'Silicon Valley' Review: The Most Awkward Moment In 'Intellectual Property'

(Each week, we're going to kick off discussion about Silicon Valley season 4 by answering one simple question: what was the most awkward moment?)

"So, do you like movies?"

Like most of the characters on Silicon Valley, Dinesh has never been known as a lady's man. When a Satanist hacker who speaks in a sarcastic monotone is doing better in the game of love, you know you're not very good at the dating thing.

But "Intellectual Property" finally gives Dinesh a new love interest and they are brought together because of one beautiful thing – Dinesh has managed to get Gavin Belson fired after he acquired PiperChat in the last episode. Now, she doesn't know that it was entirely accidental, but that's okay! Right?

The Most Awkward Moment: A Date With a Hacker

At first, Dinesh is worried that he's getting Catfished, perhaps by Gavin himself, since Mia contacted him, unprompted, saying that she likes what he did and that she thinks he's cute. They still manage to set up a date. Before dinner, she comes over to the house and her and Gilfoyle realize that they actually know each other from a hacker message board. And not only that: they hate each other.

At dinner things go...terribly. Dinesh is nervous and repeats whatever Mia says back to her and he talks about how great water is. It seems destined for failure, until he gets a text message and curses – it's Gilfoyle being terrible. Then the floodgates ope  and Mia starts talking about how everyone hates him on the message board and seeing him in real life only makes her hate him even more.

United by hate! Many strong relationships have formed this way.

Back at home, after a night spent at Mia's (clearly the first Dinesh has had in years, by the way he brags about it), Gilfoyle is quick to burst his bubble by talking what a hacker extraordinaire she is, apparently haven taken on the Chinese government.

"What do you think she'll do if you try to break up with her? Or disagree with her? Or disappoint her in any way?" Gilfoyle asks, as Dinesh starts to realize the implications. Surely this won't come back to bite Dinesh in the future...

Silicon Valley Professor Bighead

Professor Bighead 

With his new company gone, Bighead is being pressured by his dad to do something, like get a job, or go to school, or whatever non-bigheaded people do. He tries to ask Erlich for a job and isn't given one, so he immediately goes to Stanford, where his five years at ASU with no degree doesn't leave anyone impressed and he is rejected right away. On the way out of the office, it's revealed just who he is – Bighead from Wired magazine (on the cover and inside!) and he enrolls in school.

Or so he thinks. He shows up to class only to find out that he's scheduled as a guest lecturer...and he only figures this out when he looks at the board and sees as much spelled out there. "Oh no," he softly intones.

Gavin Goneson

Gavin has been fired after the events of last week, and he learns about it in the most vicious, underhanded way by "Action" Jack Barker. This delicious sonofabitch has been playing dumb the last two episodes, trying to pretend that he didn't know what the petty and vindictive Gavin was up to, all the while plotting his rise to power. Gavin only finds out he's been fired after trying to enter a conference room and realizing his door won't open, which Barker opens for him – to show him to a room full of board members and the demise of his career.

Gavin is allowed a meeting to officially say goodbye to the Hooli team, which is equally disastrous. He asks for anyone to step up the mic to say anything about him, good or bad, and no one takes him up on it. Not even Hoover, Gavin's stalwart assistant and globetrotter, gives him a hug as he leaves. Hooli and Gavin are done, for good. It's the end of an era.

“Erlich Bachman and His Funky Asian Dude Friend”

Erlich is seen pouting as he sits next to Jian-Yang, who is pitching his Octopus app to investors. They're understandably confused as they were promised an amazing app, and not one comprised of nothing but eight octopus recipes (no matter how terribly Jian-Yang's grandmother died). But Bachman seizes on their words and tries to say it was all a misunderstanding – it's a S-E-E-food app! The Shazam for food! Jian-Yang is upset at his wonderful app being changed and Bachman speaks faux-Manderin to him until he stops talking.

They end up with a promise of $200,000, and only have to get a demo of the app done over the weekend. Jian-Yang quickly states that he'll go along with it, as he doesn't want to be known as a cautionary tale like Richard.

But wait! Monica is finally getting something to do on her own, and that's seek revenge on the guy that stole her office. She loudly has a fake conversation about the SeeFood app and the guy pounces on it, only to pawn it back off on her after he realizes what a couple of idiots Erlich and Jing-Yang are. Now they need a real app or her job is in jeopardy. Oops.

Silicon Valley Jared Woo

Woo!

We all know that Jared has some deep-seated issues. No one can take as much crap as he has over the years without building up and building up and exploding at some point...and it looks like he's about to reach that point.

After Richard discovers that the late Peter Gregory was working on a new decentralized internet of his own, Monica lets him look through his archives and discovers dozens of journals of Gregory's work. He realizes that they both had the exact same idea, but with his tech, they can finally realize it.

"Can I try something?" Richard asks Jared. Hen then lets out a "Woo!"

They laugh and start wooing back and forth, but Jared gets a little carried away by the release and begins bellowing "WOOO!" as Richard's face turns from jubilation to concern. A typical conversation with Jared, in other words.

Silicon Valley Door Kick

An Unlikely Ally?

After Richard finds out that Gavin Belson has the patent for Gregory's internet, he's despondent. He takes Gregory's files and shoves them into the front closet, where they don't fit. So he throws stuff out, and they still don't fit. So he stomps his foot through the door, which gets stuck and forces him to pull his shoe off in order to extract it. He walks off, one-shoed, all while the whole house is watching.

"Yep. Not crazy. Opposite," says Gilfoyle.

The episode ends with Richard in fully hooded engineer mode, ringing Gavin Belson's bell in the middle of the night to talk with him. He needs this patent, as this is everything his life has been leading up to, but what's it going to cost him?