“Two Days of the Condor” (S02E10)
Before the judge reveals his verdict, Gavin Belson reveals that he would’ve paid $250 million for Pied Piper before it became clear that Hooli would win the arbitration hearing. Meanwhile, the feed of the injured technician goes viral, forcing Gilfoyle, Dinesh, and Jared to scramble to keep their servers online. Despite numerous setbacks, including a server catching on fire, they are able to keep the feed online until the technician is rescued. Erlich starts to question the value of the incubator and considers selling the house, but changes his mind when he finds out that it would be torn down. Erlich codes for the first time in the series, helping the team with emergency improvements while Richard is away. At the binding arbitration, the judge rules that per Richard’s employment contract Hooli would own Pied Piper’s intellectual property, and Richard sends a text to the team to delete all of the Pied Piper code before Hooli can seize it. However, the judge continues that Hooli’s claim is actually nullified by an illegal non-compete clause and Richard, whose phone runs out of battery, has to sprint back to the incubator to stop Pied Piper from being deleted. Richard arrives just after the deletion program is run but the program crashes before any damage is done. Word spreads at Hooli of the verdict, which renders over half of their employees’ contracts invalid. Word also spreads of Big Head’s series of promotions, leading Denpok to begin mentoring him. Belson is called to meet with Hooli’s Board of Directors; his fate is left uncertain. Meanwhile, Raviga decides to buy out Russ Hanneman’s stake in Pied Piper, securing 3 of Pied Piper’s 5 board seats and making Hanneman a billionaire again. As Pied Piper celebrates their arbitration victory, Hendricks is notified that the now Raviga-run board has removed him from the CEO position.