"Tethics" is the fifth episode of Season 6. It premiered on November 24, 2019.
Brief synopsis[]
Richard fumes at Gavin's new ethical stance; Dinesh's trip turns into a nightmare; Gilfoyle and Monica work on their peer review scores.
Plot summary[]
Russ Hanneman (Chris Diamantopoulos) wants Pied Piper to stop their Hawai'i project and instead help him put his self-aggrandizing RussFest in the desert on PiperNet. Richard sensibly refuses.
Dinesh and Gabe (Aristotle Athari) go to Hawai'i. Dinesh is displeased at the last minute substitution by Gabe, as he wanted a different subordinate to accompany him. Dinesh's efforts to one-up Gabe backfire horribly. Dinesh has a severe allergic reaction to a real flower lei and is forced to stay indoors and monitor the network on a computer while Gabe gets to drive from one tower to another.
At Pied Piper headquarters, Tracy (Helen Hong) and Monica talk to Gilfoyle about his low peer evaluation scores. Gilfoyle is deemed "rude" and "unapproachable". But to Monica's surprise, her own peer evaluation scores are not much better than Gilfoyle's. Monica agrees to a wager with Gilfoyle as to who can raise their scores the most.
Gilfoyle seems to be making an honest effort to be more personable, but then he reveals to Monica that he's actually phishing his colleagues so he can falsify their peer assessments. Monica asks Gilfoyle to raise her scores. Gilfoyle makes a counter-offer: what if instead they depress Tracy's scores? As soon as Tracy sees her scores plummet, she decides to cancel the peer evaluation program.
Meanwhile, Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) comes up with a code of ethics for tech, which he lamely calls "tethics", and urges all tech CEOs to sign a pledge to abide by the tethics code. Richard refuses to sign, he considers the pledge to be unenforceable and meaningless.
Belson invites Richard to the inauguration of the Gavin Belson Institute for Tethics. Before Belson's speech, Richard confronts the former Hooli CEO with the fact that the tethics pledge is a stream of brazenly plagiarized banalities, much like Belson's novel Cold Ice Cream & Hot Kisses.
Once at the podium, Belson discards his planned speech and instead confesses to his misdeeds when he was CEO of Hooli. Belson urges California's attorney general to open an investigation.
Richard mistakenly thinks that Belson is repentant for all his past bad behavior. But, as Ron LaFlamme (Ben Feldman) explains, Belson's contrite act is just another effort to sandbag Richard. If the attorney general finds that Belson acted unethically during his tenure as Hooli CEO, the current Hooli CEO would be the one who has to pay the fine. And since Pied Piper absorbed Hooli, it would be Pied Piper that has to pay the fine.
The attorney general's investigation would also put a crimp on the Hawai'i project. Russ Hanneman offers Richard a way out: Russ Hanneman has dirt on the attorney general, who can decline to investigate Belson's conduct as Hooli CEO. But of course Russ Hanneman wants something in return for this help.
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
Photo Gallery[]
References[]
| Season Six Episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
1. "Artificial Lack of Intelligence" |
| |
| Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five • Season Six | ||
