"Russfest" is the sixth episode of Season 6. It first ran on December 1, 2019.
Brief synopsis[]
A major event puts PiperNet's capabilities to the test; Monica confronts Jian-Yang over his use of Pied Piper's name.
Plot summary[]
Richard loses the AT & T deal, but doesn't tell anyone besides Dinesh and Gilfoyle. Becky (Rachel Rosenbloom) and probably others at Pied Piper are under the impression that the AT & T deal depends on Russfest.
Russfest begins and already there are problems with Piper Net. Russ Hanneman's giant hologram is glitching, though Russ Hanneman (Chris Diamontopoulos) himself seems more concerned with finding the right outfit.
Jared comes to suspect sabotage from Gwart (Nandini Bapat) and YaoNet US. It turns out both Gwart and Laurie Bream (Suzanne Cryer) are at the festival.
Monica becomes aware of another one of Jian-Yang's scams: the Pied Piper Girls' Coding Camp. At Bighetti's house, Jian-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang) is using young girls as an Amazon review farm. Monica shows up at the house and shuts the camp down. Monica hopes to never have to deal with Jian-Yang again.
Soon after, Monica gets a call from Richard: Pied Piper needs Jian-Yang's backdoor SSH key. Jian-Yang of course refuses to give it to her, and eats the paper it's written on. Fortunately, Nelson Bighetti (Josh Brener) has memorized it, and simply gives it to Monica.
With the backdoor key, Richard logs in. But there's the problem that he doesn't know the right port number. Jared confronts Gwart, who seems unmoved. But back at the YaoNet US trailer, Laurie Bream thoughtlessly takes Gwart's snack, enraging Gwart and prompting her to send Jared the correct port number.
It's still not enough, this gives no evidence of YaoNet sabotaging Pied Piper, and connectivity at the festival continues to degrade. Richard could have a riot on his hands if things get too much worse.
Finally, Richard confronts Laurie Bream face to face. According to Laurie Bream, YaoNet is at the festival only to observe Pied Piper. Laurie Bream knows that YaoNet's Pied Piper knock-off won't scale, and her observation of Pied Piper suggests Pied Piper won't scale either. Laurie Bream leaves the festival.
Richard tries cobbling together a solution with Gilfoyle's Son of Anton, but instead inadvertently uses Dinesh's version. It seems to help but then the power goes out. Russ Hanneman seems barely fazed by this failure, and issues the command "Lights!" And with that, power is restored and somehow connectivity jumps way above 100%.
Russ Hanneman's hologram comes back on even bigger and more obnoxious than before. Pied Piper might be able to close the AT & T deal after all.
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[]
- In a subtle callback to the previous episode, Laurie Bream says it would be "untethical" to sabotage Pied Piper. Presumably she signed Gavin Belson's pledge to abide by a code of "tethics".
- Even on an HBO budget, the producers are hesitant to destroy a new MacBook Pro. We see Richard holding a new MacBook Pro, but when he angrily smashes the device on the ground, it's an older MacBook Pro, presumably one that was already broken, and too old for Apple to want to fix.
Photo Gallery[]
References[]
| Season Six Episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
1. "Artificial Lack of Intelligence" |
| |
| Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five • Season Six | ||
