With ‘Silicon Valley’ Season 4, Richard Is Closer to Becoming the Monster He Hates

It’s unclear whether or not Silicon Valley is the funniest comedy on TV, but it’s certainly the most anxiety inducing. For four seasons now, we’ve watched Pied Piper evolve from a lowly incubator idea into the darling of the Valley. As much stressful fun as it it watching Richard somersault through his drama-of-the-week, I think the HBO series has been building to a much larger narrative that has little to do with Pied Piper. With each passing season, Silicon Valley has become the story of the rise of one industry idol, warts and all. Season 4, Episode 1 spoilers ahead.

From Season 1’s music licensing software to Season 4’s video app, it’s hard to keep track of what the goal of Pied Piper as a product is. However, the goal of the company was made clear by Richard (Thomas Middleditch) in the show’s first episode. After deciding to take Peter Gregory’s (Christopher Evan Welch) investment offer, Richard looks at his small team and says,”I’d like for this company to just be different than Hooli and Goolybib and all the rest, you know? Let’s not turn this into a corporate cult with bike meetings and voluntary retreats that are actually mandatory and claiming to make the world a better place all the time.” In short, Richard pledges to be different from the rest of the Valley.

Instead of the nonsensical ramblings of other tech CEOs, Richard wanted his company to be more authentic. Time and time again, it’s the deception and forced arrogance of Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) and other Valley CEOs that’s bothered Richard the most. While Richard and Big Head (Josh Brener) were worrying about their astronomical cost of living and creating something that would allow them to be their own bosses, Hooli’s most dedicated advocates constantly equated working at a company with a spiritual experience. For the show’s first season, we were supposed to see this ridiculous world through Richard’s disenchanted eyes. However, as the series has progressed, the whims of these tech gods have seemed less insane, and Richard has started to better fit into the cult-like methodology surrounding his industry.

Richard is the perfect subject for the ultimate Silicon Valley success story. From the first episode, it’s clear that Richard is brilliant, a revelation that’s only become truer as the show has progressed. He may have started the series with an impressive algorithm, but since our first introduction to Pied Piper, he has broken the highest Weissman score in history, created the algorithm for the best video app on the market, and lied, manipulated, bargained, and begged to save his scrappy startup more times than we can count. The beginning of Season 4 sees even more evidence of Richard’s generation-defining intellect in his desire to create a new internet. This intelligence has already earned him an impressive reputation across Silicon Valley as well as at least one shockingly loyal follower — Jared (Zach Woods). Add in the fact we’ve already seen Richard’s hard-fought origin story and that Richard naturally has several odd habits — a seeming must for the tech greats if Hollywood and exposes are to be believed — and our awkward founder is essentially one giant success away from joining Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Gavin Belson in the show’s history books.

There’s only one thing holding Richard back from cult-like industry worship and an infuriatingly warped ego — his friends. Time and time again, after Richard accomplishes something that that impresses his peers, Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Erlich (T.J. Miller), and even Monica (Amanda Crew) are there to pull him back to reality. Because of Silicon Valley’s ever-vulgar cast of supporting characters, Richard can’t fully disappear up his own asshole, to borrow a term from Erlich. However, with the start of season 4, Richard has taken his algorithm and branched off from the rest of the company. With that Richard’s support system is leaving him as is any chance Richard will remain one of the Valley’s grounded founders.

If Richard figures out how to create a new internet without his cast of verbally abusive buddies by his side, he will undoubtedly become just like every other narcissistic and powerful Valley figure — the type of person the characters of this show both revere and mock. Though Richard is a brilliant man, he is also a human one. Several times throughout the series, Richard has proven his ego can be stroked enough to make him do something counterproductive to both himself and his company. He’s susceptible to others’ flattery as well as illusions of his own self-importance, which are huge character flaws that can typically be counteracted by his brutal friends. Take those guys away as well as the criticism of Laurie Bream (Suzanne Cryer), and Richard only has the affirmations of his Valley idols and Jared’s devotion to ground him. That’s an unsettling combination.

Silicon Valley is an impressive comedy, but there’s always been the sense that there’s something more happening in this world of tech gods. Between all of the drama of Pied Piper and the show’s many dick jokes, it’s hard to keep track of the pulse of the series, but from the first episode, Silicon Valley has been Richard’s story. Each season has seen Richard deviate more and more from his Season 1 wide-eyed pledge to be a different, more authentic company. It would make a sad amount of sense that its end game would see our hero’s story matching the broken narratives of the eccentric founders around him — lonely, unchecked, but massively, almost inhumanly successful. If that’s the case, Silicon Valley is weaving a brilliant and compelling story, but god is it a sad one.

Stream Silicon Valley on HBO