"Server Error" is the 10th and final episode of Silicon Valley season 4 that first aired on June 25, 2017. Directed by Mike Judge. Written by Dan O'Keefe. This is the last episode of the series with T. J. Miller as Erlich Bachman.
Brief synopsis[]
"Richard finds himself in a web of lies; Jared plans his exit; Jack bets big; Gavin plots a comeback."
Plot summary[]
Given how many people have suffered from Hooli phones blowing up and given how that might be due to Pied Piper's sneak installations in the previous episode, Jared urges Richard to come clean. But Richard is more concerned about keeping his new Internet going with FGI's data. That's going to be difficult with all the Hooli phones being recalled. Jared gives his two weeks' notice.
Jack Barker (Stephen Tobolowsky) tries to convince the Hooli board that the massive recall is the only way to go. So he travels to China to try to convince the phone factory workers to work harder than they're already working. Fed up, the workers take Jack Barker hostage.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Tibet, Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) learns from Erlich that Hooli phones are being recalled. Gavin Belson decides to leave the monastery to go to China to negotiate Jack Barker's release. Annoyed by Erlich's weed habit, Gavin Belson leaves the stoner behind, giving a proprietor enough money to look after Erlich for the next five years.
Gavin Belson successfully rescues Jack Barker and transports the current Hooli CEO in Belson's private plane to Jackson Hole in the United States (recalling a slight in an earlier episode PLACEHOLDER FOR LINK TO PERTINENT PRIOR EPISODE). Jack Barker won't be Hooli CEO for too much longer.
In the United States, Richard goes to increasingly desperate measures to keep FGI's data storage network up. A lot of the data is transferred to the server Anton, but all of a sudden there's no network connection. Next, Richard calls on Nelson Bighetti (Josh Brener), still a professor at Stanford but on thin ice with the university administration, for help moving Anton to Stanford.
Richard calls Dan Melcher (Jake Broder) about "routine maintenance". Melcher's annoyed at first, but then concedes the company can deal with the unscheduled service outage as long as the data network is back up tomorrow morning before the start of the business day.
Jared interviews his replacement, but his brutal honesty about Pied Piper being in disarray doesn't help entice any takers. Tired of Jared's nagging about ethics, Richard releases his now disillusioned right-hand man from his two weeks' obligation. Jared goes back to his condo (the squatter left to go sell cocaine at the Keystone Pipeline protests).
With help from Dinesh and Gilfoyle, Richard packs Anton up into a moving truck, but the vehicle won't start. They improvise a way to get it moving, but when they get to Stanford they see Anton's parts have been scattered all over the road, because, as Gilfoyle explains, in his haste Richard failed to check the truck's back door was closed.
It's time to face the music at FGI. But first, Richard goes apologize to Jared in his condo. Sounds like Jared's having fun with two or more women. "This guy f---s," Richard says, recalling something Russ Hanneman used to say about Jared. Richard starts walking to FGI, but then Jared picks him up in his car and asks to reapply to Pied Piper.
Dinesh and Gilfoyle also show up at FGI. The rank and file employees at FGI are very happy with the data storage network. Gilfoyle realizes that hacking Jian-Yang's fridge (see "The Patent Troll") connected 30,000 smart fridges to Pied Piper's new Internet, and credits the server Anton with a heroic act of self-sacrifice.
However, Dan Melcher is not too happy with Richard after his new wife Liz Tinsdale (Leisha Hailey) confessed her one-time sexual encounter with the Pied Piper CEO. Now Richard learns what it's like to get punched in the face by Dan Melcher like Erlich was back in PLACEHOLDER FOR LINK TO PERTINENT PRIOR EPISODE.
At a Mexican restaurant, Richard asks Gavin Belson about Erlich, the newly reinstalled Hooli CEO denies having even seen the stoner in Tibet. Gavin Belson once again offers to buy Pied Piper. And once again Richard declines. So Belson leaves Richard with a very expensive restaurant tab.
Notes[]
This is the last episode of the show with T. J. Miller as Erlich Bachman. Miller had been wanting to leave the show, and the producers and crew were becoming increasingly irritated with the effort of accommodating the production schedule to his erratic attendance.
Miller was offered the opportunity to appear in a couple of Season 5 episodes to give his character a proper send-off. Miller declined, so instead Gavin Belson unceremoniously leaves Erlich Bachman behind in Tibet or China. However, Erlich Bachman's character continues to be mentioned in Season 5.