"Hooli Smokes!" is the third episode of Season 6. It first ran on November 10, 2019.
Brief synopsis[]
The Pied Piper team races to close a major deal; Dinesh considers being a better person; an angry Jared reluctantly helps Richard.
Plot summary[]
Chilean billionaire Maximo Reyes (Arturo Castro) is hell-bent on acquiring Pied Piper, so he teams up with Laurie Bream (Suzanne Cryer) and YaoNet US to get around Richard's refusal. Richard should've accepted Maximo's deal when he had the chance, everyone around Richard seems to agree. Maybe it's not too late to give in...
Sitting on a park bench, Richard commiserates with Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) about the difficulties of running a company. Thus Richard learns about how Foxhole being labeled a national security risk scuttled Belson's plan to move Hooli to Georgia, the former Soviet republic.
This gives Richard an idea for a deal that would benefit both Hooli and Pied Piper: Hooli should sell Foxhole to Pied Piper. That way, Hooli can move to Georgia and Maximo Reyes can't acquire Pied Piper. In fact, Reyes would have to sell back whatever Pied Piper shares he already owns.
But Belson rejects the deal. Richard has forgotten the lesson of "Fifty-One Percent", that Belson is a villain compelled not just to win but make sure everyone else loses. Belson leaves the park to go train for a triathlon.
Back at the Pied Piper offices, Richard talks to Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Monica about how Hooli won't sell Foxhole. Monica realizes that Pied Piper can actually buy Hooli. If the Hooli board decides to make the sale and Gavin Belson doesn't object within two hours, the sale goes through.
This plan will also require some poor sap to take a huge loss. Dinesh volunteers his cousin Wajid (Avi Nash). Dinesh is envious of Wajid because Wajid has managed to be very successful after the failure of his Bro app.
Jared agrees to help Richard if Richard agrees to buy Gwart's company and release them from their obligations to Pied Piper after the purchase of Hooli goes through. Gwart (Nandini Bapat) seems not to care one way or the other.
Thanks to Hooli's pervasive collection of user data, Gilfoyle is able to know exactly where in the triathlon Gavin Belson is and how well the man is enduring the grueling event. As soon as Gilfoyle sees that Gavin Belson has gone in the water for the swimming part of the triathlon, Richard asks the Hooli board for an emergency meeting. The board agree to Richard's proposal, but insist on signing paper documents.
Of course Belson cheats at the triathlon. Gilfoyle knows that Belson's oxygen blood levels are precariously low. After the bicycling part, Belson gives his wearable device to his more athletic body double to take over for him. This means that Gilfoyle loses track of the real Gavin Belson, and Gavin Belson becomes aware of Richard's machinations.
Belson arrives at Lex Skelton's office just in the nick of time. Lex Skelton (Bernie Kopell) is the last board member to sign the contract. Belson tries to convince Skelton to tear up the contract. Dinesh goes on a long rant about his own awfulness. Skelton doesn't really want to deal with any of the people crowding his office, so he ignores Belson's objection and leaves.
Thus Pied Piper now owns Hooli.
Cast[]
Main[]
- Thomas Middleditch as Richard Hendricks
- Josh Brener as Nelson "Big Head" Bighetti
- Martin Starr as Bertram Gilfoyle
- Kumail Nanjiani as Dinesh Chugtai
- Amanda Crew as Monica Hall
- Zach Woods as Donald "Jared" Dunn
- Matt Ross as Gavin Belson
- Suzanne Cryer as Laurie Bream
- Jimmy O. Yang as Jian-Yang
Notes[]
- A triathlon is like a marathon, but it consists of three different kinds of races in one continuous sequence. For example, in the triathlon that Gavin Belson participates in, each participant is expected to swim the first third of the race, get back on land and on a bicycle for the middle third of the race, and finally ditch the bicycle to run the last third.
- Maybe there's a deleted scene cut for time in which Gilfoyle notices that Gavin Belson's blood oxygen levels miraculously recover when Belson hands his wearable device over to his more athletic body double.
- None of the deals in this episode quite stand up to scrutiny.
- Even if we accept that Pied Piper acquiring Foxhole would prevent Maximo Reyes from buying more shares of Pied Piper, do we also accept that he would have to sell the Pied Piper shares he already owns?
- In order for for Pied Piper to acquire Hooli, the Hooli shareholders as well as the Pied Piper board and shareholders would have to approve the sale. The whole process would take a lot longer than two hours, giving both Gavin Belson and Maximo Reyes time to both buy more shares of either or both companies and rally other shareholders to reject the deal (Reyes wouldn't be able to buy shares of Hooli, but he could still buy more shares of Pied Piper, which wouldn't have Foxhole just yet).
Photo Gallery[]
References[]
| Season Six Episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
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1. "Artificial Lack of Intelligence" |
| |
| Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five • Season Six | ||
