it.
-How could he wee himself, Martin?
He's pixels! -Leave! Go to work!
And leave me to mine!
-Anushka is also Tessa's stepmother.
And so "the kids are not all right"
is a really interesting way to look at not just this episode,
but I think overall in this show, the stakes are the kids.
They are the ones who are the most targeted
in terms of the social-media stuff.
Also, do these kids have in them --
and even Xander in a sense --
the desire and ability to make things better?
And do they have a voice in the future?
-Nothing's your fault.
Let's get to the bottom of this.
-There is no bottom, Martin. You can always go lower.
♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪